The small kingdom that made Nepal
In the 16th century Gorkha was one of the Chaubisi rajya, the twenty-four small kingdoms of the western hills, and among the smallest. Drabya Shah, a younger son of the ruling family of Lamjung, took it in 1559 and founded a dynasty. The palace on the ridge, attributed to King Ram Shah, was built in Newar style with thick walls and carved timbers.
Prithvi Narayan Shah was born here, in the part of the palace called Dhuni Pari, in 1723, and took the throne in 1743. He captured Nuwakot in 1744, cutting the Kathmandu Valley's trade routes, and finally took Kathmandu in 1768. His advice to his court, recorded as the Divya Upadesh, famously described Nepal as a yam between two boulders, China and British India. Kaski, Lamjung, Tanahun and the other hill states were absorbed in the decades that followed.
Once the capital moved to Kathmandu, Gorkha became a district town, though the palace and its temples kept their importance for the royal family and pilgrims. Its name travelled the world through the Gurkha soldiers recruited from these hills. In 1996 the town became Prithvinarayan Municipality; in 2009, after the end of the monarchy, it was renamed Gorkha. The April 2015 earthquake, centred in Gorkha district near Barpak, damaged the palace; restoration by the Department of Archaeology began in November 2017.
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