Watercolour of part of the Mahabouddha temple at Lalitpur (Patan) in Nepal, by Henry Ambrose Oldfield (1822-1871), c. 1850-1863. The image is inscribed on the front: 'Corner of Temple of Maha-Buddha at Patun. vol. 2, p.238', and on the reverse with notes on the temple.
The Mahabouddha temple, the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas, is believed to have been originally built in 1585. It is dedicated to Sakya Singha; the 'Sakya Lion' of the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, an epithet for Gautama Buddha who was from the Sakya clan. The conical shaped temple is 75 feet high, with little minarets at the four corners of the lower portion of the building. It stands in the centre of a small court and the exterior of the temple is elaborately carved with small figures of the Buddha, estimated as 9 thousand different carvings or designs. This temple is divided into five storeys: Sakya Singha is enshrined at the centre of the first storey, Amitabha is on the second, a small stone chaitya is on the third, the Dharm dhatu-mandal is on the fourth and the Vajra dhatu-mandal can be found on the fifth storey.