Taudaha Lake

Taudaha is a small, calm pond on the southern edge of the Kathmandu valley, near the Chobhar gorge below Kirtipur. Its name comes from the Newari words ta, 'snake', and daha, 'lake' — the 'snake lake' — and it is bound up with the founding legend of the valley itself.

According to that legend the whole Kathmandu valley was once a great lake, until the bodhisattva Manjushri cut open the southern rim at Chobhar with his sword and drained the water to create habitable land. When the lake emptied, the serpents (nagas) lost their home, and to appease the angry naga king Karkotaka the people are said to have left Taudaha as a pool for him to live in, with an underwater palace at its bottom. Geologists confirm the kernel of the story: the valley really was filled by a 'Paleo Kathmandu Lake' that drained in stages — a first major lowering around 51,000 years ago and a final draining roughly 38,000 years ago, both probably triggered by earthquakes — and Taudaha is understood as a remnant of it.

Today the lake is a small, protected pond best known for its wintering waterfowl. Migratory visitors recorded here include the great cormorant, ruddy shelduck, northern shoveler, mallard, gadwall, northern pintail, common teal and Eurasian coot, which makes it a favourite easy birdwatching stop near the city. A persistent ecological problem is the introduction of non-native carp, which compete with and displace the lake's native fish.

Wrapped in myth, ringed by a low promenade and just a short drive from central Kathmandu, Taudaha is a quiet counterpoint to the busy valley around it.