Buddhist Religion in Nepal has the very long history so has Buddhist architecture. It has established its own principles to build stupas, chaityas, and bihars. Going back to the history –the Buddhist Architecture Era was evident after the time of King Ashok during which The Ashoka Pillar was built but no one can estimate that how long history does it carries with it. The main speciality of the Buddhist architecture is its humongous size and inscribed with different kinds of inscriptions. One of the major example regarding its size is the Great Stupa at Sanchi was found to be measured about 120 ft. in diameter and 54 ft. in height which is recorded as the largest Stupas among all the Stupas built. These pillars are hemispherical in form, with a flat truncated top and characterized by large diameter and low height. Swayambhunath, one of the popular stupas present in the valley has also followed the same kind of principle but all the stupas built during the past period have a very conventional method of building it. Other stupas at different places of the valley are practically the replica of Swayambhunath, while the Boudhnath, also known as Khasti Chaitya, is bigger in size and also has different plan and views. It stands in three rectangular terraces which are embroidered with turrents. According to a late Sanskrit manuscript text known as Devamala, stated that King Vrishadeva, a Lichcchavi period king converted a shiva temple into a Buddhist chaitya and made many more. So from it we can easily understand that, the rapid development of Buddhist architecture in Nepal was prominent from the Lichcchavi period. These chaityas were built either in memory of someone or as an act of piety, so, it somehow represents the lamp of the sacrifice or lamp of memory as explained by John Ruskin.
The chaitya built in early phase of Lichcchavi period were smaller in size, hemispherical domed, made from high quality of stone. So, with these common geometry, the Lichcchavi chaityas used to have many varieties and types. Comparing the sizes, the smaller chaityas used to stand in a squared base whereas the larger ones used to stand in a circular base. These chaityas and bihars are lavishly decorated giving a different kind of artistic touch to it.