3D print Swayambhunath
A free, printable model of Swayambhunath and the small buildings and green hillside around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About Swayambhunath
West of Kathmandu city in Nepal, a hill in the Kathmandu Valley is crowned by Swayambhunath, an ancient religious complex. Its Tibetan and Sanskrit name translates as "self-arising" or "self-sprung". Pilgrims have long come to the hill, which is regarded as the dwelling of the primordial Buddha called the Adi-Buddha. Buddhists everywhere venerate the stupa as among the oldest and most important in the world, and UNESCO named the site a World Heritage Site in 1979.
Among the Newari people of the area, everyday religious practice at Swayambhu holds a central place, and the site is one of three especially sacred Buddhist pilgrimage destinations. Among Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, only Boudha ranks higher. The stupa symbolizes religious harmony: Hindu temples and deities are woven into this Buddhist site, which Hindus also revere. Families of wandering monkeys live on the hill as well, so it has the nickname the Monkey Temple.
At its base is a hemispherical dome. A cube rises from the dome, and its four faces carry painted Eyes of Buddha gazing in each direction. Above the cube, gold plated bronze rings named Trayodashabhuvana (thirteen steps) stand for the thirteen stages before Nirvana. In the seventeenth century, Pratap Malla, king of Kathmandu, had the eastern stairway built. A full renovation in May 2010, the first major one since 1921, used 20 kg of gold to re-gild the shrine.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 9 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 11 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 14 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Fine rings and a slim finial
- A tall stack of thin rings narrows to a slim finial. Print friendly adapts them to the print scale; Full detail keeps them on a larger print, ideally with 0.12–0.16 mm layers. Print slowly with good cooling.
- Small eyes on the cube
- The cube carries small relief eyes and corner details. A larger print size keeps these legible.
- One piece with the ground
- Swayambhunath is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. Swayambhunath takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
Swayambhunath is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Swayambhunath STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. Swayambhunath grows with the print: about 9 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
