Buddha was born in Shakya (Sakya) Kingdom of Kapilvastu at around which lies in present day Rupandehi district, Lumbini zone of Nepal. It has not been possible to assign with certainty the year in which Prince Siddhartha (birth name of the Buddha) was born, it is usually placed at around 623 B.C. 10.74% of Nepal's population practice Buddhism, consisting mainly of Tibeto-Burman ethnicities.In Nepal's hill and mountain regions Hinduism has absorbed Buddhist tenets to such an extent that in many cases they have shared deities as well as temples. For instance, the Muktinath Temple is sacred and a common house of worship for both Hindus and Buddhists.In Nepal majority of people identify as Hindu, however, Buddhist influences are pervasive in most aspects of Nepali culture to an extent that Buddhist and Hindu temples are shared places of worship for peoples of both faith so that, unlike, in other countries, the distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism in Nepal is not always clear. During the reign of King Aṃśuvarman Nepalese princess Bhrikuti played a significant role in spreading and developing Buddhism in Tibet and the Far East. Tibetan Buddhist architecture has long been influenced by Nepalese artists and sculptors like Araniko. The sacred Buddhist texts in Mahayana Buddhism are mainly written in Ranjana script (the script of Newars) or scripts like Lantsa which are derived from Ranjana.In traditional Nepalese Buddhism, there are nine special texts which are called the "Nine Dharma Jewels" (Navagrantha), and these are considered the nine books of Buddhism par excellence
