The city was historically called the "Sunawal" and has been the home of the Brahmin, Chhetri, Gurung, Magar and Newar people, a cosmopolitan urban civilization in the Himalayan foothills.

Today, it runs with the local government of the Nepalese republic, established in 2015, and is part of the Lumbini Province.

At the 2011 Nepal census, Sunwal City had a population of 39,846 people living in 8,639 individual households.

[6] According to Buddhist texts, after Buddha's Mahaparinirvana, his cremated remains were divided and distributed among the princes of eight of the 16 mahājanapadās.

Each of the princes constructed a stupa at or near his capital city, within which the respective portion of the ashes was enshrined.