Uttarakhand Information Centre

Nepal is a country of highly diverse and rich geography, culture, and religions. The mountainous north contains eight of the world’s ten highest mountains, including the highest, Mount Everest. The fertile and humid south is heavily urbanized. By some measures, Hinduism is practiced by a  greater majority of people in Nepal than in any other nation. A minority faith in the country, Buddhism is linked historically with Nepal as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama who, as the Buddha Gautama, gave birth to the Buddhist tradition.

Nepal had been a monarchy throughout most of its history. Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Shah dynasty king, unified the many small kingdoms in 1768. Since then, the country had been ruled by a dynasty of kings. However, a decade-long People’s Revolution by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) along with several weeks of mass protests by all major political parties of Nepal in 2006, culminated in a peace accord and the ensuing elections for the constituent assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the abdication of the last Nepalimonarch Gyanendra Shah and the establishment of a federal democratic republic in May 28, 2008. The first President of Nepal,Dr. Ram Baran Yadav was sworn in on 23 July, 2008. About half of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.

Contents 1 Etymology 1.1 Nepal Bhasa origin 1.2 Ne Muni 2 Languages 3 History 3.1 Prehistory 3.2 Ancient 3.3 Medieval 3.4 Modern 3.5 Recent events 4 Geography 5 Subdivisions 6 Neotectonics of Nepal 6.1 Structural and Neotectonic pattern of Nepal 6.2 Present-day deformation of Nepal 7 Government and politics 8 Military and foreign affairs 9 Economy 10 Demographics 10.1 Religion 11 Culture 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 External links

Etymology

Nepal Bhasa origin

The word “Nepal” is believed by scholars to be derived from the word “Nepa:” which refers to the Newar Kingdom, the present day Kathmandu Valley. With Sanskritization, the Newar word Nepa became Nepal. The Newars of present day Nepal, refer to all the inhabitants of Kathmandu valley and its peripheries (called “Nepa:”) before the advent of Shah dynasty. The Nepal Sambat calendar, named after this Newar kingdom and devised 1100 years ago, is a national calendar used in Nepal and testifies to its antiquity.

Ne Muni

Many historians and local traditions say that a Hindu sage named “Ne” established himself at the valley of Kathmandu during prehistoric times and that the word “Nepal” came into existence as the place protected (“pala” in Sanskrit) by the sage “Ne”. The etymology of the name Nepal means, “the country looked after by Ne”. He used to perform religious ceremonies at Teku, the confluence of the Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers.He is said by legend to have selected a pious cowherd to be the first of the many kings of the Gopala Dynasty.These rulers are said to have ruled Nepal for over 500 years. He selected Bhuktaman to be the first king in the line of the Gopal (Cowherd) Dynasty. The Gopal dynasty ruled for 621 years. Yakshya Gupta was the last king of this dynasty. However, this mythology can be challenged as no such name as Ne exists in Nepali or other Sanskrit derived languages.

According to Skanda Purana, a rishi called “Ne” or “Nemuni” used to live in Himalaya. In the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a saint and a protector. He is said to have practiced penance at the Bagmati and Kesavati rivers and to have taught his doctrines there too.

Languages

Nepal’s diverse linguistic heritage evolved from four major language groups:Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolian and variousindigenous language isolates. According to the 2001 national census, 92 different living languages are spoken in Nepal. The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as mother tongue) are Nepali (57%)(2007 est.),Maithili (10%), Bhojpuri (7%), Tharu (4%), Tamang (5%), Newari/Nepal Bhasa (3%), Magar (2%), Awadhi (2%), Rai (2.79%), Limbu (1%), and Bajjika (1%). The remaining 81 languages are each spoken as mother tongue by less than one percent of the population. Nepal’s constitution, however, guarantees that, irrespective of what the official language is, all languages spoken in Nepal can be used for official purposes and documentation.

Derived from Sanskrit, Nepali is considered the language closest to Sanskrit and written in Devanagari script. Nepali is the official, national language and serves as lingua franca among Nepalis of different ethnolinguistic groups. Hindi—along with regional dialects Awadhi, Bhojpuri and Maithili—are spoken in the southern Terai Region. Hindi is also widely understood by Nepalis who have worked, studied or traveled in India. Many Nepali in government and business speak English as well. In the capital Kathmandu, Nepali, Nepal Bhasa (the Newar language) and English are the most widely understood languages.

History

Prehistory

Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least 9,000 years. It appears that Kirant ethnicity people were the first people to settle in Nepal and ruled Nepal for about 2,500 years.

Ancient

Terai News writes, “Nepal has been highlighted for the last several centuries in Indian Sanskrit literature like ‘Skand Purana’. ‘Skanda Purana’ has a separate volume known as ‘Nepal Mahatmya’, which explains in more details about Nepal.” Nepal is also mentioned in Hindu scriptures such as the Narayana Puja and the Atharva Siras (800-600 BC). Around 1000 BC, small kingdoms and confederations of clans arose in the region. From one of these, the Shakya confederation, arose a prince named Siddharta Gautama (563–483 BC), who later renounced his royalty to lead an ascetic life and came to be known as the Buddha (“the enlightened one”). The 7th Kirata king, Jitedasti, was on the throne in the Nepal valley at the time. By 250 BC, the region came under the influence of the Mauryan empire of northern India, and later became a vassal state under the Gupta Dynasty in the fourth century AD. In the fifth century, rulers called theLicchavis governed the majority of its area. There is a good and quite detailed description of the kingdom of Nepal in the account of the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuanzang, dating from c. 645 AD.

The Licchavi dynasty went into decline in the late eighth century and was followed by a Newari era, from 879, although the extent of their control over the entire country is uncertain. By the late 11th century, southern Nepal came under the influence of the Chalukaya Empire of southern India. Under the Chalukayas, Nepal’s religious establishment changed as the kings patronised Hinduism instead of the prevailing Buddhism.

Medieval

By the early 12th century, leaders were emerging whose names ended with the Sanskrit suffix malla (“wrestler”). Initially their reign was marked by upheaval, but the kings consolidated their power and ruled over the next 200 years; by the late 14th century, much of the country began to come under a unified rule. This unity was short-lived; in 1482 the region was carved into three kingdoms: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur.

After centuries of petty rivalry between the three kingdoms, in the mid-18th century Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha King set out to unify the kingdoms. Seeking arms and aid from India, and buying the neutrality of bordering Indian kingdoms, he embarked on his mission in 1765. After several bloody battles and sieges, he managed to unify the Kathmandu Valley three years later in 1768. However, an actual battle never took place to conquer the Kathmandu valley; it was taken over by Prithvi Narayan and his troops without any effort, during Indra Jatra, a festival of Newars, when all the valley’s citizens were celebrating the festival. This event marked the birth of the modern nation of Nepal.

Modern times Nepal

There is historical evidence that, at one time, the boundary of Greater Nepal extended from the Tista River in the east to Kangara, across Sutlej River, in the west. A dispute and subsequent war with Tibet over the control of mountain passes forced the Nepalese to retreat and pay heavy reparations. Rivalry between Nepal and the British East India Company over the annexation of minor states bordering Nepal eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1815–16). The valor displayed by the Nepalese during the war astounded their enemies and earned them their image of fierce and ruthless “Gurkhas”. The war ended in the Treaty of Sugauli, under which Nepal ceded recently-captured portions of Sikkim and lands in Terai to the Company.

Factionalism inside the royal family had led to a period of instability. In 1846 a plot was discovered revealing that the reigning queen had planned to overthrow Jung Bahadur Rana, a fast-rising military leader. This led to the Kot Massacre; armed clashes between military personnel and administrators loyal to the queen led to the execution of several hundred princes and chieftains around the country. Jung Bahadur Rana emerged victorious
and founded the Rana lineage. The king was
made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful and
hereditary. The Ranas were staunchly pro-British and assisted them during the
Indian Sepoy Rebellion in 1857
(and later in both World Wars). The decision to
help British East India Company was taken by the Rana Regime, then led by Jang
Bahadur Rana. Some parts of the Terai Region were given back to Nepal by the
British as a friendly gesture, because of her military help to sustain British
control in India during the Sepoy Rebellion. In
1923, the United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship,
in which Nepal’s independence was recognized by the UK.

Slavery was abolished in Nepal in 1924.

In the late 1940s, newly emerging pro-democracy movements and political parties in Nepal were critical of the Rana autocracy. Meanwhile, with the assertion of Chinese control in Tibet in he 1950s, India sought to counterbalance the perceived military threat from its northern neighbour by taking pre-emptive steps to assert more influence in Nepal. India sponsored both King Tribhuvan as Nepal’s new ruler in 1951 and a new government, mostly comprising the Nepali Congress Party, thus terminating Rana hegemony in the kingdom. After years of power wrangling between the king and the government, the monarch scrapped the democratic experiment in 1959, and a “partyless” panchayat system was made to govern Nepal until 1989, when the “Jan Andolan” (People’s Movement) forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament that took seat in May 1991.

In 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) started a bid to replace the royal parliamentary system with a people’s socialist republic. This led to the long Nepal Civil War and more than 12,000 deaths. On June 1, 2001, there was a massacre in the royal palace; it left the King, the Queen and the Heir Apparent Crown Prince Dipendra among the dead. Prince Dipendra was accused of patricide and of committing suicide thereafter, alleged to be a violent response to his parents’ refusal to accept his choice of wife. However, there is speculation and doubts among Nepalese citizens about the person(s) responsible for the Royal Massacre. Following the carnage, the throne was inherited by King Birendra’s brother Gyanendra. On February 1, 2005, Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers to quash the violent Maoist movement. In September 2005, the Maoists declared a three-month unilateral ceasefire to negotiate their demands.

In response to the 2006 democracy movement, the king agreed to relinquish the sovereign power back to the people and reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives on April 24, 2006. Using its newly acquired sovereign authority, on May 18, 2006, the newly resumed House of Representatives unanimously passed a motion to curtail the power of the king and declared Nepal a secular state, abolishing its time-honoured official status as a Hindu Kingdom. On December 28, 2007, a bill was passed in parliament to amend Article 159 of the constitution – replacing “Provisions regarding the King” by “Provisions of the Head of the State” – declaring Nepal a federal republic, and thereby abolishing the monarchy. The bill came into force on May 28, 2008 as a constituent assembly meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, overwhelmingly voted to abolish royal rule.

Recent events

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly election held on April 10, 2008 and have thus formed a coalition government which includes most of the parties in the CA. But the Nepali Congress notably is not in the government. Although acts of violence occurred during the pre-electoral period, election observers noted that the elections themselves were markedly peaceful and “well-carried out.”

The Maoists had insisted on the abolition of the monarchy, with Nepal remaining democratic, but becoming a federal state with an elected head.The newly elected Assembly met in Kathmandu on May 28, 2008, and, after a polling of 564 constituent Assembly members, 560 voted to end Nepal’s 240 year old monarchy, with the monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which had four members in the assembly, registering a dissent note. At that point, it was declared that Nepal had become a secular and inclusive democratic republic, with the government announcing a three-day public holiday from May 28 to 30. The King was thereafter given 15 days to vacate the Narayanhiti Royal Palace, in order to re-open it as a public museum. He did not, however, grant Royal Assent to the acts of either the interim parliament or the Constituent Assembly, especially that which declared a republic. Some have argued that as the interim constitution is repugnant to the 1992 constitution, which had never been legally abolished, making the republic – from either a de jure or royalist, divine right perspective – invalid, keeping Gyanendra as king.

Geography

Geography of Nepal is uncommonly diverse. Nepal is of roughly trapezoidal shape, 800 kilometres (500 mi) long and 200 kilometres (125 mi) wide, with an area of 147,181 square kilometres (56,827 sq mi).

Nepal is commonly divided into three physiographic areas: the Mountain, Hill, Siwalik region and Terai Regions. These ecological belts run east-west and are vertically intersected by Nepal’s major, north to south flowing river systems.

The southern lowland Plains bordering India are part of the northern rim of the Indo-Gangetic plains. They were formed and are fed by three major rivers: the Kosi, the Narayani, and the Karnali. This region has a hot, humid climate.

The Hill Region (Pahad) abuts the mountains and varies from 1,000 to 4,000 metres (3,300–13,125 ft) in altitude. Two low mountain ranges, the Mahabharat Lekh and Shiwalik Range (also called the Churia Range) dominate the region. The hilly belt includes the Kathmandu Valley, the country’s most fertile and urbanised area. Unlike the valleys called Inner Tarai (Bhitri Tarai Uptyaka), elevations above 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) are sparsely populated.

The Mountain Region, situated in the Great Himalayan Range, makes up the northern part of Nepal. It contains the regions of highest altitude in the world; the world’s highest mountain, 8,850 metres (29,035 ft) height Mount Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepali) is located here on the border with Tibet. Seven other of the world’s ten highest mountains are located in Nepal: Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Kanchenjunga, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu.

Nepal has five climatic zones, broadly corresponding to the altitudes. The tropical and subtropical zones
lie below 1,200 metres (3,940 ft), the temperate zone 1,200 to 2,400
metres (3,900–7,875 ft), the cold
zone 2,400 to 3,600 metres (7,875–11,800 ft), the subarctic
zone 3,600 to 4,400 metres (11,800–14,400 ft), and the Arctic
zone above 4,400 metres (14,400 ft).

Nepal experiences five seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and spring. The Himalaya blocks cold winds from Central Asia in the winter and forms the northern limit of the monsoon wind patterns. In a land once thickly forested, deforestation is a major problem in all regions, with resulting erosion and degradation of ecosystems.

Nepal is popular for mountaineering, containing some of the highest and most challenging mountains in the world, including Mount Everest. Technically, the south-east ridge on the Nepali side of the mountain is easier to climb; and most climbers prefer to trek to Everest through Nepal.

Until the Sugauli Sandhi (treaty) was signed, the territory of Nepal also included Darjeeling, and Tista to the east, Nainital to the south-west and Kumaun, Garwal and Bashahar to the west. However, today these areas are a part of India. As a result, Nepal shares no boundary with Bangladesh now and the two countries are separated by a narrow strip of land about 21 kilometres (13 mi) wide, called the Siliguri Corridor‎ or Chicken’s Neck. A huge majority of Nepalese still live there (almost 2 million). Efforts are underway to make this area a free-trade zone. The border dispute between India and Nepal has often been a cause of tension between the two countries.

Subdivisions

Nepal is divided into 14 zones and 75 districts, grouped into 5 development regions. Each district is headed by a permanent chief district officer responsible for maintaining law and order and coordinating the work of field agencies of the various government ministries.

Neotectonics of Nepal

The collision between the Indian subcontinent and the Eurasian continent, which started in Paleogene time and continues today, produced the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, a spectacular modern example of the effects of plate tectonics. Nepal lies completely within this collision zone, occupying the central sector of the Himalayan arc, nearly one third of the 2400 km-long Himalayas.

The Indian plate continues to move north relative to Asia at the rate of ~50 mm/yr. Given the great magnitudes of the blocks of the Earth’s crust involved, this is remarkably fast, about twice the speed at which human fingernails grow. As the strong Indian continental crust subducts beneath the relatively weak Tibetan crust, it pushes up the Himalaya mountains. This collision zone has accommodated huge amounts of crustal shortening as the rock sequences slide one over another. Erosion of the Himalayas is a very important source of sediment, which flows via great rivers (Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra) to the Indian Ocean.

Structural and Neotectonic pattern of Nepal

The main structures of Nepal consist of several north-dipping thrust faults; the more important ones are the main frontal thrust (MFT), the main boundary thrust (MBT) and the main central thrust (MCT) (F. Jouanne et al.,2004). These thrust faults lie to the south of the South Tibetan Detachment System(STDS) which is a system of low angle normal faults and is also an important aspect of Nepal Himalayan tectonics.

The thrust faults trend generally 120°N in western Nepal, curving to 90°N in
the eastern part of the country (Upreti & Le Fort 1999). These thrust
faults, with generally southerly transport directions (Brunel 1986; Pecher 1991;
Mugnier et al.,1999), are inferred to branch off the major basal detachment of
the Himalayan thrust belt called the main Himalayan thrust (MHT) that localizes
the underthrusting of the Indian lithosphere beneath the Himalayas and Tibet
(Zhao et al., 1993). All the cross-sections made through the Himalayan belt
advocate a mid-crustal ramp, below a large-scale antiformal structure of the
Lesser Himalayas and to be north of a synformal structure(Schelling & Arita
1991; Srivastava & Mitra 1994; Pandey et al. 1990; DeCelles et al. 1998;
Mugnier et al. 2003). Geological, geophysical and structural data indicate that
there are lateral variations in the geometry of the MHT (Zhao et al.,1993;
Pandey et al.1995,1999), but direct knowledge of the geometry of the MHT is
sparse and therefore the validity of the profiles is still in debate. The
thrusts are generally younger from north to south (24-21 Ma for the MCT, less
than 2 Ma for the MFT) (Hodges et al. 1996; Harrison et al. 1997). On the basis
of these faults, the structure of Nepal is generally subdivided into five
tectonic zones:

1. Gangetic Plain (Terai) (area on the south of MFT)
2. Sub-Himalayas (Siwaliks)(area between MFT and MBT)
3. Lesser Himalayas (area between MBT and MCT)
4. Higher Himalayas (area between MCT and STDS)
5. Tibetan-Tethys (area north of STDS)

Present-day deformation of Nepal

The modern deformation of the Himalayas is characterized by big earthquakes.
Almost half of the continuing convergence between India and Eurasia is absorbed
by underthrusting of the Indian lithosphere, beneath the
Himalayas and Tibet along the MHT, as proposed by seismic investigations (Zhao
et al.1993). Three of the big Nepalese earthquakes (1905, 1934 and 1950, with
magnitudes around were caused by the mid-crustal ramp along MHT (Pandey &
Molnar 1989). The territory of Nepal is characterized by very intense
microseismic activity, most of which follows approximately the topographic front
of the Higher Himalaya (Pandey et al.,1999). Most of the earthquakes cluster
between the MCT and MBT (Fig: Seismicity in the Himalayas of Nepal). Earthquake
focal mechanisms
indicate that the intermediate magnitude earthquakes are shallow depth
(10–20 km) beneath the Lesser Himalayas, demonstrating the activation of
thrust planes gently dipping to the north (Ni and Barazangi, 1984). Detailed
analysis of the Uttarkashi earthquake (Cotton et al. 1996) in the west of Nepal
indicates that this event was initiated to the south of the Higher Himalayas
front at 12±3 km depth corresponding to the southward propagation of a
rupture along this segment of the MHT. A detailed study of the microseismic
clusters suggests segmentation of the Himalayan arc (Pandey et al. 1999) and two
major discontinuities segment the microseismicity belt at 82.5°E and 86.5°E. The
projection along cross sections of the microseismic event (Fig:Cross-section and
Projection of Microseimic Activity) reveals a noticeable change in shape of the
clusters between central Nepal (rounded clusters are located in the vicinity of
the flat-ramp transition of the MHT) and western Nepal (clusters are elongated
and nearly horizontal) (F. Jouanne et al.,2004). Similarly, vertical
displacement rates, expressed with reference to the Gangetic plain, indicate
current uplift of the high Himalayas at 6 mm/yr, but also suggest active
displacement along frontal thrusts inducing localized uplift (B. Antoine et al.,
2004). There is change in maximum elevation between central (8500m) and western
(7500m) Nepal and also a big difference in incision between eastern-central
Nepal (6000m) and western Nepal (4500m)(B. Antoine et al., 2004). This is
reflected in gentler relief in western Nepal and confirms the segmentation of
geology and deformation observed with microseismicity and GPS measurements
(Fig:Cross-section and Projection of Microseimic Activity).

Conclusion: To summarise, the neotectonic deformation of Nepal is
characterised by three major thrust faults (MCT, MBT and MFT) which are inferred
to be the splay thrust of MHT that marks the underthrusting of the Indian
lithosphere beneath the Himalayas. Likewise, there is a sudden change in
geometry of the MHT between central and western Nepal, which is also marked in
the Himalayan relief. The MHT is the main structure responsible for recent
uplift and continuing deformation in Nepal. This hypothesis is reinforced by the
observation that Quaternary displacement along the Main Frontal Thrust, southern
emergence of the MHT and the convergence rate estimated across the Himalayas by
GPS are both estimated at 18-20 mm/yr, which suggests that nearly all the
displacement between India and Tibet is today transferred along the MHT (B.
Antoine et al., 2004).

Government and politics

Nepal has seen rapid political changes during the last two decades. Until
1990, Nepal was an absolute monarchy
running under the executive control of the king. Faced with a people’s movement
against the absolute monarchy, King Birendra, in 1990,
agreed to large-scale political reforms by creating a parliamentary
monarchy with the king as the head of state and a prime
minister as the head of the
government.

Nepal’s legislature was bicameral, consisting of a House of
Representatives called the Pratinidhi Sabha and a National
Council called the Rastriya Sabha. The House of Representatives consisted of
205 members directly elected by the people. The National Council had 60 members:
ten nominated by the king, 35 elected by the House of Representatives, and the
remaining 15 elected by an electoral college made up of chairs of villages and
towns. The legislature had a five-year term but was dissolvable by the king
before its term could end. All Nepali citizens 18 years and older became
eligible to vote.

The executive comprised the King and the Council
of Ministers (the Cabinet). The
leader of the coalition or party securing the maximum seats in an election was
appointed as the Prime Minister. The Cabinet was appointed by the king on the
recommendation of the Prime Minister. Governments in Nepal tended to be highly
unstable, falling either through internal collapse or parliamentary dissolution
by the monarch, on the recommendation of the prime minister, according to the
constitution; no government has survived for more than two years since 1991.

The movement in April 2006, brought about a change in the nation’s
governance: an interim constitution was promulgated, with the King giving up
power, and an interim House of Representatives was formed with Maoist members
after the new government held peace talks with the Maoist rebels. The number of
parliamentary seats was also increased to 330. In April 2007, the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist) joined the interim government of Nepal.

On December 10, 2007, the interim parliament passed a bill that would make
Nepal a federal republic, with the Prime
Minister becoming head of state. The bill
was passed by the Constituent Assembly on May 28, 2008.

On April 10, 2008, the first election in Nepal for the constitution assembly
took place. The Maoist party led the poll results
but failed to gain a simple majority in the parliament. On May 28, 2008, lawmakers in Nepal legally abolished the monarchy and
declared the country a republic, ending 239 years of royal rule in the Himalayan
nation. The newly elected assembly, led by the former communist rebels, adopted
the resolution at its first meeting by an overwhelming majority. King Gyanendra was given 15 days to
leave the former Royal Palace in central Kathmandu by the Nepalese Constituent
Assembly. He left the former Royal Palace on June 11. On June 26, 2008, Prime Minister Girija Prasad
Koirala tendered his resignation to the Nepalese Constituent Assembly, which
is also functioning as the Nepalese Parliament; however, a new Prime Minister
has yet to be elected by the Nepalese Constituent Assembly.

On July 19, 2008, the first round of voting for the election of the country’s
president and vice president took place in the Constituent Assembly. Parmanand Jha became the
first vice president of Nepal. However, the two presidential frontrunners, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav
of Nepali Congress and the
Maoist-backed candidate Ram Raja Prasad
Singh, both failed to gain the minimum 298 votes needed to be elected, with
Yadav receiving 283 votes and Singh receiving 270. 578 out of 594 CA members
registered in the voter list had cast their votes, of which 24 were invalid.

On July 21, 2008, the second round of voting was held. Yadav received 308 of
the 590 votes cast, securing his election as president.

On August 15, 2008, Maoist leader Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal)
was elected Prime Minister of Nepal, the first since the country’s transition
from a monarchy to a republic. Prachanda’s election makes Nepal one of only
three countries that currently have democratically-elected Communist state leaders, the
other two being Cyprus and Moldova. On May 4, 2009, Mr.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned over on-going conflicts over sacking of the Army
chief.

Military and foreign affairs

Nepal’s military consists of the Nepalese Army, which
includes the Nepalese Army Air
Service (the air force unit under it.) Nepalese Police
Force is the civilian police and the Armed Police Force
Nepal  is the paramilitary force. Service is voluntary and the minimum age for
enlistment is 18 years. Nepal spends $99.2 million (2004) on its military—1.5%
of its GDP. Many of the equipment and arms are imported from India.
Consequently, the USA provided M16s M4s and other Colt weapons to combat
communist (Maoist) insurgents. As of now, the standard-issue battle rifle of the
Nepalese army is the Colt M16.

Nepal has close ties with both of its neighbours, India and China. In
accordance with a long-standing treaty, Indian and Nepalese citizens may travel
to each others’ countries without a passport or visa. Nepalese citizens
may work in India without legal restriction. Although Nepal and India typically
have close ties, from time to time Nepal becomes caught up in the problematic
Sino-Indian relationship. Recently, China has been asking Nepal to curb protests
in Nepal against China’s Policy on Tibet,
and on April 17, 2008, police arrested over 500 Tibetan protestors
citing a need to maintain positive relations with China.

Terai News writes, “Being a Hindu Nation Nepal has a permanent
relation, especially with the important religious places of the northern states
of India. Religion has played a great role in the cultural relations between
Nepal and India.“

Economy

Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the year 2005 was estimated
at just over US$39 billion (adjusted to Purchasing Power
Parity), making it the 83rd-largest economy in the world. Agriculture
accounts for about 40% of Nepal’s GDP, services
comprise 41% and industry 22%. Agriculture employs 76% of the workforce,
services 18% and manufacturing/craft-based industry 6%. Agricultural produce —
mostly grown in the Terai region bordering India —
includes tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water
buffalo meat. Industry mainly involves the processing of agricultural
produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and
grain. Its workforce of about 10 million suffers from a severe shortage of
skilled labour. The spectacular landscape and diverse, exotic cultures of Nepal
represent considerable potential for tourism, but growth in this hospitality
industry has been stifled by recent political events. The rate of unemployment and
underemployment approaches half of the working-age population. Thus many
Nepali citizens move to India in search of work; the Gulf countries and Malaysia
being new sources of work. Nepal receives US$50 million a year through the Gurkha soldiers who
serve in the Indian and British armies and are
highly esteemed for their skill and bravery. The total remittance value is worth
around US1 billion, including money sent from the Persian Gulf and Malaysia, who
combined employ around 700,000 Nepali citizens. A long-standing economic
agreement underpins a close relationship with India. The country receives
foreign aid from India, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the
European Union, China, Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries. Poverty is
acute; per-capita income is less than US$470. The distribution of wealth among the Nepalis is consistent with that in many developed and
developing countries: the highest 10% of households control 39.1% of the
national wealth and the lowest 10% control only 2.6%.

The government’s budget is about US$1.153 billion, with expenditures of
$1.789 billion (FY05/06). The Nepalese rupee has been
tied to the Indian Rupee at an exchange
rate of 1.6 for many years. Since the loosening of exchange rate controls in the
early 1990s, the black market for foreign exchange has all but disappeared. The
inflation
rate has dropped to 2.9% after a period of higher inflation during the
1990s.

Nepal’s exports of mainly carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods and grain total $822
million. Import commodities of mainly gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum
products and fertilizer total US$2 bn. India (53.7%), the US (17.4%), and
Germany (7.1%) are its main export partners. Nepal’s import partners include
India (47.5%), the United Arab
Emirates (11.2%), China (10.7%), Saudi Arabia (4.9%), and Singapore
(4%).

Nepal remains isolated from the world’s major land, air and sea transport
routes although, within the country, aviation is in a better state, with 48
airports, ten of them with paved runways; flights are frequent and support a
sizable traffic. The hilly and mountainous terrain in the northern two-thirds of
the country has made the building of roads and other infrastructure difficult
and expensive. There were just over 8,500 km of paved roads, and one 59-km
railway line in the south in 2003. There is only one reliable road route from
India to the Kathmandu Valley. The
only practical seaport of entry for goods bound for Kathmandu is Calcutta in India. Internally,
the poor state of development of the road system (22 of 75 administrative
districts lack road links) makes volume distribution unrealistic. Besides having
landlocked, rugged geography, few tangible natural resources and poor
infrastructure, the long-running civil war is also a factor in stunting the
economic growth. There is less than one telephone per 19 people. Landline telephone services
are not adequate nationwide but are concentrated in cities and district
headquarters. Mobile telephony is in a reasonable state in most parts of the
country with increased accessibility and affordability; there were around
175,000 Internet connections in 2005. After the imposition of the “state of
emergency”, intermittent losses of service-signals were reported, but
uninterrupted Internet connections have resumed after Nepal’s second major
people’s revolution to overthrow the King’s absolute power.

Demographics

Perched on the southern slopes of the Himalayan Mountains, Nepal is
as ethnically diverse as its terrain of fertile plains, broad valleys, and the
highest mountain peaks in the world. The Nepalese are descendants of three major
migrations from India, Tibet, and North Burma and Yunnan via Assam.

Among the earliest inhabitants were the Kirat of east mid-region, Newar of the Kathmandu Valley and
aboriginal Tharu in the southern Terai region. The
ancestors of the Brahman and Chetri caste groups came from
India’s present Kumaon, Garhwal and Kashmir regions, while other
ethnic groups trace their origins to North Burma and Yunnan and Tibet, e.g. the Gurung and Magar
in the west, Rai and Limbu
in the east (from Yunnan and north Burma via Assam), and Sherpa and Bhutia in the north
(from Tibet).

In the Terai, a part of the Ganges Basin with 20% of the
land, much of the population is physically and culturally similar to the Indo-Aryans of northern
India. Indo-Aryan and East Asian looking mixed
people live in the hill region. The mountainous highlands are sparsely
populated. Kathmandu Valley, in the middle hill region, constitutes a small
fraction of the nation’s area but is the most densely populated, with almost 5%
of the population.

Nepal is a multilingual,
multireligious and multiethnic society. These
data are largely derived from Nepal’s 2001 census results published in the
Nepal Population Report 2002.

According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S.
Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Nepal hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers in
2007 numbering approximately 130,000. Of this population, approximately 109,200
persons were from Bhutan and 20,500 from People’s
Republic of China.The government of Nepal restricted Bhutanese refugees to seven camps in the Jhapa and Morang districts,
and refugees were not permitted to work in most professions.

Population Structure

Data	Size
Population	28,676,547 (2005)
Growth Rate	2.2%
Population below 14 Years old	39%
Population of age 15 to 64	57.3%
Population above 65	3.7%
The median age (Average)	20.07
The median age (Male)	19.91
The median age (Females)	20.24
Ratio (Male:Female)	1, 000:1,060
Life expectancy (Average)	59.8 Years
Life expectancy (Male)	60.9
Life expectancy (Female)	59.5
Literacy Rate (Average)	53.74%
Literacy Rate (Male)	68.51%
Literacy Rate (Female)	42.49%

Despite the migration of a significant section of the population to the
southern plains or terai in recent years, the majority of the population still
lives in the central highlands. The northern mountains are sparsely
populated.

Kathmandu, with a population of around 800,000 (metropolitan area: 1.5
million), is the largest city in the country.

Religion

The overwhelming majority in Nepal follow Hinduism. Shiva is regarded as the guardian
deity of the country. Nepal is home to the largest Shiva temple in the world, the
famous Pashupatinath Temple, where Hindus from all over the world
come for pilgrimage. According to mythology, Sita Devi of the epic Ramayana was born in the
Mithila Kingdom of King Janaka Raja.

Near the Indian
border, Lumbini, is a Buddhist pilgrimage
site and UNESCO
World Heritage Site
site in the Kapilavastu district. It is
held to be the birthplace in about 563 B.C. of Siddhartha Gautama, a
Kshatriya caste prince of the Sakya clan, who, as the Buddha Gautama, gave
birth to the Buddhist tradition. The holy
site of Lumbini is bordered by a large monastic zone, in which only monasteries
can be built. All three main branches of Buddhism exist in Nepal and the Newar
people have their own branch of the faith.
Buddhism is the dominant religion of the thinly-populated northern areas, which
are inhabited by Tibetan-related peoples, such as the Sherpa.

The Buddha, born as a Hindu, is also said to be a descendant of Vedic Sage
Angirasa in many Buddhist texts. The Buddha’s family surname is associated with Gautama Maharishi.Differences between Hindus and Buddhists have been moderated in Nepal due to the
cultural and historical intermingling of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. In Nepal,
the faiths share some common temples and worship common deities. Among other
natives of Nepal, those more influenced by Hinduism were the Magar,
Sunwar, Limbu
and Rai and the Gurkhas. Hindu influence is less
prominent among the , Gurung, Bhutia, and Thakali groups who employ
Buddhist monks for their religious ceremonies. Most of the festivals in Nepal are Hindu.The Machendrajatra festival, dedicated to Hindu Shaiva Siddha, is celebrated by many
Buddhists in Nepal as a main festival.As it is believed that Ne Muni established
Nepal, some important priests in Nepal are called “Tirthaguru Nemuni”.

Culture

Nepalese culture is diverse, reflecting different ethnic origins of the people. The Newar community is particularly rich in cultural diversity; they celebrate many festivals, well known for their music and dance.

A typical Nepalese meal is dal-bhat-tarkari. Dal is a spicy
lentil soup, served over bhat (boiled rice), served with tarkari
(curried vegetables) together with achar (pickles) or chutni
(spicy condiment made from fresh ingredients).. The Newar community,
however, has its own unique cuisine. It consists of non-vegetarian as well as
vegetarian items served with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Mustard oil
is the cooking medium and a host of spices, such as cumin, coriander, black
peppers, sesame seeds, turmeric, garlic, ginger, methi (fenugreek), bay leaves,
cloves, cinnamon, pepper, chillies, mustard seeds, etc., are used in the
cooking. The cuisine served on festivals is generally the best.

The Newari Music orchestra consists mainly of percussion instruments, though wind
instruments, such as flutes and other similar instruments, are also used. String
instruments are very rare. There are songs pertaining to particular seasons and
festivals. Paahan chare music is probably the fastest played music whereas the
Dapa the slowest. There are certain musical instruments such as Dhimay and
Bhusya which are played as instrumental only and are not accompanied with songs.
The dhimay music is the loudest one. In the hills, people enjoy their own kind
of music, playing saarangi (a string instrument), madal and flute. They also
have many popular folk songs known as lok geet and lok dohari.

The Newar dances can be broadly classified into masked dances and non-masked
dances. The most representative of Newari dances is Lakhey dance. Almost all the
settlements of Newaris organise Lakhey dance at least once a
year, mostly in the Goonlaa month. So, they are called Goonlaa Lakhey. However,
the most famous Lakhey dance is the Majipa Lakhey dance; it is
performed by the Ranjitkars of Kathmandu and
the celeberation continues for the entire week that contains the full moon of
Yenlaa month. The Lakhey are considered to be the saviors of children.

Folklore is an integral part of Nepalese society. Traditional stories are
rooted in the reality of day-to-day life, tales of love, affection and battles
as well as demons and ghosts and thus reflect local lifestyles, cultures and
beliefs. Many Nepalese folktales are enacted through the medium of dance and
music.

The Nepali year begins in mid-April and is divided into 12 months. Saturday is the official weekly holiday. Main annual holidays include the National Day, celebrated on the birthday of the king (December 28), Prithvi Jayanti (January 11), Martyr’s Day (February 18), and a mix of Hindu and Buddhist festivals such as Dashain in autumn, and Tihar in late autumn. During Tihar, the Newar community also celebrates its New Year as per their local calendar Nepal Sambat.

Most houses in rural lowland of Nepal are made up of a tight bamboo framework and walls of a mud and cow-dung mix. These dwellings remain cool in summer and retain warmth in winter. Houses in the hills are usually made of unbaked bricks with thatch or tile roofing. At high elevations construction changes to stone masonry and slate may be used on roofs.

Nepal’s flag is the only national flag in the world that is non-quadrilateral in shape, and one of only two non-rectangular flags in use (the other being the flag of the U.S. state of Ohio). According to its official description, the red in the flag stands for victory in war or courage, and is also color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal. Red also stands for aggression. The flag’s blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the peaceful and calm nature of Nepalese, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of Nepalese warriors.

Notes

References

• Shaha, Rishikesh (1992). Ancient and Medieval Nepal. New Delhi: Manohar Publications. ISBN 8185425698.
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• Explore Nepal.
• “The Best Memoir You Never Heard Of: “Shadow Over Shangri-La”". San Francisco Chronicle.
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• Kunda Dixit (2006). A people war: Images of the Nepal conflict 1996–2006. Kathmandu: nepa-laya.
• Barbara Crossette (1995). So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas. New York: Vintage. ISBN 0679743634.
• Bista, Dor Bahadur (1967). People of Nepal. Dept. of Publicity, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of Nepal. ISBN 9993304182.
• Michael Hutt, ed., Himalayan ‘people’s war’ : Nepal’s Maoist rebellion, London: C. Hurst, 2004
• Peter Matthiessen (1993). The Snow Leopard. Penguin. ISBN 0002720256.
• Joe Simpson (1997). Storms of Silence. Mountaineers Books. ISBN 0898865123.
• Samrat Upadhyay (2001). Arresting God in Kathmandu. Mariner Books. ISBN 0618043713.
• Joseph R. Pietri (2001). The King of Nepal. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Creative Arts. ISBN 061511928X.
• Maurice Herzog (1951). Annapurna. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1558215492.
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External links

Government of Nepal

Chief of State and Cabinet Members

Planet Nepal Nepal Encyclopedia Project

Nepal entry at The World Factbook

Nepal from UCB Libraries GovPubs

Nepal at the Open Directory Project

National Geographic Country Profile: Nepal

Languages of Nepal from the Ethnologue

The Carter Center information on Nepal