Nepal

The Kingdom of Nepal, situated in the Himalaya, is the world's only Hindu kingdom. It is in South Asia, sharing borders with the People's Republic of China (Tibet Autonomous Region) and India.

नेपाल अधिराज्य
Nepal Adhirajya

(In Detail) (Full size)
National motto: जननी जन्मभूमिष्च स्वर्गादपि गरियसि (transliteration: Ja'nani Jan'mabhumis'hcha Swar'gadapi Gariya'si) Sanskrit: Mother and the Motherland are greater than Heaven)
Official language	Nepali
Capital	Kathmandu
King	Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev
Prime Minister	office vacant since February 1, 2005
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 94th 147,181 km² 2.8%
Population  - Total (July 2005)  - Density	Ranked 40th 27,676,457 188/km²
Unification	1768
Currency	Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
Time zone	UTC +5:45
National anthem	Rastriya Gaan ("May Glory Crown You, Courageous Sovereign")
Internet TLD	.np
Calling Code	977

History

Main article: History of Nepal

Nepal has a long history that has extended for millennia. The Kirati were one of the first Nepali groups known to historians, having migrated from the east in the 7th or 8th century BC. Lord Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal circa 563 BC and the Emperor Ashoka ruled over a vast empire that included North India and the southern Terai region of present-day Nepal (although the hilly and mountainous regions were not a part of Ashoka's Empire) in the 1st century BC. By 200 AD, the Buddhist empire was displaced by resurgent Hindu fiefdoms, such as the Licchavi dynasty.

Around 900, the Thakuri dynasty succeeded the Licchavi era and was eventually superseded by the Malla dynasty, which ruled until the 18th century. In 1768, the Gorkha king, Prithvi Narayan Shah, captured Kathmandu. In 1814, Nepal fought the Anglo-Nepalese War with the British East India Company, which ended with the 1816 Sugauli Treaty, in which Nepal gave up Sikkim and the southern Terai, and the British retreated. After Nepali Gurkhas aided the British in quashing the Indian Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, most of the Terai territories were returned to Nepal.

The Shah dynasty was cut short in 1846, when Jung Bahadur Rana seized control of the country after assassinating several hundred princes and chieftans in Kathmandu's Kot Massacre. Ranas ruled as hereditary prime ministers until 1948, when British India achieved independence. India propped up King Tribhuvan as Nepal's new ruler in 1951 and sponsored the Nepali Congress Party. Tribhuvan's son, King Mahendra, dissolved the democratic experiment and declared that a "partyless" panchayat system would govern Nepal. His son, King Birendra, inherited the throne in 1972 and continued the panchayat policy until 1989, when "Jana Andolan" (People's Movement or Democracy Movement) forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms. In May 1991, Nepal held its first election in nearly 50 years. The Nepali Congress Party and the Communist Party of Nepal received the most votes. No party has held power for more than two consecutive years since. Critics argue that the governmental reforms did not appreciably improve the political order, because the new government was characterised by extreme corruption bordering on kleptocracy.

In February 1996, one of the Maoist parties started a bid to replace the parliamentary system with a socialist republic, through a Maoist revolutionary strategy known as People's war. This has since grown into a civil war and has resulted in the deaths of about 10,000 people. According to official Nepal government accounts, on June 1, 2001, the Heir Apparent Crown Prince Dipendra went on a killing spree in the royal palace in a violent response to his parents' refusal to accept his choice for a wife. He apparently shot and killed his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, as well as his brother, sister, two uncles and three aunts, before turning the gun on himself. His suicide attempt was not immediately successful, however, and although in a comatose state, he was proclaimed the king (in accordance with Nepalese tradition) in his hospital bed. He died three days later. See Dipendra of Nepal.

Following King Dipendra's death, his uncle (King Birendra's brother, King Gyanendra, was proclaimed king on 4 June. Shortly afterwards, he declared martial law and dissolved the government. Gyanendra deployed Nepal's military in a destructive civil war with the Maoist insurgents, the Nepalese People's War.

Zones

Main article: Zones of Nepal

Nepal is divided into 14 zones (anchal, singular and plural): Bagmati, Bheri, Dhawalagiri, Gandaki, Janakpur, Karnali, Koshi, Lumbini, Mahakali, Mechi, Narayani, Rapti, Sagarmatha, Seti

Geography and Climate

Main article: Geography of Nepal

Map of Nepal

Nepal is a landlocked nation that lies between China and India; it has a total land area of 147,181 km². The terrain is diverse, much of it mountainous and hilly. Three broad physiographic areas run laterally — the lowlands Terai Region in the south; the central lower mountains and hills, the Hill Region; the high Himalaya, with the 8,850 m Mount Everest and numerous other peaks that form Mountain Region in the north. Of Nepal's total land area, only 20 percent is cultivatable; deforestation is a severe problem. Mount Everest (also known as Sagarmatha in Nepali and Chomolongma in Tibetan) is the highest mountain in the world; it straddles the Nepal — China border. The majesty of Everest and the Himalayas, which includes eight of the world's top ten peaks, are major tourist attractions.

Nepal has five climatic zones, ranging from subtropical in the south to cool summers and severe winters in the north. The annual rainfall averages 2,500 mm in the eastern part of country; 1,420 mm around Kathmandu; and 1,000 mm in western Nepal. There are significant seasonal variations, mostly because of the monsoon cycle, which provides 60 to 80 percent of the total annual rainfall; in some areas of Nepal, annual rainfall is more than 4,000 mm, and can reach as much as 6,000 mm p.a.

Examples for the highest monthly rainfall at the peak of monsoon (generally July, in Mustang August).

Economy

Main article: Economy of Nepal

Nepal's economy has been severely affected by the "People's War" between the Nepalese government and the Maoists. Agriculture and services are the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for over 80% of the population and accounting for 41% of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. The production of textiles and carpets has expanded recently and accounted for about 80% of foreign exchange earnings in the past three years. Most industrial activity is focused around the Kathmandu valley and the Terai cities, such as Biratnagar and Birgunj. Agricultural production is growing by about 5% on average, compared with the annual population growth of 2.3%.

Since May 1991, various governments have moved towards implementing economic reforms, particularly those that encourage trade and foreign investment, e.g., by reducing business licenses and registration requirements, to simplify investment procedures. The government has been cutting expenditure by reducing subsidies, privatising state industries, and laying off civil servants. More recent political instability - five different governments over the past few years — has hampered Kathmandu's ability to forge consensus to implement key economic reforms. Nepal has considerable scope for accelerating economic growth by exploiting its potential for hydropower and tourism, areas of recent foreign investment interest. Prospects for foreign trade or investment in other sectors remain poor because of the small size of the economy, its technological backwardness, its remoteness, its landlocked geographic location, and its susceptibility to natural disaster. The international community's funding of more than 60% of Nepal's development budget and more than 28% of total budgetary expenditures will probably continue as a major ingredient of growth.

Demographics and Culture

Main article: Demographics of Nepal

Nepal is a multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-ethnic society. The data below are derived from the 2002 Nepal Population Report. [1]

Languages

Nepal retains a diverse linguistic heritage evolved from three major language groups: Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, and indigenous. According to the 2001 national census, 92 different living languages are spoken in Nepal (a 93rd category was "unidentified"). The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as mother tongue) are Nepali (49%), Maithili (12%), Bhojpuri (8%), Tharu (6%), Tamang (5%), Newari/Nepal Bhasa (4%), Magar (3%), Awadhi (2%), Bantawa (2%), Limbu (1%), and Bajjika (1%). The remaining 81 languages are each spoken as mother tongue by less than one percent of the population.

Nepali, written in Devanagari script, is the official, national language and serves as lingua franca among Nepalis of different ethnolinguistic groups. In the southern Terai Region (5 to 10 mile wide stretch of flat plains in the south which is a northern continuation of Gangetic plains of India), Hindi is also spoken.

Media

Main article: Media of Nepal

Nepal had no free media until the restoration of democracy by the 1990 constitution. On Feb. 1, 2005, King Gyanendra took over direct rule, and by his rule, all media became subject to censorship by the army. The Government has given notice to the press not to publish any matter against the King, Government, and court, and to avoid news related to terrorism without prior consent of the army. Journalists are struggling to practice free media. Protest is banned for the present even though journalists have demonstrated in peace rallies with such placards as "Full-fledged Press Freedom for Peace and Democracy."

Media control extends past censorship to the printing of verifiable falsehoods. After an estimated 700 U.S.-based Nepalese rallied for democracy in Washington, D.C. in 2005, the state-controlled newspaper Gorkhapatra ran a front-page article in Nepal claiming that participants, who included prominent professors, Nepal's former ambassador to the United Nations, and a speaker from Amnesty International, were a handful of laborers hired for $50 a head by the daughter of a former prime minister to insult Nepal.

There are two government-owned TV channels and three private TV studios.

There is one state owned Publication, Gorkhapatra (in Nepali) and The Rising Nepal (in English). Other Daily Broadsheet Newspapers:

• Kantipur (Nepali)[2]
• The Kathmandu Post (English)[3]
• The Himalayan Times (English)[4]
• Nepal Samacharpatra (Nepali)[5]
• Rajdhani (Nepali)[6]
• Annapurna Post (Nepali)[7]
• Himalaya Times (Nepali)
• Space Time (Nepali) Closed after Iraq riot on Bhadra 16, 2061BS (September 2, 2004)

Radio broadcast stations:

• AM 6 (govt. owned Radio Nepal),
• FM 56,
• shortwave 1(govt. owned, Radio Nepal) (March 2005)

Television Nepal TV (Brodcast from Satellite, Govt. owned) Image:Http://image26.webshots.com/26/8/63/1/339586301yjczDl ph.jpg NTV 2 Metro (Broadcast within KTM valley only, Govt. owned) Channel Nepal (Broadcast from satellite, Private) Kantipur Television Network(Broadcast within KTM valley only, Private) Image Metro (Broadcast within KTM valley only, Private) Nepal 1 (Broadcast from India from satellite, Private, banned in Nepal since February 1st, 2005) Avenues TV (Yet to broadcast)

Religions

Nepal, constitutionally a Hindu kingdom with long-standing legal provisions prohibiting discrimination against other religions and proselytization, is the only official Hindu country in the world. The 2001 census identified 87.6% of the population as Hindu and Buddhism was practiced by about 11% of the population (although many people labelled Hindu or Buddhist often practice a syncretic blend of Hinduism, Buddhism and/or animist traditions). About 4.2% of the population is Muslim and 3.6% of the population follows the indigenous Kirant religion. Christianity by many accounts has over 600,000 practicers as of early 2005. Christ Groups, which are House churches and the National Churches Fellowship are among the largest Christian churches in Nepal.

Ethnicity

Nepal’s 2001 census enumerated 103 distinct caste/ethnic groups including an "unidentified group". The caste system of Nepal is rooted in the Hindu religion while the ethnic system is rooted in mutually exclusive origin myths, historical mutual seclusion and the occasional state intervention. The major caste/ethnic groups identified by the 2001 census are Chhetri (15.8%) Hill Brahmin (12.7%), Madheshi (33%), Magar (7.1%), Tamang (5.6%), Newar (5.5%), Muslim (4.3%), Kami (3.9%), Rai (3.9), Gurung (2.8%), and  Damai/Dholi (2.4%). The remaining 92 caste/ethnic groups (including the world-famous Sherpa), each constitute less than 2 percent of the population.

Urban Population

¹ by 1991 only 36 municipalities were established

Music

See Music of Nepal

Narayan Gopal

Holidays

Nepal uses 4 main calendars: the official solar Bikram Sambat, the lunar calendar,Newari calendar(Nepal sambat) and the Gregorian(western). Dates for many religious Nepalese holidays are set according to the lunar calendar (somewhat like Easter is for Christians), so there are no fixed dates for Nepalese holidays in either the Western or the official calendar. Generally, the two major holidays, Dashain and Tihar, fall in October and November.

Miscellaneous topics

• Communications in Nepal
• Culture of Nepal
• Foreign Relations of Nepal
• History of Nepal
• List of political parties in Nepal
• Military of Nepal
• Nepal Civil War
• Nepalese People's War
• Nepali cricket team
• Politics of Nepal
• Transportation in Nepal

References

• His Majesty's Government of Nepal
• CIA World Factbook Nepal entry (2000)
• City Times
• Free Expression in Nepal
• FreeNepal.org
• Himal Khabarpatrika
• Kantipur Online
• International Nepal Solidarity Network
• Mero Sansar
• myfreenepal
• Nepal Churches
• Nepal Population Report (2002)
• Nepal News
• Nepali Times
• Newa Post
• Newslook Magazine
• Parewa News
• Samudaya
• United We Blog!

Further reading

• Barbara Crossette. 1995. So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas. New York: Vintage. (ISBN 0679743634)
• Bista, Dor Bahadur. The Peoples of Nepal
• Peter Matthiessen.1993, "The Snow Leopard".(ISBN 0-00-272025-6)
• Joe Simpson. 1997. "Storms of Silence"
• Samrat Upadhyay. 2001. "Arresting God in Kathmandu"
• Joseph R. Pietri.2001. "The King of Nepal"
• Maurice Herzog.1951. "Annapurna"
• Dervla Murphy.1967. "The Waiting Land"
• Jon Kraukauer.1997. "Into Thin Air"
• Indra Majupuria.1996. "Nepalese Women". (ISBN 974-89675-6-5)
• Dor Bahadur Bista.1996. "People of Nepal". Kathmandu.
• Eva Kipp.1995. "Bending Bamboo Changing Winds". (ISBN 81-7303-037-5)
• Broughton Coburn.1982/1991. "Nepali Ama". (ISBN 0-918373-74-3)