Facts about Nepal
1. Nepal’s ancient history began
in the Kathmandu Valley and over the centuries its boundaries grew to include
tracts of what today are neighboring countries such as India and China.
It prospered as a crossroad resting place for two trade routes. As such, it
became a cultural mixing pot.
2. The Sakya royal family’s Prince
Siddhartha Gautama was born in the 6th century BC near Lumbini, today
considered a sacred sight. He grew to embark on a path of contemplative thought
and meditation that led him to enlightenment as the Buddha.
3. The Hindu Kiratis, a Mongoloid people,
are recorded by history as the first known rulers of the KathmanduValley in the 7th or 8th century BC. People from northern India
overthrew the Kiratis in AD 300 and the country became predominantly Hindu.
They ushered in an age of more prosperous trade and cultural brilliance.
4. Nepal experienced a ‘dark age’ of
which little is known from the late 600s until 1200. Both Tibet and Kashmir
invaded the country in the 700s but its strategic location ensured the
kingdom’s survival and growth. The credit for founding Kantipur (what
is today’s Kathmandu) goes to King Guna kamadeva in approximately the
10th century.
5. During the 9th century a new lunar
calendar, the Bikram Sambhat, was introduced that is still used today.
It is approximately 67 years, eight and a half months ahead of the Gregorian
calendar Americans use. On it Nepal’s New Year is in mid-April.
6. The age of the Malla kings was a golden
one architecturally. The 15th century architect Araniko traveled to Lhasa and
Beijing with the design for the pagoda, and forever changed the look of Asia’s
religious temples. A 1255 earthquake killed a third of Nepal’s
population during the reign of the Mallas as well.
8. Nepal’s renowned Gurkha soldiers always
successfully protected their country. Their motto is, “Better to die
than be a coward.” The British were so impressed with their
fighting ability during the Indian wars; they have been an integral
salaried part of the British Army since 1815.
9. Nepal’s ignominious defeat by
the Chinese during an expansion attempt ended with the 1816 Sugauli
Treaty, which established Nepal’s current boundaries. In humiliation Nepal
cut itself off from all foreign contact for more than one hundred years. They
reopened their borders in 1951.
Facts about Geography, the Himalayas, Flora, and Fauna
10. After struggling from a constitutional
monarchy with a multiparty democracy to Maoist extremists to Royal
assassinations to the present day, Nepal presently is led by an elected
president and parliament.
11. The approximately 70
million-year-old Himalaya mountain range in Asia separates the Tibetan
Plateau from the Indian subcontinent and is spread across five countries:
Nepal, Bhutan, India, China, and Pakistan.
It is the youngest mountain range in the world. The word
“Himalaya” means “abode of snow” in Sanskrit. They are the home of the god
Shiva, according to Hindu mythology.
12. The three major river systems of the
Asian continent (the Ganga- Brahmaputra, the Yangtze, and the Indus) all have
the Himalayas as their beginning source. That’s because the Himalayas
are the world’s third largest depository of snow and ice (after the
two polar regions), with around 15,000 glaciers containing about 3,000 cubic
miles of water.
13. The most mountainous part of Nepal in
the north contains eight of the earth’s ten tallest mountains, including its
most famous, Mount Everest. Mount Everest stands above all
others at 8,848 meters (5.5 miles) above sea level. It is called
Sagarmatha (“Forehead of the Sky”) by the Sherpas.
14. Many explorers and climbers were
killed during their attempts to climb to the top of the peak before
someone was successful. On May 29, 1953, British explorer Sir Edmund
Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing
Norgay were the first to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest
and thus permanently entered the history books.
15. Twenty five years later, Reinhold
Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria became the first to reach
the summit without using supplemental oxygen,quite a feat in that thin
atmosphere. Messner climbed Everest again in 1980.
16. The Himalayas are home to the
highest lake on earth (Tilicho at 4,800 meters/3 miles) and the
deepest lake on earth (Shey Phoksundo). They are alsohome to eight
of the top ten tallest mountains on earth in addition to Mount
Everest. The zone around it is the Sagarmantha National Park, established in
1976 as a protected area.
17. The Himalayan peak furthest east is
Nameha Barwa and the one furthest west is Nanga Parbat.
18. Nepal is geologically alive. The
Indo Australian plate under Nepal is still moving and will travel 1,500
kilometers (932 miles) into Asia in the next 10 million years.
19. Nepal’s variation in altitudes is
extreme. It boasts the highest valley in the world (Arun) as well as the
deepest gorge (Kaligandaki), with altitudes ranging from a scant 59 meters to
Everest’s world topping 8,848 meters. Chitwan is the world’s tallest
grassland.
20. With the variation in altitudes comes a
variation in climates. Traveling from the south to the north, in a span
of only 100 kilometers you will go from a hot tropical conditions to
bone chilling arctic-level cold. The good news is that Nepal is definitely a
four seasons destination.
21. Nepal’s Kaligandaki River is
older than the Himalayas and is the major ecological dividing line
between the western and eastern Himalayas.
22. In Nepal grow 5,980 flowering plant
species including two percent of the world’s orchids (more than 360 species),
six percent of the world’s rhododendron species (and it’s Nepal’s national
flower), and 250 species endemic to Nepal (and not found growing anywhere else
on earth).This is one of the reasons Nepal is known as the Amazon of
Asia.
23. With almost 870 different species of
birds, Nepal has more than the continents of North Africa and Europe combined.
They are home to eight percent of the bird species of the
world.
24. Nepal is also home to over 650 different
species of butterflies as well as the world’s largest moth (the Atlas moth) and
some of its largest wild honeybees.
The
world’s largest moth -the Atlas moth. Photo by – Zyada
25. Nepal’s endangered species include
the beautiful snow leopard, the red panda, and the one horned rhino.
Facts about Nepal’s Culture
26. Nepal has never experienced any
ethnic or religious clashes and riots. No blood has ever been spilled
in the name of religion in the country. Instead, they are home to over 80
ethnic groups and their people speak 123 different languages.
27. The people of Nepal greet each other
with their palms placed together. They bow their foreheads and say
“Namaste” as is done in neighboring India. This literally means, “I
salute the God in you.”
28. Nepal worships the only living
goddesses in the world. Called Kumaris(which literally translated means
virgins); these pre-pubescent girls are selected as children and considered to
be earthly manifestations of divine female energy. They are incarnations of the
goddess Taleju and live in temples, are worshipped by Buddhists and Hindus
alike and driven in chariots during festivals. They retire upon
achieving puberty.
29. The last Hindu country in the world,
Nepal was declared secular by its parliament in 2006. It still has the
world’s highest proportion of Hindus today among its people. Cows
are considered sacred and it is illegal to kill one in Nepal; it is
their national animal as well.
30. Nepal has
four properties inscribed on the World Heritage
List.
Two are cultural: Kathmandu Valley (1979) and Lumbini, the Birthplace
of the Lord Buddha (1997); and two are natural: Chitwan National Park
(1984) and Sagarmatha National Park (1979).
31. Nepal’s national flag is the
only one in the world that isn’t a rectangle or a square. It has two
triangles; the top with a moon and the bottom with a sun. The triangles
represent not only the Himalayas but Nepal’s two major religions-Hinduism and
Buddhism. Though the current design was made in 1962, the basic design has been
used for over 2,000 years in the country.
32. A popular and quickly made food
dish is the Momo. They are flour and water dumplings filled with a
variety of ingredients: meat, chicken, and/or vegetables (either fried or
steamed) that are delicious and served with a dipping sauce.
33. The national dish is
Dal-bhat-tarkari, which means dal (lentils), bhat (rice), and a
tarkari (vegetable). Many Nepali families eat it daily. A typical meal could be
a green salad (cucumber and carrot), rice, mustard greens, potatoes, chicken
gravy, ghee, black lentils and mutton curry.
34. The Elephant polo game was
originated in Meghauli, Nepal. Nepal’s Tiger Tops is elephant polo’s
headquarters and the site of the World Elephant Polo Championships.
35. Touching anything with your feet
is considered offensive in Nepal. Never step over a person or
any of another person’s body parts. The left hand must not be used for eating
in Nepal. The Nepali also consider the head to be sacred, so don’t touch anyone
else’s.
36. Mostly from the mountainous eastern part
of Nepal, the Sherpas are an ethnic group frequently employed as
porters for mountain expeditions as, due to their upbringing and
genetics, they don’t suffer the effects of altitude. Today it has become common
to call all porters Sherpas.
Nepali People and Economy
37. Mount Everest has
become a major source of revenue from foreign sources for the
Nepalese Government, through special permits for climbers to the business the
base camps bring in.
38. Half the population of Nepal survives on
around one dollar per person per day, as Nepal is one of the poorest
countries in the world.
39. Lumbini International Airport was
developed to promote tourism in the area of Buddha’s birthplace. Many Buddhist
monks from China, Tibet and Japan travel here annually. Similarly, Pashupati
Temple is visited by many Indian neighbors and is a great prospect for
its economic and religious value. The temple complex itself is a grand and
splendid vision for visitors, with its ponds, various temples and wandering
monkeys.
40. Nepal’s
national airline lacks enough planes to fly to any airports out of Asia. Flying
into Nepal is very expensive.
41. Nepal excels
as an arena for adventure and extreme sport tourism.Choices include
paragliding, bungee jumping, high altitude marathons, and mountain biking,
white-water rafting, kayaking and, of course, mountaineering.
42. Although
Nepal has fresh water rivers and over 6,000 lakes generating hydro-electric
power, the demand is so much greater than production that everyone must
live without electricity for a large part of every day. The “load
shedding” on average currently is 8.28 hour daily. Worse, winter is the season
when demand rises to its highest level while supplies fall to their lowest.
43. With
all that fresh water available, water supply for the towns is
problematic. The infrastructure can produce around 180 million liters
a day in Kathmandu while the average demand is over 350 million liters daily.
Generally water is only supplied for two and a half hours a day on four days a
week. People commonly have their own reserve tanks in which to store water for
times of shortages.
44. The
people of Nepal are conservative in this developing country and public displays
of affection are not only discouraged, they are illegal. Kissing in
public will get you arrested.
45. Conservation
efforts are not only increasing the population of endangered animals;
they are saving them for increased tourism and business for this developing
nation. Of Nepal’s total landmass, more than 19 percent is Protected Area or
National Park today. Nepal has saved the Blackbuck, increased the tiger
and one horned rhino populations, and brought back the Gharial and wild buffalo
populations to viable numbers.
A
male Blackbuck. It is one of the fastest of all terrestrial animals reaching to
speeds of up to 80 km/hr and is one of the few antelopes where males and
females have distinctive coloration, as the male bucks are a distinctive black
and white and have long twisted horns, while females are fawn coloured with no
horns.
46. The
Nepalese government returns half of all income from tourism to
the communities located near wildlife reserves.
Nepal facts for Kids
47. The
Yeti is said to live and has been spotted in the Himalayas in Nepal. It
is a mysterious creature akin to North America’s Big Foot and has been reported
by many who have hiked secluded paths in these mountains. Sir Edmund Hillary
himself led a 1958 expedition to find the Yeti, with no success.
48. The
Karnali River is Nepal’s longest.
49. Nepal
has one of the largest concentrations of Royal Bengal Tigers (after Bangladesh
and India) and the second largest one of one-horned rhinos on earth. West
Nepal is home to the largest herd of Swamp deer on earth.
50. One
of the world’s best habitats for beautiful endangered Snow Leopards is
in Nepal.
51. Turn a map of Nepal clockwise 90 degrees and it is literally the same as Portugal’s map. Remember that fact for
pop quizzes and trivia contests.
52. The 2015
Nepal earthquake occurred on 11:56 am local time on April 25th. It had
a magnitude of 7.9 and was of violent intensity. Its epicenter was at Barpak,
east of Kathmandu, and its hypocenter was at a shallow depth of around eight
kilometers (five miles).
53. The
earthquake killed more than 8,800 people and injured more than 21,000. Nearly
3.5 million people were left homeless. There were 58 fatalities in
surrounding countries. The quake triggered avalanches on Mount Everest
that killed 21 and injured at least 120 more.
54. After
the earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015, some parts of the city of Kathmandu
were vertically lifted by about three feet which caused severe damage to
different buildings in the city. Among them was the UNESCO-recognized
historic Dharahara Tower which was reduced to rubble, trapping at least 50
people beneath it.
55. Aftershocks continued
at 15 to 20 minute intervals immediately after the original quake. An
aftershock measuring 6.6 occurred one hour after it. The following day one
reached a 6.7 magnitude and the risk of landslides continued throughout both
days. There were 38 aftershocks in those days with a magnitude of 4.5
or greater.
56. Seven
UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley saw centuries-old
building destroyed. These included buildings at the Patan Durbar
Square, the Kathmandu Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the Boudhanath
stupa, the Swayambhunath Stupa, and the Changu Narayan Temple.
57. With
an epicenter between Kathmandu and Mt. Everest, a major aftershock
struck Nepal on May 12th at 12:50 local time, killing 200 and injuring
over 2,500 more people. At that time, over 6,000 people were still being
treated for injuring from the first quake and aftershocks.
58. Geologists had
known and warned of the possibility of a major earthquake for decades. One
government official scoffed and said it couldn’t happen because Nepal had
already had an earthquake.
59. The
USGS determined the cause of the earthquake to be a release of built-up stress
or a sudden thrust along a major fault line where the Indian Plate is diving
slowly beneath the Eurasian Plate. In only 30 seconds, Kathmandu
shifted three meters (ten feet) to the south.
60. Nepal
has suffered long range, continuing disasters from this initial physical one.
The drop off in tourism, debt burdens, disease, drains on the health care
system, crimes like human trafficking, and damage from the following monsoon
season are some examples. In the chaos of the aftermath, homeless
women, girls and child were kidnapped by human traffickers and efforts are
underway to eradicate the practice.
61. The
international community sent an outpouring of aid and assistance in the days,
weeks and months following the disaster. In all 57 countries, three
international aid agencies and numerous private charities stepped up to help.
62. Before
it was Kathmandu, the city was Kantipur, meaning “City of Glory”.
63. In
ancient times the Kathmandu Valley was actually a huge lake full of
floating lotuses. Geologists have scientifically proven this is true.
64. Kathmandu
today is known as the world’s living cultural museum. It was
given UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1979 for consisting of around 130
significant pilgrimage and monument sites.
65. Kathmandu
is home to more than half of Nepal’s population.
66. The
name of this city comes from the Kaasthanmandap temple built in 1596. Located
in what was the Basantapur Durbar Square, it is also known as Maru Satal.
67. The Newari were
the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley. They are considered to be the
direct descendants of the racial and ethnic group who have resided for two
millennia here in the valley.
68. Kathmandu
was in the center of the historic trade route between India and Tibet. This
caused a fusion of architecture, religions, artists and traditions in Kathmandu
and created its great diversity.
69. Kathmandu
is chosen as the back drop of many movies and TV seriesbecause of
its beautiful ancient monuments and temples. It is not unusual to see some celebrity
around the city of Kathmandu.
70. Freak
Street is a street in Kathmandu famous for the large number of hippies
residing here in the 1960s and 1970s. Here you could come to see the
freaks doing drugs and smoking cannabis.
71. Kathmandu’s motto
is ‘Unity in Diversity’.
With an ancient history, great bio-diversity, a melding of
cultures and proud and friendly people, Nepal is a fascinating country to
visit. Visit and discover 71 interesting facts about Nepal for yourself.
Nepal – country at a glance
Capital
City
|
Kathmandu
27°42′N 85°19′E |
Table last updated
|
May 29, 2019
|
Largest City
|
Kathmandu
27°42′N 85°19′E |
Area
|
147,181 sq km
|
Population
|
29,717,587 (July
2018 est.)
|
Literacy
|
total population:
63.9%
|
National anthem
|
"Sayaun Thunga
Phool Ka Hami" (Hundreds of Flowers)
|
National symbols
|
rhododendron
blossom; national color: red
|
Official Language
|
Nepali
|
Agricultural land
|
28.8%
|
Borders
|
China and India
|
Religion
|
Hindu 81.3%,
Buddhist 9%, Muslim 4.4%, Kirant 3.1%, Christian 1.4%, other 0.5%, unspecifed
0.2% (2011 est.)
|
Life expectancy
|
71.3 years (2018)
Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life. |
GDP - per capita PPP
(estimate 2015)
|
$2,700 (2017 est.)
|
Terrain
|
Tarai or flat river
plain of the Ganges in south; central hill region with rugged Himalayas in
north
|
Mean elevation
|
2,565 m
|
Lowest point
|
Kanchan Kalan 70 m
|
Highest point
|
Mount Everest
(highest peak in Asia and highest point on earth above sea level) 8,848 m
|
Natural resources
|
phosphates, coal,
manganese, rare earth elements, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and gas
deposits, timber, hydropower, arable land
|
Government type
|
federal
parliamentary republic
|
President
|
Bidhya Devi Bhandari
|
Vice President
|
Nanda Kishor Pun
|
Industries
|
tourism, carpets,
textiles; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarettes, cement and
brick production
|
Exports
|
$818.7 million (2017
est.)
clothing, pulses, carpets, textiles, juice, jute goods |
Imports
|
$10 billion (2017
est.)
petroleum products, machinery and equipment, gold, electrical goods, medicine |
Currency
|
Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
|
Birth rate
|
19.1 births/1,000
population (2018 est.)
|
Death rate
|
5.6 deaths/1,000
population (2018 est.)
|
Sex ratio
|
0.96 male(s)/female
(2018 est.)
|
Calling Code
|
+977
|
Drives on the
|
Left
|
Internet users
|
5.547 million
percent of population: 17.6% (July 2015 est.) |
Internet country
code
|
|
Time Zone
|
NPT (UTC+05:45)
|
Data sources
|
1. Central Intelligence Agency
2. Wikipedia.org |