INTRODUCTION
Nepal, country of Asia, lying along the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is a landlocked country located between India to the east, south, and west and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north. Its territory extends roughly 500 miles (800 kilometres) from east to west and 90 to 150 miles from north to south. The capital is Kathmandu.
Nepal, long under the rule of hereditary prime ministers favouring a policy of isolation, remained closed to the outside world until a palace revolt in 1950 restored the crown’s authority in 1951; the country gained admission to the United Nations in 1955. In 1991 the kingdom established a multiparty parliamentary system. In 2008, however, after a decadelong period of violence and turbulent negotiation with a strong Maoist insurgency, the monarchy was dissolved, and Nepal was declared a democratic republic.
Wedged between two giants, India and China, Nepal seeks to keep a balance between the two countries in its foreign policy—and thus to remain independent. A factor that contributes immensely to the geopolitical importance of the country is the fact that a strong Nepal can deny China access to the rich Gangetic Plain; Nepal thus marks the southern boundary of the Chinese sphere north of the Himalayas in Asia.
As a result of its years of geographic and self-imposed isolation, Nepal is one of the least developed nations of the world. In recent years many countries, including India, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland, have provided economic assistance to Nepal. The extent of foreign aid to Nepal has been influenced to a considerable degree by the strategic position of the country between India and China.
LAND
Nepal contains some of the most rugged and difficult mountain terrain in the world. Roughly 75 percent of the country is covered by mountains. From the south to the north, Nepal can be divided into four main physical belts, each of which extends east to west across the country. These are, first, the Tarai, a low, flat, fertile land adjacent to the border of India; second, the forested Churia foothills and the Inner Tarai zone, rising from the Tarai plain to the rugged Mahābhārat Range; third, the mid-mountain region between the Mahābhārat Range and the Great Himalayas; and, fourth, the Great Himalaya Range, rising to more than 29,000 feet (some 8,850 metres).
The Tarai forms the northern extension of the Gangetic Plain and varies in width from less than 16 to more than 20 miles, narrowing considerably in several places. A 10-mile-wide belt of rich agricultural land stretches along the southern part of the Tarai; the northern section, adjoining the foothills, is a marshy region in which wild animals abound and malaria is endemic.
The Churia Range, which is sparsely populated, rises in almost perpendicular escarpments to an altitude of more than 4,000 feet. Between the Churia Range to the south and the Mahābhārat Range to the north, there are broad basins from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, about 10 miles wide, and 20 to 40 miles long; these basins are often referred to as the Inner Tarai. In many places they have been cleared of the forests and savanna grass to provide timber and areas for cultivation.
A complex system of mountain ranges, some 50 miles in width and varying in elevation from 8,000 to 14,000 feet, lie between the Mahābhārat Range and the Great Himalayas. The ridges of the Mahābhārat Range present a steep escarpment toward the south and a relatively gentle slope toward the north. To the north of the Mahābhārat Range, which encloses the valley of Kathmandu, are the more lofty ranges of the Inner Himalaya (Lesser Himalaya), rising to perpetually snow-covered peaks. The Kathmandu and the Pokharā valleys lying within this mid-mountain region are flat basins, formerly covered with lakes, that were formed by the deposition of fluvial and fluvioglacial material brought down by rivers and glaciers from the enclosing ranges during the four glacial and intervening warm phases of the Pleistocene Epoch (from about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago).
The Great Himalaya Range, ranging in elevation from 14,000 to more than 29,000 feet, contains many of the world’s highest peaks—Everest, Kānchenjunga I, Lhotse I, Makālu I, Cho Oyu, Dhaulāgiri I, Manāslu I, and Annapūrna I—all of them above 26,400 feet. Except for scattered settlements in high mountain valleys, this entire area is uninhabited.
CLIMATE
Nepal’s climate, influenced by elevation as well as by its location in a subtropical latitude, ranges from subtropical monsoon conditions in the Tarai, through a warm temperate climate between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in the mid-mountain region, to cool temperate conditions in the higher parts of mountains between 7,000 and 11,000 feet, to an Alpine climate at altitudes between 14,000 and 16,000 feet along the lower slopes of the Himalaya mountains. At altitudes above 16,000 feet the temperature is always below freezing and the surface covered by snow and ice. Rainfall is ample in the eastern portion of the Tarai (which receives from 70 to 75 inches [1,800 to 1,900 millimetres] a year at Bīratnagar) and in the mountains, but the western portion of Nepal (where from 30 to 35 inches a year fall at Mahendranagar) is drier.
In Kathmandu Valley, average temperatures range from 50° F (10° C) in January to 78° F (26° C) in July, and the lowest and highest temperatures recorded have been 27° and 99° F (-3° and 37° C). The average annual rainfall is about 55 inches, most of which falls in the period from June to September. At Pokharā the temperature ranges from 40° F (4° C) in January to approximately 100° F (38° C) in June, just before the monsoon. In winter, temperatures during the day rise to 70° F (21° C), creating pleasant conditions, with cool nights and warm days. Because warm rain-bearing monsoon winds discharge most of their moisture as they encounter the Annapūrna range, rainfall is quite heavy (about 100 inches) in the Pokharā Valley.
LANGUAGES
The principal and official language of Nepal is Nepali (Gorkhali), spoken in the Tarai and the mid-mountain region. Nepali belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. There are a number of regional dialects found in the Tarai and mountain areas. The languages of the north and east belong predominantly to the Tibeto-Burman family. These include Magar, Gurung, Rai, Limbu, Sunwar, Tamang, Newari, and a number of Bhutia dialects, including Sherpa and Thakali. Although Newari is commonly placed in the Tibeto-Burman family, it was influenced by both Tibeto-Burman and Indo-European languages.
RELIGIONS
In Nepal a vast majority of the population is Hindu, but a small percentage follows Buddhism or other religious faiths. Hindus and Buddhists tend to be concentrated in areas where Indian and Tibetan cultural influences, respectively, have been dominant.
Country profile
Official Name:
Sanghiya Loktāntrik Ganatantra Nepāl
Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
short form: Nepal
formerly: Kingdom of Nepal (Nepal Adhirajya)
ISO Country Code: np, NPL
Time:
Local Time = UTC + 5:45h
Country Calling Code: +977
Capital City: Kathmandu (pop. 800 K)
Government:
Type: Republic
Geography:
Location: Southern Asia, between China and India
Area: 147,181 km² (56,826 sq.mi.)
Terrain: Tarai or flat river plain of the Ganges in the south, a central hill region, and the rugged Himalayas in the north.
Natural resources: Quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty, small deposits of lignite, copper, cobalt, iron ore.
Agriculture products: Rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops; milk, water buffalo meat.
Industries: Tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarette; cement and brick production.
Exports - commodities: clothing, pulses, carpets, textiles, juice, jute goods
Exports - partners: India 68%, United States 10% (2019)
Imports - commodities: petroleum products, machinery and equipment, gold, electrical goods, medicine
Imports - partners: India 65%, China 35% (2021)
Currency: Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
Most beautiful places in NEPAL
18. Rara Lake and National Park
26. Chhintapu