History of Nepal | Geography and Population of Nepal

History

While people have lived for centuries in what is now Nepal, Nepal has only been a country for about 300 years. Independent hill states ruled the area until the late 18th century, when Prince Prithvi Narayan Shah united the states to become what is now Nepal. The nation became a constitutional monarchy in 1950, before slipping into a dictatorship eight years later. Demonstrations in the late 1980s against oppressive rule resulted in multiparty elections in May 1991.

During the sixteen years of democracy, Nepal suffered an ineffective bureaucracy, corruption and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. In 1996, the Maoists started a war against the central government in Rolpa, a village in Western Nepal. The war grew rapidly and killed over 13000 people in 10 years. In June 2001, the popular King Birendra and much of the royal family was assassinated in the palace by a gunman, apparently then crown prince Dipendra, who is believed to have commited suicide afterwards. Public grief and conspiracy theories about the unknown motivation of the massacre paralyzed the country for several weeks. The late king's brother, Gyanendra, became the king after that. In October 2002, Gyanendra dismissed Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government and formed several under the leadership of people of his choice. In February 2005, he dissolved the third government that was formed under the leader of his choice, and formed a government under his own chairmanship. Gyanendra, was had been suspected of plotting the Royal Massacre in 2001, became more infamous after his government enforced strict laws and started treating citizen inhumanely. After three weeks of intense revolution in April 2006, Gyanendra was forced to retreat and reinstate the parliament that had been dissolved before he dismissed the Deuba government in 2002.

Immediately after democracy was reinstated in April, the Maoists announced a cease-fire. The government, under Girija Prasad Koirala, responded with their announcement of a cease-fire. After about 6 months of peace talks, the head of the government, Girija Prasad Koirala, and the chairperson of Maoist party, Puspa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, signed a peace agreement on 21 October 2006. The Polls for the Constituent Assembly is due to happen by mid-June, and this Assembly is to decide the future of Nepal’s monarchy.

Geography and Population

Although Nepal is a small country of only 147,181 square km it contains the greatest altitude variation on earth, from the lowland Terai, almost at sea level, to Mt.Everest, which at 8848 metres is the highest point on earth. The country is about 800 km. long and from 90 to 230 km wide. A cross-section shows four main areas to the country. Close to the border with India is a low fertile strip of jungle land known as the Terai.
Above the Terai rise the Siwalik foothills and beyond them the higher Mahabharat range. Most of the population of Nepal is found in the fertile valleys, such as Kathmandu Valley and the Pokhara Valley. These are north of the Mahabharat range at an altitude between 1000 and 2000 meters.In the north,in the higher altitude Himalayan range form a border between Tibet and Nepal.

Culture

Crooked, timeworn streets flanked by irregular, multi-roofed pagodas, stupas and stone sculptures, and into rooms cluttered with horror-eyed masks, spinning prayer wheels, trippy thangka scrolls and Tibetan carpets. Muttered chants, esoteric tantric hymns and Nepalese music hang in the air, whether it be the twang of a four-stringed saringhi or the plaintive notes of a flute.

Traditional folk musicians, or gaines, gather for an evening of singing and socialising; classical dancing and trance-like masked dances enliven the Kathmandu Valley and Bhaktapur regions; while no wedding would be complete without the raucous damais - Nepal's modern ensembles.
Religion is the lifeblood of the Nepalese. Nepal was declared a secular state by the parliament following the reinstatement of democracy in April. However, there has been a demand by some people to declare it a Hindu state like it previously was. Though many people are Hindus, there are many who practice a syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. The population that isn't Hindu or Buddhist is Muslim, Christian, Sikh, or shamans.
While the food acclaimed as ‘Nepali’ and served in restaurants is dal-bhat-tarkari (rice, lentil soup and curried vegetable) with some pickle. Most of the time meals of the affluent Bahun chetris and Newars are dal-bhat-tarkari, this is hardly the makings of nepali people’s food and is definitely not what all Nepalis eat. Nepal has as many types of food as ehnic groups. Even when you eat the same old dal-bhat tarkari, here can be so many types of vegetables you can eat, cooked in so many different ways. Some famous foods are sel roti, _____________.
In Kathmandu, food native to any part of the world is available. Along famous trekking routes
With any (or all) of these food, you can have a lassi, locally produced beer, or chang, which is a brew made from barley, mainly in the mountains.

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