Nepal

A small Himalayan nation on the northern border of India that is deemed the
world’s only Hindu kingdom. One basis
for this claim is that almost 90 percent of
Nepal’s inhabitants identify themselves
as Hindu; the other is that since 1769
Nepal’s ruling house has been a Hindu
dynasty, the Shah dynasty. The present
monarch, Birendra Bir Bikram Shah (b.
1945), was an uncontested absolute
monarch until April 1990, when popular
discontent led to a movement seeking
the restoration of democracy in Nepal.
The king was forced to accede to democratic reforms, and since May 1991 has
governed as a constitutional monarch,
with the Nepali Parliament wielding the
real power.
Although Nepal is a small country, it
has great geographical diversity. Its three
major geographical regions are the submontane lowlands, the Himalayan
foothills, and the high mountains. The
country’s uneven topography further
subdivides each of these regions. This
rugged geography has a marked effect
on the country’s economy, rendering
agriculture impossible at anything more
than a subsistence level. However, it
provides the attraction for tourism,
which is Nepal’s greatest source of foreign exchange.
Such great geographical diversity
promotes similar human diversity. The
people of Nepal are an amalgam of
many different groups, including people
whose historical roots lie in India and
indigenous hill tribes associated with
particular parts of the country. Most
Nepalese live in the fertile valleys of the
foothills. These are the most habitable
regions, as the climate in the mountains
is far too harsh for permanent habitation, while the lowland regions are
rife with disease, particularly malaria.
In general, Nepali culture shows
many similarities with the adjoining
areas of India, and thus from a cultural
perspective is firmly fixed in the Indian
cultural orbit. Nepal is also the home to
several important Hindu pilgrimage
places (tirtha), notably Pashupatinath
in the Kathmandu Valley, and
Muktinath, at the headwaters of the Kali
Gandaki River.