About Nepal

Nepal was once a Kingdom for over 280 years and is since April 2008 a Federal Democratic Republic.

The country is jammed between its giant neighbors China (Tibetan Autonomous Region) and Bharat, the “Federal Union States of India” to the south.

Nepal is 147,181 square-kilometers in size, of which only half is suitable for human settlements. That makes Nepal’s living space only two times larger than the Netherlands. The Netherlands, with 14 million citizens, has the densest population in Europe with approximately 103 people per square kilometer. The Netherlands and Nepal sit next to each other in the United Nations Assembly and also share the same density in population.

Officially the last government census of Nepal counts about 25.5 million citizens but this number is certainly not true.

Additionally UNICEF has counted another three million people who have neither citizenship-certificates, nor a fixed place to stay that they can call their own home and property.

Some Nepalese indigenous tribes are still living like nomads in the many high mountain valleys and pastures. They move around with their cattle in summer and stay put in makeshift winter quarters. Others are forest scavengers and hunter- communities. Furthermore there are countless illiterate slum dwellers with many small children who are unregistered. These are Nepali speaking people with no address and knowledge about where their parents or grandparents came from or where exactly they were born.

This is Nepal's reality today: still no where close of being a modern organized society.

The Government of India has no records at all about how many Nepalese live and work inside of Bharat, because Nepalese are free to cross in and out. The border between India and Nepal is open with no visa required for Nepalese who desire to go for a job. Vice versa any Indian citizen can cross into Nepal without limitation or visa required.

There are an estimated one-and half million Nepalese living in India as “seasonal workers” How can a government keep track on people who are always absent from any national census? They would not come ‘home” to be counted, because they simply don’t know when and where in Nepal such a counting takes place.

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and historically recorded as a city and trade center between Tibet and India as early as 2600 years ago!

The dense and highly polluted city hosts now around 2.2 million people. The official count of 823,000 inhabitants is no longer correct, as the city has been overrun by internal refugees that came during the ten years of Maoist insurgency that has ended only four years ago.

From a geological point of view Nepal is a world of its own. To the north the mighty Himalayas make for a natural weather boundary that allows an almost isolated flora and fauna. One can travel through three different climate zones within a day by jeep or truck…or with a helicopter within just three-quarters of an hour: From arctic cold down to a hot climate that reaches a noon time temperatures which are found only in the African Sahara. Likewise the very rich flora and fauna of the country is arranged in rapidly changing geological zones of miraculous wonder.

The visitors can observe the legendary high pastures where yaks and mountain sheep dwell and at the very same day observe rhinos, elephants and tigers walking through the low grass lands near the border of India.

The superlatives do not end here. Topped by the 8,848 meter high Mt. Everest seven out of the highest mountains on our planet tower above this awesome and picturesque country .

This giant mountain range extends from the far western corner to the far eastern corner of Nepal like a huge panorama picture when one approaches by airplane from the Indian plains.

Forty percent of Nepal reaches up to an altitude of 3,000 meters but is not at all covered with snow like the Alps in Europe. The upper tree boundary in Nepal is at an altitude that varies between 4,000 and 4,500 meters and is mostly covered with huge evergreen pine forests. The lowest lands are the southern Terai plains at only 70 meters above sea level.

It is the fertile middle of Nepal that attracts the foreign trekkers; here one can trek into the mild Mediterranean climate of the hilly region with orange groves and sweet smelling fields of ripening rice.

From there one enters the trekking paths into the beautiful subtropical foothill forests that lead around the Annapurna range, crossing the legendary Thorung La pass of 5,462 meters high, to have a peek into the dry and bare Tibetan Plateau that starts right behind it.

There also are plenty of cultural sides all over Nepal for the visiting tourists and pilgrims alike. One finds Hindu temples, Buddhist shrines and monasteries that often are over 2,000 years old. And there is Lumbini, the recently confirmed genuine birth place of Gautama the Buddha.

On can visit ancient palaces of long-vanished small kingdoms and principalities that date before the King of Gorkha Phritivi Narayan Shah conquered Kathmandu valley 280 years ago to create the boundaries of today's Nepal. The entire country is a world heritage site!

Last but not least, the country attracts mountain climbers from all over the world ever since the British explorer George Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8/9 June 1924) uttered his “famous sentence” when asked “Why do you want to conquer the holy Sagarmatha?” (The Mount Everest) and he answered: “Because it is there!”

Mount Everest is a holy mountain.

It has three distinguished names to offer for those who wonder why a British Indian Colonial Survey officer and cartographer with the name Lord Everest, who never laid eyes on it gave the mountain his own name..

There is the most ancient name that goes right back to the Rig Vedas, the oldest known scriptures on earth that were written millennia ago and are claimed to be over 4,000 years old. They mention a mountain so high and mighty that it had to be the throne of a God. Whoever would be that strong to go up there and sit down to watch the world? Hanuman the mighty ape god, of course, so the first name of Mount Everest was “Hanumante Hyum Mahal,” the great Ape God Hanuman’s Palace of Snow"!

There is a bunch of so called Indian Crypto-Zoologists who believe that the Ape God Hanuman was actually a Yeti and that the yetis were involved in the great ancient war for justice, the 7,000 page long story of the Maha-Bharata!

The next name in line is probably the Sanskrit name of Everest that was given by the High Priests at the court of legendary King Ram of Maha-Bharat ( The Empire of Greater Hindia) That name was Sagarmatha…the holy mother of all mountains.

Then,once upon a time the Sherpas (Sher-Pa means East-People) entered Nepal after trekking for ages as nomads down from eastern Mongolia. They entered the mountains from the Tibetan plateau in search of potatoes and arrived at the foot of Mount Everest to settled down only 800 years ago. The Sherpas were the last ethnic tribe to arrive in Nepal amongst over 200 other tribes and clans that wriggled into Nepal from all directions imaginable for over 3,000 years.

Potatoes….? Lang ? (another ancient Tibetan word for potatoes) How can this be?

Langtang ? The potato valley? North of Kathmandu and behind the first high range of the Naja Kanga peak?

Right there over the Ganja la pass of 5,200 meters is the place where the Sherpas of Helambu had finally found their tiny nutritious Himalayan dark red variety of potato that the cultivated and still serve to trekkers today!

Only today they name these little potatoes with the Nepalese word "alu" and no more "lang"! The best of the best and tastiest alu can be found in a Sherpa village called Talu, about 2 kilometers down from the place were the lost Australian trekker James Scott was found alive in 1991. That's why people say: "Talu janne-Alu khanne!" (Go to Talu to eat 'life saving" potatoes!)

Chinese archeologists found potatoes in cemeteries and tombs that are 3,000 years old. Could it be that Mongolian tribes brought the potato to the Americas en route Bering straights ? Or is the potato just a common crop in all the mountain regions of our planet? That remains one of the questions here in Nepal…a land of magic and mystery!

The Sherpa name for Everest is Chomolungma by the way! Mother Goddess of the Universe!

[deb_sarkar]

I am an Indian and can help you migrate to Nepal if you need help