Facts about Nepal – Nepal is a landlocked country in Southern Asia, between the Tibet autonomous region of China and India. It contains 8 of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest – the world’s tallest – on the border with Tibet, and Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The Sanskrit word Nepalaya means “at the foot of the mountains” or “abode at the foot”; Nepal may be derived from this. 

Country Profile of Nepal

National Identities of Nepal

 National Flag of Nepal 

The Nepal flag is the only national flag that is not quadrilateral in shape. It is made of two triangles. The triangles are said to represent Hinduism and Buddhism. They also represent the Himalayan Mountains.

Its crimson red is the colour of the rhododendron, the country’s national flower. The blue border is the colour of peace. Until 1962, the flag’s emblems, the sun, and the crescent moon had human faces. They were removed to modernize the flag.

People in Nepal

The abominable snowman, also known as the yeti, is a legendary ape-like creature that is believed to frequent the high valleys of Nepal.

The large-scale migrations of Asian groups from Tibet and Indo-Aryan people from northern India, which accompanied the early settlement of Nepal, have produced a diverse linguistic, ethnic, and religious pattern. Nepalese of Indo-Aryan ancestry comprise the people of the Tarai, the Pahari, the Newar, and the Tharus—the great majority of the total population.

Economy of Nepal

Basic Economy: Agriculture is the lynchpin of the country’s economy and employs approximately 75% of its population of 27 million.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for more than 70% of the population and accounting for a little over one-third of GDP

Import Goods

Petroleum Products, Gold, fuel, apparel, gold, iron and steel, machinery, equipment

Export Goods

carpets, beverage, textile, tea, and plastic.

Membership

• Nepal’s foreign relations expanded after the Anglo-Nepal Treaty of 1923, which was recognized by the League of Nations.
• After a Soviet veto in 1949, Nepal was admitted to the United Nations in 1955.
•  Friendship treaties were signed with the Dominion of India in 1950 and the People’s Republic of China in 1960.
• Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which it is a founding member.
• Nepal is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative.

Sports in Nepal

• The most common sport played in Nepal is football followed by cricket.
• Association football is the most popular sport in Nepal and was first played during the Rana dynasty in 1921.
• The one and only international stadium in the country is the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium where the national team plays its home matches.
• In SAG (south Asian games) 2016 which was held in India, Nepal won the gold medal in men’s football beating India by 2-1.

Seasons in Nepal

Seasons in Nepal into five weather zones — tropical, tropical zone, temperate zone, cold zone, sub-arctic zone and the arctic zone. Locally, seasons in Nepal is also categorized into 6 divides. Each lasting 2 months.

• Basanta Ritu (Spring)
• Grishma Ritu (Early Summer)
• Barkha Ritu (Summer Monsoon season)
• Sharad Ritu (Early Autumn)
• Hemanta Ritu (late autumn)
• Shishir Ritu (Winter)

Biodiversity of Nepal

• Nepal is rich in term of biodiversity.
• Wildlife tourism is also a major source of tourism in the country There are some animal species which are unique to Nepal, such as the spiny babbler. Nepal is also host to a large number of rhododendron species. The wildlife of Nepal includes its flora and fauna.
• Nepal has established numerous national parks and reserves in order to protect its diverse fauna ever since 1973, with the passing of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029 BS.
• Under these classes as of 2002, there were 23 protected areas: nine national parks, three wildlife reserves, three conservation areas, one hunting reserve, three additional Ramsar sites, and four additional world heritage sites.
• The most noted world heritage sites are Sagarmatha National Park and Chitwan National Park.

•  In addition, the world heritage site in the Kathmandu Valley also covers zones of significant biodiversity.

National Parks in Nepal

• Chitwan National Park
• Sagarmatha National Park
• Langtang National Park
• Rara National Park
• Khaptad National Park
• Shey Phoksundo National Park
• Bardiya National Park
• Makalu Barun National Park
• Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park
• Banke National Park
• Shuklaphanta National Park

Wildlife Reserves

• Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve
• Parsa Wildlife Reserve

Amazing Facts about Nepal

• The Nepali calendar called Bikram Sambhat is approximately 67 years and 8.5 months ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The Nepali New Year is celebrated in mid-April.
• Nepal has the only living goddess in the world, the Kumari. Kumari means virgin in Nepali and is the tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy in Hindu religious traditions.
• As a national animal of the country, slaughtering of cows is illegal in Nepal. It is not uncommon to see cows wandering around the streets of Kathmandu.
• In terms of biodiversity, Nepal is one of the richest countries in the world. It is rightfully called Amazon of Asia due to the unique variety of species found in Nepal.
• Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, is the living cultural museum of the world. Kathmandu valley alone has seven UNESCO’s World Heritage Cultural sites within a radius of 15 kilometres.
• Nepal has 8 out of 10 of the world’s highest mountains, including the world highest Mount Everest standing 8848 meters high. Mount Everest is called Sagarmatha in Nepali and Chomolungma by the local Sherpas and Tibetans.
• Nepal is the birthplace of the Light of Asia, Buddha. Siddhartha Gautam (Buddha) was born in 623 B.C. in Kapilvastu, Lumbini, which lies in Nepal. Lumbini is now a sacred place for Buddhists.
• The famous warriors in the world, Gurkhas, are from Nepal. Having been protected by the bravest warriors of the world, Nepal does not have an independent day as it was never colonized by any superpowers of the world.
• Nepal was the last Hindu Country in the world when it was declared secular by the parliament in the year 2006. Although many religion harmoniously co-exists in the country, 81.3% of the population in the country follows Hinduism. Nepal still has the highest proportion of Hindus in the world.
• Kaligandaki is the river older than the Himalayas. Therefore, it acts as a major ecological dividing line of the whole eastern and western Himalayas.
• Nepal is the only country with an altitudinal variation that ranges from 59 meters to 8848 meters.
•  Nepal holds some of the most extreme places on the earth such as the highest lake on the earth (Tilicho 4800 meters), the highest valley on earth (Arun valley), the deepest gorges (1200 meter) in Kaligandaki and the tallest grassland in the world in Chitwan.
• Nepal has one of the largest concentrations of Royal Bengal Tiger in the world after India and Bangladesh.  It is said that Nepal has the largest moth in the world (Atlas Moth)
•  Some of the largest wild honeybees are found in Nepal.
• Karnali in Simikot is one of the best rivers in the world for kayaking and most of the upstream Nepalese rivers offer the best rapids for white-water rafting.

Facts about the Himalayas:

• The word ‘Himalaya” in Sanskrit means the abode of snow.
• The geological age of the Himalaya is approximately 70 million years. It is the youngest Mountain Range in the world.
• According to Hindu mythology, God Shiva resides in the Himalaya.
• Nameha Barwa peak is the easternmost and Nanga Parbat is the westernmost peak of the Himalaya.
• Kumbhakarna is the new name of mount Jannu (7,710 m).
• Gosainthan (8046 m) is the Nepali name for Shisha Pangma.
• The ideal height gain per day for mountaineers is 1,000 ft above 10,000 ft.
• The Himalayas are the source for rivers such as the Indus, the Yangtze, and the Ganga-Brahmaputra. All three are the major river systems of the continent of Asia.
• The Himalayas are the third largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic. There are approximately 15,000 glaciers located throughout the range.
• The Himalayas are alive geographically! The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia.