||| Aboutnepal |||

Nepal is a beautiful and small country existing in the big continent of Asia. It is located in between the latitude of 260 22' north to 300 27 north and longitude 800 4' east to 880 12' east and elevations ranges from 90 to 8848 meters. The average length being 885 km. east to west and average breadth is about 193 km north to south. Nepal is a land locked country encircled by two most popular countries of the world, India in the east, west and south and China in north. It has total area of 147,181 sqr. km. and occupies o.03% of the total land of the world and o.3% of Asia subcontinent. It is inhabited by 22 million people of more than 60 caste and ethnic groups
Nepal has been divided into there geographical regions from north to south. The northern range is covered with stone over the year and is called mountain region (Himalayas). Mount Everest, the highest peak of the world stands in this region.

Mountains of Nepal

S.No.	Name of the Peaks	Height of the Peak in Meter
1	Mount Everest Sagarmatha (The head of the sea)	8848
2	Mount Kanchanjangha (The third highest peak of the world and the second highest in the country.)	8586
3	Mount Lhotse	8516
4	Mount Makalu	8463
5	Mount Choyoyu	8201
6	Mount Dhawalagiri	8167
7	Mount Manaslu	8163
8	Mount Annapurna	8091
9	Mount Gaurishankar	7134
10	Mount Machhapuchre (Fish tail) Virgin Mountain in term of expedition)	6996

The mountain region occupies a total area of 15% of the land of the country. South of the mountain region is called Hilly region. Its height varies from 600 to 5000 meter from the sea. Its breath is 75 to 125 km from north to south. It occupies a total land of 68% of the country. This part of land captures hill, valley and lakes. Kathmandu, the capital of the kingdom, lies in this region. It is also one of the big valleys of Nepal. The southern part of the hill region is called Terai or low land. The average height of this region is 200 meter from sea level. Its breath is 25 to 30 km from north to south. It occupies a total area of 17% of the country. This region is the gangeitic plain of alluvial soil and consists of dense forest area, national parks, wildlife reserves and conservation areas. King Janak, the philosopher king and the father of Sita, the heroin of Ramayan, Sita the ancient epic, and Buddha, the light of Asia, were born in this part of Nepal. Terai is also called the granary of Nepal. This country has nearly 6,000 rivers and rivulets and prominent among them are Kosi, Gandaki, Karnali, Mechi, Mahakali, Bagmati, Rapti etc. The major lakes of Nepal are Mahendra Tal also called Rara Daha, Phewa Tal, Shey Phoksundo Tal, Roopa Tal (at the highest altitude in the world). The main Glaciers of this country are Mahalangur, Kumbhakarna, Kanchanjangha, Khumbu, Langtang and Machcha puchchare.
The major export commodities are woollen carpet, cotton readymade garments, pulses, hide and skins, niggerseeds, gold and silver ware and ornament. twines, toothpaste, polyester yarn, Cardamom, noodles, ginger, rice bran oil. Regarding the economic growth of the country, Nepal in figures 1989 mentions. "Economic growth of the country has not improved markedly over time to over take population growth. As the current population growth is 2.3 per cent per annum, growing population has concealed the gain achieved by developmental activities. Little over half (57%) of the population of working age reported economically active in 1991 and among them 81 per cent were engaged in agricultural activities. In the development scale, Human development index (HDI) computed for Nepal for year 1996 is 0.378(HDI lies between 0 and 1). This value is only 45% of the World average. Among the districts, Kathmandu possesses the highest (0.603) HDI and Mugu the least (0.147) in the same year. Contributions of non-agricultural activities are gradually increasing in the GDP.
Nepalese currency (Nepal's Rupee) is circulated throughout the Kingdom.

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The existence of Nepal as an independent country is found in the ancient text Athrab Parisist written in 800-600 B.C. Neep Tribe of Gopal (Cowherd) established the monarchical system in their own way of governing the kingdom. The name of this country as Nepal is derived from the word Nep. Actually, Nepal is the combination of two words 'Ne' and 'Pal'. It means the place (pal) where Ne (Nep tribe) lives. However, there are so many controversies regarding the origin of the word Nepal. But no one can deny the fact that the origin of word Nepal is as old as the history of human civilization. Daniel Wright, a British Surgeon in British Residence, writes that eight Gopala rulers ruled this kingdom for 521 years. Gopal were replaced by Kirata tribe. Twentynine Kirate kings ruled Nepal for 1118 years, Gasti, the last king of kirata, was overthrown by Lichhavi tribe. The first inscription with the name of the king Mandeva and date 386 (464 c) was found in front of the Temple of Changunarayan near Bhaktapur. The name of three kings as Brishadeva, Shankaradeva, Dharmadeva and Mandeva are inscribed in the pillar inscription of Changunarayan. Many famous kings ruled in this period of history. That is why the period was called "Golden Age" in the ancient history of Nepal. Amsuvarma was the most famous king of the Lichchavi Period of Nepal. He constructed big palace called Kailashkut Bhawan. He used to rule from that palace. He composed a book entitled "Shawbda Vidhy". (Learning of word). He was also popular in India. Yuan Chawang, the Chinese pilgrim, praised the work of Amsuvarma. Bhrikuti, the Lichchavi Princess spread Buddhism in Tibet and China.
Lichhavis were overthrown by Malla Kings. This period is called medieval period in Nepalese history. This period starts with 880 CE and ended after the unification of Nepal in 1768. Ari Malla is regarded as the first Malla king of Nepal. Nepal was divided into a small principalities after the death of Yakcha Malla. Malla period in Nepalese history is famous for the preservation of art, architecture, culture and literature. Many wooden and stone palaces can be seen in Kathmandu valley as a historical monuments of Malla Kings. Pratap Malla used to compose poem, song and drama and played for the entertainment of his subjects. He was a good dancer of his time. He had constructed a big pond called Rani Pokhari in the heart of the city in memory of his dead son and to console his wife.


	Hanuman Dhoka:The gate of monkey god called Hanuman Dhoka and other temples were the creation of the King Pratap Malla. Jaya Prakash Malla in Kantipur, Tejnarsingh Mall is Patan and Ranjeet Malla in Bhaktapur were the last Malla kings of the three independent kingdoms of Kathmandu valley.
Prithivinarayan Shah, the founder of modern Nepal unified small principalities into a big nation. His work was completed by his sons Pratap Singh Shah and Bahadur Shah. Rajendra Laxmi Devi, the queen mother, had also made great contribution in the task of unification after the death of her husband Pratap Singh Shah. She was also expert in horse riding. She used to ride horse with a sword in her hand on the street of Kathmandu. Nepal had to fight with big China and Tibet in 1792 and 1855, Bhimsen Thapa, the prime Minister of Nepal tried to expand this country. The territory of Nepal reached up to Tista river in the east and south in the west. Autocratic family of Ranas rule was established by Jung Bahadur Rana as a Prime Minister after Kot massacre of 1846 and Rana rule continued up till 1950. Ten Rana Prime Ministers ruled for over 104 years. Mohan Shamsher was the last Rana prime minister of Nepal. The Ranas were overthrown by the people movement under the guidance of King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the father of the nation. Many martyrs such as Ganga lal, Dharmabhakta, Dashrath Chand, Sukra Raj Shastri Sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy.

Jung Bahadur was the first Nepalese Prime Minister to visit England. He introduced civil code after his return from England.
B.P. Koirala was the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal under Multiparty democracy. He could not rule more than eighteen months when His late Majesty King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev abolished it in 1960. King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah again introduced multi party democracy after continuing Panchyat system for thirty years. His Late Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and his family members were killed in Royal massacre in 2001 and his brother His Majesty the King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is ruling the kingdom of Nepal as the 12th King of Shah dynasty under constitutional monarchy. His Majesty has assured the people that His Majesty would follow the footprint of his elder brother His Majesty the King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva and adhere all the norms and values of democratic exercises. The Nepalese People are enjoying Democratic Right under multiparty system. People exercise right of adult franchise. The Executive, Legislative and Judiciary function and exercise their right independently but there is also a check and balance in their functioning. There is two tier system of legislation one upper house called Rastria Sabha consists of 60 members and other is Lower House called Pratinidhi Sabha has 205 members elected from different constituency distributed in 75 district of the country. Majority party in Lower House forms the Government and Parliamentary party elects its leader as Prime Minister. Prime Minister heads the government. For administrative purpose the country has been divided into five development regions, fourteen zones, and seventy-five Districts. Districts are divided into smaller units called village Development committee and Municipality. There are 3913 village Development Committees (VDC) and 58 Municipalities in the country. Each VDC has nine wards and Municipalities ward varies from 9 to 35 on the basis of the size and population.