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Travel to Nepal — Unbiased reviews and
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Kingdom of Nepal
Ruler: King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah
Deva (2001)
Prime Minister: Pushpa Kamal Dahal
(2008)
President: Ram Baran Yadav
(2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 52,819 sq mi (136,801 sq km);
total area: 54,363 sq mi (140,800 sq km)
Population (2008 est.): 29,519,114
(growth rate: 2.0%); birth rate: 29.9/1000; infant mortality rate:
62.0/1000; life expectancy: 60.9; density per sq km: 206
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Kathmandu, 1,203,100 (metro. area), 729,000
(city proper)
Other large cities: Biratnagar,
174,600; Lalitpur, 169,100
Monetary unit: Nepalese rupee
Languages:
Nepali 48% (official), Maithali 12%, Bhojpuri
7%, Tharu 6%, Tamang 5%, others. English spoken by many in
government and business (2001)
Ethnicity/race:
Brahman-Hill 12.5%, Chetri 15.5%, Magar 7%,
Tharu 6.6%, Tamang 5.5%, Newar 5.4%, Muslim 4.2%, Kami 3.9%, Yadav
3.9%, other 32.7%, unspecified 2.8% (2001)
Religions:
Hindu 81%, Buddhist 11%, Islam 4%, Kirant 4%
(2001)
Literacy rate: 45% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $29.04 billion; per capita $1,200. Real growth rate:
2.5%. Inflation: 6.4%. Unemployment: 42% (2004 est.).
Arable land: 16%. Agriculture: rice, corn, wheat,
sugarcane, root crops; milk, water buffalo meat. Labor force:
11.11 million; note: severe lack of skilled labor (2004 est.);
agriculture 76%, industry 6%, services 18%. Industries:
tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed
mills; cigarettes, cement and brick production. Natural
resources: quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty,
small deposits of lignite, copper, cobalt, iron ore. Exports:
$830 million f.o.b. (2006 est.), but does not include unrecorded
border trade with India: carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute
goods, grain. Imports: $2.398 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.):
gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer.
Major trading partners: India, U.S., Germany, China,
Indonesia (2006).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 595,800 (2006); mobile cellular: 1.042 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (Jan.
2000). Radios: 840,000 (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 1 (plus 9 repeaters) (1998). Televisions:
130,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 18,733
(2007). Internet users: 249,400 (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 59 km
(2006). Highways: total: 17,380 km; paved: 9,886 km;
unpaved: 7,494 km (2004). Ports and harbors: none.
Airports: 47 (2007).
International disputes: joint border
commission continues to work on small disputed sections of boundary
with India; India has instituted a stricter border regime to
restrict transit of Maoist insurgents.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
A landlocked country the size of Arkansas, lying
between India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, Nepal contains
Mount Everest (29,035 ft; 8,850 m), the tallest mountain in the world.
Along its southern border, Nepal has a strip of level land that is partly
forested, partly cultivated. North of that is the slope of the main
section of the Himalayan range, including Everest and many other peaks
higher than 8,000 m.
Government
In Nov. 1990, King Birendra promulgated a new
constitution and introduced a multiparty parliamentary democracy in Nepal.
Under pressure amid massive pro-democracy protests in April 2006, King
Gyanendra gave up direct rule and reinstated Parliament, which then
quickly moved to diminish the his powers. In December 2007, Parliament
voted to abolish the monarchy and become a federal democratic republic.
The transition to a republic was completed in May 2008, when the
Constituent Assemby voted to dissolve the monarchy.
History
The first civilizations in Nepal, which
flourished around the 6th century B.C., were
confined to the fertile Kathmandu Valley where the present-day capital of
the same name is located. It was in this region that Prince Siddhartha
Gautama was born c. 563 B.C. Gautama achieved
enlightenment as Buddha and spawned Buddhist belief.
Nepali rulers' early patronage of Buddhism
largely gave way to Hinduism, reflecting the increased influence of India,
around the 12th century. Though the successive dynasties of the Gopalas,
the Kiratis, and the Licchavis expanded their rule, it was not until the
reign of the Malla kings from 1200–1769 that Nepal assumed the
approximate dimensions of the modern state.
The kingdom of Nepal was unified in 1768 by King
Prithvi Narayan Shah, who had fled India following the Moghul conquests of
the subcontinent. Under Shah and his successors Nepal's borders expanded
as far west as Kashmir and as far east as Sikkim (now part of India). A
commercial treaty was signed with Britain in 1792 and again in 1816 after
more than a year of hostilities with the British East India Company.
In 1923, Britain recognized the absolute
independence of Nepal. Between 1846 and 1951, the country was ruled by the
Rana family, which always held the office of prime minister. In 1951,
however, the king took over all power and proclaimed a constitutional
monarchy. Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah became king in 1955. After Mahendra
died of a heart attack in 1972, Prince Birendra, at 26, succeeded to the
throne.
In 1990, a pro-democracy movement forced King
Birendra to lift the ban on political parties. The first free election in
three decades provided a victory for the liberal Nepali Congress Party in
1991, although the Communists made a strong showing. A small but growing
Maoist guerrilla movement, seeking to overthrow the constitutional
monarchy and install a Communist government, began operating in the
countryside in 1996.
On June 1, 2001, King Birendra was shot and
killed by his son, Crown Prince Dipendra. Angered by his family's
disapproval of his choice of a bride, he also killed his mother and
several other members of the royal family before shooting himself. Prince
Gyanendra, the younger brother of King Birendra, was then crowned
king.
King Gyanendra dismissed the government in
October 2002, calling it corrupt and ineffective. He declared a state of
emergency in November and ordered the army to crack down on the Maoist
guerrillas. The rebels intensified their campaign, and the government
responded with equal intensity, killing hundreds of Maoists, the largest
toll since the insurgency began in 1996. In Aug. 2003, the Maoist rebels
withdrew from peace talks with the government and ended a cease-fire that
had been signed in Jan. 2003. The following August, the rebels blockaded
Kathmandu for a week, cutting off shipments of food and fuel to the
capital.
King Gyanendra fired the entire government in
Feb. 2005 and assumed direct power. Many of the country's politicians were
placed under house arrest, and severe restriction on civil liberties were
instituted. In Sept. 2005, the Maoist rebels declared a unilateral
cease-fire, which ended in Jan. 2006. In April, massive pro-democracy
protests organized by seven opposition parties and supported by the
Maoists took place. They rejected King Gyanendra's offer to hand over
executive power to a prime minister, saying he failed to address their
main demands: the restoration of parliament and a referendum to redraft
the constitution. Days later, as pressure mounted and the protests
intensified, King Gyanendra agreed to reinstate parliament. The new
parliament quickly moved to diminish the king's powers and selected Girija
Prasad Koirala as prime minister. In May, it voted unanimously to declare
Nepal a secular nation and strip the king of his authority over the
military.
The Maoist rebels and the government signed a
landmark peace agreement in November 2006, ending the guerrilla’s
10-year insurgency that claimed some 12,000 people. In March 2007, the
Maoists achieved another milestone when they joined the interim
government. Just months later, in September 2007, however, the Maoists
quit the interim government, claiming that not enough progress had been
made in abolishing the monarchy and forming a republic. They agreed to
rejoin the interim government in December, when Parliament voted to
abolish the monarchy and become a federal democratic republic.
In April 2008, millions of voters turned out to
elect a 601-seat Constituent Assembly that will write a new constitution.
The Maoist rebels, who recently signed a peace agreement with the
government that ended the guerrilla’s 10-year insurgency, won 120
out of 240 directly elected seats. In May, the assembly voted to dissolve
the 239-year-old monarchy, thus completing the transition to a republic.
King Gyanendra vacated Narayanhiti Palace in June and began life as a
commoner.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala resigned in
June, after two years in office. In July, the Maoists said they would not
participate in the government when their candidate for president, Ramraja
Prasad Singh, was defeated. Other parties in the Constituent Assembly
united to elect Ram Baran Yadav as the country's first president. The move
seemed to jeopardize the peace process. A Maoist was elected prime
minister in August, however. The Constituent Assembly voted 464 to 113 in
favor of Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, over Sher
Bahadur Deuba, a member of the Nepali Congress Party who served as prime
minister three times. In a compromise, the Maoists say they will not hold
posts in the party’s armed faction and will return private property
it seized from opponents.
See also Encyclopedia: Nepal
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Nepal
Central Bureau of Statistics http://www.cbs.gov.np/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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