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Nepal
Nepal is special in every possible way. The small country with an area the size of Greece or New York State lies between the two giants of Asia: China and India. But even they cannot outshine Nepal, which is home to numerous 8000-metre peaks and the world's highest mountain, Sagarmatha, better known as Mount Everest. The country has also produced its very own culture, or rather cultures, which is visible, for example, in the Newar architecture of the royal cities in the Kathmandu Valley, in the numerous small altars as well as in Hindu temples, Buddhist stupas, former palaces and Tibetan monasteries. In terms of society, Nepal is also characterised by the unprecedented diversity of ethnic groups that live together here in one nation. Join us on a quick journey to the Himalayas and our project areas Chitwan, Nuwakot and Mugu.
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Nepal
Country
Nepal's topography is unique. There are three distinct landscape regions that run parallel to each other from northwest to southeast. In the north are the high mountains with an average altitude of 4,500 metres, then towards the south the mountains flatten out. They are only around 2,500 metres high and are criss-crossed by large valleys. One of the valleys is the Kathmandu Valley at 1,300-1,400 metres. Finally, in the south of Nepal lies the fertile lowland called Terai, whose lowest point is just 60 metres above sea level.
A total of one third of the Himalayas is located in Nepal and eight of the ten highest mountains on our planet can be found here. The High Himalayas are difficult to access, the terrain is often impassable. There is still a lack of infrastructure, even though some long-distance roads have been added in the past decade. If the roads are not paved, they are washed over by the monsoon every year and are then often impassable for months.
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Nepal
The Kathmandu Valley has always been the centre for trade and crafts. Various dynasties have ruled here since at least the 3rd century AD, starting with the high culture of the Licchavis. But it is particularly influenced by the Newar. Their pagoda building style, which even spread to East Asia, characterises the old plazas of the three former kingdoms Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan (Lalitpur). Outside the city there is fertile farmland, which has been feeding people for 2000 years and made the flourishing civilisation possible in the first place.
The Terai in the south, however, is the true granary of Nepal. It is irrigated by rivers that originate in the mountains or in the Tibetan highlands. The Terai also includes the largest forest area in Nepal with a diverse flora and fauna, including the Bengal tiger and other endangered species. Active conservation of species has been carried out here since the 1970s through the establishment of national parks.
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Nepal
People
At least as diverse as its topography, is the country's population. Nepal is home to a multitude of different ethnic, cultural and religious groups. For this reason, it is impossible to make general statements about the life and habits of the people. Rather, there are always new things to discover.
Nearly 30 million people live in Nepal today. If you were to speak to two randomly selected people on the street, the probability that they both come from a different ethnic group would be 66 percent, and that they speak a different language even more than 70 percent.
How exactly this diversity comes about is historically difficult to understand. However, it is probable that the groups that are now counted among the indigenous peoples (Janajatis) and make up about one third of the population came to Nepal from the north via the Tibetan highlands. This is supported by the fact that most of them speak Tibeto-Burmese languages such as Tamang, Gurung or Sherpa, just to name a few. The other ethnic groups have come to Nepal from the south, west and east, where access is much easier. They tend to speak Indo-Aryan languages related to the languages of northern India, such as Awadhi, Maithili or Bhojpuri.
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Nepal
The Newars, who were mentioned earlier, now make up only about 5 per cent of the population. They also speak a Tibeto-Burmese language, Newari, which they themselves refer to as Nepala Bhasa, translated as the language of Nepal. This is probably due to the fact that for a long time only the region around the Kathmandu Valley, the home of the Newars, bore the name Nepal. The Newars are often also counted among the Janajatis. Religious scholars are particularly interested in them because their way of life combines Buddhism and Hinduism in a unique way. Thus, Newar Buddhism has absorbed many Hindu elements and Newar Hinduism many Buddhist elements. However, it is also normal in other parts of society to mix elements from different religions according to one's own ideas. As a result, people often have overlapping identities and habits. Depending on the situation, they may feel they belong more to one group or another.
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Nepal
Although Nepal's caste system has been legally abolished since 1963, feelings of belonging to a particular caste, or rather sub-caste, with their respective regional specificities, remain. In the last census that asked about caste, in 2011, Nepalis assigned themselves to 125 different ethnic groups or sub-castes.
Even a simplified representation showing the ten largest groups shows us how diverse the population is.
Bahun are the Brahmins and highest caste, Chhetri the second highest group of the former warriors. The Magar belong to the Janajatis, they are one of the oldest peoples of Nepal, as well as the Tamang. The Tharu populate the Terai and speak an Indo-Aryan language. Yadav is an ethnic group coming from India, who were originally cowherds. The Rai belong to a people who settled mainly in eastern Nepal and whose expression of Hinduism is strongly shamanic. Muslims probably arrived in Nepal around the 15th century. Unlike India, the country was never conquered by Islamic rulers.
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The caste system is mainly problematic in connection with the concept of untouchability. According to this, certain occupational groups such as launderers, leather processors or blacksmiths were traditionally considered impure. But also certain groups of musicians traditionally belonged to the lowest castes. Although untouchability was also officially abolished in the last century, a Caste Discrimination and Untouchability Act was passed again in 2011 to end discriminatory practices against members of the lowest castes, the so-called "Dalits", due to persistent discrimination. Dalits make up about 13 per cent of the population and intersect with various ethnic groups.
Castes also play a role in the other direction. For example, although the Bahun, Chhetri and Thakuri do not form a majority of the population, they determine politics as a dominant minority in most of the districts. This group is referred to as Khas Arya in Nepali public opinion. Although Nepal's political system provides for social inclusion at every level of government, e.g. through quotas for women and Dalits, these groups are often still underrepresented and less organised politically. Therefore, it will probably take some time before the still young democracy actually represents the interests of all groups in public. in Profile
Nepal
A Brief Excursion into Nepal’s Political History
Until the 2000s, Nepal was a monarchy, sometimes constitutional, sometimes more absolutist. From 1996 to 2006, the country went through a civil war that claimed at least 17,000 lives. The Maoists fought against the monarchy. The army and police, in turn, took action against rebels, but often also against civilians on suspicion. The conflict left many wounds all over the country. In 2006, it was finally decided to end the monarchy and cede Hinduism as the state religion. The first constituent assembly of 2008 could not agree on a constitution for a long time. Only after several new elections and years of negotiations did the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal finally come into force in 2015. Today, Nepal's parliament consists of two chambers with 275 and 59 members. Bidya Devi Bhandari has been President since 2015, and Sher Bahadur Deuba has been Prime Minister since 2021.
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Indigenous groups have been united in an association, the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, or NEFIN for short, since 1991. They include 59 indigenous peoples and tribes, some of them with a large population, such as the Magar, Tharu or Tamang. 22 groups each account for less than 0.1 per cent of the total population and are classified as vulnerable, highly marginalised or marginalised, depending on their economic status. These include, for example, the Chepang.
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Culture
Nepal's culture is characterised by the ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of its inhabitants. Nepali is the country's only official language, although the 2015 constitution recognises more than 120 languages that have been mentioned as mother tongues as national languages. Being multilingual is the norm in Nepal. Besides Nepali and, if applicable, a different mother tongue, English is widely spoken, especially in tourism. In the north somewhat less than in the south, many people also understand and speak Hindi, the national language of India, due to labour migration and the consumption of Indian media.
In Nepal, besides the written literature that dates back to the 14th century, there is also a great deal of oral tradition. Many myths, fairy tales, legends and fables are based on a storytelling tradition. In the villages you will quickly find old people or shamans who can freely tell you a whole range of fairy tales, legends or even ghost stories. Many of these stories have never been written down.
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Music plays a role in every culture in Nepal without exception. Music is played at festivals and religious occasions, weddings and also when a life comes to an end. All groups have their own style of music. Music is often combined with dance, for example in the tantric songs and dances of the Buddhist Caryas or the shamanistic drumming and trance dances in the Himalayas. The Gaine, who used to roam around as with their sarangi (a kind of Nepalese violin) being rewarded by people with money and goods, were also called "Singing Newspapers" because they revealed news in addition to their songs.
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In Nepal it is impossible to write about culture without talking about food. Dal-bhat is the most popular and traditional dish of Nepal. It means simply lentils with rice. It is usually accompanied by vegetable curry, tarkari. Momos, dumplings filled with spiced vegetables or meat, originating from Tibet, are also popular in towns. However, depending on the region, customs and financial possibilities, these dishes are rarely served in the villages. Maize, buckwheat and barley often replace rice and wheat. Chiura, a kind of flattened rice, is also used almost everywhere, as it can be kept for a long time and is versatile. The higher the villages are situated in the Himalayas, the more barren the soil tends to be, which makes agricultural cultivation difficult. In addition, there are long winters when there is no harvest at all. So the meals are correspondingly simpler.
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