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.): $30.66 billion; per capita $1,100. Real growth rate:
2.5%. Inflation: 8.6% (Nov. 2006 est.). 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.
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.
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.
