Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February, 1889, p. 467-483:
Nepaul, The Land of the Goorkhas.BY HENRY BALLENTINE.
Nepaul, geographically, is a region of independent territory, 500 miles by 150, in the heart of the highest Himalaya ranges, protected and shut off from India on the south by the immense malarious Terai forest, and on the north guarded by such hoary sentinels as Yassa, Dhawalaghiri [Dhaulagiri], Mount Everest, 24,000 to 29,000 feet high.
Nepaul proper, in the sense the natives use tile word, applies to a little valley 4500 feet above the sea, extending 25 miles by 10; and still more definitely applied refers to the three neighboring cities in this valley, Bhatgaon, Patan, and Khatmandu [Kathmandu] named in the order in which they were built, and in which they laid claim to being the capital city of this remarkably isolated province.
The present capital, Khatmandu, is the seat of the Goorkha [Gurkha] dynasty, ruling over a people the bravest and most warlike in the East.
We cannot tell our readers here how we worked our way up from Calcutta [Kolkata] to Khatmandu, a distance of some 550 miles, the last 100 on foot. Before such a journey could be undertaken it was necessary to obtain the permission of the British Foreign Office in India, the ways of which are as dark as those of the heathen Chinee, and which takes pride in mulish perversity and an autocratic obtuse aversion to any and all Europeans "airing themselves on the Indian frontier." Then, too, we must have obtained the consent of the Nepaulese Court.
When all this red tape had been successfully encountered, we were obliged to lay in a stock of tinned provisions, ammunition for sport of no mean order, the killing of tiger, rhinoceros, and bear; and lastly, it was necessary to provide what proved the most interesting feature of the outfit, our photographing apparatus.
Moreover coolies were to be negotiated for, and our days’ marches prearranged. But, as before stated, we cannot here go into all these details, nor give an account of the dangers we encountered, the difficulties we had to surmount, the exasperating, mutinous spirit exhibited by our coolies, the exposures and rnght alarms we experienced, not to mention attacks of disease and of wild animals, from which we had miraculous escapes.
On a cold morning in November a caravan of about twenty struggling human beings, mostly coolies with burdens on their backs, could have been seen defiling up the precipitous side of Chundragiri, or Moon Mountain. After a hard struggle the top was reached at a point 7186 feet above sea-level. The ground was white with hailstones of the previous night’s storm, and deep frost covered the ground, while the sun was shining its brightest. The coolies now sat down to rest, and we who were in advance of them moved along the top of tbe pass to its further side.
Immediately in front of us was a precipice with a perpendicular fall of some 2000 feet into the valley of Nepaul proper. This valley, stretching east and west, struck us as having been in the dim obscure past the bed of a vast lake, whose waters rose and fell against the encircling sides of the world’s highest mountains, until they wore for themselves an outlet by what now marks the channel of the sacred shallow stream of Bagmati.
Scattered all about at our feet, and far beyond, lay numerous thickly populated villages, whose inhabitants, after centuries of patient toil and husbandry, had transformed the valley into a beautiful fertile plain. Out of the centre rose, clearly visible to our unaided sight, the houses, palaces, pagodas, and temples of the two older cities already mentioned, and of the present capital city, Kbatmandu, from twelve to fifteen miles distant. Around us were cultivated fields, which were carried in terraces a long distance up the mountain-sides. These in turn gave way to the heavy pine forests, which gradually stooped and belittled themselves as they approached the abodes of snow. and finally, having dwarfed themselves into the lowest orders of vegetable life, they altogether retired from before the presence of a perfect sea of crowned heads, culminating in that white-headed, gray-bearded monarch, old Everest himself, 29,000 feet high. This monster, though a hundred miles off, was distinctly visible, his bifurcated cone-shaped head piercing the blue of the sky.
Running our eye along the nearer ranges, there confronted us the towering beads and shoulders of many giants flashing their brilliants in the sunlight. Fully one-third of the extensive visible horizon was required to give sufficient elbow-room to this aged royal assembly. Of those nearest us we recognized Gosain Than [Shishapangma], 26,000 feet; Yassa, 24,000 feet; Matsiputra, 24,400; and Dhawalaghiri, 26,800 feet high. As we looked upon them from our lofty position inthe grand stillness of that magnificent morning we were filled with awe at the sublime spectacle, and ceased to wonder that the Hindoo associates with each one of these tremendous peaks the abode of some one of his deities.
But we must hasten on to Khatmandu. Passing on through its guarded gateway arid the narrowest of filthy streets, we reached the British Residency grounds. Here we found shelter in a little house assigned to occasional travellers.
As a matter of duty, as well as inclination, our first call was on the British Resident—-an officer appointed to look after British interests in this corner of the earth. He and the doctor as his assistant are the only European residents in Nepaul, which is an exceptional feature of any country so near India, and shows how well the principle of exclusion has been maintained by the Foreign Office at Calcutta.
The British Resident was in India when we called, but the doctor, who was acting for him, received us most pleasantly, and insisted on our leaving our plain quarters and lodging with him in his two-storied brick house. Our next object was to call npon the Maharajali.
The term Maharajali, though ordinarily meaning King, is used in an exceptional sense in this state, and signifies Prime Minister. The King himself is called Maharaj Adhiraj. The reigning one is a mere boy of ten years, not troubled much with state affairs. Our host gave us encouragement about meeting the Prime Minister; in fact, considering that the latter was an old orthodox Hindoo with strong antipathy for Europeans, our prospect of securing an interview was very gloomy. However, see him we must, as we could not call any one in the city and could not transact business with any one without making this preliminary official call, and obtaining personally the sanction of his Excellency.
It was while waiting for this that, to avoid loss of time, we took up our camera and went about on photographic excursions. The objects to take were as numerous as they were unique. We would be followed by a gaping crowd, who were more curious than troublesome. At the same time the authorities caused us to be attended by a body-guard (though we thought it quite superfluous), consisting of two men, one, from the Nepaul government, going in front, and the other, from the British Residency guard following behind.
The city of Khatmandu numbers about 50,000 inhabitants [2009: 1,687,102 in metro area], about one-half of whom are Newars, of Mongolian cast of features, industrious, good-natured people, the original owners of the soil from the earliest prehistoric times down to a century ago, when the Goorkhas invaded their country and dispossessed them. They are the chief traders, agriculturists, and mechanics of Nepaul. They are Buddhists by faith, with a good deal of Hindooism mixed up in their religion. Along with them might be reckoned the Bhooteas, Limbus, Keratis, and Lepchas, though these are more distinctively Buddhists.
On the other band, under the head of Hindoos come the dominant race of the Goorkhas, reckoned by some from a quarter to one-third of the population, and along with them must be taken the two lower castes of Majars and Gurungs.
The Goorkhas claim to be Rajpoots [Rajputs] by descent—i. e., Brahmins par excellence—having been driven out of Rajpootana in central India by the great Mohammedan conquerors when Delhi was in its glory. The princes themselves trace their lineage directly back to the proud royal house of Oodeypore [Udaipur]. The Goorkhas are of light complexion. They have regular features, particularly the princes, except when descended from those who have intermarried with natives. Their language is called Parbitya, a modern dialect of Sanscrit [Sanskrit], and written in that character, while the language of the Newars is entirely distinct, and written in a different character.
The Goorkhas, although worshipping the same idols and conforming to the same rites and ceremonies as their more southern high-caste brethren, differ from them in that they are willing to eat flesh of several kinds. The killing of a cow, however, is ranked as murder, and punishable with death. Unlike their southern brethren, further, they are of a decidedly diminutive stature, but wiry and strong, not taking kindly to work of any description, being essentially a military race. Brought up as they are in their mountain homes, they have proved themselves, under good generalship, to be of the bravest and toughest sort of soldiers in the East. It is of such metal that the British government likes to recruit its Indian armies, and it is annually supplied with a number of raw levies for this purpose through an understanding with the government of Nepaul.
Nepaul itself has a regular standing army of 15,000 men, drilled and armed (with muzzle-loading guns). Twice this number could be put into the field if necessary. To keep up this army, which is mostly infantry, a small fraction being artillery, every family is obliged to contribute one of its male members. The officers are selected from the nobility, so that as a result of autocratic government there are boy generals and gray-bearded lieutenants. These officers are all dressed in British uniforms, and can be seen every day, often from morning till night, drilling the troops on the parade-ground beside the city wall. These military manoeuvres seem to be the one absorbing pastime, as no games or other manly exercises are at all popular with old or young.
The maintenance of so large a standing army, out of all proportion to ordinary needs, is Nepaul’s greatest mistake, and can do her nothing but harm. For Nepaul has nothing to fear from India on the south, and with England as a sworn ally, has nothing to fear from Thibet [Tibet] on the north.
Were Nepaul to attempt to withstand England, all her own population added to all her troops could oppose no effectual resistance, and history has already shown that though she might fight Thibet alone successfully, yet Thibet backed by China, as she would invariably be, is more than a match for all of Nepaul’s combined forces. One cannot help feeling at times that England is doing her best by her bribes and presents of vast stands of arms, together with immense quantities of ammunition, to the states on her Indian frontier, to induce them to turn their attention to the demoralizing pastime of war, and to keep up a ruinous standing army, behind which she can screen herself, and which she can interpose as a buffer against the ever-growing spectre of Russian aggression.
The reigning boy King [Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah, 1875-1911] (the boy King has the short name of "Maharaj Adhiraj Prithwi Bir Bikram Jung, Bahadur Sali Saheb Bahadur Sumshere Jung"), already referred to, is the eighth royal master of the Goorkha dynasty who has succeeded to the throne of Nepaul, reckoning from Sri Maharaj Prithwi Narayana Sah [Prithvi Narayan Shah], the first of that famous line.
The name of “Goorkha” is derived from that of a little town forty miles west of the present capital, Khatmandu. There the founders of this dynasty, a number of high-bred, high-spirited Rajpoot fugitives, who had escaped with their faithful followers from the detested Mogul [Mughal] conquerors of India, obtained shelter, and finding the good natured, peaceful Newars quite incapable of resisting their presumptuous demands, readily possessed themselves of the government, and occupied Khatmandu (A.D. 1768). Their power kept pace with their increase of territory. The government, like that of all Oriental nations, is an absolute monarchy, the throne passing from father to son, or nearest heir, whose will is supreme.
In the course of constant disputes with independent states bordering its territory, Nepaul has often had recourse to arms, resulting, on the whole, in more gain than loss to herself; on the other hand, she has suffered internally from plots, cruel intrigues, and more cruel assassinations, tIme chief instigators and actors in which have been members of her own royal family.
During the Indian mutiny of 1857 and 1858 Nepaul had the foresight, under the wise administration of that most able of all her princes, Sir Jung Bahadur [Jang Bahadur], in his capacity as Prime-Minister (though virtually the King), to offer every possible assistance to the British government. In return the British government gave her a goodly addition to her territory, and presented her with large supplies of arms and ammunition, at the same time binding herself to be the firm ally of the Goorkha government, both for offensive and defensive purposes.
Strange as it may seem, slavery exists in Nepaul, though in a somewhat modified form. The slaves, numbering, it is said, 30,000 (though we regard this as rather too high an estimate), are used exclusively for domestic work. Most of them have been slaves for generations, and are not imported from any country outside. Their numbers are augmented at times by fresh additions from free families, who are brought into servitude as a punishment for misdeeds and political crimes.
All well-to-do families possess slaves. The princes have great numbers of both sexes, whom they treat, on the whole, with consideration. A woman having a child by her master can claim her freedom.
Early marriages are in vogue. The nuptials of the little King were arranged during our visit to Nepaul, with a princess half his age, who belonged to one of the old princely houses in India. The wedding actually took place soon after we came away. Polygamy is allowed and practised by the wealthier classes.
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Nepal News
Kingdom of Nepal: During the late 18th-early 19th centuries, the principality of Gorkha united many of the other principalities and states of the sub-Himalayan region into a Nepali Kingdom. Nepal retained its independence following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16 and the subsequent peace treaty laid the foundations for two centuries of amicable relations between Britain and Nepal. (The Brigade of Gurkhas continues to serve in the British Army to the present day.)
In 1951, the Nepali monarch ended the century-old system of rule by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system that brought political parties into the government. That arrangement lasted until 1960, when political parties were again banned, but was reinstated in 1990 with the establishment of a multiparty democracy within the framework of a constitutional monarchy.
An insurgency led by Maoists broke out in 1996. During the ensuing 10-year civil war between Maoist and government forces, the monarchy dissolved the cabinet and parliament and re-assumed absolute power in 2002, after the crown prince massacred the royal family in 2001.
A peace accord in 2006 led to the promulgation of an interim constitution in 2007. Following a nationwide Constituent Assembly (CA) election in 2008, the newly formed CA declared Nepal a federal democratic republic, abolished the monarchy, and elected the country's first president. After the CA failed to draft a constitution by a 2012 deadline set by the Supreme Court, then-Prime Minister Baburam BHATTARAI dissolved the CA.
Months of negotiations ensued until 2013 when the major political parties agreed to create an interim government headed by then-Chief Justice Khil Raj REGMI with a mandate to hold elections for a new CA. Elections were held in 2013, in which the Nepali Congress (NC) won the largest share of seats in the CA and in 2014 formed a coalition government with the second-place Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) with NC President Sushil KOIRALA serving as prime minister.
Nepal's new constitution came into effect in 2015, at which point the CA became the Parliament. Khagda Prasad Sharma OLI served as the first post-constitution prime minister from 2015 to 2016. OLI resigned ahead of a no-confidence motion against him, and Parliament elected Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) leader Pushpa Kamal DAHAL (aka "Prachanda") prime minister.
The constitution provided for a transitional period during which three sets of elections – local, provincial, and national – needed to take place. The first local elections in 20 years occurred in three phases between May and September 2017, and state and federal elections proceeded in two phases in November and December 2017. The parties headed by OLI and DAHAL ran in coalition and swept the parliamentary elections, and OLI, who led the larger of the two parties, was sworn in as prime minister in February 2018.
In May 2018, OLI and DAHAL announced the merger of their parties - the UML and CPN-M - to establish the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which headed the government for roughly two years before infighting led the party to split. OLI from late 2020 sought to dissolve parliament and hold elections. The supreme court in July 2021 declared OLI's efforts unconstitutional and called for an appointment of the opposition-supported NC leader Sher Bahadur DEUBA as prime minister. DEUBA led Nepal with the support of his party and DAHAL's Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC) until December 2022.
The NC won a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections on November 2022, but in late December 2022, DAHAL broke with the ruling coalition and sought a partnership with OLI and the CPN-UML to become prime minister. DAHAL's first post-election cabinet lasted approximately two months, until disagreements over ministerial assignments across the coalition caused OLI to withdraw his support.
In March 2023, DAHAL survived a vote of confidence and formed a coalition with the NC to remain prime minister.
CIA World Factbook: Nepal
Area of Nepal:
140,800 sq km slightly larger than Arkansas
Population of Nepal:
30,899,443 (2023) | 28,951,852 (2010)
Languages of Nepal:
Nepali official 90%
English government and business
about a dozen other languages & 30 major dialects
Nepal Capital:
Kathmandu
KATHMANDU WEATHER
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Mt. Everest: Reconaissance Everest Expedition 1922
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The Kingdom of Nepaul Kirkpatrick 1811
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