GEOGRAPHY OF NEPAL
Landlocked and sandwiched between two the or world's most powerful nations — China and India — Nepal is a mountainous country covering 147,181 square kilometers (56,136 square miles), which is roughly the size of North Carolina, New York, Bangladesh Norway or Costa Rice and has been described as having approximately the same size and shape of Tennessee, extending roughly 650 kilometers (400 miles) east to west and 200 kilometers (125 miles) north to south. Within Nepal’s boundaries, is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) of the Himalayan mountain chain.
About 15 percent of Nepal is good for agriculture (compared to 21 percent in the U.S.) and most of this arable land is in valleys of Himalayan foothills and along the flat Ganges Plain near the Indian border in an area called the Terai. About 14.5 percent of Nepal is covered by pastureland and 16.9 percent by forests and woods. The remainder of the country is made up mostly of mountains and high barren plateaus.
Nepal — formerly a Hindu Himalayan kingdom — is made up of three major regions: 1) the Terai (or Tarai), a strip of jungle and wetlands with tigers and elephants located along the flat Ganges Plain in the south; 2) the Himalayan foothills in the middle, which are often referred to as the Middle Hills; and 3) massive glacier-encrusted Himalayan region in the north. The Himalayas run east to west across the northern part of the country and the great mountain range acts as a rain barrier. On the southern side of the Himalayas are forests, areas of lush vegetation and grasslands. On the northern side the landscape is desolate and barren like that of Tibetan plateau which merges into the Himalayas. In Nepal, there are 32 peaks over 7,600 meters and 250 over 6,000 meters. Between some of these peaks are deep chasm-like valleys.
The foot hills of the Himalayas contain a large number of fertile valleys, including the Kathmandu valley which is situated in a dried up lake basin. A significant portion of Nepal’s population lives in the middle hills region. Arable land is of a premium. On the sides of the hills and mountains in some places are rows of terraces which climb hundreds of meters.
In the highlands, people have traditionally settled in the mountain valleys where there is a steady source of water from melting glaciers and the rich alluvial soil in the flood plains. As the population has increased people have settled on the slopes of mountains, where the soil is less fertile and built terraces to keep soil from being washed away. The lowest places in the Terai are only 60 meters above sea level. The Terai was once thinly populated by a few tribal groups. But after the problem of malaria problem there was dealt with large numbers of Nepalis began settling there and it now is now home to large numbers of people.
Roughly rectangular in shape, Nepal is bordered on the west, south, and east by India, and on the north by the Tibet region of China. The Terai in the south is made up fertile alluvial plains, swamps, and forests that provide valuable timber. The main section of the Himalayas — including 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) -high Mt. Everest and eight of the world's eleven highest mountains — are mostly on or near the Chinese border. Many of Nepal's major rivers originate in Tibet. Central Nepal contains relatively high mountains. The Kathmandu valley is Nepal's most densely populated region and its administrative, economic, and cultural center. Nepal's railroads, connecting with lines in India, do not reach the valley, which is served by a highway and a bridgelike cable line. There are a few other modern highways.
Borders, Area and Location of Nepal
Location: Nepal is located in the Himalaya Mountains of South Asia, with India to the east, south, and west and China to the north. Nepal is a landlocked nation. Geographic coordinates: 28 00 N, 84 00 E
Area: 147,181 square kilometers
land: 143,351 square kilometers
water: 3,830 square kilometers; compared with other countries in the world: 96
[Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020; Library of Congress, November 2005]
The country is wedged between China to the north and India to the south, east, and west.
Land boundaries: total: 3,159 kilometers
border with China: 1389 kilometers
border with India: 1770 kilometers
Coastline: 0 kilometers (landlocked)
Maritime claims: none (landlocked)
Because Nepal is wedge between two Asian giants — China and India — it has traditionally been characterized as "a yam caught between two rocks." China's Xizang Autonomous Region (Tibet) lies to the north. Nepal is separated from Bangladesh by an approximately fifteen kilometer-wide strip of India's state of West Bengal, and from Bhutan by the eighty-eight-kilometer-wide Sikkim, also an Indian state. Such a confined geographical position is hardly enviable. Nepal is almost totally dependent on India for transit facilities and access to the sea — that is, the Bay of Bengal. For along time even most the goods from China came this way but now there are better roads in Tibet that connect Nepal and China. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
Disputed Territory: Nepal and China have no territorial disputes, but Nepal and India have several: As of 2005, there were disputed between Nepal and India over possession of a 75-square-kilometer area called Kalapani, which is further complicated by its proximity to the Chinese border; the boundary of the Maha Kali River (Sarda River in India), with ramifications for development and distribution of hydropower and water resources; possession of 209 hectares of land after changes in the course of the Mechi River; and sovereignty over several areas comprising nearly 600 square kilometers along the border. As of 2020, joint border commission continues to work on contested sections of boundary with India, including the 400 square kilometers dispute over the source of the Kalapani River; India has instituted a stricter border regime to restrict transit of illegal cross-border activities. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020] Library of Congress, November 2005]
Topography of Nepal
For a small country, Nepal has great physical diversity, ranging from the Terai Plain — the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain situated at about 300 meters above sea level in the south — to the almost 8,800-meter-high Mt. Everest, locally known as Sagarmatha (its Nepali name), in the north. From the lowland Terai belt, landforms rise in successive hill and mountain ranges, including the stupendous rampart of the towering Himalayas, ultimately reaching the Tibetan Plateau beyond the Inner Himalayas. This rise in elevation is punctuated by valleys situated between mountain ranges. Within this maze of mountains, hills, ridges, and low valleys, elevational (altitudinal) changes rersulted in ecological variations. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
Nepal contains eight of world's 10 highest peaks, including Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga — the world's tallest and third tallest mountains — on the borders with China and India respectively. The mean elevation is 2,565 meters (8,415 feet); the lowest point is Kanchan Kalan at 70 meters (230 feet) and the highest point is Mt. Everest at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet)
Mountains and rugged hills cover nearly 75 percent of Nepal’s land area. The rhythm of life in Nepal, as in most other parts of monsoonal Asia, is intricately yet intrinsically intertwined with its physical environment. As scholar Barry Bishop learned from his field research in the Karnali region in the northwest, the livelihood patterns of Nepal are inseparable from the environment. [Source: Library of Congress, November 2005 **]
Land Use in Nepal
Land use: A) arable land: 15.1 percent (2011 estimated) (compared to 1 percent in Saudi Arabia, 20 percent in the United States, and 32 percent in France): permanent crops: 1.2 percent (2011 estimated); permanent pasture: 12.5 percent (2011 estimated) B) forest: 25.4 percent (2011 estimated); Other (mostly mountains) : 45.8 percent (2011 estimated), Irrigated land: 13,320 square kilometers (2012).
Agricultural land is divided into arable land (land cultivated for crops like wheat and rice that are replanted after each harvest) and permanent crops (land with for crops like citrus, coffee, and rubber that are not replanted after each harvest) and permanent pasture (land used for grazing animals such as cattle and sheep). [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Most agricultural land is in the Hilly Region and the Terai not in the Himalayan areas. The lowland Terai region produces an agricultural surplus, part of which supplies the food-deficient mountains areas, where soil is generally poor and the landscape difficult to cultivate. Most of the population is divided nearly equally between a concentration in the southern-most plains of the Terai region and the central hilly region; overall density is quite low
Today, almost everyone in Nepal who farms except for the poorest of the poor own land. What is important is the quality of the land., with the relatively well-off getting the best land and the poor generally getting the worst quality land. There are three main types of land: 1) “khet” (land that can be irrigated, regarded as the best quality land); 2) “bari” (land that can be cultivated but not irrigated); and 3) “pakho” (land that generally can not be cultivated because it is too rocky or steep). [Source: John T. Hitchcock, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992 |~|]
Nepal’s mountainous terrain constrains land use options, nearly one-third of the land area is unfit for agriculture or forestry. According to government figures for 2002, approximately 18 percent of the total land area was used for agriculture, of which 88.8 percent was categorized as arable land, 4.4 percent as land under permanent crops, and the remainder as pastures, woodlands, and other categories. From 1962 to 2002, the total area of arable land increased by 57 percent (from 1.6 million to 2.5 million hectares) but declined as a proportion of land for agriculture (from 94.5 to 88.8 percent) because of the increase in land used for grazing and permanent crops, particularly fruit. Permanent crop cultivation also has reduced the proportion of land used for woodland and forest harvesting. [Source: Library of Congress, November 2005 **]
While total agricultural area increased from 1962 to 2002, and the number of landholdings grew approximately 120 percent, the population increased by 146 percent. In the same period, the amount of agricultural land declined from 0.18 to 0.13 hectares per person, and the average size of holdings has declined from 1.1 to 0.8 hectares. In 2002 nearly 60 percent of holdings did not produce sufficient food to feed a household, and almost 97 percent of these holdings were two hectares in size or smaller. Furthermore, tractors or threshers are used on less than 10 percent of total holdings, and approximately 65 percent of landholdings are rain-fed rather than irrigated. **
Regions of Nepal
Nepal commonly is divided into three broad physiographic areas: the Mountain Region, the Hill Region, and the Terai Region on the Ganges Plain. All three parallel each other, from east to west, as continuous ecological belts, occasionally bisected by the country's river systems. These ecological regions were divided by the government into development sectors within the framework of regional development planning. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991]
In the south, the plains of the Terai Region cover approximately 23 percent of Nepal’s total area and are both the main agricultural region and the most densely populated region. To the north, the Hill Region covers approximately 42 percent of the total area and consists of mountains, hills, flatlands, and valleys with elevations ranging from 600 (1970 feet) to 3,000 (9840 feet) meters. Farther north, the Himalayan Region covers nearly 35 percent of the total area and contains 200 peaks more than 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) in elevation and 13 peaks more than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) high, including Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest), the world’s highest mountain (8,850 meters). [Source: Library of Congress, November 2005 **]
The Terai region is an extension of the Gangetic Plain of north India and resembles that part India. The flat open country, with some forested hills, was once noted for its heavy jungles and animals such tiger, rhinoceros, elephant, wild boar, and crocodile. Some of these animals remain in the national parks but much of the region is agriculture now, including Nepal’s largest rice-growing area. The central region, sometimes called the "hill area" or "hilly region," is about 100 kilometers (63 miles) wide and Valley of Kathmandu, with its encircling "hills" up to 9,000 feet in height. The northern region is dominated by the Himalayas and contains some high plateau areas that resemble Tibet. [Source: Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook, Gale, 2009]
Mountain Region of Nepal
Of the world’s 10 highest mountains eight are in Nepal. Seven stand between Nepal and Tibet, including Mt. Everest. One — Kanchenjunga, the world's third tallest mountain — is on the border with India. Altogether there are 13 peaks more than 8,000 meters (26,242 feet) high in Nepal. Eighteen exceed 7135 meters (24,000) feet, and more than 200 peaks exceed 6,400 meters (21,000 feet). This area often experiences intense geological activity, with nearly 50 major earthquakes between 1870 to 1996, and a devastating one in 2015..
The Mountain Region (called Parbat in Nepali) is situated at 4,000 meters or more above sea level to the north of the Hill Region. The Mountain Region constitutes the central portion of the Himalayan range originating in the Pamirs, a high altitude region of Central Asia. Its natural landscape is legendary habitat of the mythical creature, the yeti, or abominable snowman.In general, the snow line occurs between 5,000 and 5,500 meters. The region is characterized by inclement climatic and rugged topographic conditions, and human habitation and economic activities are extremely limited and arduous. Indeed, the region is sparsely populated, and whatever farming activity exists is mostly confined to the low-lying valleys and the river basins, such as the upper Kali Gandaki Valley. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
The Himalayan Region covers nearly 35 percent of the total of Nepal, and is formed by the Mahabharat, Churia, and Himalayan mountain ranges (from east to west), whose altitude increases as one moves north, culminating with at the Tibetan border with Mt. Everest. . In the early 1990s, pastoralism and trading were common economic activities among mountain dwellers. Because of their heavy dependence on herding and trading, transhumance was widely practiced. While the herders moved their goths (temporary animal shelters) in accordance with the seasonal climatic rhythms, traders also migrated seasonally between highlands and lowlands, buying and selling goods and commodities in order to generate muchneeded income and to secure food supplies.
The Mountain Region is one about 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide. Three principal rivers originate from glaciers and snow-fed lakes of the Himalayas. They flow southward through deep Himalayan gorges, and enter, respectively, the Karnali, Gandak, and Kosi basins. They eventually reach India, where they become tributaries — as is the case of all Nepalese rivers — of the Ganges.
Himalayas
The Himalayas as most everyone knows are the highest mountains in the world, with 30 peaks over 24,000 feet. The highest mountains in Europe, North and South America barely top 20,000 feet. The word Himalaya is Sanskrit for "abode of the snow" and a Himal is a massif of mountains. Technically Himalaya is the plural of Himal and there should be no such word as Himalayas.
The Himalayas stretch for 1,500 miles from eastern Tibet and China to a point where India, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan all come together. The mountain kingdoms of Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal are all contained within the range. The southern side of the Himalayas are like a huge climatic wall. During the summer monsoon winds push massive rain clouds against the mountains squeezing out rain onto some of the wettest places on earth. On the leeward, rain-blocked side of the range, on the Tibetan plateau, are some of the driest and most barren places on the planet.
The Himalaya-Karakoram range contains nine of the world's top ten highest peaks and 96 of the world's 109 peaks over 24,000 feet. If the Karakorum, Pamir, Tian Shan and Hindu Kush ranges and Tibet — which are extensions of the Himalayas into Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and Central Asia — are including in the Himalayas then the 66 highest mountains in the world are in the Himalayas. The 67th highest is Aconcagua in Argentina and Chile
Several of the greatest rivers in the world — the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers — originate in either the Himalayas or the Tibetan plateau. Some people live in valleys nestled between Himalayan ridges but few people actually live on the slopes of the mountains.
See Separate Article HIMALAYAS factsanddetails.com
Highest Mountains in the World in Nepal
Highest mountains in the world in the Himalayas on the Nepal-Tibet border:
1) Everest — 29,035 feet (8,850 meters)
4) Lhotse I — 27,940 feet (8,516 meters)
5) Makalu I — 27,766 feet (8,463 meters)
6) Cho Oyu — 26,906 feet (8,201 meters)
54) Gauri Sankar — 23,440 feet (7,145 meters)
Highest mountain in the world in the Himalayas on the Nepal-India border:
3) Kanchenjunga — India-Nepal — 28,169 feet (8,586 meters)
Highest mountains in the world in the Himalayas solely in Nepal:
7) Dhaulagiri — 26,795 feet (8,167 meters)
8) Manaslu I — 26,781 feet (8,163 meters)
10) Annapurna — 26,545 feet (8,091 meters)
15) Annapurna II — 26,041 feet (7,937 meters)
16) Gyachung Kang — 25,910 feet (7,897 meters)
18) Himalchuli — 25,801 feet (7,864 meters)
19) Nuptse — 25,726 feet (7,841 meters)
31) Makalu II — 25,120 feet (7,657 meters)
38) Jongsong Peak — 24,472 feet (7,459 meters)
43) Tent Peak — 24,165 feet (7,365 meters)
45) Chamlang — 24,012 feet (7,319 meters)
46) Kabru — 24,002 feet (7,316 meters)
51) Baruntse — 23,688 feet (7,220 meters)
52) Nepal Peak — 23,500 feet (7,163 meters)
58) Pyramid — 23,400 feet (7,132 meters)
59) Api — 23,399 feet (7,132 meters)
Mt. Everest
The currently recognized height of Mt. Everest is 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet). For a long time it was listed as being 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) high. That is almost nine kilometers (5½ miles) high. Taller than 21 Empire State buildings piled on top of one another and almost as high as the cruising altitude of Boeing 747 jumbo jets, Mt. Everest is so high that it sometimes penetrates the jet stream, blowing mountain climbers off the top, and dozens of feet have to be subtracted from surveying measurements to compensate for the gravity created by the mountain.
Located on the border of Tibet (China) and Nepal, Mt. Everest is sometimes referred to as the third pole. It was first known to British surveyors — who first sighted it many miles away in Denhra Dun in India and took measurements of its heights from there — as Peak XV. In 1852 it became significant when a Bengali clerk working in an office in Delhi exclaimed "I have discovered the highest mountain in world" after tabulating measurements of Peak XV from different survey stations across northern India in 1849 and 1850.
Mt. Everest is named after the British after Sir George Everest, a Welshman and the Surveyor General of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India and the man in charge of mapping India between 1830 and 1843. Everest most likely never saw the mountain named after him and it is believed he would likely have preferred a local name given to tthe mountain. Everest had no direct connection with the mountain but was responsible for hiring Andrew Scott Waugh, who made the first formal observations of the mountain, and Radhanath Sikdar, who calculated its height. Mt. Everest was originally known as Peak "B" and later as Peak XV. In March 1856, Waugh announced to the Royal Geographical Society that his team believed that Peak XV was the highest in the world, and sugested naming it "after my illustrious predecessor", as it was "without any local name that we can discover" and the "native appellation, if it has any, will not very likely be ascertained before we are allowed to penetrate into Nepal".
The Nepalese call Mt. Everest "Samgarmatha" ("Goddess of the Universe" or literally “Forehead of the Sky”) and Sherpas and Tibetans call it "Qomolangma" or Chomolungma ("Goddess Mother of the Land"). For them the mountain is sacred and the idea of climbing it, until recently, was strange. According to a Sherpa legend Mt. Everest is the home of a goddess bearing a bowl of food and a mongoose spitting jewels. Mt. Everest is located at about the same latitude as Tampa, Florida. The rocks making up the mountain are 60 million years old.
Climbers say that other mountains are much more difficult to climb than Mt. Everest. Jan Morris, who accompanied the first successful Everest expedition, wrote: “It's not the most beautiful of mountains — several of its neighbors were shapelier — but whether in fact or simply in the mind, it seems conspicuously nobler than any of them." Among the most impressive sights at the summit is the pyramid-shapes shadow that Everest produces at sunrise and sunset. Hardly anybody has been it from the summit itself because few climbers are there at those times.
See Separate Article MT. EVEREST factsanddetails.com
Hill Region of Nepal
Situated south of the Mountain Region, the Hill Region (called Pahar in Nepali) is mostly between 1,000 and 4,000 meters in altitude. It includes the Kathmandu Valley, the country's most fertile and urbanized area. Two major ranges of hills, commonly known as the Mahabharat Lekh and Siwalik Range (or Churia Range), occupy the region. In addition, there are several intermontane valleys. Despite its geographical isolation and limited economic potential, the region always has been the political and cultural center of Nepal, with decision-making power centralized in Kathmandu, the nation's capital. Because of immigration from Tibet and India, the hill ranges historically have been the most heavily populated area. Despite heavy out-migration, the Hill Region comprised the largest share of the total population in 1991. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
The Hill Region is about 100 kilometers (63 miles) wide and covers approximately 42 percent of the total area of Nepal. Although the higher elevations (above 2,500 meters) in the region were sparsely populated because of physiographic and climatic difficulties, the lower hills and valleys were densely settled. The hill landscape was both a natural and cultural mosaic, shaped by geological forces and human activity. The hills, sculpted by human hands into a massive complex of terraces, were extensively cultivated.
Like the Mountain Region, the Hill Region was a food-deficit area in the early 1990s, although agriculture was the predominant economic activity supplemented by livestock raising, foraging, and seasonal migrating of laborers. The vast majority of the households living in the hills were land-hungry and owned largely pakho (hilly) land. The poor economic situation caused by lack of sufficient land was aggravated by the relatively short growing season, a phenomenon directly attributable to the climatic impact of the region's higher altitude. As a result, a hill farmer's ability to grow multiple crops was limited. The families were forced to adapt to the marginality, as well as the seasonality, of their environment, cultivating their land whenever they could and growing whatever would survive. Bishop has noted that "as crop productivity decreases with elevation, the importance of livestock in livelihood pursuits . . . increases. For many Bhotia [or Bhote] living in the highlands . . . animal husbandry supplants agriculture in importance." During the slack season, when the weather did not permit cropping, hill dwellers generally became seasonal migrants, who engaged in wage labor wherever they could find it to supplement their meager farm output. Dependence on nonagricultural activities was even more necessary in the mountain ecological belt.
Kathmandu Valley
The Kathmandu Valley, located around Kathmandu city, the capital of Nepal, is the heart and soul of Nepal. Home to about 7 million people, with around a million of them in Kathmandu city proper and 4 million in the Kathmandu area,, it is located at an elevation 1,340 meters (4,400 feet), which is 305 meters (1000 feet) lower than Denver. Located in a sheltered basin once occupied by an ancient lake, the 19-x- 24-kilometer (12-x-15 mile), oval-shaped valley is one of the few real major breaks in endless ridges and peaks of the Himalayas and their foot foothills. The Kathmandu Valley covers about 200 square miles. The Bagmati River and its tributary, the Bishnumati, flow through the valley.
The Kathmandu Valley has fertile soil and temperate climate, and supports a thriving agriculture. It is the most densely populated part of Nepal. Ancient peoples and cultures from the mountains and far away places came to the valley to settle. Remnants from of this unique cultural patchwork include nearly 3,000 historical and religious monuments, many of them still actively used. For hundreds of years the valley was the center of a trading route between India and Tibet. During the winter the caravans escaped the snows in the Himalayas and their animals grazed in the fertile vale. During the summer people came up from the lowlands to escape the mosquito malaria ridden swamps.
The Kathmandu valley was once a lake. It is the home of three Newar sister cities: Kathmandu, Lalitpur (Patan) and Bhaktapur. It is surrounded by hills on all the sides. You have to go some ways, up and down a few ridges, to get to Tibet and the Himalayas. You can't see any see many snowcapped mountains from the valley. You can if you climb the mountainss around it. The Kathmandu Valley doesn’t receive much snow even in the middle of winter and generally has a pleasant climate the year round. In 2007, Kathmandu got its first snowfall in 63 years.
Terai Region
Southern Nepal is dominated by the Terai (or Tarai), a region of swamps, grasslands, agricultural land, jungles and forests that extends for 900 kilometers (550 miles) across the southern part of the country. The region remained isolated for a long time and few people lived there because it was infested by malaria mosquitos. After the 1950s when the threat of malaria was reduced by the introduction of DDT, many people moved there and now it has large agricultural areas.
Terai Region is a lowland tropical and subtropical belt of flat, alluvial land stretching along the Nepal-India border, and paralleling and just south of the Hill Region. It is the northern extension of the Gangetic Plain in India, commencing at about 305 meters (1000 feet) above sea level and rising to about 1,000 meters (3,200 feet) at the foot of the Siwalik Range. The Terai includes several valleys (dun), such as the Surkhet and Dang valleys in western Nepal, and the Rapti Valley (Chitwan) in central Nepal. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
The Terai Region cover approximately 23 percent of Nepal’s total area and is both the main agricultural region and the most densely populated region of the country, with about a half of the country’s population. The word Terai, a term presumed to be derived from Persian, means "damp," and it appropriately describes the region's humid and hot climate. The region was formed and is fed by three major rivers: the Kosi, the Narayani (India's Gandak River), and the Karnali. In the past it malaria-infested, thick forests, commonly known as char kose jhari (dense forests), were approximately twelve kilometers wide. The Terai was used as a defensive frontier by Nepalese rulers during the period of the British Raj (1858-1947) in India. By the 1990s, it had become country's granary and land resettlement frontier and was the most coveted internal destination for land-hungry hill peasants.
The Terai used be a mosaic of swamps, grasslands and forests. Now its primary agricultural area. It produces surpluses of rice, wheat and other crops that are vital for making sure people in other areas don’t starve. During the monsoon parts of the Terai floods. In the dry season grassy areas burn. In terms of both farm and forest lands, the Terai is Nepal's richest economic region. Overall, Terai residents enjoyed a greater availability of agricultural land than did other Nepalese because of the area's generally flat terrain, which is drained and nourished by several rivers. Additionally, it has the largest commercially exploitable forests. By the 1990s, the forests were being increasingly destroyed because of growing demands for timber and agricultural land.
People and Animals in the Terai
Up until the mid 20th century the Terai was a perfect habitat for tigers, buffalo, elephants, wild boar, crocodiles and rhinoceros. Since the eradication of malaria, the landscape of the Terai has been dramatically changed by agriculture (the alluvial soil is fertile and easy to clear and plow). In many places the forests and grasslands are gone and swamps have been drained. The elephants, one horned rhinos and tigers that once roamed the entire area now primarily relegated to the national parks.
The Terai is home to more than 50 percent of Nepal’s population, many of them are members of groups from outside the region that migrated to the Terai after malaria was eradicated, some form India. The region has traditionally been Hindu and has had strong ties with India, which is nearby. The border between Nepal and India here has traditionally been very open with people moving freely back and forth between the two nations without being checked by immigration. Nearly all of Nepal’s Muslim lives near the Indian border in the Terai.
Southern Nepal seems a lot like the great plains of India, to which it is connected. Many men in the Terai favor lungis (sarongs) and the towns are much busier, confused and India-like. The caste system is also stronger here and you are much more likely to find towns with neighborhoods occupied by specific caste groups. Women are more like to cover themselves and observe purdah restrictions.
East Nepal and Kanchenjunga
East Nepal borders the Darjeeling area of India to the south and a remote part of Tibet to the north. Sikkim (part of India) lies to the east and separates Nepal from Bhutan. Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain at 8,598 meters (28,208-feet) is located here. The Eastern half of Nepal is richer in biodiversity and receives more rain than the western parts of Nepal. Among the earliest inhabitants of Nepal were the Kirat of the eastern region.
The Kirantis are composed of two distinct ethnic groups, the Rai and the Limbu. Limbu are the 14th largest ethnic group in Nepal. According to the CIA Factbook in 2020 they make up 1.5 percent of the population of Nepal. Rai are the 10th largest ethnic group in Nepal. They make up 2.3 percent of the population of Nepal. Some eastern Nepal groups live in Bhutan and the Darjeeling area of India. Many have become Gurkhas. Known for being hot tempered, the Limbu have traditionally resided in eastern Nepal between the Arun River and the border of Sikkim, India, they are a Mongolian people who speak a dialect of Tibetan, practice Hinduism mixed with traditional folk religion
Kanchenjunga is regarded as so sacred that mountaineers are banned from climbing it. Locals believe that gods dwell on the top of the mountain. As a result climbers who assault the mountain halt their ascent a few feet short of the summit as a sign of respect. The mountain itself is so massive that it is visible from Darjeeling to eastern Nepal.
Located in remote corner of the Himalayas between Sikkim and northwest Nepal, Kanchenjunga means the "Five treasures" or “Great Five Peaked Fortress” in Tibetan, a reference to its five separate summits. The mountain was first climbed in 1955 by a British expedition led by veteran Everest climber Charles Evan. In 1985, mountaineer Chris Chandler died of cerebral edema during a wintertime ascent in which his girlfriend lost her fingers when she took off her gloves in a desperate attempt to save him.
Western Nepal and Dolpo
Western Nepal is the most isolated part of Nepal. Places with no electricity, roads and running waters are common and they can be more than a week's walk away from the nearest road. Here trekkers often have to bushwalk through forests and scale sheer rock faces because no tracks or trail are marked on their maps. The western parts of Nepal have less biodiversity and receives less rain than eastern parts of the country thus arctic desert-type conditions are more common at higher elevations.
Dolpo is a remote region northwest of the Annapurna region. Immortalized by the “Snow Leopard”, Peter Mathiessesn's account of Himalayan exploration, the Dolpo is inhabited by Tibetan-like Bhotias who embrace the Bon-Po faith, an animist religion that predates and influenced Tibetan Buddhism. Trekkers have only recently been allowed to travel in this region which has more in common with Tibet than Nepal.
Dolpo is one of the remotest and least populated region of Nepal, cut off from the rest of the country by the massive Dhaulagiri range. Even Tibetans called it the “Sbas-Yul” ("Hidden Country"). Snow leopards were studied here and yak caravans still traverse passes between 5,200 and 5,500 meters (17,000 and 18,000 feet) high to get to Tibet.
Located in the rain shadow of the Dhaulagiri range, the Dolpo region is characterized by barren brown knolls, slopes of scree, sheer cliffs, and snow-covered peaks. In the summer when some monsoon rains trickle in the bottom of the valleys are green from irrigated farms. Otherwise the land is brown and gray. Most of the few thousand people who live Dolpo reside in villages at 3,960 to 4,270 meters (13,000 to 14,000 feet). For a long time the region was virtually untouched by the Nepalese government or the modern world. There were virtually no teachers, officials or police in the area. Places didn't even have names on Western maps until English scholar David Snelgrove visited the region in 1956. Matthiesen visited the area with renowned wildlife biologist George Schaller, who came to the region to study bharal (Himalayan blue sheep).
The people of Dolpo — Dolpa-pa — embrace Tibetan Buddhism and Bon-po. During a full moon in August they converge on sacred Crystal Mountain and walk the 16-kilometer (10-mile) route around its base three times in as many days. The twisted and folded mountain with vertical sedimentary layers and veins of quartz is believed have been created by Tibetan lamas riding on a magic snow lion. There are about a half dozen Bon-po monasteries in Dolpo. Tso Gompa is located by a spectacular lake with green water. The gompa is illuminated at certain times of the year by light from the sun penetrating a single hole in a sheer cliff.
Rivers in Nepal
Nepal is drained by over 6,000 rivers. The country can be divided into three major river systems from east to west: the Kosi River (513 kilometers), the Narayani River (India's Gandak River, (332 kilometers), and the Karnali River (507 kilometers). These three principal rivers originate from glaciers and snow-fed lakes of the Himalayas. They flow southward through deep Himalayan gorges, and enter, respectively, the Karnali, Gandak, and Kosi basins. They eventually reach India, where they become tributaries — as is the case of all Nepalese rivers — of the Ganges. After plunging through deep gorges, these rivers deposit their heavy sediments and debris on the plains, thereby nurturing them and renewing their alluvial soil fertility. Once they reach the Terai Region, they often overflow their banks onto wide floodplains during the summer monsoon season, periodically shifting their courses. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
Besides providing fertile alluvial soil, the backbone of the agrarian economy, these rivers present great possibilities for hydroelectric and irrigation development. India managed to exploit this resource by building massive dams on the Kosi and Narayani rivers inside the Nepal border, known, respectively, as the Kosi and Gandak projects. None of these river systems, however, support any significant commercial navigation facility. Rather, the deep gorges formed by the rivers represent immense obstacles to establishing the broad transport and communication networks needed to develop an integrated national economy. As a result, the economy in Nepal has remained fragmented. Because Nepal's rivers have not been harnessed for transportation, most settlements in the Hill and Mountain regions remain isolated from each other. As of 1991, trails remained the primary transportation routes in the hills.
The eastern part of the country is drained by the Kosi River, which has seven tributaries. It is locally known as the Sapt Kosi, which means seven Kosi rivers (Tamur, Likhu Khola, Dudh, Sun, Indrawati, Tama, and Arun). The principal tributary is the Arun, which rises about 150 kilometers inside the Tibetan Plateau. The Narayani River drains the central part of Nepal and also has seven major tributaries (Daraudi, Seti, Madi, Kali, Marsyandi, Budhi, and Trisuli). The Kali, which flows between the Dhaulagiri Himal and the Annapurna Himal (Himal is the Nepali variation of the Sanskrit word Himalaya), is the main river of this drainage system. The river system draining the western part of Nepal is the Karnali. Its three immediate tributaries are the Bheri, Seti, and Karnali rivers, the latter being the major one. The Maha Kali, which also is known as the Kali and which flows along the Nepal-India border on the west side, and the Rapti River also are considered tributaries of the Karnali.
Major Cities and Urban Areas of Nepal
Urban population: 20.6 percent of total population (2020) (compared to 83 percent in Great Britain and 21 percent in Ethiopia). Rate of urbanization: 3.15 percent annual rate of change (2015-20 estimated). According to the United Nations the urban population was 14 percent in 2005 and the urban growth rate was 5.1 percent between 2000 and 2005. The urban population was 11 percent in 2002 according to the CIA. The largest cities in Nepal are Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Patan, Birgunj, Dharan, Nepalgunj. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020;”Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Kathmandu is the largest city and urban area with a population of 1.424 million people. The Kathmandu area is home to about 4 million people. Kathmandu, had a population of 741,000 in 2005. Other major cities include Pokhara with a population of about 427,000 in 2020, 265,000 in 2011 and 140,000 in 2000; Lalitpur (Patan) with a population of about 300,000 in 2020, 226,728 in 2011 and 175,000 in 2000; Biratnagar with a population of 182,000 in 2020 and 125,000 in 2000; and Bhaktapur with a population of 81,000 in 2011 and 120,000 in 2000.
Alfred Pach III wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “Throughout the hills there are a number of large towns consisting of several hundred or a few thousand people, especially where there is an important temple or monastery, a marketplace, a motorable road, or an administrative center. The Newari have typically lived in cities or large towns that each form a commercial, social, and ritual center surrounded by their terraced fields. Their settlements vary in size from large villages to the former city-states of Patan, Kathmandu, and Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley. [Source: Alfred Pach III, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992 |~|]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022