Nepal Research

Nepal

Where is it?  Nepal is located in South Asia, right next to China and India

How big is it?  Nepal is 147,181 sq. km

Geography of Nepal- There are three main geographical regions of Nepal:  Himalayan region, mid hill region and Terai region.  In the Himalayan region you can find 8 well-known and very large mountains:  Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, and Annapurna.  The inner part of the Himalayan region is a cold desert.  The Terai region occupies 17% of the land mass of the country.  Because of the diversity of the regions, the climate also fluctuates depending on the location.  North Nepal has cold summers and severe winters whereas the south experiences tropical summers and mild winters.  Nepal is said to have five seasons:  spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, and winter.  

Nature of Nepal- Nepal has 10 national parks, three wildlife reserves, six conservation areas, and one hunting reserve.  Compared to America, we have 521 national parks and we are 9.827 million sq. km.  So to have an equal comparison, Washington state is 184,827 sq. km and has 15 national parks, so Nepal and Washington are fairly proportionate.  

People- There are roughly 26.62 million people residing in Nepal currently, Washington state has 6.971 million people.  Nepal may be smaller than Washington, but there are a lot more people in it.  Of these 26.62 million people there are 101 different ethnic groups and an estimated 92 languages spoken.  Nepali is the official language of Nepal and is the way people communicate from different parts of Nepal.

Religion- Nepal is a secular country so there are a wide variety of religions practiced.  Some common religions are:  Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, and Sikhism.  The majority of Nepalis are either Hindus or Buddhists and the two religions are very peaceful towards each other.  

Customs-  Because of the majority of Nepalis being Hindus or Buddhists most of the customs fall back on the religious customs.  Arranged marriages are very common, Nepalis don't eat meat because Hindus worship cows and the cow is the national animal of Nepal

My thoughts- After looking at the facts and details regarding aspects of this culture and then looking at pictures from various places within Nepal, it’s truly an amazing place.  No, from what I saw it’s not a bunch of touristy kind of attractions and there’s not a big show, but that’s what so great about it.  I’m sure they have some places within Nepal that are breathtaking with extravagant architecture, but what I really love about it is that it’s so simple and the fact that the two biggest religions are at peace with each other, of course the internet isn’t always correct and there will always be arguments occurring everywhere, but it truly does just seem like a very peaceful place to be.  There aren’t the silly distractions we have in America like NFL and Netflix; it looks like simple living in the country, with fantastic views of the mountains and jungles.   It’s been added to my bucket list of places to visit!