Nepal (Nepali: नेपाल [neˈpaːl] (help·info)), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is bordered by China to the north and by India to the south, east and west. The Himalaya mountain range runs across Nepal's northern and western parts, and eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including the highest, Mount Everest, are within its territory.

The modern state was href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5FceflvDRYWuUEdFG5Rc-0Uzv_AzNi010kdUr66qpg8ZAWv3gY_7GoP8rGZKkrJbbevSBbw9gUzlT8Jprm5uL-CPtYcDBz2cQku3jYnDOsqPcp-AyYuXlkzJB-QZHtgTT-bgBrtyOCbg/s1600-h/Nepal_map.png">
forces and Maoist guerrillas of the Communist Party of Nepal.

On December 28, 2007, the Interim Parliament passed a bill and declared Nepal to be a Federal Democratic Republic. The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly officially implemented that declaration on May 28, 2008.

Nepal is a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi religious country. For a relatively small country, Nepal has a diverse landscape, ranging from the humid Terai plains in the south to the mountainous Himalayas in the north, which makes it a major tourist destination. Hinduism is practised by a huge majority of the people, but the country also has a strong Buddhist tradition; Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama is located in the Terai, one of the three regions of Nepal.

The capital Kathmandu is the largest city in the country. The official language is Nepali and the state href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJ_I3-OZBYQ2nBdbyLEcffQZD-LaAu8dxNStdDROqii4Gzig-ZajfosiNr87aCtfR9fD9qSEIWl48q9jY-QT7wWXq0xe3MHIiurvgxSm6ZxuQvKOzM3TzyvNkv8rY5zaTgrT5QFeG9qc/s1600-h/nepal_mteverest_2003_05_17.jpg">currency is the Nepalese Rupee (NPR). Nepal's Flag is the only national flag in the world that is non-quadrilateral in shape. It is believed that lord Vishnu had organized the Nepali people and given them this flag, with the sun and moon as emblems on it.
Modern

There is historical evidence that, at one time, the boundary of Greater Nepal extended from Tista River on the East to Kangara, across Sutlej River, in the west. A dispute and subsequently war with Tibet over the control of mountain passes forced the Nepalese to retreat and pay heavy reparations. Rivalry between Nepal and the British East India Company over the annexation of minor states bordering Nepal eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1815–16). The valor displayed by the Nepalese during the war astounded their enemies and earned them their image of fierce and ruthless "Gurkhas". The war ended the Treaty of Sugauli. This treaty ceded Sikkim and lands in Terai to the Company.

Factionalism inside the royal family had led to a period of instability. In 1846 a plot was discovered, revealing that the reigning queen had planned to overthrow Jung Bahadur Rana, a fast-rising military leader. This led to the Kot Massacre; armed clashes between military personnel and administrators loyal to the queen led to the execution of several hundred princes and chieftains around the country. Jung Bahadur Rana emerged victorious and founded the Rana lineage. The king was made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful and hereditary. The Ranas were staunchly pro-British, and assisted them during the Indian Sepoy Rebellion in 1857 (and later in both World Wars). The decision to help British East India Company was taken by the Rana Regime, then led by Jang Bahadur Rana. Some parts of Terai Region were given back to Nepal by the British as a friendly gesture, because of her military help to sustain British control in India during the Sepoy Rebellion. In 1923, the United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, in which Nepal's independence was recognized by the UK.
Nepalese royalty in the 1920s
Nepalese royalty in the 1920s

Slavery was abolished in Nepal in 1924.[21]

In the late 1940s, newly emerging pro-democracy movements and political parties in Nepal were critical of the Rana autocracy. Meanwhile, with the assertion of Chinese control in Tibet in the 1950s, India sought to counterbalance the perceived military threat from its northern neighbour by taking pre-emptive steps to assert more influence in Nepal. India sponsored both King Tribhuvan as Nepal's new ruler in 1951, and a new government, mostly comprising the Nepali Congress Party, thus terminating Rana hegemony in the kingdom. After years of power wrangling between the king and the government, the monarch scrapped the democratic experiment in 1959, and a "partyless" panchayat system was made to govern Nepal until 1989, when the "Jan Andolan" (People's Movement) forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament that took seat in May 1991.[22]

In 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) started a bid to replace the royal parliamentary system with a people's socialist republic. This led to the long Nepal Civil War and more than 12,000 deaths. On June 1, 2001, there was a massacre in the royal palace; it left the King, the Queen and the Heir Apparent Crown Prince Dipendra among the dead. Prince Dipendra was accused of patricide and of committing suicide thereafter, alleged to be a violent response to his parents' refusal to accept his choice of wife. However, there are lots of speculations and doubts among Nepalese citizens about the person(s) responsible for the Royal Massacre. Following the carnage, the throne was inherited by King Birendra's brother Gyanendra. On February 1, 2005, Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers to quash the violent Maoist movement. In September 2005, the Maoists declared a three-month unilateral ceasefire to negotiate their demands.

In response to the 2006 democracy movement, the king agreed to relinquish the sovereign power back to the people and reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives on April 24, 2006. Using its newly acquired sovereign authority, on May 18, 2006, the newly resumed House of Representatives unanimously passed a motion to curtail the power of the king and declared Nepal a secular state, abolishing its time honoured official status as a Hindu Kingdom. On December 28, 2007, a bill was passed in parliament, to amend Article 159 of the constitution - replacing "Provisions regarding the King" by "Provisions of the Head of the State" - declaring Nepal a federal republic, and thereby abolishing the monarchy.[23] The bill came into force on May 28, 2008 as a constituent assembly meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, overwhelmingly voted to abolish royal rule.[24]

[edit] End of monarchy

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly election held on 10 April 2008, and are trying to form a coalition government with some smaller parties. The Maoists had insisted on the abolition of the monarchy and the removal of Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev as King with Nepal becoming a federal democratic state with an elected head of state. The newly-elected Assembly met in Kathmandu on May 28, 2008 and abolished the monarchy that had reigned for 240 years. There was a polling of constituent Assembly members and out of a total of 564 Assembly members, 560 voted to end Nepal's monarchical rule.[25][26][27] The proposal declared that Nepal had become an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular and an inclusive democratic republic.[28]

Nepal's government has announced a public holiday for three days, from May 28 to May 30, to celebrate the country becoming a republic.

The Narayanhity palace removed the royal flag that was flying on its premises and replaced it with Nepal's national flag on 29 May 2008.[29]