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In Nepal charm hangs in the air. Just like the notes of tinkling bells, just like the fair mist, just like the mumbled chant, quite like the incense smoke. In Nepal some of them saw planes flying over and landing in their fallow fields before they saw a truck rumble by. When you scale the world's tallest mountain, if you do, it'll take a fair bit of reckoning to find out whether you went up 8850 metres or just 8848. The jury's still out on that one!

Sturdy nimble footed porters still carry loads heavier than themselves across miles of slippery hills as they guide tourists to the summit of their aspirations; there are places which you either trek to or take the helicopter, no in-betweens; the capital of this country that has no automobile industry to speak of is daily in the throes of a traffic jam. Quirky things happen here like they don’t elsewhere! Ask the Nepalese and they’ll tell you a wonderful tale about change, growth, maturity and life. They'll tell you how the travel industry, tour operators and tourists are changing Nepal forever, but no one is complaining! That’s Nepal - dilemma-struck, dogmatic, dopey...delightful.

Those who travel to Nepal discover a land God made for tourists! Mountains and massifs, racing rivers, quaint temples and palaces, tough trekking trails and wildlife safaris lure the tourist.

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Be careful not to step over anyone’s feet or legs and also not to point your feet towards someone. It is a matter of grave insult for Nepalese. Nepalese are also particular about the use of right and left hand. Right hand is used for eating as they do not make use of spoon/fork and knife and the left hand is only used for hygiene purposes. So never ever make a mistake of offering your left hand to anyone in Nepal.

Historically Speaking

Centuries ago, on the plains of the Terai region along Nepal’s southern border, the ruling influence was predominantly that of the Aryan power raging in north India. In this milieu, Gautam Buddha - Prince Siddhartha of the Sakya clan - renounced his royal luxuries in search of enlightenment, wandering around the plains of Lumbini. The Mauryan king Ashoka, the other famous Buddhist reformed royal, visited Lumbini in 249 BC almost three hundred years after the Buddha was born. The Ashoka Pillar commemorating the visit still stands at the Sacred Garden there.

With the death of Ashoka, the influence of Buddhism across his quite sizeable empire began to wane. As within India, even the Nepal Terai saw a Hindu resurgence of sorts. Then, when in 200 AD the Lichhavis of north India invaded the Kathmandu valley Hinduism came to be firmly established. The temple of Pashupatinath and the Swayambhunath stupa were built in a tradition of religious tolerance that abides even today. They ushered in an age that was high on style, art, architecture and culture and low on strife and discord.

With the Thakuris taking over the

reigns of power in the 9th century, the times to follow were to be the Dark Ages of Nepal. When the Thakuri king Arideva took on the title of Malla in 1200 AD, the Nepali Renaissance is said to have begun. The three sons of Yaksha Malla (1428-1482) divided the Valley and built three Durbars (courts) that tell the story of the fierce fraternal rivalry between the rulers of Lalitpur (Patan), Kirtipur (Kathmandu) and Bhaktapur!

The most important year in Nepal's modern history is perhaps 1764 when the Gorkha leader Prithvi Narayan Shah, stationed his troops outside the valley. By 1768 the entire Kathmandu Valley had been conquered by Prithvi Narayan. The creator of modern Nepal, Prithvi Narayan and his Gorkha troop’s waged relentless war, and the boundaries of present Nepal is a result of those. Eventually Prithvi Narayan’s efforts at territorial expansion met with stiff resistance from the Tibetans in the north and the British in India. In 1814, fifty thousand of the British Indian Army fought a long war against twelve thousand determined Gurkhas. The Nepali side eventually lost the war.

The Kot massacre drama of 1846, with the army chief Jung Bahadur leading the slaughter of fifty courtiers in the durbar square, brought the Ranas to power. Bahadur took on the title of Rana, made the prime ministerial position hereditary and consigned the Shah King to a titular head. Aided and supported by the British in India, the Ranas let Nepal languish in poverty with minimum infrastructural or economic development. The Nepali Congress led a popular revolt against Rana rule in 1950. The three way 'Delhi Compromise' that was subsequently brokered by the Indian government arranged for the Nepali Congress and the Ranas to share power under the leadership of the Shah king, Tribhuvan.

In 1959 Nepal adopted the first of its multi-party constitutions. Not surprisingly, the party that had most visibly steered the democracy movement won a landslide victory. But the victory, both for democracy and for the Congress party, was short-lived. The seat of the king had changed occupants and the new king Mahendra was not as willing as his father to give up the powers of the sovereign. He suspended multi-party rule and introduced in its stead, the Panchayati Raj era whereby individuals elected at the Panchayat level would people the Parliament. In effect, the Parliament was as good as a de facto king's durbar since all the candidates who stood for elections had to be first approved by the Palace. King Mahendra died in 1972 and was succeeded by his son, King Birendra. It was in his time that, after a decade long pro- democracy civil disobedience movement led by the Congress and supported by leftists, multi-party democracy was re-established in 1991.

In 2001 June, the Nepali tale took a strange twist, one that will certainly go down in history books as a dark chapter. The ruling monarch, the queen and their children were among the 11 dead in the aftermath of alleged drugs and drinks induced frenzy that caused the crown prince to run amok, mowing down several members of the royal family at a family dinner hosted by him. A grief-stricken country broke out in street demonstrations, unable to believe either that their beloved King Birendra, revered as an avatar of Lord Vishnu, was dead, and even less able to believe that it was by the bloody barrel of crown prince Dipendra's guns. It was an episode that struck at the very soul of Nepal, leaving in tatters the mantle of almost divine invincibility that enveloped the royal house, ripping out from the root the dearly held faith in royal rectitude, and very pertinently, tearing the thread of succession in a most violent manner. The throne is now occupied by the only remaining son of King Mahendra; King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is now the king of Nepal. His son Paras has been named the Crown Prince.

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Habitat

Snug between the two Asian giants, Nepal is surrounded by India and China. This spectacular country is among the top tourist destinations in the world thanks to its one -of-a-kind wonder, the looming purple Mount Everest.

Extending roughly from 26° to 30° latitude, and lying between the 80-degree and 88-degree meridians, Nepal is completely landlocked. On the one side it has the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and besides the world’s tallest wall, Tibet and the People’s Republic of China on the other. Marking about 885km (from east to west) into 144 to 245 km (north to south) of the globe’s space, this small country is raw, rugged and overwhelmingly natural. With almost 75% pegged on the highest mountain ranges in the world, and about 15% carpeted on the ‘terai’ just below the foothills, Nepal is alternately swathed in green swishing paddy, craggy hills and lofty white peaks.

The three major river systems that crisscross the country are those of the Narayani, Kosi and Karnali. The Himalayas, the middle ranges of the Mahabharata and the Chure hills, and then the low lying Terai plains

make Nepal some kind of cosmic staircase where the objective would be to get to the top floor of the earth. This is the land of the yeti, the Buddha, the rough and ready Gurkhas and some of the most enchanting endearing people in the world. Take a hike through it!

The range of animal life and forestry extends, like the topography, from the snow-white alpine heights of the Himalayas to the plains that are flushed with verdant abundance. Nepal’s Terai as the plains just at the foot of the lower Himalayas are called, is home to wildlife and fauna that is typical of sub tropical forests: the Royal Bengal tiger, one horned rhino, deer and antelope, gaur, macaques, chattering langurs and nattering birds. Further up the country as you ascend northwards the mid-ranges come abloom with rhododendrons (February, March, April), and wild orchids play peek-a- boo among the trees. The scent of pines fills the forests and oak trees stand solid.

Even further north as the upper reaches of the Himalayas soar into the skies above, the world becomes an expanse of snow. And yet right at the snowline there are species who survive and thrive: yaks, lichens, snow leopard, "the abominable snowman", sundry mendicants and quite a few of the Hindu gods.

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