22 Things You Should Know About Nepal

Nepal, when you hear this word what comes in your mind – Mount Everest or Lord Buddha?

It’s obvious because there are still many other facts that people are unaware about Nepal, in terms of its history, geographical location, politics and languages, and several other topics. Here you will find 22 amazing facts about Nepal. It is not just a country of Mount Everest and Lord Buddha.

1. Let’s start with the language. Official Language is Nepali that majority of people throughout Nepal understand and communicate with each other. Apart from this official language, there are 123 local languages within Nepal used by various ethnic groups as Mother Tongue. It is not mandatory that one ethnic group will understand the language of another ethnic group and will be able to communicate. The Nepali language is the medium of communication between different ethnic groups.

2. Nepal is geographically elongated from East to West, whereas it remains compact from North to South. The distance between the North and South territory of Nepal is almost 100 km. Within these 100 kilometres, one can experience boiling hot tropical climate to unnerving arctic weather.

3. Out of Fourteen Eight Thousanders on earth, eight are in Nepal. Eight Thousand refers to those mountains whose elevation ranges higher than Eight Thousand Meter. Starting from the East it stretches all the way up to western Nepal. East to West Series will stand as – “Mt. Kanchenjunga | Mt. Makalu | Mt. Lhotse | Mt. Everest | Mt. Choyou | Mt. Manaslu | Mt. Annapurna | Mt. Dhaulagiri”.

4. Nepal was never colonized by any other foreign military through its entire history of existence. Its neighbour, India, was colonized by the British. However, they still could not defeat Nepal. The question might arise why the British did not colonize Nepal? The answer is simply “Because Nepal had some badass kings.”

5. With home for the world’s highest mountain, i.e. Mount Everest Nepal is one and only one country in the world with elevation starting from 70 m from sea level to 8848 m from sea level. This means the lowest elevation of Nepal is 70 m from the sea level and the highest elevation is 8848 m from the sea level.

6. We all are familiar with world heritage sites listed by UNESCO. Kathmandu itself is home to seven such world heritage sites under cultural categories. Within the radius of 15 kilometres of Kathmandu Valley, all those sites are located. “Kathmandu Durbar Square | Patan Durbar Square | Bhaktapur Durbar Square” are similar architecture that used to be a king’s palace before the unification of Nepal. Similarly “Bouddhanath Stupa | Swoyambhunath Stupa” are similar architecture with a white dome. Finally “Pashupatinath Temple | Changunarayan Temple” are the Hindu Temples.

7. The national flag of Nepal is of unique shape. The flag of entire countries of the world is square in shape whereas, the Flag of Nepal is a combination of two equilateral triangles with red, blue and white colour. There is ‘sun’ and ‘half-moon with lotus’ on those two triangular shapes.

8. Kaligandaki River on Mustang is considered to be older than the Himalayas. It is considered a major boundary line of eastern and western Himalayan ranges within Nepal. Considering this ecological dividing river, Annapurna Range to Kanchenjunga is considered as eastern Himalayan ranges whereas Dhaulagiri Range to Api and Saipal is considered as the western Himalayan range.

9. The geographical variation between the southern and northern border creates the possibility of varieties of flora and fauna to exist in Nepal. It is often known as the Amazon of Asia, as it is rich in biodiversity that is not explored at it’s best. Chances are still high of several new species being discovered in Nepal.

10. Rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal which blooms on spring. 6% of rhododendron species prevailing in the world are found in Nepal. More than 250 species of flowering plants are found in Nepal. Apart from that Nepal had a record of tallest grassland in the world, which is in The Chitwan National Park.

11. Nepal position itself in 3rd place, after India and Bangladesh, for the population of the Royal Bengal Tiger. A large concentration of tiger can be found in Chitwan National Park and Bardiya National Park. These national parks also consist of the second largest population of the one-horned rhino.

12. Nepal is considered the home of the largest moth in the world with the scientific name Atlas Moth. Apart from that, some large wild bee is found in the hilly region of Nepal. Nepal also has 4.2 % of the world’s butterfly species that counts 650 and plus.

13. Shivapuri National Park is famous for Nagarkot Chisapani Trek. It is the closest national park from the capital city and international airport around the world. Within driving distance of 8 – 10 km from airport one can easily access boundary of Shivapuri National Park and its buffer zone.

14. Almost 870 species of birds can be found in Nepal, which is noticeably higher than the sum of total species found on the entire European Continent and North Africa. Most of the migratory birds visit Nepal during summer to escape from the chilling weather of European countries like Siberia and Russia.

15. More than 19 % of the total landmass of Nepal belongs to the National Park and Protected Area. Chitwan National Park and Everest National Park are listed on world heritage sites under nature categories. Annapurna Conservation Area Project is considered as a world model for conservation and sustainable development.

16. Ample growth on Rhino from 80 to 500 within the timeframe of forty years is considered as an excellent result in the context of global wildlife conservation status. Apart from that, 25 years of conservation works result in good preservation of endangered wildlife species like Gharial, Indian Bison, Wild Buffalo and Tiger.

17. Pagoda Style monuments are introduced in the Chinese Territory by Nepali Architecture Araniko and his team in the 12th Century. According to legends Nepali Architecture designed the palace of Xanadu in China on the invitation of Chinese emperor Kublai Khan.

18. Kathmandu is living museum. Nepal is a land of the living goddess, i.e. Goddess Kumari. Apart from that, Nepal is the country of non-stop festivals because of the diverse ethnic groups. Dolpo is last clinch of Bonpo Religion.

19. Nepal is an ideal destination for adventure tourism like mountaineering, canyoning, mountain biking, paragliding, skydiving, jungle safari, kayaking, rafting, bungee jumping and high altitude marathon. But, because of the unfavourable location, there aren’t any ski resort and practice in ski-in Nepal despite being home to eight Eight Thousanders.

20. Nepal belongs to a list of the few countries with numerous airports on an aspect of the country’s area. In total there are 48 airstrips in Nepal within 1024 km from east to west borders. Solukhumbu District is the one with the maximum number of airstrips in Nepal, where the Lukla Airport is considered as the world’s most dangerous airport.

21. According to the stat, Nepal is the country with the highest number of returning visitors than any other countries within South Asia. Nepal stands for “Never Ending Peace And Love”, whereas the slogan of tourism sectors is “Naturally Nepal, Once is not enough”.

22. The most weird fact is that, all above facts happens within the area of 1,47,181 sq. Km. If you compare the area with world, it is only 0.1 % of the total world’s area. Nepal can be a cheap destination to travel as it is listed in the top 10 travel destination for backpackers, which is all about Mountain and People.