On the southern slopes of the Himalaya lies an ancient country of snow peaks, lakes, gorges, waterfalls and tropical forest. Few places on earth hold both arctic and tropical landscapes within such a small area. Nepal also has thousand-year-old temples, the living goddess Kumari, grand festivals, busy bazaars and warm, easy-going people.
The flag
Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not a rectangle. It is made of two stacked pennants in crimson, the colour of the rhododendron, with a blue border standing for peace. The moon in the upper pennant and the sun in the lower express the wish that the nation will last as long as they do; the two points are often read as the peaks of the Himalaya.
The coat of arms
The emblem shows Mount Everest above green hills and the yellow plains of the Terai, a white outline map of Nepal and a handshake between a man and a woman, framed by rhododendrons. The red ribbon beneath carries a Sanskrit motto: “Mother and motherland are greater than heaven.”
National symbols
- Flower
- Rhododendron (lali gurans), which colours the hills red in spring
- Animal
- The cow, sacred to Hindus; you will see cows resting calmly in the middle of city streets
- Bird
- The Danphe or Himalayan monal, a pheasant with iridescent feathers living between 2,600 and 4,500 m
People and languages
Nepal has about 29 million inhabitants (2021 census). Roughly half live in the southern plains, most of the rest in the middle hills and a small share in the high mountains. The census lists more than 140 castes and ethnic groups, among them Khas-Arya, Newar, Magar, Tamang, Sherpa, Tharu, Gurung and Rai, and over a hundred languages. Nepali is the official language; English is widely spoken wherever travellers go, and more and more shopkeepers greet visitors with a few words of Chinese.
The Sherpa people have become famous worldwide for their strength at high altitude. Early mountaineers described whole families carrying heavy loads above 6,000 metres and sleeping in the open at temperatures far below freezing.