Nepal consists of 147 thousand square kilometers on the northeast edge of the Indian sub-continent, southwest of China's part of Central Asia. There are two geophysical zones: the Himalayan Mountains and their foothills and intermontane valleys; and the Indo-Gangetic plain, locally called the Terai.
The mountains can be treated as divided into the Great Himalayas, the Mahabharat Range and the Srinkgla Range(1). The last follows the plain's northern edge across southern Nepal, staying below 2,000 meters except in the west. Between them and the Mahabharats there are sometimes relatively low valleys. The Mahabharat Range is still south of the center of Nepal, and consistently rises above 2,000 meters. Behind it are more mountains and some high valleys. Finally, the Great Himalayas follow the nation's northern boundary--expanding in the west to include most of the northwest. They rise above 8,000 meters in numerous peaks, most famously Sagarmatha(2) on the Tibetan border, the world's tallest mountain.
All rivers flow down to the Terai and into India, where they eventually join the Ganga(3). The principle ones that reach the Great Himalayas are the Kali(4), which forms Nepal's northwest boundary; the Karnali(5) system; the Gandak system, which has headstreams that cut through the Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau; and the Saptakosi(6) system, which also cuts through into Tibet. The largest body of water is a reservoir on the Saptakosi near to India.
More than 25 million people live in Nepal(2007). There is no majority first language; the Indo-Aryan group accounts for more than three in four speakers. The most important language is Nepali, with more than nine in 20 native speakers(7) and the lingua franca for most of the others. Some others in the majority group are Bhojpuri, with more than one in 20 and Maithili, with more than one in ten.(8) The only language outside Indo-Aryan, with similar numbers to those already mentioned, is Tamang(9), with one in 20. Almost all of the remaining verbal languages are Tibeto-Burman ones--the same group Tamang belongs to.
Nine in ten Nepalis are Hindus and one in 20 Buddhists. The remaining one in 20 people are split among several religions.
Only one metropolis exceeds a million: Kathmandu(10), although there are only 856 thousand in the city proper(2007). It is located on the Bagmati River in the high Kathmandu Valley, northeast of the Mahabharats. The city was named for an all-wood, nailless, temple called Kaasthamandap (Sanskrit for wood covered shelter). Other famous structures are the former palace, Hanuman Dhoka; the Swayambhunath, a Buddhist shrine (chaitaya); and the Pashupatinah temple, a Hindu pilgramage site.
Indo-Aryans probably arrived in Nepal in the first millenium B.C.E., perhaps earlier. The Tibetans and their close linguistic relatives may have arrived in the first millenium C.E. Nepali rose to regional prominence in the 13th century, as the Khasa Kingdom spread. One of the splinter successors to Khasa, Gorkha, conquered the Newari-speaking Kathmandu Valley. Since then Nepali has spread mostly because it has become the most useful second language, though also by ethnic oppression.(11)
north
east
south, from the east
southwest and northwest, from the west
(1) The western part is also called the Silawik Hills.
(2) Also called Oomolangma by the Chinese, and Everest in English.
(3) Ganges in English.
(4) Also called the Mahakali. Down stream it becomes the Sarda. A triburary also reaches the high mountains.
(5) The swampy part in the Terai is also called the Girwa. It becomes the Ghagara (or Gogra) in India, where it is joined by the Sarda.
(6) It fans out in India but eventually gets to the Ganga as the Kosi.
(7) The all-language total includes the deaf, about one in 20; excluding them would make Nepali the majority first language.
(8) They are grouped as Bihari. That groups is sometimes lumped in with Hindi.
(9) Some consider this to be five languages.
(10) Also called Kantipur, or by its original name, Yne.
(11) Newari's public use was banned from 1846 to 1950 (Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages (Columbia University Press, 1998).