In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast, we’ll be talking about Nepal, a small, landlocked country in South Asia. Nepal borders China in the north, India in the south, east and west, and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Home to eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, this small nation has an expansive and complex history, and was only declared a republic in 2008.
Today Nepal is home to over 28 million people, and has a total land area of around 147,000 square kilometres or 56,000 miles, making it roughly the size of Greece, or the US state of New York. Aside from Everest, Nepal is famous for its strong military, exemplified by the Ghurkas, who played an important role in both world wars, as well as one of the world’s most recognisable flags.
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Parliament house of Nepal, Kathmandu – Sujitabh Chaudhary
Namche Bazaar, Nepal – Sebastian Pena Lambarri
You can find more on the state flag of Ohio, which we discuss in this episode, here on Wikipedia.
Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Ireland . (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella). We’d also like to thank Professor Lamont Lindstrom for his contribution to this episode. You can find more about him here.
Some further reading:
- John Green and Crash Course History have a video focused on the Indus Valey Civilisation, which you can find here.
- Discover Magazine also has an article entitled “Genetic Study Suggests South Asians Today Descend from Indus Valley Civilization“, which is worth a look.
- The music track featured in our first break back be found here on YouTube.
- You can also read more on the history of the Rajputs in Nepal here on Wikipedia.
- Razen Manandhar has written an extensive article on Newar Buddhism on Medium.
- The full text of John Whelpton’s A History of Nepal is available here.
- A History of Nepal’s Royal Family and Its Catastrophe is reviewed here by the New York Times.
- The 1814-1816 war between Nepal and the East India Company is detailed in this article on the New World Encyclopedia.
- Record Nepal‘s article “Why did the British not colonize Nepal?” is a fascinating and in-depth read.
- Large parts of T. Louise Brown’s The Challenge to Democracy in Nepal are available for free on Google Books.
- Global Security has a lengthy article on the 1855 war between Nepal and Tibet
- The Rising Nepal‘s article on Jung Bahadur Rana’s Foreign Policy is worth a look.
- For more on Rana’s rise and the Kot Massacre, see the Library of Congress’ Nepal and Bhutan Country Study.
- The Revolution of 1950/51 by Karl-Heinz Kraemer can be found on nepalresearch.com.
- You can also read more about the Flag of Nepal on Wikipedia.
- A timeline of events in the Nepali Civil War can be found here on Reuters.
- An extensive article on the war by the London School of Economics can also be found here.
- Monthly Review published a letter from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the 2001 Palace Massacre here.
Music that might interest listeners:
- Nepal National Anthem – Sayaun Thunga Phool Ka
- Traditional Music of Nepal
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