DLI. Nepali Cultural Orientation

Author/Publisher: Defense Language Institute
Date: 2009
Pages: 102Nepal displays a range of dramatic contrasts, which appear not only in the country’s various ethnicities and languages but also in its geography and climate. Historical accounts of the Nepalese people are limited mostly to the region known as Kathmandu Valley, spanning the millennia between palace insurrection and dynastic change to the modern era. The most recent momentous change in Nepal’s political landscape is the implementation of democracy in the 20th century. Culturally, a common thread that appears throughout much of the nation’s history is the synthesis of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. Nepal is one of the few countries where these religions have peacefully coexisted for centuries. The ethnic/caste groups, who are primarily native Nepali speakers, are relative newcomers to the area now called Nepal. The Nepali language originated with an Indo-Aryan group of people who migrated from northwest India in the first millennium B.C.E. They spread from the Tarai, or flat river plain, north to the Middle Hills and established many city-states and small kingdoms, including Gorkha. When the country was united under a Gorkha king, it was renamed Nepal and their language was later renamed Nepali.