Tell about interesting facts of Nepal ?

Nepal worships the only living goddesses in the world. Called Kumaris (which literally translated means virgins); these pre-pubescent girls are selected as children and considered to be earthly manifestations of divine female energy. They are incarnations of the goddess Taleju and live in temples, are worshipped by Buddhists and Hindus alike and driven in chariots during festivals. They retire upon achieving puberty.

The last Hindu country in the world, Nepal was declared secular by its parliament in 2006. It still has the world’s highest proportion of Hindus today among its people. Cows are considered sacred and it is illegal to kill one in Nepal; it is their national animal as well.

Nepal has four properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. Two are cultural: Kathmandu Valley (1979) and Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha (1997); and two are natural: Chitwan National Park (1984) and Sagarmatha National Park (1979).

Nepal’s national flag is the only one in the world that isn’t a rectangle or a square. It has two triangles; the top with a moon and the bottom with a sun. The triangles represent not only the Himalayas but Nepal’s two major religions-Hinduism and Buddhism. Though the current design was made in 1962, the basic design has been used for over 2,000 years in the country.

A popular and quickly made food dish is the Momo. They are flour and water dumplings filled with a variety of ingredients: meat, chicken, and/or vegetables (either fried or steamed) that are delicious and served with a dipping sauce.

The national dish is Dal-bhat-tarkari, which means dal (lentils), bhat (rice), and a tarkari (vegetable). Many Nepali families eat it daily. A typical meal could be a green salad (cucumber and carrot), rice, mustard greens, potatoes, chicken gravy, ghee, black lentils and mutton curry.

The Elephant polo game was originated in Meghauli, Nepal. Nepal’s Tiger Tops is elephant polo’s headquarters and the site of the World Elephant Polo Championships.

Touching anything with your feet is considered offensive in Nepal. Never step over a person or any of another person’s body parts. The left hand must not be used for eating in Nepal. The Nepali also consider the head to be sacred, so don’t touch anyone else’s.

Mostly from the mountainous eastern part of Nepal, the Sherpas are an ethnic group frequently employed as porters for mountain expeditions as, due to their upbringing and genetics, they don’t suffer the effects of altitude. Today it has become common to call all porters Sherpas.

Mount Everest has become a major source of revenue from foreign sources for the Nepalese Government, through special permits for climbers to the business the base camps bring in.

Half the population of Nepal survives on around one dollar per person per day, as Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Lumbini International Airport was developed to promote tourism in the area of Buddha’s birthplace. Many Buddhist monks from China, Tibet and Japan travel here annually. Similarly, Pashupati Temple is visited by many Indian neighbors and is a great prospect for its economic and religious value. The temple complex itself is a grand and splendid vision for visitors, with its ponds, various temples and wandering monkeys.

Nepal’s national airline lacks enough planes to fly to any airports out of Asia. Flying into Nepal is very expensive.

Nepal excels as an arena for adventure and extreme sport tourism. Choices include paragliding, bungee jumping, high altitude marathons, and mountain biking, white-water rafting, kayaking and, of course, mountaineering.

Although Nepal has fresh water rivers and over 6,000 lakes generating hydro-electric power, the demand is so much greater than production that everyone must live without electricity for a large part of every day. The “load shedding” on average currently is 8.28 hour daily. Worse, winter is the season when demand rises to its highest level while supplies fall to their lowest.

With all that fresh water available, water supply for the towns is problematic. The infrastructure can produce around 180 million liters a day in Kathmandu while the average demand is over 350 million liters daily. Generally water is only supplied for two and a half hours a day on four days a week. People commonly have their own reserve tanks in which to store water for times of shortages.

The people of Nepal are conservative in this developing country and public displays of affection are not only discouraged, they are illegal. Kissing in public will get you arrested.

Conservation efforts are not only increasing the population of endangered animals; they are saving them for increased tourism and business for this developing nation. Of Nepal’s total landmass, more than 19 percent is Protected Area or National Park today. Nepal has saved the Blackbuck, increased the tiger and one horned rhino populations, and brought back the Gharial and wild buffalo populations to viable numbers

The Nepalese government returns half of all income from tourism to the communities located near wildlife reserves.

The Yeti is said to live and has been spotted in the Himalayas in Nepal. It is a mysterious creature akin to North America’s Big Foot and has been reported by many who have hiked secluded paths in these mountains. Sir Edmund Hillary himself led a 1958 expedition to find the Yeti, with no success.

Nepal has one of the largest concentrations of Royal Bengal Tigers (after Bangladesh and India) and the second largest one of one-horned rhinos on earth. West Nepal is home to the largest herd of Swamp deer on earth.

One of the world’s best habitats for beautiful endangered Snow Leopards is in Nepal.

Turn a map of Nepal clockwise 90 degrees and it is literally the same as Portugal’s map. Remember that fact for pop quizzes and trivia contests.

The 2015 Nepal earthquake occurred on 11:56 am local time on April 25th. It had a magnitude of 7.9 and was of violent intensity. Its epicenter was at Barpak, east of Kathmandu, and its hypocenter was at a shallow depth of around eight kilometers (five miles).

The earthquake killed more than 8,800 people and injured more than 21,000. Nearly 3.5 million people were left homeless. There were 58 fatalities in surrounding countries. The quake triggered avalanches on Mount Everest that killed 21 and injured at least 120 more.