The
history of Nepal has been influenced by its position in the Himalayas
and its two neighbours, modern day India and China. Due to the arrival
of disparate settler groups from outside through the ages, it is now a
multiethnic, multiracial , multicultural, multi religious, and
multilingual country. Central Nepal was split in three kingdoms from the
15th century until the 18th century, when it was re-unified under the
Shah monarchy. The national and most spoken language of Nepal is Nepali.
Nepal
experienced a struggle for democracy in the 20th century. During the
1990s and until 2008, the country was in civil strife. A peace treaty
was signed in 2008 and elections were held in the same year. In a
historical vote for the election of the constituent assembly, Nepalese
parliament voted to oust the monarchy in June 2008. Nepal became a
federal republic and was formally renamed the Federal Democratic
Republic of Nepal.
- The Kiratis & Buddhism beginnings
Nepal's
recorded history kicks off with the Hindu Kiratis. Arriving from the
east around the 7th or 8th century BC, these Mongoloid people are the
first known rulers of the Kathmandu Valley. King Yalambar (the first of
their 29 kings) is mentioned in the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic, but
little more is known about them.
In the 6th century BC, Prince
Siddhartha Gautama was born into the Sakya royal family of Kapilavastu,
near Lumbini, later embarking on a path of meditation and thought that
led him to enlightenment as the Buddha. The religion that grew up around
him continues to shape the face of Asia.
Around the 2nd century
BC, the great Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka (c 272-236 BC) visited
Lumbini and erected a pillar at the birthplace of the Buddha. Popular
legend recounts how he then visited the Kathmandu Valley and erected
four stupas (pagodas) around Patan, but there is no evidence that he
actually made it there in person. In either event, his Mauryan empire
(321-184 BC) played a major role in popularising Buddhism in the region,
a role continued by the north Indian Buddhist Kushan empire (1st to 3rd
centuries AD).Over the centuries Buddhism gradually lost ground to a
resurgent Hinduism and by the time the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Fa Xian
(Fa Hsien) and Xuan Zang (Hsuan Tsang) passed through the region in the
5th and 7th centuries the site of Lumbini was already in ruins.
- Licchavis, Thakuris, then darkness
Buddhism
faded and Hinduism reasserted itse lf with the arrival from northern
India of the Licchavis. In AD 300 they overthrew the Kiratis, who
resettled in the east and are the ancestors of today's Rai and Limbu
people.
Between the 4th and 8th centuries, the Licchavis ushered
in a golden age of cultural brilliance. The chaityas (stupas) and
monuments of this era can still be seen at the Changu Narayan Temple,
north of Bhaktapur, and in the backstreets of Kathmandu's old town.
Their strategic position allowed them to prosper from trade between
India and China. It's believed that the original stupas at Chabahil,
Bodhnath and Swayambhunath date from the Licchavi era.
Amsuvarman,
the first Thakuri king, came to power in 602, succeeding his Licchavi
father-in-law. He consolidated his power to the north and south by
marrying his sister to an Indian prince and his daughter Bhrikuti to the
great Tibetan king Songsten Gompo. Together with the Gompo's Chinese
wife Wencheng, Bhrikuti managed to convert the king to Buddhism around
640, changing the face of both Tibet and, later, Nepal.
From the
late 7th century until the 13th century Nepal slipped into its 'dark
ages', of which little is known. Tibet invaded in 705 and Kashmir
invaded in 782. The Kathmandu Valley's strategic location, however,
ensured the kingdom's growth and survival. King Gunakamadeva is credited
with founding Kantipur, today's Kathmandu, around the 10th century.
During the 9th century a new lunar calendar was introduced, one that is
still used by Newars to this day.
- The golden age of the Mallas
The
first of the Malla kings came to power in the Kathmandu Valley around
1200. The Mallas (literally 'wrestlers' in Sanskrit) had been forced out
of India and their name can be found in the Mahabharata and in Buddhist
literature. This period was a golden one that stretched over 550 years,
though it was peppered with fighting over the valuable trade routes to
Tibet.
The first Malla rulers had to cope with several disasters.
A huge earthquake in 1255 killed around one-third of Nepal's
population. A devastating Muslim invasion by Sultan Shams-ud-din of
Bengal less than a century later left plundered Hindu and Buddhist
shrines in its wake, though the invasion did not leave a lasting
cultural effect here (unlike in the Kashmir Valley which remains Muslim
to this day). In India the damage was more widespread and many Hindus
were driven into the hills and mountains of Nepal, where they
established small Rajput principalities.
Apart from this, the
earlier Malla years (1220-1482) were largely stable, reaching a high
point under the third Malla dynasty of Jayashithi Malla (1382-1395), who
united the valley and codified its laws, including the caste system.
The mid-13th century saw the de facto rule of Queen Devaladevi, the most
powerful woman in Nepal's history.
After the death of Jayashithi
Malla's grandson Yaksha Malla in 1482, the Kathmandu Valley was divided
up among his sons into the three kingdoms of Bhaktapur (Bhadgaon),
Kathmandu (Kantipur) and Patan (Lalitpur). They proceeded to fight with
each other over the right to control the rich trading routes with Tibet.
The
rest of what we today call Nepal consisted of a fragmented patchwork of
almost 50 independent states, from Palpa to Jumla, and the
semi-independent states of Banepa and Pharping, most of them minting
their own coins and maintaining standing armies.
One of the most
important of these was the Nepali-speaking Khasa empire (Western
Mallas), based in the far west in the Karnali basin around Sinja and
Jumla. The kingdom peaked in the 13th and 14th centuries, only to
fragment in the 15th century. Its lasting contribution was the Nepali
language that is spoken today as the unifying national language.
Nepal's
most profound export was perhaps its architecture; in the 13th century
the Nepali architect Arniko travelled to Lhasa and the Mongol capital in
Beijing, bringing with him the design of the pagoda, thus changing the
face of religious temples across Asia.
The rivalry between the
three kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley found its expression in the arts
and culture, which flourished in the competitive climate. The
outstanding collections of exquisite temples and buildings in each
city's Durbar Square are testament to the huge amounts of money spent by
the rulers to outdo each other.
The building boom was financed
by trade, in everything from musk and wool to salt, Chinese silk and
even yak tails. The Kathmandu Valley stood at the departure point for
two separate routes into Tibet, via Banepa to the northeast and via
Rasuwa and the Kyirong Valley near Langtang in the northwest. Traders
would cross the jungle-infested Terai during winter to avoid the
virulent malaria and then wait in Kathmandu for the mountain passes to
open later that summer. Kathmandu grew rich and its rulers converted
their wealth into gilded pagodas and ornately carved royal palaces. In
the mid-17th century Nepal gained the right to mint Tibet's coins using
Tibetan silver, further enriching the kingdom's coffers.
In
Kathmandu King Pratap Malla (1641-74) oversaw that city's cultural
highpoint with the construction of the Hanuman Dhoka Palace, the Rani
Pokhari pond and the first of several subsequent pillars that featured a
statue of the king facing the protective Temple of Taleju, who the
Mallas had by that point adopted as their protective deity. The mid-17th
century also saw a highpoint of building in Patan.
Around 1750
King Jaya Prakash Malla built Kathmandu's Kumari Temple. Not long
afterwards came the Nyatapola Temple in Bhakatapur, the literal
highpoint of pagoda-style architecture in Nepal.
The Malla era
shaped the religious as well as artistic landscape, introducing the
dramatic chariot festivals of Indra Jatra and Machhendranath. The Malla
kings shored up their position by claiming to be reincarnations of the
Hindu god Vishnu and establishing the cult of the kumari, a living
goddess whose role it was to bless the Malla's rule during an annual
celebration.
The cosmopolitan Mallas also absorbed foreign
influences. The Indian Mughal court influenced Malla dress and painting,
presented the Nepalis with firearms and introduced the system of land
grants for military service, a system which would have a profound effect
in later years. Persian terminology was introduced to the court
administration and in 1729 the three kingdoms sent presents to the Qing
court in Beijing, which from then on viewed Nepal as a tributary state.
In the early 18th century Capuchin missionaries passed through Nepal to
Tibet, giving the West its first descriptions of exotic Kathmandu.
But change didn't only come from abroad. A storm was brewing inside Nepal, just 100km to the east of Kathmandu.
- Unification under the Shahs
It
took more than a quarter of a century of conquest and consolidation,
but by 1768 Prithvi Narayan Shah, ruler of the tiny hilltop kingdom of
Gorkha (halfway between Pokhara and Kathmandu), stood poised on the edge
of the Kathmandu Valley, about to realise his dream of a unified Nepal.
Prithvi
Narayan had taken the strategic hilltop fort of Nuwakot in 1744 and had
blockaded the valley, after fighting off reinforcements from the
British East India Company. In 1768 Shah took Kathmandu, sneaking in
while everyone was drunk during the Indra Jatra festival. A year later
he took Kirtipur, finally, after three lengthy failed attempts. In
terrible retribution his troops hacked 120 pounds of noses and lips off
Kirtipur's residents; unsurprisingly, resistance throughout the valley
quickly crumbled. In 1769 he advanced on the three Malla kings, who were
quivering in Bhaktapur, ending the Malla rule and unifying Nepal.
Shah
moved his capital from Gorkha to Kathmandu, establishing the Shah
dynasty, which rules to this day, with its roots in the Rajput kings of
Chittor. Shah died just six years later in Nuwakot but is revered to
this day as the founder of the nation.
Shah had built his empire
on conquest and his insatiable army needed ever more booty and land to
keep it satisfied. Within six years the Gurkhas had conquered eastern
Nepal and Sikkim. The expansion then turned westwards into Kumaon and
Garhwal, only halted on the borders of the Punjab by the armies of the
powerful one-eyed ruler Ranjit Singh.
The kingdom's power
continued to grow until a 1792 clash with the Chinese in Tibet led to an
ignominious defeat, during which Chinese troops advanced down the
Kyirong Valley to within 35km of Kathmandu. As part of the ensuing
treaty the Nepalis had to cease their attacks on Tibet and pay tribute
to the Chinese emperor in Beijing; the payments continued until 1912.
The
expanding Nepali boundaries, by this time stretching all the way from
Kashmir to Sikkim, eventually put it on a collision course with the
world's most powerful empire, the British Raj. Despite early treaties
with the British, disputes over the Terai led to the first Anglo-Nepali
war, which the British won after a two-year fight. The British were so
impressed by their enemy that they decided to incorporate Gurkha
mercenaries into their own army.
The 1816 Sugauli treaty called a
halt to Nepal's expansion and laid down its modern boundaries. Nepal
lost Sikkim, Kumaon, Garhwal and much of the Terai, though some of this
land was restored to Nepal in 1858 in return for support given to the
British during the Indian Mutiny (Indian War of Independence). A British
resident was sent to Kathmandu to keep an eye on things but the Raj
knew that it would be too difficult to colonise the impossible hill
terrain, preferring to keep Nepal as a buffer state. Nepalis to this day
are proud that their country was never colonised by the British, unlike
the neighbouring hill states of India.
Following its humiliating
defeat, Nepal cut itself off from all foreign contact from 1816 until
1951. The British residents in Kathmandu were the only Westerners to set
eyes on Nepal for more than a century.
On the cultural front,
temple construction continued impressively, though perhaps of more
import to ordinary people was the introduction, via India, of chillis,
potatoes, tobacco and other New World crops.
The Shah rulers,
meanwhile, swung from ineffectual to seriously deranged. At one point
the kingdom was governed by a twelve-year-old female regent, in charge
of a nine-year-old king! One particularly sadistic ruler, Crown Prince
Surendra, expanded the horizons of human suffering by ordering subjects
to jump down wells or ride off cliffs, just to see whether they would
die.
The death of Prithvi
Narayan Shah in 1775 set in motion a string of succession struggles,
infighting, assassinations, feuding and intrigue that culminated in the
Kot Massacre in 1846. This bloody night was engineered by the young
Chhetri noble, Jung Bahadur; it catapulted his family into power and
sidelined the Shah dynasty.
Ambitious and ruthless, Jung Bahadur
organised (with the queen's consent) for his soldiers to massacre
several hundred of the most important men in the kingdom - noblemen,
soldiers and courtiers - while they were assembled in the Kot courtyard
adjoining Kathmandu's Durbar Square. He then exiled 6000 members of
their familles to prevent revenge attacks.
Jung Bahadur took the
title of Prime Minister and changed his family name to the more
prestigious Rana. He later extended his title to maharajah (king) and
decreed it hereditary. The Ranas became a second 'royal family' within
the kingdom and held the reins of power - the Shah kings became listless
figureheads, requiring permission even to leave their palace.
The
hereditary family of Rana prime ministers held power for more than a
century, eventually intermarrying with the Shahs. Development in Nepal
stagnated, although the country did manage to preserve its independence.
Only on rare occasions were visitors allowed into Nepal.
Jung
Bahadur Rana travelled to Europe in 1850, attended the opera and the
races at Epsom, and brought back a taste for neoclassical architecture,
examples of which can be seen in Kathmandu today. To the Ranas' credit,
sati (the Hindu practice of casting a widow on her husband's funeral
pyre) was abolished in 1920, 60, 000 slaves were released from bondage
and a school and a college were established in Kathmandu. But while the
Ranas and their relations lived lives of opulent luxury, the peasants in
the hills were locked in a medieval existence.
Modernisation
began to dawn on Kathmandu with the opening of the Bir Hospital, Nepal's
first, in 1889, the first piped water system, limited electricity and
the construction of the huge Singha Durbar palace. In 1923 Britain
formally acknowledged Nepal's independence and in 1930 the kingdom of
Gorkha was renamed the kingdom of Nepal, reflecting a growing sense of
national consciousness.
The arrival of the Indian railway line at
the Nepali border greatly aided the transportation of goods but sounded
a death knell for the caravan trade that bartered Nepali grain and rice
for Tibetan salt. The transborder trade suffered another setback when
the British opened a second, more direct trade route with Tibet through
Sikkim's Chumbi Valley (the real nail in the coffin came in 1966, when
the Chinese closed the border to local trade).
Elsewhere in the
region dramatic changes were taking place. The Nepalis supplied
logistical help during Britain's invasion of Tibet in 1903, and over
300, 000 Nepalis fought in WWI and WWII, garnering a total of 13
Victoria Crosses - Britain's highest military honour - for their
efforts.
After WWII, India gained its independence and the
communist revolution took place in China. Tibetan refugees fled into
Nepal in the first of several waves when the new People's Republic of
China tightened its grip on Tibet, and Nepal became a buffer zone
between the two rival Asian giants. At the same time King Tribhuvan,
forgotten in his palace, was being primed to overthrow the Ranas.
In
1989, as communist states across Europe crumbled and pro democracy
demonstrations occupied China's Tiananmen Square, Nepali opposition
parties formed a coalition to fight for a multiparty democracy with the
king as constitutional head; the upsurge of protest was called the Jana
Andolan, or People's Movement.
In early 1990 the government
responded to a nonviolent gathering of over 200,000 people with bullets,
tear gas and thousands of arrests. After several months of intermittent
rioting, curfews, a successful strike, and pressure from various
foreign-aid donors, the government was forced to back down. The people's
victory did not come cheaply; it is estimated that more than 300 people
lost their lives.
On 9 April King Birendra announced he was
lifting the ban on political parties. On 16 April he asked the
opposition to lead an interim government, and announced his readiness to
accept the role of constitutional monarch. Nepal was a democracy
- Democracy & the Maoist uprising
In
May 1991, 20 parties contested a general election for a 205-seat
parliament. The Nepali Congress won power with around 38% of the vote.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) won 28%,
and the next largest party, the United People's Front, 5%.
In
the years immediately following the election, the political atmosphere
remained uneasy. In April 1992 a general strike degenerated into street
violence between protesters and police, and resulted in a number of
deaths.
In late 1994 the Nepali Congress government, led by GP
Koirala (brother of BP Koirala) called a midterm election. No party won a
clear mandate, and a coalition formed between the CPN-UML and the third
major party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the old panchayats,
with the support of the Nepali Congress. This was one of the few times
in the world that a communist government had come to power by popular
vote.
Political stability did not last long, and the late 1990s
were littered with dozens of broken coalitions, dissolved governments
and sacked politicians.
In 1996 the Maoists (of the Communist
Party of Nepal), fed up with government corruption, the failure of
democracy to deliver improvements to the people, and the dissolution of
the Communist government, declared a 'people's war'. The insurgency
began in the poor regions of the far west and gathered momentum, but was
generally ignored by the politicians. The repercussions of this
nonchalance finally came to a head in November 2001 when the Maoists
broke their ceasefire and an army barracks was attacked west of
Kathmandu. After a decade of democracy it seemed increasing numbers of
people, particularly young Nepalis and those living in the countryside,
were utterly disillusioned.
On
1 June 2001 the Nepali psyche was dealt a huge blow when Crown Prince
Dipendra gunned down almost every member of the royal family during a
get-together in Kathmandu. A monarch who had steered the country through
some extraordinarily difficult times was gone. When the shock of this
loss subsided the uncertainty of what lay ahead hit home.
The
beginning of the 21st century saw the political situation in the country
turn from bad to worse. Prime ministers were sacked and replaced in
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, making a total of nine
governments in 10 years. The fragile position of Nepali politicians is
well illustrated by Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was appointed prime minister
for the second time in 2001, before being dismissed in 2002, reinstated
in 2004, sacked again in 2005, thrown in jail on corruption charges and
then released! Against such a background, modern politics in Nepal has
become more about personal enrichment than public service.
Several
Maoist truces, notably in 2003 and 2005, offered some respite, though
these reflected as much a need to regroup and rearm as they did any move
towards a lasting peace. By 2005 nearly 13, 000 people, including many
civilians, had been killed in the insurgency, more than half of them
since the army joined the struggle in 2001. Amnesty International
accused both sides of horrific human-rights abuses, including
executions, abductions, torture and child conscription.
The
Maoist insurgency has, ironically, only worsened the plight of the rural
poor by diverting much-needed government funds away from development
and causing aid programmes to suspend activity due to security concerns.
Until there is real social change and economic development in the
countryside, the frustrations fuelling Nepal's current insurgency look
set only to continue.
Nepal's 12-year experiment with democracy
faced a major setback in October 2002 when the sour-faced King
Gyanendra, frustrated with the political stalemate and the continued
delay in holding national elections, dissolved the government. Gyanendra
again dissolved the government in February 2005, amid a state of
emergency, promising a return to democracy within three years. The
controversial king has not been helped by his dissolute son (and heir)
Paras, who has allegedly been involved in several drunken hit-and-run
car accidents, one of which killed a popular Nepali singer.
Entry
into the World Trade Organisation in 2004 and the creation of the
regional South Asian free trade agreement in 2006 may offer some
long-term economic advances but the country remains deeply dependent on
foreign aid, which makes up 25% of the state budget and over two-thirds
of Nepal's total development budget. The aid industry has come under
increased criticism for failing to generate the economic and social
development that had been expected. Recent years have seen a move away
from the megaprojects of the 1960s and '70s to smaller-scale community
cooperation and microfinancing.
Everything changed in April 2006,
when parlimentary democracy was grudgingly restored by the king,
following days of mass demonstrations, curfews and the deaths of 16
protestors. The next month the newly restored parliament reduced the
king to a figurehead, ending powers the royal Shah lineage had enjoyed
for over 200 years.
The removal of the king was the price
required to bring the Maoists to the negotiating table and a peace
accord was signed later that year, drawing a close to the bloody
decade-long insurgency. The pace of political change in Nepal was
remarkable. The Maoists achieved a majority in the elections of 10 April
2008 and a month later parliament abolished the monarchy by a margin of
560 votes to four, ending 240 years of royal rule. Former Maoist
‘terrorists’ became cabinet ministers, members of the People’s
Liberation Army joined the national army and an interim constitution was
drafted to help bind the former guerrillas into the political
mainstream. A renewed optimism in the political process was palpable
throughout Nepal.
By 2008 a new government was formed, with
former guerrilla leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known by his nom de guerre
Prachanda, which means ‘the Fierce’) as prime minister and Dr Baburam
Bhattarai as finance minister. Ironically the ‘People’s’ armed struggle
was led by two high-caste intellectuals.
There has still been
plenty of potential for political instability. Calls for greater
representation by groups such as the Madhesi of the Terai (who make up
35% of the population and live in the most productive and industrialised
part of country) have resulted in a familiar pattern of economic
blockades and political violence, and are only the beginning of many
more possible claims. Political violence has continued to simmer in the
Terai. The wounds of the People’s War will take a long time to heal.
Over 1000 Nepalis remain unaccounted for, victims of political
‘disappearance’ or simple murder and finding justice for these crimes
may prove elusive.
Moreover, after 40 years and over US$4 billion
in aid (60% of its development budget) Nepal has remained one of the
world’s poorest countries, with seven million Nepalis lacking adequate
food or basic health and education. Nepal has one of the lowest health
spending levels and the third-highest infant mortality rate in the
world. The majority of Nepalis have continued stoically with their rural
lives but until the government delivers on real social change and
economic development in the countryside, the frustrations that fuelled
Nepal’s recent political violence will remain unresolved.