Nepal's recorded history stretches back to around the 9th century BC, when the Kirat people first ruled the region. For centuries, the country existed as a patchwork of small kingdoms rather than one unified state:
- The Newars ruled the Kathmandu Valley
- The Kirats held the eastern hills
- The Gurungs and Magars controlled the mid-west
Licchavi and Thakuri Periods
In the 1st century AD, the Licchavi dynasty conquered the Kirat kingdoms and ruled until roughly the 9th century AD. This period is considered a high point for Nepali art and architecture: wood carving, stone sculpture, and temple building all flourished, and many structures still standing in Nepal today trace back to this era.
The Thakuri dynasty followed the Licchavis and held power until around the 13th century.
Malla Period
The Malla dynasty took power around 1200 AD and ruled the Kathmandu Valley for over 500 years. Like the Licchavi period before it, Malla rule produced a lasting flourishing of art and culture, including much of the temple architecture still visible in Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur today.
Unification Under the Shah Dynasty
King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha ended Malla rule in 1768 to 1769. Wary of British colonial expansion in India, he set out to unify Nepal's small, scattered kingdoms into a single state, a process that laid the foundation for the modern country's borders.
The Rana Regime
In the mid-19th century, Jung Bahadur Rana seized absolute power and became Nepal's first hereditary prime minister, reducing the Shah kings to figureheads. The Rana family ruled the country for just over a century, until a democracy movement overthrew the regime in 1951.
From Democracy to the Panchayat System
A period of multiparty democracy followed the fall of the Ranas, but it was short-lived. In 1960, King Mahendra dismissed the elected government, banned political parties, and imposed direct royal rule. In 1962, this became the formal partyless "Panchayat" system, which concentrated power in the monarchy for the next three decades.
Return to Democracy, Civil War, and Republic
- 1990: The Jana Andolan (People's Movement) forced an end to the Panchayat system, restoring multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy
- 1996 to 2006: A Maoist insurgency, known as the People's War, spread through the countryside and led to a decade of civil conflict
- 2006: A Comprehensive Peace Accord formally ended the civil war, and the Maoists entered mainstream politics
- 2008: On May 28, the newly elected Constituent Assembly voted to abolish the monarchy, ending the roughly 240-year-old Shah dynasty and declaring Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic
- 2015: Nepal promulgated its current constitution, establishing the federal structure of seven provinces still in place today
Nepal in Brief
- Location: Between India and the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China
- Area: 147,181 square kilometers
- Capital: Kathmandu
- National bird: Himalayan monal, also called the Impeyan pheasant or Danphe
- National flower: Rhododendron arboreum, known locally as lali gurans
- National animal: Cow
- National color: Crimson red
- People: 125 ethnic groups, 123 languages, and 10 religions
- Political system: Federal Democratic Republic, multiparty democracy
- Vegetation: Ranges from subtropical rainforest in the lowlands to alpine desert at high altitude
- Climate: Tropical in the lowlands to arctic at the highest elevations
- Seasons: Winter (December to February), Spring (March to May), Summer/Monsoon (June to September), Autumn (September to November)