1.
Himalayas
–
The Himalayas, or Himalaya, form a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayan range has the Earths highest peaks, including the highest, the Himalayas include over a hundred mountains exceeding 7,200 metres in elevation. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia – Aconcagua, in the Andes – is 6,961 metres tall. The Himalayas are spread across five countries, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, the Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in the Himalayas. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia, many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate and its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the bend of the Tsangpo river. The range varies in width from 400 kilometres in the west to 150 kilometres in the east, the name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himā-laya, from himá and ā-laya. They are now known as the Himalaya Mountains, usually shortened to the Himalayas, formerly, they were described in the singular as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinsons poetry and Henry David Thoreaus essays. The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi, the Himalaya or The Land of Snow in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range in Urdu, the flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice, the amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of altitude, rainfall and soil conditions combined with the high snow line supports a variety of distinct plant. The extremes of high altitude combined with extreme cold favor extremophile organisms, the unique floral and faunal wealth of the Himalayas is undergoing structural and compositional changes due to climate change. The increase in temperature is shifting various species to higher elevations, the oak forest is being invaded by pine forests in the Garhwal Himalayan region. There are reports of early flowering and fruiting in some species, especially rhododendron, apple. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is Juniperus tibetica located at 4,900 metres in Southeastern Tibet, the Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock
2.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
3.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
4.
Nepali language
–
Nepali, originally known as Khas Kura, Parbate Bhasa or Gorkhali, is an Indo-Aryan language. It is the language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal. It is also spoken in parts of India, particularly by Indian Gorkha. In India, Nepali language is listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India having a status in the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepali developed in proximity to a number of Indo-Aryan languages, most notably the Pahari languages and Magahi, however, owing to Nepals geographical area, it has also been influenced by Tibeto-Burman languages. Nepali is mainly differentiated from Central Pahari, both in grammar and vocabulary, by Tibeto-Burman idioms owing to close contact with the language group. Nepali language shares 40% lexical similarity with the Bengali language, in the nineteenth century, the British resident at Kathmandu Brian Houghton Hodgson observed that it was, in eight-tenths of its vocabulary, substantially Hindi. Historically, the language was first called the Khas language, then Gorkhali or Gurkhali before the term Nepali was adopted, in 1920, during Rana regime in Nepal, the term Nepal which resembled the Nepal Mandala was taken from its people. Soon after that, Nepal Bhasa was renamed into Newari and Parbate/Khas language took over as Nepali language, other names include Parbatiya and Dzongkha Lhotshammikha. It is also known as the Khey language or Partya language among the Newar people and Pahari language among Madhesi, however, due to protests for identity, Newars have restored their languages name as Nepal Bhasa and voices have been raise to re-instate Parbate language in its original name. Nepali developed a significant literature within a period of a hundred years in the 19th century. This literary explosion was fueled by Adhyatma Ramayana, Sundarananda Bara, Birsikka, a collection of folk tales. The contribution of trio-laureates Lekhnath Paudyal, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, the contribution of expatriate writers outside Nepal, especially in Darjeeling and Varanasi in India, is also notable. In the past decade, there have been many contributions to Nepali literature from the Nepali diaspora in Asia, Europe, America, according to the 2011 national census,44.6 percent of the population of Nepal speaks Nepali as a first language. The Ethnologue website reports 12,300,000 speakers within Nepal, Nepali is traditionally spoken in the Hill Region of Nepal, especially in the western part of the country. Although the Newar language dominated the Kathmandu valley, Nepali is currently the most dominant, Nepali is used in government and as the everyday language of a growing portion of the local population. Nevertheless, the use of Nepali in the courts and government of Nepal is being challenged. Recognition of other languages in Nepal was one of the objectives of the Communist Party of Nepals long war
5.
Constituent assembly
–
The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789 during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly, the Estates-General of 1789, made up of representatives of the three estates, which had not been convoked since 1614, convened on 5 May 1789. The Estates-General reached a deadlock in its deliberations by 6 May, the representatives of the Third Estate attempted to make the whole body more effective and so met separately from 11 May as the Communes. On 12 June, the Communes invited the other Estates to join them, on 17 June 1789, the Communes approved the motion made by Sieyès that declared themselves the National Assembly by a vote of 490 to 90. The Third Estate now believed themselves to be an authority equal to that of the King. A legislative and political agenda unfolded, there were soon attempts by King Louis XVI and the Second Estate to prevent the delegates from meeting, as well as misunderstandings on both sides about each others intentions. Failing to disperse the delegates, Louis started to recognize their validity on 27 June, the Assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter. However, it is common to refer to the body even after then as the National Assembly or the Constituent Assembly, following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. In the words of historian François Mignet, The assembly had acquired the power, the corporations depended on it. The royal power, though existing of right, was in a suspended, since it was not obeyed. The number of the Estates-General increased significantly during the election period, according to Timothy Tackett, there were a total of 1,177 deputies in the Assembly by mid-July 1789. Among them,278 belonged to the nobility,295 to the clergy, for the entire duration of the Assembly, a total of 1,315 deputies were certified,330 clerics,322 nobles, and 663 deputies of the Third Estate. Tackett noted that the majority of the Second Estate had a background. In the early period, its most notable leaders included Honoré Mirabeau, the Marquis de Lafayette, lameths brother Charles also belonged to this group. For a partial list of members of the National Constituent Assembly, in the summer of 1791, the National Constituent Assembly decided that the king needed to be restored to the throne if he accepted the constitution. The decision was made after the failed attempt to flee to Varennes. That decision enraged many Parisians into protesting, and one major protest devolved into the Champ de Mars Massacre, after surviving the vicissitudes of a revolutionary two years, the National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on 30 September 1791. The following day, the Constitution of 1791 went into effect and this article incorporates text from the public domain History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet, as made available by Project Gutenberg
6.
Monarchy
–
The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
7.
Shah dynasty
–
The Shah dynasty was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Gorkha until 1768 and of the Kingdom of Nepal from 1768 to 28 May 2008. According to legends, one of the earliest Shah rulers was Rishi-raj Rana-ji and he was made ruler of Chittorgarh and received the title of Bhattarak. The lunar dynasty remained in power for thirteen generations, then, the Muslim Yavanas took power. The Bhattarak had to abdicate and could retain his caste family name. The rajas were titled Rana-ji for four generations and Rana-ji Rava for a further seventeen generations, akbar, the Mughal emperor, wished to marry the daughter of Fatte Sinha Rana-ji Rava. Akbar was refused because he was of an unsatisfactory caste, many rajput, including Fatte Sinha Rana-ji Rava, were killed. The survivors of the war were led by Udaybam Rana-ji Rava, manmath Rana-ji Rava went to Ujjain. His son went to Ridi in the hills and in 1417 AD, to Sargha. The new ruler of Khium had sons, Kancha and Micha, plans for the boys to marry the daughters of the Raghibanshi Rajputs were made. Kancha, the son went to Dhor. He conquered Mangart and reigned over Garhon, Sathum and Birkot, Micha, the younger son, went to Nuwakot in the far west and became ruler there. From Micha, a dynasty of seven rajas commenced in Nuwakot, kumandan, the eldest son of Jagdeva, became ruler of Kaski. He was favoured and became Sah and succeeded his father, kalu, the second son was sent to Dura Danda in Lamjung at the peoples request to become their king. Kalu was killed by the Sekhant tribe, in the 1500s, another son, Yasobramha, became the ruler of Lamjung. The descendants of Yasobramha conquered the Ghale people of neighbouring Ligligkot, Dravya Shah was the first Shah king of Gorkha. Previously, the local Ghale people had chosen their king from the winners of a running race. Dravya Shah was not a physically robust man but he tricked his way to the win and he was backed by the Bhattarai, Aryal, Adhikari, Pant and Acharya clans who were Brahmin. By 1570, when Dravya Shah died, the race was
8.
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
The region is named after the Indus and the Ganges, and encompasses a number of large urban areas. The Indus-Ganga plain is bound on the north by the Himalayas which feed its numerous rivers and are the source of the alluvium deposited across the region by the two river systems. The southern edge of the plain is marked by the Chota Nagpur Plateau, on the west rises the Iranian Plateau. The region is known for the Indus Valley Civilization, which was responsible for the birth of ancient South Asian culture, during the Vedic and Epic eras of Indian history, this region was referred to as Aryavarta. According to Manusmṛti, Aryavarta is the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern Sea to the Western Sea. During the Islamic period, the Turkish, Afghan and Iranian rulers referred to this region as Hindustan, some geographers subdivide the Indo-Gangetic Plain into several parts, the Sindh, Punjab, Doab, and Bengal regions. This divide is only 300 metres above sea level, causing the perception that the Indus-Ganga Plain appears to be continuous between the two drainage basins, the middle Ganga plain extends from the Yamuna River in the west to the state of West Bengal in the east. The lower Ganges plain and the Assam Valley are more verdant than the middle Ganga plain, the lower Ganga is centered in West Bengal, from which it flows into Bangladesh. After joining the Jamuna, a distributary of Brahmaputra, both form the Ganges Delta. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River and flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as a large plain, the exact extent can vary from source to source. The fertile Terai region is the Nepalese extension of the Plain, the rivers encompassed are the Beas, the Chambal, the Chenab, the Ganga, the Gomti, the Indus, the Ravi, the Sutlej and the Yamuna. The soil is rich in silt, making the one of the most intensely farmed areas of the world. Even rural areas here are densely populated, the Indus-Ganga plains, also known as the Great Plains, are large floodplains of the Indus and the Ganga–Brahmaputra river systems. They run parallel to the Himalaya mountains, from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Assam in the east, the plains encompass an area of 700,000 km² and vary in width through their length by several hundred kilometres. The major rivers of this system are the Ganga and the Indus along with their tributaries, Beas, Yamuna, Gomti, Ravi, Chambal, Sutlej, extent of the Indo-Gangetic plain across South Asia. As the porosity of this belt is very high, the streams flow underground, the bhabar is generally narrow about 7–15 km wide. The Terai belt — lies next to the Bhabar region and is composed of newer alluvium, the underground streams reappear in this region. The region is excessively moist and thickly forested and it also receives heavy rainfall throughout the year and is populated with a variety of wildlife
9.
Sanskrit
–
Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
10.
Lepcha people
–
The Lepcha are also called the Rongkip meaning the chidren of God and the Rong, Mútuncí Róngkup Rumkup, and Rongpa, are among the indigenous peoples of Sikkim and number between 30,000 and 50,000. Many Lepcha are also found in western and southwestern Bhutan, Tibet, Darjeeling, the Mechi Zone of eastern Nepal, the word Lepcha is considered to be the anglicized version of the Nepalese word lepche meaning vile speakers or inarticulate speech. This was at first a nickname but is no longer seen as negative. The origin of the Lepcha is unknown and they speak a Tibeto-Burman language which some classify as Himalayish. Based on this, some anthropologists suggest they emigrated directly from Tibet to the north, while migrating westward through India, they are surmised to have passed through southern Bhutan before reaching their final destination near Kanchenjunga. In the Mechi Zone, they form 7% of the population of Ilam District, 2% in Panchthar District, in Sikkim as a whole they are considered to be around 15% of the population of the state. The Lepcha have their own language, also called Lepcha and it belongs to the Bodish–Himalayish group of Tibeto-Burman languages. The Lepcha write their language in their own script, called Róng or Lepcha script and it was developed between the 17th and 18th centuries, possibly by a Lepcha scholar named Thikúng Mensalóng, during the reign of the third Chogyal of Sikkim. The worlds largest collection of old Lepcha manuscripts is found with the Himalayan Languages Project in Leiden, Netherlands, Lepchas are divided into many clans, each of which reveres its own sacred lake and mountain peak from which the clan derives its name. While most Lepcha can identify their own clan, Lepcha clan names can be quite formidable, for example, Simíkmú and Fonyung Rumsóngmú may be shortened to Simik and Foning, respectively. Some of the name of the clans are Sada, Rongong, Karthakmu, Sungutmu, Phipon, Brimu, most Lepchas are Buddhist, a religion brought by the Bhutias from the north, although a large number of Lepchas have today adopted Christianity. Some Lepchas have not given up their religion, which is known as Mun. In practice, rituals from Mun and Buddhism are frequently observed alongside one another among some Lepchas, for example, ancestral mountain peaks are regularly honored in ceremonies called cú rumfát. According to the Nepal Census of 2001, out of the 3,660 Lepcha in Nepal,88. 80% were Buddhists and 7. 62% were Hindus, many Lepchas in the Hills of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong are Christians. The traditional clothing for Lepcha women is the ankle-length dumbun, also called dumdyám or gādā and it is one large piece of smooth cotton or silk, usually of a solid color. When it is worn, it is folded over one shoulder, pinned at the other shoulder, a contrasting long-sleeved blouse may be worn underneath. The traditional Lepcha clothing for men is the dumprá and it is a multicolored, hand-woven cloth pinned at one shoulder and held in place by a waistband, usually worn over a white shirt and trousers. Men wear a round cap called a thyáktuk, with stiff black velvet sides
11.
Manjushri
–
Mañjuśrī is a bodhisattva associated with prajñā in Mahayana Buddhism. In Tibetan Buddhism, he is also a yidam and his name means Gentle Glory in Sanskrit. Mañjuśrī is also known by the name of Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta, literally Mañjuśrī, Still a Youth or, less literally. Scholars have identified Mañjuśrī as the oldest and most significant bodhisattva in Mahāyāna literature, Mañjuśrī is first referred to in early Mahayana sutras such as the Prajnaparamita sutras and through this association very early in the tradition he came to symbolize the embodiment of prajñā. The Lotus Sutra assigns him a land called Vimala, which according to the Avatamsaka Sutra is located in the East. His pure land is predicted to be one of the two best pure lands in all of existence in all the past, present and future, when he attains buddhahood his name will be Universal Sight. In the Lotus Sūtra, Mañjuśrī also leads the Nagarajas daughter to enlightenment, an example of a wisdom teaching of Mañjuśrī can be found in the Saptaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra. This sūtra contains a dialogue between Mañjuśrī and the Buddha on the One Samadhi, constantly thus practicing, day or night, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down, finally one reaches an inconceivable state without any obstruction or form. This is the Samadhi of One Act, within Vajrayana Buddhism, Mañjuśrī is a meditational deity, and considered a fully enlightened Buddha. In Shingon Buddhism, he is one of the Thirteen Buddhas to whom disciples devote themselves and he figures extensively in many esoteric texts such as the Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa and the Mañjuśrīnāmasamgīti. His consort in some traditions is Saraswati, Mañjuśrī is depicted as a male bodhisattva wielding a flaming sword in his right hand, representing the realization of transcendent wisdom which cuts down ignorance and duality. The scripture supported by the padma held in his hand is a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra. Mañjuśrī is often depicted as riding on a lion, or sitting on the skin of a lion. This represents the use of wisdom to tame the mind, which is compared to riding or subduing a ferocious lion, in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art, Mañjuśrīs sword is sometimes replaced with a ruyi scepter, especially in representations of his Vimalakirti Sutra discussion with the layman Vimalakirti. According to Berthold Laufer, the first Chinese representation of a ruyi was in an 8th-century Mañjuśrī painting by Wu Daozi, in subsequent Chinese and Japanese paintings of Buddhas, a ruyi was occasionally represented as a padma with a long stem curved like a ruyi. He is one of the Four Great Bodhisattvas of Chinese Buddhism, in China, he is often paired with Samantabhadra. In Tibetan Buddhism, Mañjuśrī is sometimes depicted in a trinity with Avalokiteśvara and this syllabary was most widely used for the Gāndhārī language with the Kharoṣṭhī script, but also appears in some Sanskrit texts. In some of these texts, the Arapacana syllabary serves as a mnemonic for important Mahāyāna concepts, due to its association with him, Arapacana may even serve as an alternate name for Mañjuśrī
12.
Hinduism in Nepal
–
Hinduism is the major religion of Nepal. In the 2011 census, approximately 81, the national calendar of Nepal, Vikram Samvat, is a solar Hindu calendar essentially the same to that widespread in North India as a religious calendar, and is based on Hindu units of time. The geographical distribution of religious groups revealed a preponderance of Hindus, among Tibeto-Burman-speaking communities in Nepal, those most influenced by Hinduism are the Magars, Sunwar, and Rai peoples. He performed religious ceremonies at Teku, the confluence of the Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers, according to legend he selected a pious cowherd to be the first of the many kings of the Gopala Dynasty. These rulers are said to have ruled Nepal for over 500 years and he selected Bhuktaman to be the first king in the line of the Gopal Dynasty. The Silncan Gopal dynasty ruled for 621 years, yakshya Gupta was the last king of this dynasty. According to Skanda Purana, a rishi called Ne or Nemuni used to live in Himalaya, in the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a saint and a protector. He is said to have practiced penance at the Bagmati and Kesavati rivers, the pennant is an important Hindu flag that is help atop Hindu temples. It is believed that Lord Vishnu had organized the Nepali people and given them their flag, with the sun and moon as emblems on it. In a Hindu Purana, it is written that it was Lord Shiva who handed the flag to Lord Vishnu, many of the people regarded as Hindus in the 1981 census could also in some senses be called Buddhists. Hindus long have worshipped at Buddhist temples and Buddhists at Hindu temples, there are many temples where both Hindus and Buddhists can enter and worship. The figures are based on the Census 2011 of Nepal, NEG denotes newly listed ethnic group, for which 2001 census figures are not available. As seen from the 2001 and 2011 Census data, the percentage of Hindus have went up by 0. 72%, however, the overall trend remains largely negative. All the major racial group except the Sino/Tibetans showed a decline in the percentage of Hindus, among the Sino/Tibetans, the percentage of Hindus went up by 2. 37%, from 49. 74% to 52. 11%. Janakpur 99. 95% This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http, //lcweb2. loc. gov/frd/cs/
13.
Paleolithic
–
It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by Homo habilis initially,2.6 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP. The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic, the date of the Paleolithic–Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years. During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands, the Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers, however, due to their nature, surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths. About 50,000 years ago, there was a increase in the diversity of artifacts. For the first time in Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record, the first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. The new technology generated an explosion of modern humans which is believed to have led to the extinction of the Neanderthals. Humankind gradually evolved from members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis. The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures, by c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia. By c. 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe, by c. 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by c. 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed Beringia, the term Paleolithic was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives from Greek, παλαιός, palaios, old, and λίθος, lithos, stone, human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of anatomically modern humans as a distinct species. The Paleolithic Period coincides almost exactly with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time and this epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies. During the preceding Pliocene, continents had continued to drift from possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas. Africas collision with Asia created the Mediterranean Sea, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean, climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by a shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic. Mid-latitude glaciation probably began before the end of the epoch, the global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas
14.
Mesolithic
–
In archaeology, the Mesolithic is the culture between Paleolithic and Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used for areas outside northern Europe, Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BC, in the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term Mesolithic is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term Epipaleolithic may be preferred by most authors, in the New World, neither term is used. Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not, conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the Mesolithic. Therefore, care must be taken in translating Mesolithic as Middle Stone Age, subdivisions of earlier and later were added to the Stone Age by Thomsen and especially his junior colleague and employee Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. John Lubbock kept these divisions in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865 and he saw no need for an intermediate category. When Hodder Westropp introduced the Mesolithic in 1866, as an intermediate between Paleolithic and Neolithic, a storm of controversy immediately arose around it. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate, the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later, edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his discovery of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the Epipaleolithic, a continuation of the use of Paleolithic technology, the start and end dates of the Mesolithic vary by geographical region. Childes view prevails that the term covers the period between the end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Neolithic. If the Mesolithic is more similar to the Paleolithic it is called the Epipaleolithic, the Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred. Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting, others were practising the initial stages of domestication. The type of remains the diagnostic factor, The Mesolithic featured composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV and the Neolithic mainly abandoned the chipped microliths in favor of polished, not chipped, the first period, known as Mesolithic 1, followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries, small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts
15.
Neolithic
–
It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
16.
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
17.
Dravidian people
–
Dravidians are native speakers of any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 200 million native speakers of Dravidian languages and they form the majority of the population of South India. Dravidian-speaking people are found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh. Historically the word drāviḍa is used to denote the region of South India. In Prakrit, words such as Damela, Dameda, Dhamila and Damila evolved from Tamila could have used to denote an ethnic identity. Tamil has a tradition dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The third century BCE onwards saw the development of large Dravidian political states, Chola dynasty, Pandyan dynasty, Chera Dynasty and a number of smaller states. The Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukya Empire, Kakatiya dynasty, Hoysala Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire, the Chola Empire was one of the biggest maritime empires in medieval India, stretching from Southern India to Southeast Asia including Philippines, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia. Medieval Tamil guilds and trading organizations like the Ayyavole and Manigramam played an important role in the Southeast Asia trade, traders and religious leaders travelled to Southeast Asia and played an important role in the cultural Indianisation of the region. Locally developed scripts such as Grantha and Pallava script induced the development of many scripts such as Khmer, Javanese Kawi script, Baybayin. Certain communities of Marathis from Maharashtra are considered as Scytho-Dravidians, Dravidian visual art is dominated by stylised Temple architecture in major centres, and the production of images of stone and bronze sculptures. The Nataraja sculpture from the Chola period, has become notable as a symbol of Hinduism, the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is used to denote the geographical region of South India. Southern Brahmins are known as Pancha Dravida while northern Brahmins are known as Pancha Gauda, in Prakrit, words such as Damela, Dameda, Dhamila and Damila, which later evolved into Tamila, could have been used to denote an ethnic identity. The Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga ruler Kharavela refers to a Tmira samghata dated to 150 BCE and it also mentions that the league of Tamil kingdoms had been in existence for 113 years by that time. In Amaravati in present-day Andhra Pradesh there is an inscription referring to a Dhamila-vaniya datable to the 3rd century CE, another inscription of about the same time in Nagarjunakonda seems to refer to a Damila. A third inscription in Kanheri Caves refers to a Dhamila-gharini, in the Buddhist Jataka story known as Akiti Jataka there is a mention to Damila-rattha. Thamizhar is etymologically related to Tamil, the language spoken by Tamil people, southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miz > tam-iz self-speak, or ones own speech. Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iz, with tam meaning self or ones self, alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiz < tam-iz < *tav-iz < *tak-iz, meaning in origin the proper process
18.
Bronze Age
–
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
19.
Tibeto-Burman
–
The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, namely Burmese and the Tibetic languages. These languages also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively, most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail. Some taxonomies divide Sino-Tibetan into Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman branches, however, other scholars deny that Tibeto-Burman comprises a monophyletic group. Van Driem argues that the Sino-Tibetan family should be called Tibeto-Burman, others exclude a relationship with Chinese altogether. During the 18th century, several scholars noticed parallels between Tibetan and Burmese, both languages with extensive literary traditions, others identified related languages in the highlands of southeast Asia and southwest China. The name Tibeto-Burman was first applied to this group in 1856 by James Logan, the third volume of the Linguistic Survey of India was devoted to the Tibeto-Burman languages of British India. Julius Klaproth had noted in 1823 that Burmese, Tibetan and Chinese all shared common basic vocabulary, several authors, including Ernst Kuhn in 1883 and August Conrady in 1896, described an Indo-Chinese family consisting of two branches, Tibeto-Burman and Chinese-Siamese. The Tai languages were included on the basis of vocabulary and typological features shared with Chinese, jean Przyluski introduced the term sino-tibétain as the title of his chapter on the group in Antoine Meillet and Marcel Cohens Les Langues du Monde in 1924. The Tai languages have not been included in most Western accounts of Sino-Tibetan since the Second World War, the link to Chinese is now accepted by most linguists, with a few exceptions such as Roy Andrew Miller and Christopher Beckwith. More recent controversy has centred on the proposed primary branching of Sino-Tibetan into Chinese, most of the Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in inaccessible mountain areas and many are unwritten, which has greatly hampered their study. It is generally easier to identify a language as Tibeto-Burman than to determine its precise relationship with other languages of the group. These subgroups are here surveyed on a geographical basis, the southernmost group are the Karen languages, spoken by three million people on both sides of the Burma–Thailand border. They differ from all other Tibeto-Burman languages in having a word order, attributed to contact with Tai–Kadai. The most widely spoken Tibeto-Burman language is Burmese, the language of Myanmar, with over 32 million speakers. All languages of the Loloish subgroup show significant Austroasiatic influence, the Pai-lang songs, transcribed in Chinese characters in the 1st century, appear to record words from a Lolo-Burmese language, but arranged in Chinese order. The Tibeto-Burman languages of southwest China have been influenced by Chinese over a long period. The grouping of the Bai language, with one million speakers in Yunnan, is particularly controversial, the Naxi language of northern Yunnan is usually included in Lolo-Burmese, though other scholars prefer to leave it unclassified. The hills of northwestern Sichuan are home to the small Qiangic and Rgyalrongic groups of languages, the most easterly Tibeto-Burman language is Tujia, spoken in the Wuling Mountains on the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing
20.
Indo-Aryan peoples
–
Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse Indo-European ethnolinguistic group of speakers of Indo-Aryan languages. There are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia and these migrations started approximately 1,800 BCE, after the invention of the war chariot, and also brought Indo-Aryan languages into the Levant and possibly Inner Asia. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the proto-Indo-Iranians were influenced by the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, from which they borrowed their distinctive religious beliefs and practices. The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800-1600 BCE from the Iranians, whereafter the Indo-Aryans migrated into the Levant, horseplay at Harappa - People Fas Harvard - Harvard University A tale of two horses - Frontline
21.
Tharu people
–
The Tharu people are an ethnic group indigenous to the southern foothills of the Himalayas, most of the Tharu people live in the Nepal Terai. Some Tharu groups also live in the Indian Terai, foremost in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, the Tharus are recognized as an official nationality by the Government of Nepal. The Government of India recognizes the Tharu people as a scheduled tribe, as of 2011, the Tharu population of Nepal was censused at 1,737,470 people, or 6. 6% of the total population. In 2009, the majority of Tharu people were estimated to live in Nepal, in 2001, Tharu people were the largest of five scheduled tribes in Uttarakhand, with a population of 256,129 accounting for 33. 4% of all scheduled tribes. In the same year, they constituted 77. 4% of the tribal population of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 83,544. The Tharu people themselves say that they are a people of the forest, in Chitwan, they have lived in the forests for hundreds of years practicing a short fallow shifting cultivation. The Tharus never went abroad for employment – a life that kept them isolated in their own localities, in this isolation they developed a unique culture free from the influence of adjacent India, or from the mountain groups of Nepal. Much of the design is rooted in devotional activities and passed on from one generation to the next. The Deukheri Tharu are known for their colorful, shell and/or feather decorated basketry, in the western Terai, most Rana Tharu prefer living in Badaghar called longhouses with big families of many generations, sometimes 40-50 people. All household members pool their labor force, contribute their income, share the expenditure, Tharus from the mid west and far west of Nepal have been practicing the Badghar system, where a Badghar is elected chief of a village or a small group of villages for a year. The election generally takes place in the month of Magh, after celebrating the Maghi Festival, in most cases, each household in the village which engages in farming has one voting right for electing a Badghar. Thus the election is based on a count of households count rather than a headcount, the role of the Badghar is to work for the welfare of the village. The Badghar direct the villagers to repair canals or streets when needed and they also oversee and manages the cultural traditions of the villages. They have an authority of punishing those who do not follow their orders or who go against the welfare of the village, generally the Badghar has a Chaukidar to help him. With the consent of the villagers the Badghar may appoint aGuruwa who is the medic, as Tharus society is mainly involved in farming, irrigation is one of the most important aspects of the community. Tharus in western Nepal built canals that irrigate thousands of hectares of land, hundreds of years ago, without using any sophisticated tools, they built hundreds of kilometers of irrigation canals in the Kailali and Bardiya districts of Nepal. An irrigation canal could be used by several villages and its water and diversion works need to be managed fairly. For this purpose, the Badghars of different villages elect a person for the position of Chaudhary to manage a canal system, when needed, the Chaudhary orders the Badghars to send people to repair or build the canals
22.
Austro-Asiatic
–
The name Austroasiatic comes from the Latin words for south and Asia, hence South Asia. Of these languages, only Vietnamese, Khmer, and Mon have a recorded history. On the subnational level, Khasi has official status in Meghalaya while Santali, Ho, in Myanmar, the Wa language is the de facto official language of Wa State. The rest of the languages are spoken by minority groups and have no official status and these form thirteen established families, which have traditionally been grouped into two, as Mon–Khmer and Munda. However, one recent classification posits three groups while another has abandoned Mon–Khmer as a taxon altogether, making it synonymous with the larger family, Austroasiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Southeast Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. They appear to be the languages of Southeast Asia, with the neighboring Indo-Aryan, Tai–Kadai, Dravidian, Austronesian. The Austroasiatic languages are known for having a sesquisyllabic pattern, with basic nouns. Many of them also have infixes, languages in the Pearic branch and some in the Vietic branch can have a three- or even four-way voicing contrast. However, some Austroasiatic languages have lost the register contrast by evolving more diphthongs or in a few cases, such as Vietnamese, much work has been done on the reconstruction of Proto-Mon–Khmer in Harry L. Shortos Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary. Little work has been done on the Munda languages, which are not well documented, with their demotion from a primary branch, Proto-Mon–Khmer becomes synonymous with Proto-Austroasiatic. Paul Sidwell reconstructs the consonant inventory of Proto-Mon–Khmer as follows, This is identical to earlier reconstructions except for *ʄ, *ʄ is better preserved in the Katuic languages, which Sidwell has specialized in. However, no evidence for classification has ever been published. Each of the families that is written in boldface type below is accepted as a valid clade, by contrast, the relationships between these families within Austroasiatic is debated. In addition to the classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accept traditional Mon–Khmer as a valid unit. However, little of the used for competing classifications has ever been published. He therefore takes the view that the thirteen branches of Austroasiatic should be treated as equidistant on current evidence. Sidwell & Blench discuss this proposal in detail, and note that there is good evidence for a Khasi–Palaungic node. If this would the case, Sidwell & Blench suggest that Khasic may have been an offshoot of Palaungic that had spread westward
23.
Terai
–
The Terai is a lowland region in southern Nepal and northwestern India that lies south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by tall grasslands, scrub savannah, sal forests, in northern India, the Terai spreads from the Yamuna River eastward across Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Terai is part the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion, the corresponding lowland region in West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Assam in the Brahmaputra River basin is called Dooars. In Nepal, the Terai lies at an altitude of between 67 and 300 m and comprises more than 50 wetlands, north of the Terai rises the Bhabhar, a narrow but continuous belt of forest about 8–12 km wide. In Hindi the region is called तराई, tarāī meaning foot-hill, in Nepali, the region is called तराइ tarāi meaning the low-lying land, plain and especially the low-lying land at the foot of the Himālayas. The regions name in Urdu is ترائي tarāʼī meaning lands lying at the foot of a watershed or on the banks of a river, low ground flooded with water, valley, basin, marshy ground, marsh, swamp, meadow. Medium rivers such as the Rapti rise in the Mahabharat Range, the geological structure of the region consists of old and new alluvium, both of which constitute alluvial deposits of mainly sand, clay, silt, gravels and coarse fragments. The new alluvium is renewed every year by fresh deposits brought down by active streams, old alluvium is found rather away from river courses, especially on uplands of the plain where silting is a rare phenomenon. A large number of small and usually seasonal rivers flow through the Terai, the soil in the Terai is alluvial and fine to medium textured. Forest cover in the Terai and hill areas has decreased at a rate of 1. 3% between 1978 and 1979, and 2. 3% between 1990 and 1991. With deforestation and cultivation increasing, a mixture of gravel, boulders and sand evolves. The reduction in slope as rivers exit the hills and then transition from the sloping Bhabhar to the nearly level Terai causes current to slow and this deposition process creates multiple channels with shallow beds, enabling massive floods as monsoon-swollen rivers overflow their low banks and shift channels. Many areas show erosion such as gullies, there are several differences between the climate on the western edge of the Terai at Chandigarh in India and at Biratnagar in Nepal near the eastern edge. Moving inland and away from sources in the Bay of Bengal. In the far western Terai, which is five degrees latitude further north, total rainfall markedly diminishes from east to west. The monsoon arrives later, is less intense and ends sooner. However, winters are wetter in the west, in India, the Terai extends over the states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Inner Terai refers to the valleys in the lowlands of southern Nepal located between the Mahabharat and Shivalik ranges
24.
Kirati people
–
The Kirat or Kirati or Kiranti or Kirant people are indigenous ethnic groups of the Himalayas extending eastward from Nepal into India, Bangladesh, Burma and beyond. They migrated to their present locations via Assam, Burma, Tibet and their languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The original inhabitants of the Dooars region of India, the Koch Rajbongshi and Mech and they derive their titles from the original place of their dwelling, Koch from the Koshi river, Mech from the Mechi River and Kachari is derived from Kachar, which means river basin. The basis of these claims relies on the fact that they are Mongoloids, the source of the word Kirat or Kirati is much disputed. One school of thought says that it comes from the Sanskrit word Kirata found in the Yajurveda, they are described as the mountain people. It is also described as Chinese in the Mahabharata, Kirtarjuniya, there are four different groups of Kirati tribes, including Himalayan Kiratis, Tibetan-Himalayan, Khas-Kiratis and the Kacharis of South Asian region. Their populations are such largest comparing to any ethnic groups of South Asia. C. According to Gopalvansavali,32 Kirat Kings ruled in the Kathmandu valley for 1963 years 8 months, the Lichhavi dynasty dethroned the Kirat rulers in 158AD. This means that Kirat King Yalambars reign started BC1779.8, if we calculate current 2017 +1779.8 =3796 is the Kirati new year in Maghe Sakranti in AD2017. New year is celebrated in Maghe Sakranti which is around mid-January, kirātas are mentioned in early Sanskrit literature as hunter tribes from the Himalayas. They are first mentioned in the Yajurveda, and in the Atharvaveda and they are often mentioned along with the Cinas Chinese. Hindu myth also has many incidents where the god Shiva imitates a married Kirati girl who later become Parvati. In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5, Rama speaks of kirāteneva vāgurā a trap by Kiratas, so about 10th century BCE, they were thought of as jungle trappers, the ones who dug pits to capture roving deer. The same text also speaks of King Suraghu, the head of the Kiratas who is a friend of the Persian King, another wave of political and cultural conflict between Khas and Kirat ideals surfaced in the Kirat region of present-day Nepal during the last quarter of the 18th century. A collection of manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, till now unpublished and unstudied by historians, have made possible a new understanding of this conflict. For over two millennia, a portion of the eastern Himalaya has been identified as the home of the Kirat people, of which the majority are known today as Limbu, Newar, Sunuwar, Rai. In ancient times, the entire Himalayan region was known as the Kimpurusha Desha and these people were also known as Nep, to which the name Nepala and Newar are believed to have an etymological link. The earliest references to the Kirat as principal inhabitants of the Himalayan region are found in the texts of Atharvashirsha and Mahabharata, for over a millennium, the Kirat had also inhabited the Kathmandu Valley, where they installed their own ruling dynasty
25.
Tibet
–
Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
26.
Valmiki
–
Valmiki is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic Ramayana, dated variously from 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him and he is revered as Ādi Kavi, writer of Ramayana. Ramayana, originally written by Valmiki, consists of 24,000 shlokas and 7 cantos including Uttara Kanda, Ramayana is composed of about 480,002 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of Mahabharata or about four times the length of Iliad. Ramayana tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon-king of Lanka, the Valmiki Ramayana is dated variously from 500 BC to 100 BC or about co-eval with early versions of Mahabharata. As with many traditional epics, it has gone through a process of interpolations and redactions, Valmiki is also quoted to be the contemporary of Rama. Rama met Valmiki during his period of exile and interacted with him, Valmiki gave shelter to Sita in his hermitage when Rama banished her. Kusha and Lava, the sons of Shri Rama were born to Sita in this hermitage. Later, he summoned them to his royal palace, kusha and Lava sang the story of Rama there and Rama confirmed that whatever had been sung by these two children was entirely true. Valmiki was born as Ratnakkardah, One day, he met the great sage Narada who questioned him of his duty, moved by Naradas words, Ratnakara began to perform penance and chanted the word Mara which meant kill. As he performed his penance for years, the word became Rama. Huge anthills formed around Ratnakara and this earned him the name of Valmiki, Narada declared Ratnakara to be a great Sage and Brahmin, a member of the high caste. Ratnakara, rechristened as Valmiki, learnt the scriptures from Narada and became the foremost of ascetics, Valmiki was going to the river Ganges for his daily ablutions. A disciple by the name Bharadwaja was carrying his clothes, on the way, they came across the Tamasa Stream. Looking at the stream, Valmiki said to his disciple, Look, how clear is this water, when he was looking for a suitable place to step into the stream, he saw a crane couple mating. Valmiki felt very pleased on seeing the happy birds, suddenly, hit by an arrow, the male bird died on the spot. Filled by sorrow, its mate screamed in agony and died of shock, valmikis heart melted at this pitiful sight. He looked around to find out who had shot the bird and he saw a hunter with a bow and arrows, nearby. Later Valmiki composed entire Ramayana with the blessings of Lord Brahma in the meter that issued forth from him as the shloka
27.
Ashram
–
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. The word ashram comes from the Sanskrit root śram- which means to toil, according to S. S. Chandra, the term means a step in the journey of life. In contrast, according to George Weckman, the term ashram connotes a place where one strives towards a goal in a disciplined manner, such a goal could be ascetic, spiritual, yogic or any other. The residents of an ashram regularly performed spiritual and physical exercises, other sacrifices and penances, such as yajnas were also performed. Many ashrams also served as gurukulas, residential schools for children under the guru-shishya tradition, sometimes, the goal of a pilgrimage to the ashram was not tranquility, but instruction in some art, especially warfare. In the Ramayana, the protagonist princes of ancient Ayodhya, Rama and Lakshmana, after they prove their mettle, the princes receive martial instruction from the sage, especially in the use of divine weapons. In the Mahabharata, Krishna, in his youth, goes to the ashram of Sandipani to gain knowledge of intellectual and spiritual matters. Residential schools, especially in the areas of Maharashtra and elsewhere in India, are called ashram shala or ashram schools. One such school is the Lok Biradari Prakalp Ashram Shala, in recent years, a number of ashrams have been established outside of India. Typically, these ashrams are connected to Indian lineages, focus on imparting Yoga-related teachings and are headed by spiritual teachers
28.
Rajput
–
Rajput is a member of the patrilineal clans of the Indian subcontinent. They rose to prominence from the late 6th century AD and had a significant role in regions of central. The Rajput population and the former Rajput states are found spread across India where they are spread in north, west, in Pakistan they are found on the eastern parts of the country. These areas include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, the origin of the Rajputs is the subject of debate. Writers such as M. S. Naravane and V. P, one theory espouses that with the collapse of the Gupta empire from the late 6th century, the invading Hephthalites were probably integrated within Indian society. At the same time, some tribes were ranked as Rajput, examples of which are the Bhatis, Bundelas, Chandelas. Actually vary greatly in status, from princely lineages, such as the Guhilot and Kachwaha, aydogdy Kurbanov says that the assimilation was specifically between the Hephthalites, Gurjars, and people from northwestern India, forming the Rajput community. Pradeep Barua also believes that Rajputs have foreign origins, he says their practice of asserting Kshatriya status was followed by other Indian groups thereby establishing themselves as Rajputs. Thereafter, in the late 12th century Muhammad of Ghor attempted to invade Gujarat but was defeated by the Chaulukya dynasty of Rajputs. The Rajput kingdoms were disparate, loyalty to a clan was more important than allegiance to the wider Rajput social grouping, meaning that one clan would fight another. This and the jostling for position that took place when a clan leader died meant that Rajput politics were fluid. Even after the Muslim conquest of the regions in Punjab and the Ganges River valley, the Rajputs maintained their independence in Rajasthan and the forests of central India. Later, Sultan Alauddin Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate took the two Rajput forts of Chittor and Ranthambhor in eastern Rajasthan in the 14th century but could not hold them for long. In the 15th century, the Muslim sultans of Malwa Sultanate, accordingly, Rana Sanga came to be the most distinguished indigenous contender for supremacy but was defeated by the Mughal invader Babur at Battle of Khanwa in 1527. From as early as the 16th century, Purbiya Rajput soldiers from the regions of Bihar and Awadh, were recruited as mercenaries for Rajputs in the west. After the mid-16th century, many Rajput rulers formed close relationships with the Mughal emperors and it was due to the support of the Rajputs that Akbar was able to lay the foundations of the Mughal empire in India. Some Rajput nobles gave away their daughters in marriage to Mughal emperors, for example, Akbar accomplished 40 marriages for him, his sons and grandsons, out of which 17 were Rajput-Mughal alliances. Akbars successors as Mogul emperors, his son Jahangir and grandson Shah Jahan had Rajput mothers, the ruling Sisodia Rajput family of Mewar made it a point of honour not to engage in matrimonial relationships with mughals and thus claimed to stand apart from those Rajput clans who did so
29.
Licchavi (kingdom)
–
Licchavi was an ancient kingdom in Nepal, which existed in the Kathmandu Valley from approximately 400 to 750 CE. The Licchavi clan originated from Vaishali in modern northern Bihar and conquered Kathmandu and this was likely through Mithila, a region now situated mainly in India with a small part in Nepal. A table of the evolution of certain Gupta characters used in Licchavi inscriptions prepared by Gautamavajra Vajrācārya can be found online. It is believed that a branch of the Lichhavi clan, having lost their fortune in Bihar, came to Kathmandu. In the Buddhist Pali canon, the Licchavi are mentioned in a number of discourses, most notably the Licchavi Sutta, the popular Ratana Sutta, the Mahayana Vimalakirti Sutra also spoke of the city of Vaisali as where the lay Licchavi bodhisattva Vimalakirti was residing. The earliest known record of the kingdom is an inscription of Manadeva 1. It mentions three preceding rulers, suggesting that the Licchavi dynasty began in the late 4th century, the Licchavi were ruled by a Maharaja, who was aided by a prime minister, in charge of the military and of other ministers. Nobles, known as samanta influenced the court whilst simultaneously managing their own landholdings, at one point, between approximately 605 and 641, a prime minister called Amsuvarman actually assumed the throne. The population provided land taxes and conscript labour to support the government, most local administration was performed by village heads or leading families. The economy was agricultural, relying on rice and other grains as staples, villages were grouped into dranga for administration. Lands were owned by the family, nobles, temples or groups of Brahmans. Trade was also important, with many settlements positioned along trading routes. Tibet and India were both trading partners, settlements already filled the entire valley during the Licchavi period. Further settlement was made east toward Banepa, west toward Tisting, the following list was adapted from The Licchavi Kings, by Tamot & Alsop, and is approximate only, especially with respect to dates
30.
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq
–
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, or Ghazi Malik, was the founder of the Turkic Tughluq dynasty in India, who reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. He founded the city of Tughluqabad and his reign was cut short after 5 years when he died under mysterious circumstances in 1325. He was succeeded by Muhammad bin Tughluq Ghiya-su-din thugluq was a man of humble origin, the son of a Qaraunah Turk, alauddin Khilji had prepared an expedition of 10,000 men under Ghazi to go to Depalpur to fight against the Chagatai Khanate Mongols. Ghazi secured Multan, Uch and Sindh at a time when Khilji died and Aláuddín Khilji’s sons proved incapable, alauddin Khilji’s son Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah was removed from the throne of Delhi by Khusro Khan. But he was unpopular with the Muslim nobles due to perceived liberality towards Hindus, Ghazi Malik and his son Fakhr Malik collected the forces of Sindh and Multan and overthrew Khusro Khan. In 1320, Ghazi Malik was crowned as the Sultan of Delhi with the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq and he founded the Tughluq dynasty and reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. Ghiyass policy was harsh against Mongols and he had killed envoys of the Ilkhan Oljeitu and punished Mongol prisoners harshly. He had fought various campaigns against the Mongols defeating them in 1305 at the Battle of Amroha, when Ghiyath Tughluq proceeded from Multan to Delhi, the tribe of Soomro revolted and took possession of Thatta. Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq appointed Tajuddin Malik as governor of Multan and Khwájah Khatír as governor of Bhakkar, in 1323 he appointed his son Muhammad Shah as his heir and successor and took a written promise or agreement to the arrangement from the ministers and nobles of the state. He also started construction of Tughlaqabad Fort, in 1324, Tughlaq turned his attention towards Bengal, currently in the midst of a civil war. After victory, he placed Nasiruddon on the throne of West Bengal as a vassal state, on his way back to Delhi, he conquered Tirhut. At Afghanpur in February 1325, the pavilion used for his reception collapsed, killing him. Ibn Battuta claimed it was a conspiracy, hatched by his heir apparent, tughlaqab Atlas of World History, General Editor Prof. Delhi - A thousand years of building, Roli Books, ISBN 81-7436-354-8
31.
Malla (Nepal)
–
The Malla Dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Nepal c. They have claimed Kshatriya status themselves, the Mallas means wrestlers in Sanskrit. The first of the Malla kings came to power in Kathmandu Valley around 1200, the Malla period was a golden one that stretched over 600 years, though it was peppered with fighting over the valuable trade routes to Tibet. The Mallas were noted for their patronisation of the Maithili language which was afforded a status to that of Sanskrit in the Malla court. Maithil Brahmin priests were invited to Kathmandu and many Maithil families settled in Kathmandu during Malla rule, beginning in the early twelfth century, leading notables in Nepal began to appear with names ending in the term malla, indicating a person of great strength and power. Arimalla was the first king to be so called, and the practice of adopting such a name was followed regularly by rulers in Nepal until the eighteenth century. This long Malla period witnessed the continued importance of the Kathmandu Valley as a political, cultural, other areas also began to emerge as significant centers in their own right, increasingly connected to the Kathmandu Valley. The time of the earlier Malla kings was not one of consolidation, in the twelfth century, Muslim Turks set up a powerful kingdom in India at Delhi, and in the thirteenth century they expanded their control over most of northern India. During this process, all of the kingdoms in India underwent a major reshuffling. This process resulted in an increasing militarization of Nepals neighbors and sections of Nepal as well and these Khas kings expanded into parts of western Tibet and sent raiding expeditions into the Kathmandu Valley between 1275 and 1335. In 1312 the Khas king, Ripumalla, visited Lumbini and had his own inscription carved on Ashokas pillar and he then entered the Kathmandu Valley to worship publicly at Matsyendranath, Pashupatinath, and Swayambhunath. These acts were all public announcements of his overlordship in Nepal, the first Malla rulers had to cope with several disasters. In 1255, one-third of the population of Kathmandu were killed when the valley suffered an earthquake with the right below the city. A devastating Muslim invasion by Sultan Shams-ud-din of Bengal in 1345-46, during the reign of Jayaraja Deva, left plundered Hindu, the invasion however did not leave a lasting cultural effect. In India the damage was widespread and many Hindus were driven into the hills and mountains of Nepal. In fact, none of the buildings in the valley proper dates from before this raid. He is said to have destroyed the Lichchhavi palaces of Managriha and he also damaged all the temples in the Kathmandu valley except the Changu Narayan Temple, which he could not locate as it lies some hills away from Kathmandu. He returned after 3 days of looting and burning, apart from this, the earlier Malla years were largely stable
32.
UNESCO
–
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
33.
Unification of Nepal
–
Before Shah dynasty took over Nepal, Nepal was limited to Kathmandu valley and surrounding territories which consist many kingdoms. After conquering the valley in the century, King Prithvi Narayan Shah moved his ruling state to Nepal from Gorkha. He then started his campaign with the banner of Nepal than Gorkha. With this conquer, Nepal was expanded covering more area forming the shape of modern Nepal, King Prithvi Narayan Shah was born in the Shah dynasty of Gorkha on 11 January 1723 After the death of Narabhupal Shah on 25 Chaitra he became the king of Gorkha. He ascended to the throne of Gorkha kingdom on 3 April 1743 and he was interested in politics and diplomacy and had interests in both visiting and conquering other countries since his days as prince. He decided to enlarge his kingdom, which was confined to the small Gorkha region of present-day Nepal and had an area of just 2,500 square km. He defeated major principalities in wars and unified them under his rule starting from the 1740s, while he was successful at conquering the Kathmandu valley and the Sen kingdoms further east, his efforts were limited in the west of his homeland. He then attacked and absorbed dozens of small principalities and gave a new name Nepal to his Gorkha kingdom. Kalu Pandey employed a strategy involving a blockade of the Kathmandu Valley, in the next two years he captured Mahadevpokhari, Pharping, Chitlang, Dharmasthali, Naldrum, Siranchok and Shivapuri. He then focused his attention on Kirtipur and Makawanpur, two palaces which were also strategic military targets, Kirtipur was in an elevated position with a fort surrounded by walls and jungles, an ideal place to make inroads into the valley. Shah thought that if he could take over Kirtipur, occupying the rest of the valley would be much easier, on 4 December 1757 he made his first attack on Kirtipur. In this war he lost his strong general Kalu pandey which was a loss for gorkha. Kalu Pandey had told him that it was not the time to attack Kritpur. His body was buried in Kirtipur, Prithvi Narayan Shah himself was nearly killed in the battle. As a result, the Gorkha army, having lost a great deal of morale, was defeated and it is said that as revenge for his two earlier defeats, The Gorkha army was repelled again in August 1765. After two defeats, the Gorkha army changed its strategy again and surrounded Kirtipur during the harvest season, the Gorkha army also took over the nearby Balaju fort. After several months of blockade, the people of Kirtipur could not even get water to drink and were forced to surrender to the Gorkha army on 17 March 1766. This time the Gorkha army took over Kirtipur without a fight, Prithvi Narayan Shah had his army cut off the noses and lips of all the people of Kirtipur
34.
Shaka era
–
This is about the historical calendar era. For the Śaka calendar of 1957, see Indian national calendar, the Shaka era is a historical calendar era, corresponding to Julian year 78. It is also known as Shalivahana Śaka era or rtgs, Mahasakkarat Greater Era), the origin of the Shaka era is highly controversial. The other is called Saka Era of 78 AD, or simply Saka Era, a parallel northern India system is the Vikrama Era, which is related to the Bikrami calendar linked to Vikramaditya. The beginning of the Shaka era is now equated to the ascension of king Chashtana in 78 CE. His inscriptions, dated to the years 11 and 52, have found at Andhau in Kutch region. These years are interpreted as Shaka years 11 and 52, a previously more common view was that the beginning of the Shaka era corresponds to the ascension of Kanishka I in 78 CE. However, the latest research by Henry Falk indicates that Kanishka ascended the throne in 127 CE, moreover, Kanishka was not a Shaka, but a Kushana ruler. Other historical candidates have included such as Vima Kadphises, Vonones. Sircar also suggests that the association of the northern king Vikramaditya with Vikrama era might have led the southern scholars to fabricate a similar legend of their own. Another similar account claims that the legendary emperor Vikramaditya defeated the Shakas in 78 CE, and this legend has been mentioned in the writings of Brahmagupta, Al-Biruni, and others. However, this is an obvious fabrication, over time, the word Shaka became generic, and came to be mean an era, the era thus came to be known as Shalivahana Shaka. The earliest known users of the era are the Western Satraps, from the reign of Rudrasimha I, they recorded the date of minting of their coins in the Shaka era, usually written on the obverse behind the kings head in Brahmi numerals. The use of the era survived into the Gupta period. It was in use by the 6th to 7th centuries, e. g. in the works of Varāhamihira and Brahmagupta. The calendar era remained in use in India and Southeast Asia throughout the medieval period and it was used by Javanese courts until 1633, when it was replaced by Anno Javanico, a hybrid Javanese-Islamic system. It was adopted as the era of the Indian national calendar in 1957, the Shaka era is the vernal equinox of the year AD78. The year of the modern Shaka Calendar is tied to the Gregorian date of 22 March every year, except in Gregorian leap years when it starts on 21 March
35.
Prithvi Narayan Shah
–
Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha was the first King of unified Nepal. He is credited for starting the campaign for a unified Nepal and he was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah, the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father, King Nara Bhupal Shah, to the throne of the Gorkha Kingdom in 1743, Prithvi Narayan Shah was born as a prince in the Gorkha Kingdom. Chandra Pravawati raised him, although his mother was Kaushalyavati Devi. From a young age, he took interest in the affairs of his fathers state, Prithivi Narayan Shah had an early dream of conquering Nuwakot, partially as his father had lost it to the Mallas of Kathmandu in an earlier war. After the death of his father in 1743, Prithivi Narayan Shah ascended to the throne of Gorkha at the age of 20, as king, he valued his people and enjoyed talking to his subjects about their general concerns. This practice helped him to build a rapport with his people, King Shah sealed his borders and maintained a peaceful environment except for distant relations with the British, who were refusing to trade with Nepal at the time. Prithvi Narayaṇ was succeeded by his son, Pratap Singh, King Prithvi Narayan Shahs reign began with an immediate military defeat, his invasion of Nuwakot in 1743 CE failed. Conquering Nuwakot was essential for the unification, as it lay between Kathmandu and the Gorkha District, making it a trading route to Tibet. However, he successfully conquered Nuwakot in a subsequent attack in 1744 CE, after capturing Nuwakot, he took possession of the strategic locations in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The valley was cut off from the outside world and was controlled solely by Shah. He also occupied the Kuti Pass in c.1756 CE, halting all trade through the pass, after two humiliating defeats in Kirtipur, King Prithvi Narayan conquered the ancient city on his third attempt. Consequently, Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu fled with his wife and took asylum in Patan and he eventually began to unify his conquered lands. King Prithvi Narayaṇ Shah was ultimately able to capture small principalities and this expansion was crucial as the British colonial forces had already begun colonizing the small kingdoms that form present-day India. Shah was convinced that the British forces would eventually approach his kingdom and he believed that 50 small principalities would easily be conquered by the British as part of their colonization strategy. Expanding his kingdom made it difficult for British forces to make their move. His expansion campaign was very ambitious, especially as he was the king of a small kingdom surrounded by strong. In January 1775, at the age of 52, Prithvi Narayan Shah died before he could organise the administration of his new country at Devighat
36.
Tulsipur State
–
Tulsipur was a small kingdom in the Awadh region of India that became the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh under the British Raj. Tulsipur also extended north beyond Dundwa Range of the Siwaliks to include the Dang and it was one of the areas traditionally inhabited by the Tharu people. The Tulsipur kingdom was about 150 by 150 miles and it bordered Salyan Rajya and Pyuthan in the north, Balarampur Principality in the south, Madi Khola and Arnala River in the east and Bahraich in the west. Until annexation in 1786 the Tulsipur kingdom counted as one of the Baise confederated principalities centered in the Hill Region, tradition traces the origins of Tulsipur to the legendary Sravasti Kingdom. The Rajas of Tulsipur-Dang belonged to the Raikwar clan, from Chaughera they ruled the Dang and Deukhuri Valleys as well as territories around Tulsipur State south of the Siwaliks, now in India. During the unification of Nepal, the part in the Siwaliks, remaining lands became known as Tulsipur State, a feudatory state of Oudh in India. The ruling family engaged in warfare for control of the estate during the 1850s and, in 1856. He was one of several talukdars who had been refusing to pass on the land revenues exacted by him as agent for the EIC, and the EIC was now seeking not only current revenues but also the arrears. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857,500 of the men had formed a part of the rebel force at the Siege of Lucknow. After the rebellion, Tulsipur State was annexed by the British Raj, becoming part of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, citations Bibliography House of Tulsipur Rani of Tulsipur
37.
Kingdom of Nepal
–
The Kingdom of Nepal, also known as the Kingdom of Gorkha, was a kingdom formed in 1768 by the unification of Nepal. Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkhali monarch of Rajput origin, during this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdoms existence. During the early-nineteenth century, however, the expansion of the East India Companys rule in India led to the Anglo-Nepalese War, beginning with Jung Bahadur, the first Rana ruler, the Rana dynasty reduced the Shah monarch to a figurehead role. Rana rule was marked by tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation, the mid-twentieth century began an era of moves towards the democratisation of Nepal. In 1923, Britain formally recognised Nepalese sovereignty and ended its protectorate, but continued to exercise political influence through the Rana rulers and its rule in India, which ended in 1947. In July 1950, the independent republic of India signed a friendship treaty in which both nations agreed to respect the others sovereignty. With Indian support for a new government consisting largely of the Nepali Congress, unsuccessful attempts were made to implement reforms and a constitution during the 1960s and 1970s. An economic crisis at the end of the 1980s led to a movement which brought about parliamentary elections. The 1990s saw the beginning of the Nepalese Civil War, a conflict between government forces and the insurgent forces of the Communist Party of Nepal, as a result of the massacre, King Gyanendra returned to the throne. His imposition of rule in 2005 provoked a protest movement unifying the Maoist insurgency and pro-democracy activists. He was eventually forced to restore Nepals House of Representatives, which in 2007 adopted an interim constitution greatly restricting the powers of the Nepalese monarchy. Until the abolition of the monarchy, Nepal was the only country to have Hinduism as its state religion. Prithvi Narayan Shah dedicated himself at an age to the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley and the creation of a single state. The country was called the Gorkha Kingdom. In addition, he says that Gorkhali take their name from the legendary eighth-century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath, a more detailed description of Chauhans thesis is available under the first three sections in the entry on the Gorkha Kingdom. More importantly, Chauhans overall thesis claiming the existence of a Gurkha identity way before the Shahs came to the Nepali hills is not supported by historical evidence available in Nepal. In Nepal the warrior people are not referred to as Gurkhas, they are called Gorkhalis and their famed battle cry is Ayo Gorkhali, meaning the Gorkhali has come. The etymology of the geographical name Gorkha is indeed related to the Hindu mendicant-saint Gorakhnath, in the village of Gorkha is situated a temple dedicated to Gorakhnath as well as another dedicated to Gorakhkali, a corresponding female deity
38.
Gurkha
–
The name may be traced to the medieval Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath who has a historic shrine in Gorkha. The word itself derived from Go-Raksha, raksha becoming rakha, rakhawala means protector and is derived from raksha as well. Ethnically, Chhetri or Khas, Thakuri, Gurung and Magar mainly were the Gorkha tribes who united erstwhile Gorkha kingdom, but today, Gorkha soldiers mostly belong to the Gurung, Chhetri, Magar, Rai, Limbu, Sunuwar there is no ethnicity based restriction to join. There are Gurkha military units in the Nepalese, British and the Indian army enlisted in Nepal, United Kingdom and India. Although they meet many of the requirements of Article 47 of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions regarding mercenaries, Gurkhas are closely associated with the khukuri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife, and have a well known reputation for fearless military prowess. The former Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, once stated that If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha. During the Anglo-Nepalese War between the Gorkha Kingdom and the East India Company, the Gorkhali soldiers made an impression on the British and their war cry was and is to this very day, Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali. In the peace treaty the parties agreed that Gorkhalis could be recruited to serve under contract in the East India Companys army, once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires, on forced march or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds, and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke, bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you. Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab started recruiting Gurkha soldiers in his army, the elite wing of his Sikh Khalsa Army, the Fauj-i-Khas had one rajman of Gurkhas. The rajman was known for its excellent morale, gallantry, discipline, the well-known Gurkha freedom-fighter Balbhadra Kunwar was an officer in the Gorkha rajman. One of the best battles in which the Gurkhas served was the Battle of Nowshera, even though the Sikhs were losing in the beginning, Maharaja Ranjit Singh launched a decisive charge at the Afghan positions. The Gurkhas climbed the Pir Saibak hill, and together with their Sikh comrades, after the battle, Ranjit Singh personally met and awarded the Gurkhas, and promoted Balbhadra Kunwar into the captain of the regiment. The Gurkhas served also during the Sino-Sikh War, where they were praised for their excellent skirmishing at the Tibetan Hills and they also fought the First Anglo-Sikh War, where the Dogra commanders of the Sikh Khalsa Army, betrayed their forces and delivered battle plans to British. After the Treaty of Lahore, this regiment was added into the Bengal Army, the Anglo-Nepalese war was fought between the Gurkha Kingdom of Nepal and the British East India Company as a result of border disputes and ambitious expansionism of both the belligerent parties. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816, david Ochterlony and the British political agent William Fraser were among the first to recognize the potential of Gurkha soldiers in British service. During the war the British were keen to use defectors from the Gurkha army and his confidence in their loyalty was such that in April 1815 he proposed forming them into a battalion under Lieutenant Ross called the Nasiri regiment
39.
Nepal
–
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. Nepal is divided into 7 provinces and 75 districts and 744 local units including 4 metropolises,13 sub-metropolises,246 municipal councils and 481 village and it has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, Nepal does not border Bangladesh, which is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip. It neither borders Bhutan due to the Indian state of Sikkim being located in between, Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the worlds ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and largest city. It is a nation with Nepali as the official language. The territory of Nepal has a history since the Neolithic age. The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet, the Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal became known as Nepal proper because of its complex urban civilization. It was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala, the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valleys traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture, by the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, the country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. In the 20th century, Nepal ended its isolation and forged ties with regional powers. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War resulted in the proclamation of a republic in 2008, modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. Nepal is a nation, ranking 144th on the Human Development Index in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic and it also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022
