South Asia
South Asia or Southern Asia, is a term used to represent the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan SAARC countries and, for some authorities, adjoining countries to the west and east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia; the current territories of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka form South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region, established in 1985 and includes all eight nations comprising South Asia. South Asia covers about 5.2 million km2, 11.71% of the Asian continent or 3.5% of the world's land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.891 billion or about one fourth of the world's population, making it both the most populous and the most densely populated geographical region in the world.
Overall, it accounts for about 39.49% of Asia's population, over 24% of the world's population, is home to a vast array of people. In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of Hindus and Sikhs, it has the largest population of Muslims in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as over 35 million Christians and 25 million Buddhists. The total area of South Asia and its geographical extent is not clear cut as systemic and foreign policy orientations of its constituents are quite asymmetrical. Aside from the central region of South Asia part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives as the constituent countries. Myanmar is included in Southeast Asia by others; some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East. The current territories of Bangladesh and Pakistan, which were the core of the British Empire from 1857 to 1947, form the central region of South Asia, in addition to Afghanistan, a British protectorate until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war.
The mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are included as well. Myanmar is added, by various deviating definitions based on substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Tibet Autonomous Region are included as well; the common concept of South Asia is inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, but is now considered a part of Southeast Asia and is a member state of ASEAN; the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. Geopolitically, it had formed the whole territory of Greater India,The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a contiguous block of countries, started in 1985 with seven countries – Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka – and added Afghanistan as an eighth member in 2007.
China and Myanmar have applied for the status of full members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, Bhutan. Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war; the World Factbook, based on geo-politics and economy defines South Asia as comprising Afghanistan, Bhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The South Asia Free Trade Agreement incorporated Afghanistan in 2011, the World Bank grouping of countries in the region includes all eight members comprising South Asia and SAARC as well, the same goes for the United Nations Children's Fund; the United Nations Statistics Division's scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, along with Iran only for statistical purposes. Population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia.
Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle. The Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC; the British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Jane's for security considerations. The region may include the disputed territory of Aksai Chin, part of the British Indian princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, but is now administered as part of the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang; the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of Southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880. Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independe
Nepal
Nepal the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas but includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area. It borders China in the north and India in the south and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic nation with Nepali as the official language; the name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient India when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal.
Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala; the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal; the Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rajput Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005; the Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the proclamation of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, establishes Nepal as a federal secular parliamentary republic divided into seven provinces.
Nepal was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, friendship treaties were signed with India in 1950 and the People's Republic of China in 1960. Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, of which it is a founding member. Nepal is a member of the Non Aligned Movement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative; the military of Nepal is the fifth largest in South Asia. Local legends have it that a Hindu sage named "Ne" established himself in the valley of Kathmandu in prehistoric times, that the word "Nepal" came into existence as the place was protected by the sage "Nemi", it is mentioned in Vedic texts. According to the Skanda Purana, a rishi called. In the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a protector, he is said to have taught there. The name of the country is identical in origin to the name of the Newar people; the terms "Nepāl", "Newār", "Newāl" and "Nepār" are phonetically different forms of the same word, instances of the various forms appear in texts in different times in history.
Nepal is the learned Sanskrit form and Newar is the colloquial Prakrit form. A Sanskrit inscription dated 512 CE found in Tistung, a valley to the west of Kathmandu, contains the phrase "greetings to the Nepals" indicating that the term "Nepal" was used to refer to both the country and the people, it has been suggested that "Nepal" may be a Sanskritization of "Newar", or "Newar" may be a form of "Nepal". According to another explanation, the words "Newar" and "Newari" are vulgarisms arising from the mutation of P to V, L to R. Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least eleven thousand years. Nepal is first mentioned in the late Vedic Atharvaveda Pariśiṣṭa as a place exporting blankets, in the post-Vedic Atharvashirsha Upanishad. In Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar it is mentioned as a border country; the Skanda Purana has a separate chapter, known as "Nepal Mahatmya", with more details. Nepal is mentioned in Hindu texts such as the Narayana Puja.
Legends and ancient texts that mention the region now known as Nepal reach back to the 30th century BC. The Gopal Bansa were one of the earliest inhabitants of Kathmandu valley; the earliest rulers of Nepal were the Kiratas, peoples mentioned in Hindu texts, who ruled Nepal for many centuries. Various sources mention up to 32 Kirati kings. Around 500 BCE, small kingdoms and confederations of clans arose in the southern regions of Nepal. From one of these, the Shakya polity, arose a prince who renounced his status to lead an ascetic life, founded Buddhism, came to be known as Gautama Buddha. By 250 BCE, the southern regions had come under the influence of the Maurya Empire of North India and became a vassal state under the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE. There is a quite detailed description of the kingdom of Nepal in the account of the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuanzang, dating from about 645 CE. Stone inscriptions in the Kathmandu Valley are important sources for the history of Nepal.
The kings of the Lichhavi dynasty have been found to have r
Bhimphedi
Bhimphedi, is a village located in Makwanpur District of Narayani Zone of Nepal. This VDC is known for its bajar. Here lies a bismuth ore; the word "Bhimphedi" comes from Sanskrit word "Bhim" and Nepali word "phedi" meaning a base of a hill. According to local beliefs, the Pandavas from Mahabharat had stayed in the forests of present day Bhimphedi during their time in exile. So, the place was called Bhimphedi. Before the construction of highways, goods from India were taken to Kathmandu valley from this place; the first motor vehicles of Nepal were carried by people through this VDC. The VDC served as the district headquarters of Makwanpur; the market of the VDC suffered tremendously after the shifting of headquarters to Hetaunda. Bhimphedi is located to the south of Kathmandu valley in Makwanpur district of Narayani Nepal; the VDC is bounded by- North:Daman VDC, Markhu VDC, Kulekhani VDC South:Nibuwatar VDC, Budhichaur VDC East:Sisneri Mahadevsthan VDC, Kogate VDC West:Namtar VDC, Bhainse VDC According to 2001 census of Nepal, there were 1107 houses in Bhimphedi and 5742 people.
The main population living in the market are Newars. There are Tamang and Khas population in villages; the main roads to Bhimphedi are- Hetaunda-Bhimfedi Road Bhimphedi-Kulekhani-Fakhel-Kathmandu Bhainse-Bhimphedi-Chitlang-Thankot Road Makwanpur District Narayani Zone Nepal
Hetauda
Hetauda is a sub-metropolitan city in the Makwanpur District of Narayani Zone of southern Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of the Makwanpur District, the headquarters of Nepal's Central Development Region, the interim state capital of Province No. 3. It is one of the largest cities of Nepal. At the time of the 2015 Nepal census, it had a population of 153,875 people. Hetauda sub-metropolitan city is situated in the confluence of the two prominent national highways viz. Tribhuvan highway and Mahendra highway, it was declared a municipality in 1969 A. D, but development was sluggish. Momentum increased when the city became headquarters of the Makwanpur district in 1982A. D, it is now striving to be the regional headquarters of the central development region. It is regarded as a "Green city". Hetauda city is located at a distance of 76 km from the capital city, via the fast track, at a distance of 132 km via Daman Tribhuvan Highway and 224 km via Narayangadh. Another Kanti Lokpath highway will be built within May 2018, it will take only 2 hours to travel from Hetauda to Kathmandu.
First tunneling road is being constructed, believed to shorten the distance between Hetauda-Kathmandu. It is expected that traveling time from Kathmandu to Hetauda via tunnel road will be just 57 min and 13 sec only. Lying in the central development region of the nation, it is properly situated at the central of the Makwanpur district, it lies in the 27°25' N latitude and 85°02' E longitude and is situated at a level of 300-390m above the sea level. The total area of the city is 261 km2 where around 254 km2. is land and the remaining 7 km2 consists of water. Boundary: East: Chhatiwan V. D. C West: Manahari and Sarikhet V. D. C North: Naamtaar and Makwanpurgadhi V. D. C South: Bara and Parsa District, the city is surrounded by three rivers—the Rapti to the west, the Samari to the north, the Karra to the south—and is part of an important industrial regions; the settlement developed because of its location along the Tribhuvan Highway, was linked to another major national thoroughfare: the Mahendra Highway known as the East-West Highway.
According to 2018 census, Hetauda has the total population of 84,775. It was awarded as the cleanest city of Nepal in the year 2016 and 2017. Apart from natural environment, there are a number of monuments and historical sites to visit in this city like Makawanpur Gadhi and Pathivara Devi Temple; the city is situated in a unique geographical structure called Doon, giving it a valley-like geography. It is surrounded by mountains, with the Mahabharata Range to the north and the Sivalik Hills to the south; the rivers Rapti and Karra run through the city and flow southwest to meet the Narayani, one of the bigger rivers of Nepal. The sal tree is common in and around the city. On the banks of the Rapti and Karra rivers, the Indian rosewood can be found interspersed with sal and other tropical species; the ashoka tree is part of the city's greenery. Community groups work to preserve the area's natural resources. Several government bodies—including District Forest Office Makwanpur, District Soil Conservation Office Makwanpur and District Plant Resources Office Makwanpur, under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation—are headquartered in Hetauda.
Some international non-governmental organizations support the sustainable development of forest resources in the area. The Hetauda Industrial District is one of the biggest industrial districts in Nepal, housing large, medium-scale, cottage industry. Three of the major national paint factories are situated in HID, including Asian Paints and Yeti Paints; because of political events in the past decade, however, HID has been shrinking as industries either move to other countries or shut down. The city is a working-class residential town, therefore a sizable portion of the population is employed by industry or government. Trucking, since most goods bound for Kathmandu pass through Hetauda, individual entrepreneurship are other means of livelihood. Passenger service to Kathmandu using Indian Tata Sumo SUVs has taken hold. One of the most popular attractions of Hetauda is Martyr Memorial Park, or Sahid Smarak, completed in 1994; the park honors Nepalese martyrs, from those who lost their lives in the British colonial wars to those who overthrew the autocratic Panchayat system in 1989.
A series of sculptures of these martyrs sit on a large boulder. The park is popular as a picnic spot and as an escape from busy city life, it has a swimming pool and a zoo that houses some endangered and some common wild animals, from monkeys to leopards. Another major site is Makwanpur Gadhi in the east of the city, a fort of historical importance dating back to the unification of Nepal. King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who led the unification process, was married to the princess of Makwanpur, whose father was a king of the Sen dynasty that ruled the region. Historians say that this marriage was a political strategy by the king, who saw that an alliance with Makwanpur could encircle Kathmandu Valley. Other nearby tourist attractions are: Chisapani Gadhi View Tower Pathivara Temple Palung Valley Daman Simbhanjyang Manakamana Temple Banaskhandi Temple Gumba Danda Kusmanda Sarowar Triveni Dham Bhutandevi Mandir Hetauda is an hour's drive from the Nepalese border city of Birgunj, adjacent to Raxaul, India.
B
Province No. 3
Province No. 3 is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the country's new constitution of 20 September 2015. Home to the country's capital Kathmandu, it is hilly and mountainous, home to peaks including Gaurishankar, Langtang and Ganesh; the province covers an area of 20,300 km2, about 14% of the country's total area, has an altitude low enough to support deciduous and alpine forest and woodland. Temperature varies with altitude. Rainfall takes place during the summer; the Province borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, Province No. 1 to the east, Gandaki Pradesh to the west, both Province No. 2 and the Indian state of Bihar to the south. As per a 17 January 2018 Federal cabinet meeting, Hetauda has been declared the interim state capital; the most populous province of Nepal, it possesses rich cultural diversity, with resident communities and castes including Newar, Sherpa, Chepang, Brahmin, Tharu, Chepang and more. It hosted the highest number of voters in the last election for the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly, which took place in 2017.
The Governor acts as the head of the province while the Chief Minister is the head of the provincial government. The Chief Judge of the Patan High Court is the head of the judiciary; the present Governor, Chief Minister and Chief Judge are Anuradha Koirala, Dormani Poudel and Tek Bahadur Moktan respectively. The province has 110 provincial assembly constituencies and 35 House of Representative constituencies. Province No. 3 has a unicameral legislature, like all of the other provinces in Nepal. The term length of provincial assembly is five years; the Provincial Assembly of Province No. 3 is temporarily housed at the Regional Education Directorate in Hetauda. Province No. 3 is divided into 13 districts, which are listed below. A district is administrated by the head of the District Coordination Committee and the District Administration Officer; the districts are further divided into rural municipalities. The municipalities include three metropolitan cities, one sub-metropolitan city and 41 municipalities.
There are 74 rural municipalities in the province. Bhaktapur District Chitwan District Dhading District Dolakha District Kathmandu District Kavrepalanchok District Lalitpur District Makwanpur District Nuwakot District Ramechhap District Rasuwa District Sindhuli District Sindhupalchok District List of provinces of Nepal List of districts of Nepal
Landlocked country
A landlocked state or landlocked country is a sovereign state enclosed by land, or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas. There are 49 such countries, including five recognised states; as a rule, being landlocked creates political and economic handicaps that access to the high seas avoids. For this reason, states large and small across history have striven to gain access to open waters at great expense in wealth and political capital; the economic disadvantages of being landlocked can be alleviated or aggravated depending on degree of development, language barriers, other considerations. Some landlocked countries are quite affluent, such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria, all of which employ neutrality to their political advantage; the majority, are classified as Landlocked Developing Countries. Nine of the twelve countries with the lowest Human Development Indices are landlocked. Being landlocked has been disadvantageous to a country's development, it cuts a nation off from important sea resources such as fishing, impedes or prevents direct access to seaborne trade, a crucial component of economic and social advance.
As such, coastal regions tended to be wealthier and more populated than inland ones. Paul Collier in his book The Bottom Billion argues that being landlocked in a poor geographic neighborhood is one of four major development "traps" by which a country can be held back. In general, he found that when a neighboring country experiences better growth, it tends to spill over into favorable development for the country itself. For landlocked countries, the effect is strong, as they are limited in their trading activity with the rest of the world, he states, ``, you serve the world. Others have argued that being landlocked may be a blessing as it creates a "natural tariff barrier" which protects the country from cheap imports. In some instances, this has led to more robust local food systems. Landlocked developing countries have higher costs of international cargo transportation compared to coastal developing countries. Countries thus have made particular efforts to avoid being landlocked, by acquiring land that reaches the sea: As result of a 2005 territorial exchange with Ukraine, Moldova received a 600 m-long bank of the Danube River, subsequently building its Port of Giurgiulești there.
The International Congo Society, which owned the territory now constituting the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was awarded a narrow piece of land cutting through Angola to connect it to the sea by the Conference of Berlin in 1885. The Republic of Ragusa once gave the town of Neum to the Ottoman Empire because it did not want to have a land border with Venice. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new country and ports have not been built for its need. There is no freight port along its short coastline at Neum, making it landlocked, although there are plans to change this. Instead the port of Ploče in Croatia is used. After World War I, in the Treaty of Versailles, a part of Germany designated "the Polish corridor" was given to the new Second Polish Republic, for access to the Baltic Sea; this without a large harbour. This was the pretext for making Danzig with its harbour the Free City of Danzig, to which Poland was given free access. However, the Germans placed obstacles to this free access when it came to military material.
In response, the small fishing harbour of Gdynia was soon enlarged. Until the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austrians and that empire's other nationalities had served in that country's navy, but since Austria and Hungary have both been landlocked countries. Countries can make agreements on getting free transport of goods through neighbor countries: The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to offer Czechoslovakia a lease for 99 years of parts of the ports in Hamburg and Stettin, allowing Czechoslovakia sea trade via the Elbe and Oder rivers. Stettin was annexed by Poland after World War II, but Hamburg continued the contract so that part of the port may still be used for sea trade by a successor of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic; the Danube is an international waterway, thus landlocked Austria, Moldova and Slovakia have secure access to the Black Sea. However, oceangoing ships cannot use the Danube, so cargo must be transloaded anyway, many overseas imports into Austria and Hungary use land transport from Atlantic and Mediterranean ports.
A similar situation exists for the Rhine river where Switzerland has boat access, but not oceangoing ships. Luxembourg has such through the Moselle, but Liechtenstein has no boat access though it is located along the Rhine, as the Rhine is not navigable that far upstream; the Mekong is an international waterway. However, it is not navigable above the Khone Phapheng Falls. Free ports allow transshipment to short-distance ships or river vessels; the TIR Treaty allows sealed road transport without customs checks and charges in Europe. Losing access to the sea is a great blow to a nation, politically and economically; the following ar
Gaunpalika
Gaunpalika or gaupalika is the newly formed lower administrative division in Nepal. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development dissolved the existing village development committees and announced the establishment of this new local body. There are 460 rural municipalities; the main purpose of a gaunpalika is similar to that of a village development committee. Besides this, this division has the authority to collect various taxes like entertainment tax, business tax and residential tax at the local level; the Village Development Committee was dissolved on 10 March 2017. Panchayat was dissolved and turned into VDC by the Constitution of Nepal 1990. According to the English translation of the Constitution of Nepal, the term "gaunpalika" has been used as "village body". However, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development explained that the term "rural municipality" was coined after opinions from experts and diverse sources; the chief is the head of a rural municipality. A total of 744 chiefs were selected by the government in 10 March 2017.
The rural municipalities will have an annual budget of at least Rs 10 million. Village development committees of Nepal topics
Nepal
Listen (help·info), a part of Province No. 3, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Hetauda as its district headquarters, covers an area of 2,426 km² and had a population of 392,604 in 2001 and 420,477 in 2011.[citation needed]
