THE NEPALI PEOPLE

Nepal has a population of about thirty million, up of an assortment of races and tribes living in different regions, wearing different costumes and speaking different languages and dialects. They live under quite diverse environmental condition, from the low plains at the border of India, northward through the middle hills and valleys and up to the flanks of the great Himalayan range where there are settlements at altitudes of up to 4,800 meters.

The Himalayan settlements of Tibetan speaking peoples are found perched perched precariously on mountain ledges and slopes. Life here is a delicate balance of hard work and social merrymaking, tempered by a culture steeped in mountain peoples are the Sherpas who inhabit the eastern mountains of Nepal.

The midlands are inhabited by various Tibeto-Burman and indo-Aryan people, such Brahman, Chhetri and Newar. The Rai, Limbu, Tamang, Sunar, Gurung, Thakali and chepang are other Tibeto-Burman speaking Mongoloid peoples living in the middle hills. They each have their own district social and culture pattern. The Dun valley and the Terai are inhabited by the Brahman, Rajput, Tharu, Danuwar, Majhi, Darai, Rajbansi, Satar, Dhimal and Dhanger.

Though Nepal is a veritable mosaic of dozen of ethnic groups, they are bound together by the ideas of peace, democracy and nationalism.

Language

Nepal is the national language of Nepal and is written in Devanagari script, other languages spoken in Nepali include Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tamang, Avadhi, Gurung, Tharu and Newari, However, most educated Nepalese can also speak and write English.