NEPAL

Map of Nepal

Information: Country NAME / Time : NEPAL / 5hours 45 minutes ahead of GMT. Latitude : 26degree 12' and 30degree 27' North. Longitude : 80degree 4' and 88degree 12'East. Geographic : Situated between China in the North and India in the East, South Location and West. Himalayan Region : The altitude of this region ranges between 4,877m-8,848m. It includes eight of the 14 of 8,000m. including Everest, Annapurna Dhaulagiri and others. Mountain Region : This region accounts for about 64% of the total land area. It is formed by the Mahabharat range that soars up to 4,877m. and the lower Churia range. Terai Region : The low-land Terai occupies about 17% of the total land area. Elavation :Highest point - 8848m. (Mt. Everest - Top of the World). Extremes Lowest point - 70m. Area / Population : 147,181 sq. km. / 23,698425(July 2001). Capital / Currency : Kathmandu / Nepalese Rupee (US $ 1 =74.65) Language : Nepali (offical) and many dialects. Most of educated people speaks English fluently. Religion : Hindu(90%), Buddhist(08%),Muslim and others (02%) Political System : Multi- party Democracy with constitutional monarchy. Communication : Phone, ISD, e-mail, Internet, Fax services are available commonly. Climate : Dry season - October to May Wet season - June to September. Electricity : 220 volts Electricity. Hygiene : Use only boiled and filtered water or mineral water. Passport : Valid passport is required for all foreigners except Indian National. Entry Visa : Nepal entry visa can be obtained from Royal Nepalese Embassy Consulate or at the Tribhuban International Airport or any point of entry at the border immigration office.-VISA ON ARRIVAL VISA FEES : US$30.00for 60 days Single Entry Visa. US$ 50 for 2 Months Multiple Entry Visa. Airport Tax : Rs. 1100 (approx.us$15) except for SAARC countries Rs. 660 ( approx. US$9). Air Access to Nepal : Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Varanashi, Patna, Bangkok, Hong Kong Singapore, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Shanghai, Osaka, Vienna, Dhaka, Karachi, Amsterdam, Paro, Lasha, Moscow, Sharjah, Doha. On -line Airlines : Royal Nepal Aairlines, Indian Airlines, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Transavia, Qutar Airways, Gulf Air, Austrian Airlines, Aeroflot, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, China South-West Druk Air, PIA.

FESTIVALS in NEPAL

DASAIN: Dasain is the greatest festival in Nepal. It's the time for gifts, feasting, and visits, because it focus is on home and family, it presents fewer spectacles for visitor. Symbolically, it's both a harvest festival of thanksgiving and a bloody sacrificial reenergizing of natural powers, symbolised by the victory of the great goodess Durga over the buffalo - headed demon Mahisasura.
Houses are scrubbed clean and replastered with mud in preparation: every family member get's a new set of cloths: special food and drinks is prepared; and everyone tries to reutrn to their family home for at least few days.
Dasain celebrates for 10 days. Each nine nights are dedicated to a different from of the mother goodess. On the first day, altars are established in every home and grain seed placed in a darkened vessel to sprout. Temples are crowed with worshippers, especially in drawn and dusk; in the evening; masked dance troupes perform in the valley's three cities. On the seventh day, fruit and flowers brought from the royal family's ancestral home of Gorkha is presented to the King with a procession through city streets. In eighth evening is Kalratri, "Black Night", when the great blood sacrifices commence and continue into the following day. Every family who can afford can it will offer an animal to Durga. On the tenth day "Day of Victory," Vijaya Dasain, Durga's household shrine, is opend and the sprouted grains distributed as a symbol of the goodess's blessing , along with thick, sticky tika made of yoghurt, uncooked rice and red powder. Families dressed in their best clothes visit older relativces to recived tika and blessings, and long lines queue at the royal palace to recive tika from the King and Queen of Nepal.

TIHAR
Falling two weeks after Dasain, Tihar, the Festival of lights, is among the Valley's most beautiful clebrations, involving five days of rituals honor Yama, the Lord of Death. The first two days honor Yama's messengers, the crow and the dog. On the third day, Laxmi Puja, sacred cows are garlanded, tika-ed and fed, and houses are scrubbed from top to bottom. At dusk, hundreds of tiny oil lamps are placedin doors and windows to welcome Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and goods fortune who, drawn by the purity and light, is said to visit homes and bestow prosperity for the coming year. Group of young girl go to door to door singing and begging for coins and sweets. On the next day (which is also Newari's New Year Day) band of young men visit houses with rowdier improvisations, ending each verse with a rousing chorus of deushi rey! The final day is Bhai Tika, when sisters perform puja for their brothers' long lives. Even married women return to their parents homes for this important ritual. Brothers reciprocate with tika and a gift of money and the day ends with feasting, gambling and playing on great bamboo swings.

RAATO MACHHENDRANATH RATH JATRA
Machhendranath, "Lord of the fishes," is the patron protector of the Valley, an amalgam of religious beliefs worshipped with equal fervor by Buddhists and Hindus. Patan's beloved Raato (Red) Machhendranath, the patron of the valley's Newar farmers and the controller of rain, is feted every spring with a chariot procession lasting up to three months, as the deity is pulled about town to bless each neighborhood. Local people crowd into the chariot's nightly resting place with offerings, while bands of Newar musicians tootle out hymns of praise with horns, drums, and cymbals. The festival culminates with Bhoto Jatra, the showing of the scared vest to a huge crowd assembled at Jawalakhel, an event said to be always followed by rain.

SETO MACHHENDRANATH RATH JATRA
The White Machhendranath of Kathmandu, an androgynous deity for some reason considered the "sister" fo the Patan god, is honored with a chariot festival of its own, complete with adoring crowds, wildly careening chariot, an dgreat excitement.

BUDDHA JAYANTI
The full moon of Baisak is Buddha Jayanti, the triply auspicious anniversary of Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death. Neighbourhoods are decorated with paper flags, stupa are newly whitewashed,and temples get a thorough polishing and cleaning. From early morning on, Buddhists flock to stupa of Swayambunath for puja. In the afternoon, crowds gather at Boudhanath to see an image of Buddha paraded atop an elephant.

GAI JATRA
The cow festival is Nepals equivalent of the Halloween masquerade, right down to the association with death. Recently bereaved families honor the soul of thier death by sending a cow out on parade either a real one or a small boys dressed as a cow. Gorup of these "cow" parade through the street.

INDRA JATRA
The quintessential Nepali festival, Indra Jatra marks the end of the monsoon and the begining of the harvest. For eight days Kathmandu reconnects with it's medieval past with nightly performances of masked dances, bhajan and custom drama. Ancient images of the god Bhairab, including the gigantic painted masks of Seto Bhairab at Hamuman Dhoka and Akash Bhairaaab in Indra Chowk, are displayed for this single week each year.
The third day marks the beginning of Kumari Jatra, a living Goddess. Thousands of brightly dressed Hill women crowed onto on the steps of Durbar Square's Pagadas to view the King's arrivals and the appearence of goddess Kumari.

TEEJ / RISHI PANCHAMI
Exclusively women's celebrations, these festivals are gay and colourful despite the solemn overtones of fasting and purification. Teej begins with a late - night communal feast as the women of a household gorge themselves in preparation for the next day's stick fast. In the morning, women gather at Pashupati Temple for a ritual bath in the sacred Bagmati River. Then, adorned in thier finest red wedding sari and gold jewelry, they dance and sing all afternoon in praise of Shiva.

KISHNA JAYANTI
The birth os seductive Lord Krishna, youthful god of love, is celebrated with procession and display os pictures narrating the events of his life. At night women gather at Patan's exquisite Krishna Mandir to chant prayers, sing hymns, and light hundreds of flickening oil lamps, while at other places thoughout the cities, men sing bhajan in praise of Kishna, worshipped as one of the many incarnations of Vishnu .

SHIVA RATRI
" The Night of Shiva" draws thousand of Indian pilgrims to Pasupatinath, one of the subcontinent's four great Shiva shrines. Temple grounds are transformen into a fairground with vendors, tea stalls, beggars, and pilgrims huddled around campfiress. A side attraction are the hundreds of Indian and Nepali saddhu, bearded, long haired wandering hindu ascetics. Some perform incredible physical austerities; other smoke qquantities of ganja in imitation of Shiva.

HOLI
Spring is welcomed with Holi's riotous throwing water and colored powder. In the last century Holi was reportedly a Bacchanalian orgy. The licentious displays were toned down after prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana returned from victorian England, but a distinctly sexual atmosphere still infuses the holiday. On the full moon day roving bands of young men and boys patrol the streets, dousing passersby and vehicles with water b
allons and fistfuls of brightly colored powder.