Nepal, a Country of Contrasts

 Nepal, a Country of Contrasts

Nepal is a land of greatly varied topography: the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas,

the Himalayan foothills which would be termed mountains anywhere else, and a low-elevation - near sea-level - river plain where most of the crop production occurs. Earth’s plate that collided with the Asian continent to form the Himalayas continues to move northward at about two inches per year, causing periodic, devastating earthquakes.The country has a fifth season, the monsoon, between summer and fall. Heavy monsoon rains, combined with the extreme drop in topography, causes severe flooding and landslides, damaging farmland and roads. Despite these dangers, there is tremendous potential for hydropower, but little infrastructure to support building dams.

The country, now a federal, democratic republic, was ruled by a king as recently as 2008, then the world’s only Hindu kingdom. 

It is a country where tourism has become the leading source of income, but where the second leading source is individuals leaving Nepal to work in other countries and to send money home to their families. It is a land where many that stay are still on a subsistence income. An example: an old woman bends low. On her back sits a heavy load of firewood.

In Nepal there are over one hundred ethnicities and as many dialects. A person who lives on one side of a mountain often cannot understand the language spoken on the other side.

Because of its varying topography and microclimates, and despite its small area, Nepal, contains a wide diversity of vegetation and animal life. Animals include the red panda, spotted deer, Bengal tiger, one-horned rhinoceros, water buffalo, Asian elephant, crocodile, and gharial. 

Ornate, ancient temples and enormous, former royal palaces dominate the city hilltops, while, in the countryside, one cannot always distinguish between the housing for farm animals and those for the farm families. Congestion, pollution, and the lack of public drinking water infrastructure in the major cities are problematic as cities grow in population.

Nepal was the birthplace of Gautama Buddha in the 6th century, BC. There is a religious festival every month, and most people are Hindu, Buddhist, or a combination thereof. People  greet visitors in an open and friendly manner, joining their hands, bowing, and saying “Namaste, I bow to the divine in you.” Meantime, human traffickers ply their nefarious trade, taking advantage of the desperate poor by promising jobs but giving them slavery.

To counter the traffickers, organizations exist to bring them to justice. Individuals monitor bus stations and train depots for suspicious activity at the border, and involve law enforcement to make arrests. A proactive approach is to set up the rural poor with a farm plot on which to grow cash crops, so they do not fall prey to the empty promises of the traffickers. For formerly exploited women, the approach is to provide a therapeutic work environment to help heal their emotional wounds and to learn work skills to ensure their financial independence.