Nepal
is a landlocked country in Southern Asia, between the Tibet autonomous
region of China and India. It contains eight of the world's 10 highest
peaks, including Mount Everest - the world's tallest - on the border with
Tibet, and Lumbini, the birth place of Gautama Buddha, the founder of
Buddhism. Nepal recently was declared a republic and has abolished the
monarchy. After centuries of petty rivalry between the three kingdoms, in
the mid-18th century, Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha King, set out to
unify the kingdoms. Seeking arms and aid from India, and buying the
neutrality of bordering Indian kingdoms, he embarked on his mission in
1765. After several bloody battles and sieges, he managed to unify the
Kathmandu Valley and surrounding territory three years later in 1768.
However, an actual battle never took place to conquer the Kathmandu
valley; it was taken over by Prithvi Narayan and his troops without any
effort, during Indra Jatra, a festival of Newars, when all the valley's
citizens were celebrating the festival. This event marked the birth of the
modern nation of Nepal.
