Nepal

Nepal

                When looking at Nepal, I decided to start by looking at images before entering the culture. By looking at images I once again discovered how beautiful Nepal is. While not as advanced as Malaysia, all of the colors and scenery within Nepal. All of the images seemed to portray a laid back and religious based society. While the images gave an understanding, searching through the facts about Nepal gave a much better understanding.

                The first thing I discovered is that there are one hundred and twenty three languages spoken in Nepal. Nepal’s linguistic heritage evolved from Indo-Aryan to Tibeto-Burman then to indigenous. The main language spoken to date is Nepali at around 45%. After language, I took a look at the religious aspects of Nepal due to many of the pictures I saw. What I discovered, was that 80.6% of the people practice Hinduism and Buddhism is practiced at around 11%. There are also many people who practice a blend between the two religions, but that number was uncertain. The information I discovered also pointed to philosophy being deeply rooted within Nepal. Nepal is known for tantric traditions as well, specifically animal sacrifice.

                From multiple sources I found there are five animals that are acceptable to sacrifice. These animals are always male and then are determined to be acceptable for sacrifice. The five animals are water buffalo, goats, sheep, chickens, and ducks. I found it curious that the animals acceptable for sacrifice had to be male. I could not find the answer to this, but there must be traditions going back as far as anyone knows to prove for the reasoning behind this.

                The next place I looked was festivals and celebrations.  It is said that celebrations last from a single day to multiple days depending on the event. There is a festival called Dashain which is the longest and most important festival in Nepal. Dashain is held for fifteen days and the most important days are the first, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. It was interesting looking at this festival because in America our celebrations usually go for a single day. The emphasis of this festival is to bring family together while also reconnecting with the community. I found it rather cool that there is a celebration which not only brings families together but is able to focus on the community simultaneously. I am a large advocate for family and community which made this celebration fun to look and discover the meaning behind this festival.

                The last thing I took a look at was ethnic groups. All of the major ethnic groups in Nepal I had never even heard of. The Chhettri were the largest at 15.5% followed by the Brahman-Hill at 12.5%. While these were the largest two groups, as I discovered the rest I still had no idea who any of these Ethnic groups were. I found this so interesting because it showed how much I did not know about the world. While I consider myself fairly knowledgeable and open when it comes to the world, not knowing any major ethnic group living in Nepal was quite shocking. Nepal was rather interesting to delve into and attempt to find background information on. While I know there is a lot more to know about Nepal, I feel like this was a great start.