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The Lhotshampa or Lhotsampa people are a heterogeneous Bhutanese people of Nepalese descent. "Lhotshampa", which means "southern borderlanders" in Dzongkha, began to be used by the Bhutanese state in the second half of the twentieth century to refer to the population of Nepali origin in the south of the country. After being displaced as a result of the state-run ethnic cleansing and living in refugee camps in eastern parts of Nepal, starting in 2007 most of the Bhutanese Refugees were resettled to various countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries. As of 2021 the number of Lhotshampa in Nepal is significantly lower than that in the United States and other countries where they have resettled. People of Nepalese origin started to settle in uninhabited areas of southern Bhutan in the 19th century.
The Kingdom of Nepal was a Hindu kingdom in South Asia, formed in 1768 by the expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom, which lasted until 2008 when the kingdom became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. It was also known as the Gorkha Empire, or sometimes Asal Hindustan. Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha monarch who claimed to be of Khas Thakuri origin, it existed for 240 years until the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008. During this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdom's existence.
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, and India in the south, east, and west, while it is narrowly separated from Bangladesh by the Siliguri Corridor, and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and the largest city. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural state, with Nepali as the official language.
Hinduism is the main and largest religion of Nepal. In 2006, the country declared itself a secular country through democracy, after the abolition of its monarchy. According to the 2021 census, the Hindu population in Nepal is estimated to be around 23,677,744 which accounts for at least 81.19% of the country's population, the highest percentage of Hindus of any country in the world. The national calendar of Nepal, Vikram Samvat, is a solar Hindu calendar essentially the same to that widespread in North India as a religious calendar, and is based on Hindu units of time.
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked South Asian country, which is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous country, Bhutan is known locally as "Druk Yul" or "Land of the Thunder Dragon", a name reflecting the cultural heritage of the country. The exonym Bhutan likely derives from the Prakrit hybrid word Bhŏṭṭaṃta, a name referring to its geographical proximity to Tibet. Nepal and Bangladesh are located near Bhutan but do not share a border with it. The country has a population of over 727,145 and territory of 38,394 square kilometres (14,824 sq mi) and ranks 133rd in terms of land area and 160th in population. Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy with a king as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government. Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion and the Je Khenpo is the head of state religion.
The Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist) (abbr. CPB (MLM)) is an underground communist party in Bhutan.
The Nepalese democracy movement was the combination of a series of political initiatives and movements from the 20th century to 2008 that advocated the establishment of representative democracy, a multi-party political system and the abolition of monarchy in Nepal. It has seen three major movements, the Revolution of 1951, Jana Andolan and Loktantra Andolan which ultimately abolished the Shah monarchy, transitioned Nepal towards a republic and reintroduced multi-party bicameral democracy.
The Digital Himalaya project was established in December 2000 by Mark Turin, Alan Macfarlane, Sara Shneiderman, and Sarah Harrison. The project's principal goal is to collect and preserve historical multimedia materials relating to the Himalaya, such as photographs, recordings, and journals, and make those resources available over the internet and offline, on external storage media. The project team have digitized older ethnographic collections and data sets that were deteriorating in their analogue formats, so as to protect them from deterioration and make them available and accessible to originating communities in the Himalayan region and a global community of scholars.
Bhutanese refugees are Lhotshampas ("southerners"), a group of Nepali language-speaking Bhutanese people. These refugees registered in refugee camps in eastern Nepal during the 1990s as Bhutanese citizens who fled or were deported from Bhutan during the protest against the Bhutanese government by some of the Lhotshampas demanding human rights and democracy in Bhutan. As Nepal and Bhutan have yet to implement an agreement on repatriation, most Bhutanese refugees have since resettled to North America, Oceania and Europe under the auspices of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many Lhotshampa also migrated to areas of West Bengal and Assam in India independently of the UNHCR.
Nepali literature refers to literature written in the Nepali language. The Nepali language has been the national language of Nepal since 1958.
Bhupendra Man Sherchan, popularly known as Bhupi Sherchan (1937–1989) was a Nepali poet and academician. He is one of the most beloved and widely read Nepali poets. He was awarded the Sajha Puraskar for his 1969 poetry collection Ghumne Mech Mathi Andho Manche, which remains his most popular work.
Muna Madan is a 1936 Nepali-language episodic love poem written by Laxmi Prasad Devkota. It is about Madan, newly married to Muna, who leaves for Lhasa in Tibet to make his fortune, despite protests from his wife.
Human rights in Bhutan are those outlined in Article 7 of its Constitution. The Royal Government of Bhutan has affirmed its commitment to the "enjoyment of all human rights" as integral to the achievement of 'gross national happiness' (GNH); the unique principle which Bhutan strives for, as opposed to fiscally based measures such as GDP.
Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma is a Nepalese-Indian poet and journalist. He was born at Nakodar, Punjab and moved to Nepal at an early age. He writes in English and Nepali.
Bhutan–Nepal relations refer to the bilateral relations between the Bhutan and Nepal. Relations were formally established in 1983. The two Himalayan countries are both landlocked, separated only by the Indian State of Sikkim. Both countries are bordered by India and the People's Republic of China. However, the current state of relations remains strained owing to the Bhutanese refugee crisis.
Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan refers to a series of violences to remove the Lhotshampa, or ethnic Nepalis, from Bhutan. Inter-ethnic tensions in Bhutan have resulted in the flight of many Lhotshampa to Nepal, many of whom have been expelled by the Bhutanese military. By 1996, over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees were living in refugee camps in Nepal. Many have since resettled in Western nations.
Communism in Nepal traces its roots back to the pro-democracy movement of 1951, and the subsequent overthrow of the autocratic Rana regime and the establishment of democracy in Nepal. The communist movement in Nepal has split into factions multiple times and multiple factions have come together into a single fold at times as well. It has a history of getting banned from open political discourse, as well as multiple instances of embracing guerrilla insurgency, most notably, the Maoist insurgency in the 1990s and early 2000s that led to the Nepalese Civil War, claiming at least 17,000 lives.
Mohan Koirala was a Nepalese poet, known for his prose poems and poems against the Rana regime. Some of this poems has been translated in English. He won Madan Puraskar in 2038 BS.
Sajha Puraskar is a literary award given by Sajha Publications. It is presented annually to the best book published by Sajha Publication.
References
- ↑ "SOAS Wins Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education:News:Languages:Award:Prize" . Retrieved 2012-10-22.
- ↑ "Hutt Wins Award for Promoting Nepali Literature to the World". SOAS: NEWS. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
