Little can be understood about the artistic heritage and vibrancy of the contemporary arts of Nepal without some knowledge of the general history of the country.
This section of the About Nepal part of the website provides some introductory material about the ancient to modern history of Nepal (elaborated in the articles link section), and touching on this a little about the adjacent parts of the Himalayan – North Indian region. In the case of that region, historically, and to a certain extent still currently, there exists a broader Nepali cultural, linguistic and racial zone that is considerably larger than the current geographical territory of the state of Nepal.
For instance, whilst Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, located in the Terai geographical zone of Nepal is very close to the frontier with the Republic of India, it is in fact in the centre of a much broader cultural zone of ancient times. The origins of the name of the country also relate to its ancient and legendary era history.
Articles:
Nepal History To the Mid-Twentieth Century Source: www.infoplease.com
Nepal: Countries and their cultures Source: www.everyculture.com
Film links:
Children of God – Nepali Documentary:
‘It is a documentary on a child who is compelled to live a street life around Pashupati-nath temple, a holy region of Hindus.With the hope of getting easy money and food to eat , he choose to stay around pashupatinath temple where sometimes he also gets to collect clothes , gold, money and some food that are drowned in Bagmati river by the family of deceased people.He has a drunkard single mother, a small sister and a brother who has to be looked by him and he loves them beyond any measure.This social and economic circumstances have made this boy matured beyond his age group friends.However, just like other kids, he loves to play ,sing and also go to a good school.He has a big , beautiful dream to be an educated person.’ View the film