Word: nepal
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...Katmandu courtyard echoing with these priestly chants, TIME's New Delhi correspondent, James Shepherd, last week witnessed the coronation of Nepal's King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva (see THE WORLD). Shepherd first encountered the elaborate ceremonies of the Hindu kingdom in 1956 at the coronation of Birendra's father, Mahendra. The correspondent arrived for that occasion aboard a rickety DC-3 that "slithered low over the Himalayan foothills, searching for the gap in the mountains through which we slipped into the Katmandu Valley." He has since reported on coronations of two other Himalayan monarchs, the Kings...
...pace of the modernization of Nepal is inversely proportional to the number of elephants that have been employed at its three most recent coronation ceremonies. The coronation of King Tribhuvan in 1913-witnessed by only one foreigner, the resident British ambassador-required the services of 109 elephants. The crowning of King Mahendra in 1956, attended by representatives of 15 of the growing number of nations with which the Himalayan kingdom then exchanged diplomats, required 43. For last week's coronation of King Birendra, the streets of Katmandu were aswarm with hundreds of foreign guests representing the some 60 countries...
...coronations but is an integral part of the life of every Nepalese, It has been said that there is a shrine or temple for each of the 500,000 people who live in Kathmandu. These shrines honor a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist deities, since the Valley of Nepal is an overlapping spot for the two religions. Although traditional Indian and Hindu influences dominate, there are strong Buddhist beliefs-Buddha was born in the Nepalese lowlands and some of the holiest Buddhist stupas (shrines with relics) are in the Valley of Nepal...
...find a million starving beggars in the streets of Bombay or Delhi. While the average Nepalese is lucky to make 150 to 200 rupees ($15-20) a month, there is no mass starvation because of recent good monsoon years and the extensive rice cultivation both in the Valley of Nepal and the lowlands. While the full brunt of the monsoon is not felt in the valley, heavy monsoon clouds hang over the city from June until September, dumping up to 40 inches of rain in that period...
...Most of the Himalayan area is cut off in summer as well as winter. This part of the country, still one of the remotest areas of the world, is about as hard to traverse today as it was for the early Tibetans on their way to the Valley of Nepal. Now as then there are, as Li Po wrote, "Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road...