History of Nepal Quiz for Experts | Asian

Answer: Licchavi

The Licchavi descended from what is now the Indian state of Bihar. Dated at 464 CE, the earliest inscription which records this dynasty (King Mānadeva), is located at the ancient Hindu Changu Narayan Temple. This is thought to be the oldest temple of Nepal.

Answer: Harisimhadeva

Harisimhadeva reigned from 1304 to 1324. An invasion headed by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, founder of the Tughluq dynasty in India, forced him to flee into the hills of Nepal, to Kathmandu. Tughlaq gave the land he had conquered from Harisimhadeva back to the natives. Descendants of Harisimhadeva would later form the Malla dynasty, which ruled Kathmandu Valley from the 12th to 18th century.

Answer: Janakpur

Janaki Mandir is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Sita. It is a significant pilgrimage site for Hindus, due to its association with the Hindu epic (the Ramayana), in which Sita is born and then marries Lord Rama. Janaki Mandir is made of stone and marble, and all 60 rooms of the temple contains the flag of Nepal.

Answer: 104

Even the King of Nepal at the time, King Tribhuvan, wanted to get rid of the Ranas and his dislike of them was an open secret. He assisted political parties that wished to remove the Rana dictatorship. Tribhuvan fled to India, then later back to Nepal, after there were demonstrations in the street regarding the person who was declared King of Nepal in his absence - Prince Gyanendra, who was only three years old.

He returned with the Delhi Accord, which dictated that all political prisoners be freed, there must be no restrictions on the formation of political parties, etc. February 18th is celebrated as Democracy Day in Nepal.

Answer: Prince Dipendra

According to eye witnesses, Prince Dipendra shot both of his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, as well as his two younger siblings, Prince Nirajan, Princess Shruti and seven other members of the Nepalese Royal Family. In a peculiar turn of events, after Prince Dipendra shot himself in the head, because he had murdered most of the line of royal succession, he was briefly King of Nepal by default, for four days, whilst comatose in hospital from his head wound.

Motives for what Dipendra is alleged to have done, remain unclear. There are many unanswered questions, regarding the lack of security at the palace, the fact that Dipendra had shot himself in his left temple, as someone who was right handed, etc, have spawned conspiracy theories regarding the massacre. What also spurred conspiracy, was the fact that King Birendra's brother, Gyanendra, was absent for the massacre, but his family were at the party where the massacre happened, and they all survived. His wife, however, did have have life-threatening injury from a bullet that hit her.

Answer: Prithvi Narayan Shah

Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the city states of the Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur which began the unification of Nepal. Shah moved his capital from Gorkha to Kathmandu.

Paras Shah would have became the King of Nepal, and was heir apparent to the Nepalese throne, but the monarchy was abolished in Nepal before he could become king. Gyanendra Shah was the last King of Nepal, before the monarchy was abolished. Mahendra Shah was King of Nepal from 1956-72. He was the father of King Birendra, who was murdered during his reign in 2001, when the massacre of the Nepalese Royal family took place.

Answer: 2008

In 2008, Ram Baran Yadav was elected as the first President of Nepal.

King Gyanendra, the last king of Nepal made several blunders during his reign. He opposed a constitutional monarchy, alarming others in 2004 my remarking "The days of the monarchy being seen but not heard, are over." and considering that the previous heir apparent to the throne, Prince Dipendra, had allegedly massacred the royal family a few short years earlier, the Nepalese people were already distrustful and disillusioned with the monarchy. To make such statements only made his people more uncomfortable.

In 2005, Gyanendra sent in troops to fight Maoist rebels who were against the monarchy, declaring a state of emergency. He was undeniably out of touch with his people, and there were demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people for weeks in 2006. This was the beginning of the end, for the Shah dynasty, which had ruled for 240 years until that point.

Answer: Tibet

The Sino-Nepalese War began as an argument between Tibet and Nepal, regarding the Nepalese coins that Tibet had been receiving. During his unification crusade of Nepal, Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha set up an economic blockade in Kathmandu, and the head of the Malla dynasty at the time, Jaya Prakash Malla tried to fix the crisis by creating lower quality coins minted with copper, instead of the standard silver.

After Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered Kathmandu, he reinstated the practice of minting the coins with pure silver, but the damage had been done. An angry Tibet demanded that the low quality coins they had been receiving, should now be replaced with the newly reinstated pure silver ones. Prithvi Narayan Shah was not prepared to accept such a huge financial loss too the Shah dynasty. This case was unresolved when Prithvi Narayan Shah died in 1775.

Bahadur Shah would inherit the coinage conflict, the youngest son of the previous king. Tibet most probably in retaliation, began sending Nepal very poor quality exports of salt, during a time where all of the salt in Nepal, was exported from Tibet. It escalated to the point of the Gorkha troops attacking Tibet in 1789. Tibet was under Qing China at the time, who sent troops to Tibet. The war and negotiations after, meant Tibet was under more control from China, while Nepal retained its autonomy.

Answer: Treaty of Sugauli

The Treaty of Sugauli gave about a third of the territory of Nepal to the British. The treaty was signed in 1815 and ratified in 1816. It put Nepal's surrender of its western territories to the British East India Company into effect. The treaty also permitted the British to recruit the Gurkhas, for their military. Sugauli is a city in what is now the Indian state of Bihar.

Answer: 9,000

Approximately 9,000 people died in the 2015 earthquake, and around 22,000 people were injured. The earthquake caused an avalanche on Mount Everest. The Dharahara Tower, which is over 200 feet, had to be reconstructed after most of it fell down during the earthquake.