Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. It has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. [Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, and west, it is the largest sovereign Himalayan state.
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 s the nation's capital and largest city. It is a multi-ethnic nation with Nepali as the official language. The territory of Nepal has a recorded history since the Neolithic age. The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, Was born in southern Nepal. Tibetan Buddhism influenced parts of northern Nepal since the 8th century.
Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which it is a founding member. Nepal is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative. Nepal has long-standing bilateral treaties with the United Kingdom since 1923, India since 1950, and China since 1960. The military of Nepal is the fifth largest in South Asia and is notable for its Gurkha history, particularly during the world wars, and has been a significant contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations.
