Nepal’s ancient history centres on the Kathmandu valley, which according to legend was once covered by mythical lake. It is believed that the Buddhist deity Manjushri drained it of water with a slash of his sword, opening it for human civilization. Recorded history begins around the 7^th-8^th Century BC with the the first known rulers of the Kathmandu Valley, the Hindu Kiratis. In the 6^th century BC, Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini into the Sakya royal family at the court of Kapilavastu. He would later attain enlightenment as the Buddha, and found one of the most influential religions of the Himalayas and Asia.

In the 2^nd Century BC, the Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka erected a pillar a Lumbini. His Mauryan Empire (321-184 BC) played a major role in popularizing Buddhism in the region. Over the centuries Buddhism lost ground to a resurgent Hinduism, and by the time the famous itinerant Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602-664) passed through the region, Lumbini was in ruins.

Hinduism rose to dominance after the Licchavis of northern India overthrew the Kiratis, ushering in an age of culture and prosperity from trade between India and China. King Amshuverma ascended the throne in 602, consolidating his power by marrying his sister to an Indian prince and his daughter Princess Bhrikuti to the Tibetan king Songsten Gampo. From the 7^th to 13^th Centuries, Nepal slipped into a dark age, suffering invasions from Tibet and Kashmir.

The Malla dynasty, beginning in the 13^th Century, lasted 550 years. A tremendous earthquake wiped out a third of Nepal’s population in 1255. A century later a devastating Muslim invasion plundered Hindu and Buddhist shrines, but did not leave a lasting cultural effect. In 1482 the Kathmandu Valley was divided into three kingdoms: Bhaktapur (Bhadgaon), Kathmandu (Kantipur) and Patan (Lalitpur). They fought over the right to control the lucrative trading routes with Tibet, from which the Kathmandu Valley was the departure point. Kathmandu grew rich and its rulers constructed gilded pagodas and ornate palaces. By the mid-17^th Century the Malla era had shaped the religious and artistic landscape. The Malla kings were projected as reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu.

In 1768 Prithvi Narayan Shah, ruler of the tiny hilltop kingdom of Gorkha (between Pokhara and Kathmandu) poised on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley about to realize his dream of a unified Nepal. After fighting off reinforcements from the British East India Company, Shah took Kathmandu. Shortly afterwards he advanced on the three Newari Malla kings taking refuge in Bhaktapur, ending their rule and founding the modern state of Nepal. The Gorkhas conquered eastern Nepal and Sikkim, expanding the kingdom until an ignominious defeat in 1792 at the hands of the Chinese in Tibet.

Nepal’s territorial ambitions placed it on a collision course with the British Empire. Despite early treaties, disputes over the Terai led to the first Anglo-Nepali war of 1814–1816. The British won and Nepal lost Sikkim and other territories. It was at this time that British incorporated the fearless Nepali mercenaries into their own army. Rather than colonising, the British opted to keep Nepal as a buffer state. After the war, Nepal cut itself off from all foreign contact until 1951.

In the 1800s, Shah’s heirs proved unable to maintain political control and a period of internal turmoil led to the ascendancy of the Rana dynasty, the first of whom, Jung Bahadur, codified laws and modernized the state’s bureaucracy. Nine consecutive Rana rulers held the hereditary office of Prime Minister. By 1951 popular discontent against the “Ranocracy” was running high, and figures emerged from among exiled Nepalese including those educated in various South Asian institutions, and marginalised figures within the Rana hierarchy. Many had participated in the struggle for Indian independence and had developed an appetite for revolution.

The turmoil culminated in King Tribhuvan, a direct descendant of Prithvi Narayan Shah (who’s position as Nepal’s monarch was mainly titular), fleeing to India in 1950, sparking an armed revolt against the Rana administration. This led to the return of the Shah family to power. A period of quasi-constitutional rule followed, and during the 1950s efforts were made to establish a representative government based on the British model. It was during this time when China tightened its grip on Tibet, and Tibetan refugees started to pour into Nepal, now a buffer zone between two rival Asian giants.

Tribhuvan died in 1955 in Switzerland under mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his son Mahendra, who by 1960 declared parliamentary democracy a failure. In a royal coup, he dismissed the government and declared that a “partyless” Panchayat system would govern the country. Absolute power was held by the monarchy with the King holding sole authority over all government institutions. Upon his death in 1972 Mahendra was succeeded by his son, Birendra. Amid anti-regime demonstrations in 1979 King Birendra called for a national referendum to decide on the nature of Nepal’s government: a reformed Panchayat system won a narrow victory over the alternative of a multi-party system.

By 1991 the Nepali Congress party, with support of an alliance of leftist parties, agitated the monarchy to accept multiparty democracy and Nepal held its first parliamentary elections in 50 years, with Nepali Congress forming a government. The political atmosphere remained unstable and the 1990s were littered with dozens of broken coalitions, dissolved governments and sacked politicians. In 1996 the Maoists (Communist Party of Nepal) started a bid to replace the parliamentary monarchy with a democratic republic through a revolutionary strategy which led to a civil war, lasting until 2006.

In 2001 the Nepali psyche was dealt a huge blow when Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down almost every member of the royal family. A monarch who had steered the country through extraordinarily difficult times was gone. The beginning of the 21^st Century saw the political situation turn from bad to worse. Various Prime Ministers were replaced making a total of nine governments in 10 years. By 2005, 13,000 had been killed in the insurgency. In 2006 parliamentary democracy was grudgingly restored by King Gyanendra, who was reduced to a figurehead.

The Maoists won the 2008 and abolished the monarchy, making Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic. The new government included former guerrilla leaders such as Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known by his nom de guerre Prachanda) who became Prime Minister for a year. The following years were marked by further instability and violence from ethnic groups such as the Madhesi of the southern Terai region near the Indian border.