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Beneath the majestic Mount Everest and the awe-inspiring Himalayan ranges lives a people who share a tragic history of royal family massacre and decades of civil strife. A country that ranked amongst the most corrupt nations in the world (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2017), in which a quarter of its 30 million citizens live below the poverty line (UN Human Development Report 2016).
Yet these people do not receive the same international media attention and profiling that other developing nations in Latin America, Africa or Eastern Europe receives. Whenever Nepal is mentioned, the average person thinks of Everest, rustic mountain villages and hardy porters who carry the tourists’ heavy backpacks.
My journey into understanding this country and its people started when I made a last-minute decision to go on a trip to Nepal with two other friends, guided by sons of the first-generation Gurkhas who served in Singapore in its founding years.
Gurkhas (or Gorkhas in Nepali) are Nepalese soldiers who come from central Nepal and the eastern hill villages. Their greatness as loyal and brave fighters were first appreciated by the British when they were defeated with heavy casualties in the invasion of Nepal in 1815. In the years that followed till today, Gurkhas were recruited to serve in the…
