Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha were a pair of Nepali conjoined twins who underwent surgery in Singapore to separate them in 2001.
The Shrestha twins were born in the town of Khalanga in western Nepal, and named for India's sacred rivers. Their surgery took more than 100 hours, triple the previous record and was made possible by advanced computer imaging which had never been used before in Singapore. [1] Although both survived the surgery, believed to be only the second of its kind, [2] they had varying degrees of impairment, with Ganga having brain damage and Jamuna being unable to walk. Ganga subsequently died in 2008 of pneumonia and meningitis. [3]
In 2016, a book was published in Singapore about their lives. [4]
Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined in utero. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 49,000 births to one in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and an additional one-third die within 24 hours. Most live births are female, with a ratio of 3:1.
Bhaktapur, known locally as Khwopa and historically called Bhadgaon, is a city in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the capital city, Kathmandu. Bhaktapur is the smallest city of Nepal as well as the most densely populated. Along with Kathmandu and Lalitpur, Bhaktapur is one of the three main cities of the Kathmandu Valley and is a major Newar settlement of the country. The city is also known for its Newar tradition, cuisine and artisans. Bhaktapur suffered heavy damage in the April 2015 earthquake.
Nepal Airlines Corporation, formerly known as Royal Nepal Airlines, is the flag carrier of Nepal. Founded in 1958, it is the oldest airline of the country. Out of its main base at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, the airline operates domestic services within Nepal and medium-haul services in Asia. The airline's first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3, used to serve domestic routes and a handful of destinations in India. The airline acquired its first jet aircraft, Boeing 727s, in 1972. As of February 2023, the airline operates a fleet of six aircraft. Since 2013, the airline has been on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union.
The Gurkha Contingent (GC) is a line department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) consisting primarily of Gurkhas from Nepal, recruited by the British Army with the purview of the Government of Singapore. The contingent's roles are as a special guard force and counter-terrorist force.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, also known as Lukla Airport, is a domestic airport and altiport in the town of Lukla, in Khumbu Pasanglhamu, Solukhumbu District, Koshi Province of Nepal. It gained worldwide fame as it was rated the most dangerous airport in the world for more than 20 years by a program titled Most Extreme Airports, broadcast on The History Channel in 2010.
Durga Lal Shrestha is a Nepalese poet of Nepal Bhasa and Nepali. He was conferred with the title of Janakavi by Nepal Bhasha Parishad in 2003. He is considered as a progressive litterateur. He was awarded the Jagadamba Shree Puraskar in 2010 for "enriching Nepalese literature by writing very melodious songs, poems, poetry and children's literature in his mother tongue and Nepali language for the last six decades."
Bidur is the capital of Nuwakot District in Bagmati Province, Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 18694 and had 3736 houses in it.
Lele is a village development committee in Lalitpur District in the Bagmati Zone of central Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 6928 living in 1245 individual households, but the population has increased greatly since then.
Same-sex marriage has been provisionally recognised nationwide in Nepal since 24 April 2024. On 28 June 2023, Supreme Court Justice Til Prasad Shrestha directed the government to establish a "separate register" for "sexual minorities and non-traditional couples" and to "temporarily register their marriages". Despite the directive, a district court in Kathmandu denied a same-sex couple's application to marry on 13 July 2023. In the last week of November 2023, the couple was informed by the Ministry of Home Affairs that their marriage would be registered. They successfully registered their marriage on 29 November 2023 in Dordi, followed by several other, mostly transgender, couples over the following months. On 24 April 2024, Home Affairs' National ID and Civil Registration Department issued a circular to all local registration authorities, instructing them to enter all same-sex marriages into the separate register. However, the temporary registration does not grant same-sex couples the same legal rights and recognition as opposite-sex couples. Same-sex couples cannot inherit property, receive tax subsidies, make spousal medical decisions or adopt children, among others. They are also labeled as "groom and bride" on marriage licenses, and it is unknown if all local governments are complying with the instructions of the National ID and Civil Registration Department.
Sanduk Ruit is an ophthalmologist from Nepal who was involved to restore the sight of over 180,000 people across Africa and Asia using small-incision cataract surgery.
Balika Vadhu is an Indian soap opera that aired on Colors TV between 21 July 2008 to 31 July 2016 with 2,245 episodes. The story is set in rural Rajasthan and revolves around the life of a child bride from childhood to womanhood.
Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a former royal palace complex located in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It housed the Malla kings of Nepal from 14th to 15th century and the kings of the Kingdom of Bhaktapur from 15th to late 18th century until the kingdom was conquered in 1769. Today, this square is recognised by UNESCO, managed jointly by the Archeological Department of Nepal and Bhaktapur Municipality, and is undergoing extensive restoration due to the damages from the earthquake in 1934 and the recent earthquake of 2015.
Raffles Medical Group (RMG), is a private healthcare provider in Asia, operating medical facilities in thirteen cities in Singapore, China, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Craniopagus twins are conjoined twins who are fused at the cranium. The union may occur on any portion of the cranium, but does not primarily involve either the face or the foramen magnum; the two brains are usually separate, but they may share some brain tissue. Conjoined twins are genetically identical and always share the same sex. The thorax and abdomen are separate and each twin has their own umbilicus and umbilical cord.
Ganga Lal Shrestha was a Nepalese revolutionary who was executed by the autocratic Rana regime. He is honoured as one of the four martyrs of the Nepalese revolution. He was a member of the clandestine political organisation named Nepal Praja Parishad that started a movement in 1939 to remove the Rana oligarchy and establish democracy in Nepal.
Ganga and Jamuna Mondal, known professionally as The Spider Girls and The Spider Sisters, are conjoined twins from a Bengali family in Basirhat, West Bengal, India.
Shree Krishna Shrestha was a Nepalese actor and producer known for his work in Nepali cinema. He was widely renowned for his talents as an actor, dancer and during his acting career, he was one of the highest paid actors in Nepali cinema.
"Melancholy" is an environmentally-themed song sung by 365 Nepali artists. This song was intended to promote an environmental message by breaking the Guinness World Records for "Most Vocal Solos in a Song Recording", which it successfully did. It was written, music composed and directed by environmentalist Nipesh Dhaka. The song was recorded as a single on 19 May 2016. The recording sessions were inaugurated by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli at 8 am and continued until 6 pm. The song was released on 2 September 2017 by President Bidya Devi Bhandari at Army Officer's Club, Kathmandu.
Landslides are triggered in Nepal due to a combination of steep mountains and unstable soils. The risk of the landslide is high in the monsoon season due to the lubrication of soil in the slope by moisture. Another important factor triggering the landslide is earthquakes. When landslide occurs near the river, it can block the river causing a damming effect. Damming could also occur due to rock-slides. Such dams are unstable and can cause flooding if not breached in controlled manner. Below is a list of dams formed due to landslides and their impacts in Nepal Annually, 593 natural disaster occurs in average and quite a few of them are related to the damming by landslides and about 13% of fatality is directly related to the landslide and Landslides Dammed Outburst Flood (LDOF).
The Second Federal Parliament of Nepal, was elected by the 2022 general elections on 20 November 2022. The elections elected 275 Members of Parliament (MPs), 165 for each constituency and 110 through the party list, to the House of Representatives. The parliament convened for the first time on 9 January 2023.