Kathmandu, officially Kathmandu Metropolitan City, is the capital and most populous city of Nepal with 845,767 inhabitants living in 105,649 households in 2021 and 2.9 million people in its urban agglomeration. It is located in the Kathmandu Valley, a large valley in the high plateaus in central Nepal, at an altitude of 1,400 metres.
Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah was King of Nepal from 11 December 1911 until his death. Born in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, he ascended to the throne at the age of five, upon the death of his father, Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah, and was crowned on 20 February 1913 at the Nasal Chowk, Hanuman Dhoka Palace in Kathmandu, with his mother acting as regent. At the time of his crowning, the position of monarch was largely ceremonial, with the real governing power residing with the Rana family.
Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was the King of Nepal from 13 March 1955 until his death in 1972, which was due to heart attack as told in an interview by his personal physician Dr. Mrigendra Raj Pandey. Following the 1960 coup d'état, he established the partyless Panchayat system which governed the country for 28 years until the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1990. During his reign, Nepal experienced a period of industrial, political and economic change that opened it to the rest of the world for the first time after the 104-year-long reign of the Rana rulers, who had kept the country under an isolationist policy, came to an end in 1951.
His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is a former monarch who was the last King of Nepal, reigning from 2001 to 2008. As a child, he was briefly king from 1950 to 1951, when his grandfather, Tribhuvan, took political exile in India with the rest of his family. His second reign began after the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre. Gyanendra Shah is the first person in the history of Nepal to be king twice and also the last king of the Shah dynasty of Nepal.
The India Gate is a war memorial located near the Kartavya path on the eastern edge of the "ceremonial axis" of New Delhi, formerly called duty path. It stands as a memorial to 84,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921 in the First World War, in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the Near and the Far East, and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. 13,300 servicemen's names, including some soldiers and officers from the United Kingdom, are inscribed on the gate. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the gate evokes the architectural style of the memorial arch such as the Arch of Constantine, in Rome, and is often compared to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah was King of Nepal from 1881 until 1911. Among the most notable events of his reign were the introduction of the first automobiles to Nepal, and the creation of strict water and sanitation systems for much of the country. King Prithvi's eldest child was Princess Lakshmi, who was married to Field Marshal Kaiser Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana. She was made the Crown Princess and was heir to Nepal's throne until she was in her late teens, when her brother Tribhuvan was born. Until then King Prithvi only had four daughters and four from another wife.
Lalitpur Metropolitan City, historically Patan, is the fourth most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, Pokhara and Bharatpur, and it is located in the south-central part of Kathmandu Valley, a new metropolitan city of Nepal. Lalitpur is also known as Manigal. It is best known for its rich cultural heritage, particularly its tradition of arts and crafts. It is city renowned for its festival and feast, fine ancient art, and the making of metallic, wood and stone carved statues. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had a population of 226,728 in 54,748 individual households. The city received extensive damage from an earthquake on 25 April 2015.
Shukra Raj Shastri was a Nepalese intellectual and fighter for democracy who was executed by the autocratic Rana dynasty. He is one of the four martyrs of the Nepalese revolution that toppled the Rana regime. The other three are Dashrath Chand, Dharma Bhakta Mathema and Ganga Lal Shrestha.
Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah is a member of the Nepalese Royal Family who was Queen consort of Nepal from 1955 to 1972 and Queen dowager from 1972 to 2008 when the royal family were stripped of all titles and privileges. She is the second wife of King Mahendra (1920–1972). Ratna belongs to the aristocratic Rana family and is the daughter of Field Marshal Hari Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana and his wife, Megha Kumari Rajya Lakshmi.
The Narayanhiti Palace Museum is a public museum in Kathmandu, Nepal located east of the Kaiser Mahal and next to Thamel. The museum was created in 2008 from the complex of the former Narayanhiti Palace following the 2006 revolution. Before the revolution, the palace was the residence and principal workplace of the monarch of the Kingdom of Nepal, and hosted occasions of state.
The architectural heritage of Kathmandu city is integral to that of the Kathmandu valley since all monuments have evolved over centuries of craftsmanship influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religious practices. The architectural treasure of the Kathmandu valley has been categorized under the well known seven groups of heritage monuments and buildings. In 2006, UNESCO declared these seven groups of monuments as a World Heritage Site (WHS). The seven monuments zones cover an area of 188.95 hectares, with the buffer zone extending to 239.34 hectares. The Seven Monument Zones (Mzs) inscribed originally in 1979 with a minor modification in inscribed year as 2006, are: Five monuments in Kathmandu – Durbar square of Hanuman Dhoka, Hindu temples of Pashupatinath and Changunarayan, the Buddha stupas of Swayambu and Boudhanath; and two monuments outside Kathmandu city limits, in the satellite towns of Patan and Bhktapur – Durbar square at Patan, Durbar square at Bhaktapur. Brief details of the five Kathmandu city monuments are elaborated here.
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 under heavy restoration due to the damages from the earthquake in 1934 and the recent earthquake of 2015.
Dharma Bhakta Mathema (1909—1941) was a professional body builder as well as a founding member of Praja Parishad. He introduced modern body building techniques in Nepal, but had gained popularity for his contribution to the Nepalese struggle for freedom against the autocracy of the Rana dynasty. He was killed during the freedom movement, and he is duly recognized as one of the four martyrs of Nepal of the Rana era.
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.
Martyr in Nepal is a term for some one who is while making contributions for the welfare of the country or society. The term was originally used for individuals who died while opposing the Rana Regime which was in place in the Kingdom of Nepal from 1846 until 1951.
Jogbir Sthāpit (1838–1926) was a renowned Nepalese architect best known as the designer of Narayanhiti Royal Palace and renovator of the Swayambhu stupa in Kathmandu. He was a master of both Western and traditional Nepalese building styles.
The revolution of 1951 in Nepal, also referred to as Sat Salko Kranti, was a political movement against the direct rule by the Rana dynasty of Nepal which had lasted for 104 years. It marks the beginning of the political awakening and democratic movements in Nepal, and resulted in immediate abolition of the institutionalized hereditary Prime Minister system in Nepal.
Divyeshwari was the Queen Consort of Nepal from her marriage in 1886 to her husband's death in 1911. She was the second wife of King Prithvi of Nepal. Queen Divyeshwari was the mother of King Tribhuvan of Nepal.
The Tribhuvan Sadan is a mansion in the Narayanhiti Palace, Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known for being the site of the Nepalese royal massacre where ten members of the royal family, including King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, and Crown Prince Dipendra were killed. The mansion was formerly occupied by King Tribhuvan and his family and later by Dipendra, Crown Prince of Nepal. The Tribhuvan Sadan was demolished after the orders of the Queen Mother Ratna however It is currently being reconstructed.
Shankar Nath Rimal is a Nepalese civil engineer and architect. He is best known for standardising the modern Nepalese flag. He has also designed many prominent buildings and monuments in Nepal. Sahid gate of Sundhara, Ramananda gate of Janakpur, Bhaleshwar temple of Chandragiri hill and Solatee hotel are some of the prominent structure he has designed.
