Culture in Nepal

Nepal is such a country where within a very short geographical distance diverse ethnic groups foods and festival, cultural heritage, languages can be found. Nepal is also the place of origin of some of the major religious values like Hinduism, Buddhism in the ancient days. Hindu and Buddhist traditions in Nepal go back to more than two millennia. In Lumbini, Buddha was born, and Pashupatinath temple, Kathamandu, is an old and famous Shiva temple. Nepal has several other temples and Buddhist monasteries, and also places of worship of other religious groups. Tantric traditions are also deep rooted in Nepal, including the practice of animal sacrifices. Five types of animals, always male, are acceptable for sacrifice: buffaloes, goats, sheep, chickens, and ducks. With a multiplicity groups, Nepal has several cults, and gods and goddesses, which co-exist with the major religions. In its long cultural history, Nepal has always remained a land of religious harmony.

Festivals

Several festivals are celebrated in Nepal, lasting from one day to several days all round the year. Dashain is the longest and the most important festival of Nepal. Generally Dashain falls in late September to mid October, right after the end of the monsoon season in Nepal. It is "a day of Victory over Demons". Tihar is another important festival of Nepal, it is also called as the festival of Lights. Other important festivals include Buddha Jayanti, Janaipurnima, Krishna Janmasthami,  Teej, chat etc. In the winter time Maha Shivaratri is celebrated, during this festival Lord Shiva is worshiped, and during Maha Shivaratri festivities, some people consume excessive drinks and smoke charas. Loshar is the great festival for Gurung community.

Foods

The food habit of Nepalese people has developed in accordance of geographical structure and corps available locally. The geographical structure of the country varies from the plains bodering India up to the higest altitude in the Himalayan reason meeting Tibet in the northern boarder evidently this strategic location has given rise to devleopement of food habits similar to Indian food habits in the Terai and Tibeto Chinese in the North. Paddy is mostly grown crop in the plains while wheat millet, maize, potatoes are major crops in the hilly and Himalayan territories. The people of respective reasons prepare the recipe as per the crops grown in their own areas. However in the modern contest with the development of transportation and migration the foods and recipe of one reason has been popular in the other reason also. Moreover with the development of   urbanization and packet food culture bakeries, can foods, and junk foods have also become popular mainly in the urban areas.

A typical Nepali meal is Dal Bhat- boiled lentils (dal) served with rice, vegetables and spicy pickle. This is consumed twice daily, once in the morning and again after sunset. Snacks such as chapatti, chiura (beaten rice), roti (flat bread), curried vegetables, milked tea and other snacks are also generally eaten in between the two big meals. Meat, eggs, and fish are considered a special recipe.

Millet-based alcoholic drinks known as Raksi  and other cereal based alcohol are popular, including chayang, Tongba and the distilled rakshi. According to the season, race and festival different kinds of foods are consumed.

Popular Dishes

1. Gundrook- Dheedo
Equally popular among Nepali people and foreign tourists, Gundrook-Dheedo is a sugar-free dish made of millet, wheat, maize and dried green vegetable. The food is high on nutrition level.

2. Thukpa (Noodles)
Noodles are one of the popular dishes in Nepal served with either vegetable egg or meat.
There are several types of noodles based on the flour and ingredient like wheat, millet, etc. Locally named as Thukpa, Chowmin, Pasta is available in various packages, sizes and flavors. One may enjoy the recipe widely in the restaurant of any towns

3. Chatamari
Regarded as Newari pizza, Chatamari is flat bread made from rice flour with or without toppings (meat, vegetables, eggs, sugar). It is highly savored by the tourists who consider it as a good and healthy substitute to pizza.

4. Alu Tama
Aloo Tama  simply means 'Potato Bamboo Shoots'. It is a unique and classic Nepali curry flavor dish. It is unique in the sense that it is unlike any other Indian or South Asian curry since they rarely use bamboo shoots. Similarly, unlike other East Asian cuisine such as Chinese that uses Bamboo shoots but does not use curry spices.

5. Pulao
Pulao is considered as a special recipe usually prepared in the festive gathering, marriages and special occasion. The ingredient of pulao are a special white rice fried in butter with flavor of turmeric and cumin to it.

Apart from its traditional food the country offers a wide range of Chinese and Japanese fast foods like Mo:Mo and Noodles There are many food outlets in the city which provide the traveler with excellent cooking. The food in Nepal is delicious and is available at a very reasonable price to the tourist so that they could fully enjoy the mouth watering traditional recipes of the region.