People:

Nepal has a population of about 22 million, made up of an assortment of races and tribes living in different regions, wearing different costumes, and speaking different languages and dialects. They live under quite diverse environmental conditions, as we already have read in the previous page.

The Himalayan settlements of Tibetan speaking peoples are found perched precariously on mountain ledges and slopes. Life here is a delicate balance of hard work and social merrymaking, tempered by a culture steeped in ancient religious traditions. The best known of the high mountain peoples are the Sherpas who inhabit the eastern mountains of Nepal.

The midlands ,the middle hills, and the Dun valley are inhabited by varios Tibeto-Berman and Indo-Aryan peoples such as Brahman, Chettri, Newar, Rai, Limbu, Gurung, Tamang, etc. Although Nepal is a veritable mosaic of dozens of ethnic groups, they are bound together by the ideas of peace.

Languages:

Nepali is the national language of Nepal and is written in Devanagari script. Other main languages spoken in Nepal include Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tamang, Avadhi, Gurung, Tharu, and Newari. However, most educated Nepalese cal also speak and write English. Here is a sample of the Nepali script.