Centuries-old network faces government heat as authorities link it to cryptocurrency, gold smuggling and tax evasion.
country: Nepal
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Nepal from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Nepali politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Kathmandu, Nepali history, and cultural events.
The Nepali government bars working abroad in Iraq for safety reasons. But more Nepali women are ending up there in abusive domestic work — including some who were trafficked.
After the November 3 Yalung Ri avalanche that killed an Italian climber and at least six others, Reinhold Messner argues the Himalaya are inherently hostile, urges preparation over easy blame, and notes the Panbari missing are a separate case.
Nepal was late to adopt social media. Now that it’s arrived, cross-border traffickers have access to a much wider field of exploitation.
In border towns, rallies organized by Hindu nationalists often end in violence — fracturing communities and threatening Nepal’s fragile secularism.
At one public hospital in Kathmandu, half of all infertility cases come from men who work in Gulf countries.
Gen Z, the first truly digital generation, is uniting across borders to challenge corruption and demand social justice.
For one farmer, the barley supply once made flour for a year. Now, it is limited to two handfuls. The loss of USAID adds to the long list of challenges.
Cyber slavery rings are growing across the region, trapping young jobseekers in brutal scam compounds — and fueling a global criminal enterprise.
A cable car project to Nepal’s Pathibhara temple threatens the livelihood of porters and is seen by the indigenous Limbu community as a desecration of sacred land. Their protests reflect broader struggles over development and indigenous rights in the country.
Deported by the U.S. and rejected by Bhutan, dozens of former refugees are now stranded in Nepal without citizenship or legal status. Their statelessness raises urgent legal and human rights questions about the consequences of deportation.
TikTok videos and promises of big paydays have lured Nepali men to Ukraine’s front lines — but many haven’t come home. Now, their families are crossing continents to learn their fates.
As the war in Ukraine has continued for years now, reports have surfaced of international soldiers, including those from China and North Korea, fighting for the Russian side. Less known but perhaps no less significant is the example of Nepalese soldiers, some of whom don’t even know a war is ongoing when they make the decision to leave for Russia in search of a better life.
Nine of 10 people needing transplants never find a donor. Updated laws increase the donor pool by allowing transplants from brain-dead patients. But religious beliefs about reincarnation make such donations rare.
One-third of the dialysis patients at the country’s National Kidney Center came for treatment after working abroad, often at jobs with grueling hours and few water or bathroom breaks in stifling heat.
Children left to fend for themselves when their parents seek work abroad often suffer emotional struggles and educational setbacks. Now, psychologists are raising alarms about the quiet but building crisis.
Sick of dealing with dangerous marauding elephants, farmers in Mechinagar are changing their crops and focusing on livestock, but conservationists warn that pivoting won’t solve the problem for good.
Shunned by the Nepal government, young Tibetans struggle to find work, travel overseas, and open bank accounts. One asks, “Who are we?”
In a culture that can see girls as a burden, many women opt to abort their female fetuses — even though it’s illegal.
Last year, the Nepalese government outlawed the chhaupadi tradition that bans certain activities on menstruating women. But little has changed.
A truth and reconciliation commission is investigating crimes committed during Nepal’s decade-long internal conflict (1996-2006) between state security forces and Maoist rebels.
THAME — A small man appears behind us. “Namaste,” he murmurs in a quiet voice. He calls himself “Ang Tshering Sherpa,” before asking, “Do you want some tea?” His house was destroyed by an earthquake last year, and was just renovated, but he still lives with his daughter next door. At 3,820 meters, the gray […]
NAUBISE — In the village of Naubise, about 90-minute drive from the capital Kathmandu, farmer Nirbhaya Sapkota is experimenting with crop rotation, mixed cropping and even intercropping — anything to maintain soil fertility and moisture. Sapkota, 45, and others this area are contending first-hand with the effects of climate change, which is particularly hard-hitting in Nepal because of its high poverty rates and low adaptive capacity. The major earthquake that struck in April has complicated matters even more. But in this community, at least, Sapkota and other smallholder farmers refuse to go down without a fight. With the help of […]
BHAKTAPUR — With one arm, Rabindra Puri slowly clears a pile of rubble, followed by a second, and a third, until a statuette of the god Shiva appears. He delicately wipes the object’s dust-covered face, then puts it on a stretcher so that it can be carried away and placed in a locked cabin nearby. […]
KATHMANDU — It’s not yet 7 a.m., but already there are tens of thousands of people gathered along the banks of the Bagmati river that runs through Kathmandu. This is the 100th week of an informal campaign to clean up the vital waterway. “In the world, we are proud of Mount Everest, and we are just as ashamed of our Bagmati River,” Bhanu Sharma, one of the leaders of campaign, says over a loud speaker. “It’s our responsibility to save Bagmati and help rid the country of the shame of this polluted river.” 

The crowd joins hands. Participants include senior […]
In the tent cities that arose after the earthquakes, women are learning to protect themselves from sexual assault and violence in the camps.
Despite the devastation, growing demand among foreign couples continues to feed medical tourism in Nepal, where surrogacy agencies recruit women to carry babies for infertile couples.
-Essay- PARIS — Once again, the Nepalese are burying their dead and tending to their wounds. It’s impossible to rebuild for now while everything is still so wobbly. Between the houses that disappeared, the villages erased, the roads cut, the survivors are trembling — for the present suffering as much as for the colossal task […]
KATHMANDU — It’s 4 p.m. in Durbar Square, the iconic piazza in the middle of Nepal’s capital, and a group of volunteers is digging through the rubble of the Hindu Kasthamandap Temple which, according to legend, was built with the wood of a single tree in the 12th century. Suddenly, there’s an explosion of joy […]
Though the law says otherwise, citizenship is typically not granted to the children of Nepalese women if they don’t give proof that the father is also from Nepal.
LUBHU — How do you celebrate your birthday? By throwing a party and cutting a cake? In Nepal some people plant a tree instead. Making tea at home in her village 11 kilometers outside Kathmandu, Sunita Poudel says, “Forests are everything for us. We are dependent on wood and grass. Some of my neighbors cook with small sticks from the forest — they are very poor and can’t afford gas stoves. I have some cows and goats, so I also need grass from the forest every day.” But due to mismanagement, the forest around the village of Lubhu is in […]
Nepal has commissioned meteorologists and geologists to remap the wind systems, mountains and valleys on the “Roof of the World.” It could help us predict natural disasters.
KATHMANDU — Uttam Sanjel, founder of Samata School, stands before the morning assembly. Samata means “equal for all.” Today he wants to talk about a story from one of his students, whose mother celebrated the birth of a son over a daughter. “After five girls, my mom finally had a boy. She named him “Holy life water.” But our life has become more difficult. Why is it happening? It’s all because of lack of education. You have to tell your family and neighbors that sons and daughters are equal.” They then sing a song called, “Mother is Great, Love Her, […]
Some 400,000 people leave the country every year to work abroad, often recruited by agencies that are really human traffickers. A close-up view of the human toll in Katmandu.
KHADICHAUR – Araniko Highway, connecting Kathmandu to the Nepal-China border, doesn’t look much like a highway. It is narrow strip of roadway sometimes covered in asphalt, sometimes just dirt. This 115-kilometer road, winding between mountains and ravines is also deadly. Or it would be, without the incredible dexterity of the truck and bus drivers who […]
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“Buddhaland” – Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?
The struggle for power in Lumbini, Nepal as a Chinese group pushes a “mega project” to draw Buddhist tourists from around the world.