Nepal is a wondrous crossroads of religions, cultures, and geography. Hinduism holds sway throughout the country’s south while Buddhism flows across the northern border from the Tibetan Plateau. Both great faiths uniquely fuse with ancient animist beliefs and shaman rituals. Nepal is home to dozens of linguistic groups, tribes and castes, forming a rich and varied cultural mosaic.

Much of Nepal’s landscape formed from the crash of two continental plates, and the result includes most of the world’s highest and most dramatic peaks—including, of course, Mount Everest. As Rudyard Kipling wrote, the Himalaya is “a revelation of all might, majesty, dominion and power, henceforth, and for ever, in color, form, and substance indescribable.”