50 free Nepal trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Nepal holds eight of the world's ten highest mountains, the birthplace of the Buddha and the only national flag that is not a rectangle. It was never colonised, was the world's last Hindu kingdom until 2008, and lost most of its royal family in a single night in 2001. This quiz covers all of it: the geography from the Terai plains to Everest's 8,848.86 metres, the Kathmandu Valley and its Newar kingdoms, Prithvi Narayan Shah's unification, the Anglo-Nepali War and the Sugauli Treaty, the century of Rana rule, the 1951 revolution, the Maoist civil war, the palace massacre and the 2015 constitution with its seven provinces. Culture and daily life follow: Nepali and the 123 mother tongues, Hinduism at 81 percent, Dashain and Tihar, dal bhat and momos, the living goddess Kumari, Pashupatinath, Sherpas and Tenzing Norgay's 1953 ascent, Gurkhas and the khukuri, the crimson double-pennant flag, remittances, UN peacekeepers and the rupee pegged to India's. Easy questions ask which mountain is highest; hard ones want the year the flag lost its human faces and the treaty that superseded Sugauli. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Nepal, Mount Everest, the flag, Kathmandu, Lumbini, Gurkhas, the royal massacre, Tenzing Norgay, dal bhat and the Sherpa people, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Nepal?
Kathmandu
Its valley was the seat of the Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala.
Q 02Nepal is landlocked between India and which other country?
China
It touches the Tibet Autonomous Region to the north; Bhutan lies just beyond Sikkim.
Q 03How many of the world's ten highest mountains lie wholly or partly in Nepal?
Eight
They include Everest, the highest point above sea level on Earth.
Q 04What is the Nepali name for Mount Everest?
Sagarmatha
Across the border it is called Qomolangma, often written Chomolungma.
Q 05Everest's height, as measured in a 2020 Nepal-China survey, is what?
8,848.86 m
An earlier 19th-century survey had put Peak XV at 8,840 m.
Q 06Who made the first documented ascent of Everest in 1953?
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary
They climbed by the Southeast Ridge; Mallory and Irvine vanished on the mountain in 1924.
Q 07Everest was named in the 19th century after which man?
A British Surveyor General of India
Andrew Waugh chose to honour his predecessor Sir George Everest because there were too many local names.
Q 08Roughly how many people have died on Everest?
Over 340
Around 200 bodies are thought to remain on the mountain.
Q 09Tenzing Norgay wrote that he was born and raised in which Sherpa village in Khumbu?
Tengboche
Tengboche is home to the first celibate monastery in Solu-Khumbu.
Q 10The Sherpa people are an ethnic group of what origin?
Tibetan
Their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family.
Q 11Nepal's three physiographic belts are known by what names?
Himal, Pahad and Terai
They run from the high mountains through the hills to the southern plains.
Q 12What is the lowland plain along Nepal's southern border with India called?
The Terai
It forms the northern rim of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and drops to just 60 metres above sea level.
Q 13Which Nepali site is revered as the birthplace of the Buddha?
Lumbini
Emperor Ashoka raised a pillar there whose inscription starts Nepal's recorded history.
Q 21Which movement launched a violent insurgency in 1996 to replace the monarchy with a people's republic?
The Maoists
It joined mainstream politics after the peaceful revolution of 2006.
Q 22Who was named by the official inquiry as the perpetrator of the 2001 royal palace massacre?
Crown Prince Dipendra
He shot himself and died three days later, having been declared king while in a coma.
Q 23How many members of the royal family died in the 2001 massacre?
Nine
King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya were among them.
Q 14The Buddha's birthplace became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?
1997
The Ashoka pillar there was rediscovered in 1896.
Q 15Which king of Gorkha conquered the valley kingdoms in 1769 and unified Nepal?
Prithvi Narayan Shah
The decisive fighting included the Battle of Kirtipur.
Q 16Which fact distinguishes Nepal's history from most of South Asia?
It was never colonised
It served as a buffer state between imperial China and British India.
Q 17The Anglo-Nepali War of 1815-16 ended with which treaty?
Sugauli
Nepal ceded recently captured lands, and the Gurkhas' fighting reputation was born.
Q 18Who founded the Rana dynasty of hereditary prime ministers in 1846?
Jung Bahadur
He rose after the Kot massacre wiped out hundreds of rival princes and chieftains.
Q 19Britain gifted parts of the western Terai to Nepal in 1860 in thanks for help during what?
The Indian Rebellion of 1857
The land became known as Naya Muluk, 'new country'.
Q 20Nepal was admitted to the United Nations in which year?
1955
It has since sent more than 119,000 peacekeepers to 42 missions.
Q 24Who became king after the 2001 massacre?
Gyanendra
He later seized full executive power in 2005 and lost the throne in 2008.
Q 25Nepal was declared a federal republic on 28 May of which year, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy?
2008
The current constitution followed in 2015.
Q 26The 2015 constitution divides Nepal into how many provinces?
Seven
It was promulgated on 20 September 2015 after two constituent assembly elections.
Q 27Nepal's flag is unique among national flags for what reason?
It is not rectangular
It is also the only national flag taller than it is wide.
Q 28Until 1962, what did the sun and moon on Nepal's flag have?
Human faces
They were removed to modernise the flag when the new constitution came in.
Q 29The red of Nepal's flag represents bravery and which national flower?
The rhododendron
The blue border stands for peace.
Q 30Nepal's official language grew out of the tongue of which people?
The Khas
It became the lingua franca of Nepal and adjoining parts of India; the country has 123 mother tongues.