Nepal Trivia
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48 free Nepal trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 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Easy questions ask which mountain is highest; hard ones want the year the flag lost its human faces and the treaty that superseded Sugauli.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 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Nepal?
Kathmandu
Kathmandu takes its name from Kasthamandap, a wooden pavilion that legend says was built from the timber of a single tree.
Q 02Eight of the world's ten highest mountains stand in Nepal; which of these giants lies entirely outside it?
K2
K2, in the Karakoram, kept its survey label because the remote peak seemed to have no local name, while its neighbour K1 turned out to be Masherbrum.
Q 03Chomolungma is the name used north of the border; what is Mount Everest's official name in Nepal?
Sagarmatha
Sagarmatha was put forward by historian Baburam Acharya, because until then Nepal had no official Nepali name of its own for the peak.
Q 04What force is still slowly raising Mount Everest?
India pushing into Asia
India pushing into Asia raised the Himalaya, and because that collision continues today, Everest's height keeps changing.
Q 05Who made the first documented ascent of Everest in 1953?
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the top, and the news reached London just in time to be announced on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
Q 06Everest was named in the 19th century after which man?
A British Surveyor General of India
A British Surveyor General of India, George Everest, lent the peak his name, but the calculation showing it was the world's highest was made by mathematician Radhanath Sikdar.
Q 07Which Everest hazard do climbers cross on ladders just above Base Camp?
Khumbu Icefall
Khumbu Icefall is where an avalanche killed 16 Nepali guides in 2014, and the Sherpas then stopped climbing for the rest of that season.
Q 08Which Himalayan town's short, steeply sloping airstrip is the usual starting point for treks to Everest Base Camp?
Lukla
Lukla has a runway so steep that landing planes brake while climbing uphill and departing planes gain speed rolling downhill toward a cliff edge.
Q 09The Sherpa people are an ethnic group of what origin?
Tibetan
Tibetan migrants crossed the Himalaya into Nepal, and a 2015 genetic study confirmed the Sherpas' recent Tibetan ancestry.
Q 10Nepal's three physiographic belts are known by what names?
Himal, Pahad and Terai
Himal, Pahad and Terai run from snow peaks to lowland plains; most Nepalis shunned the malarial Terai until malaria control in the 1960s let settlers pour in.
Q 11Which drug, sold legally in government-licensed shops, drew 1960s hippies to Nepal's Freak Street?
Hashish
Hashish stayed legal until Nepal closed the shops and outlawed cannabis in the 1970s, and the hippie haven faded.
Q 12Which Nepali site is revered as the birthplace of the Buddha?
Lumbini
Lumbini has a stone pillar recording that Emperor Ashoka came in person to worship there because the Buddha was born on that spot.
Q 13The main temple at the Buddha's birthplace in Nepal is named after which woman?
Maya Devi
Maya Devi, the Buddha's mother, went into labour in a garden while travelling to her parents' home to give birth, grasping the branch of a sal tree, tradition says.
Q 21Who was named by the official inquiry as the perpetrator of the 2001 royal palace massacre?
Crown Prince Dipendra
Crown Prince Dipendra was declared king while in a coma after shooting himself, and he reigned for three days in hospital before he died.
Q 22Which king of Nepal was killed in the 2001 royal massacre, along with Queen Aishwarya?
Birendra
Birendra had given up absolute power after the 1990 pro-democracy protests, agreeing to a new democratic constitution.
Q 23Which man, Nepal's last king, was crowned days after the 2001 royal massacre?
Gyanendra
Gyanendra dismissed the government in 2005 and restored absolute rule to fight an insurgency, but weeks of protests forced him to reinstate parliament in 2006.
Q 14Which king of Gorkha conquered the valley kingdoms in 1769 and unified Nepal?
Prithvi Narayan Shah
Prithvi Narayan Shah took Kirtipur on his third attempt and then ordered the noses of its inhabitants cut off.
Q 15Which fact distinguishes Nepal's history from most of South Asia?
It was never colonised
It was never colonised, though after its 1816 defeat by the East India Company it had to accept a British Resident in its capital.
Q 16The Anglo-Nepali War of 1814-16 ended with which treaty?
Sugauli
Sugauli is where Nepal signed away Garhwal and Kumaon, and Nepal cited that treaty in its 2020 Kalapani border dispute with India.
Q 17Who founded the Rana dynasty of hereditary prime ministers in 1846?
Jung Bahadur
Jung Bahadur seized power in the 1846 Kot massacre, when he and his brothers killed the prime minister and dozens of courtiers in a single night.
Q 18Britain returned lowland territory to Nepal in 1860 in thanks for its help during what?
The Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 saw Gurkha troops fight for the British, and the land returned in 1860 became known as Naya Muluk, 'new country'.
Q 19Nepali UN peacekeepers were blamed for bringing cholera to which country in 2010?
Haiti
Haiti suffered an epidemic that killed thousands, and the UN invoked its legal immunity to reject victims' compensation claims.
Q 20Which movement launched a violent insurgency in the 1990s to replace Nepal's monarchy with a people's republic?
The Maoists
The Maoists signed a peace deal in 2006 after a decade of war, and parliament then approved abolishing the monarchy as part of that deal.
Q 24After Nepal abolished its monarchy, what became of the royal palace where the 2001 massacre happened?
A museum
A museum was set up there after Nepal's government nationalised the palace in 2007 and the last king moved out.
Q 25Nepal's 2015 constitution gave its seven new provinces what instead of names?
Numbers
Numbers served until each provincial assembly agreed a permanent name by a two-thirds vote, so Province No. 1 became Koshi only in 2023.
Q 26Nepal's flag is unique among national flags for what reason?
It is not rectangular
It is not rectangular because it joins two pennants that once belonged to rival branches of Nepal's ruling family.
Q 27Until 1962, what did the sun and moon on Nepal's flag have?
Human faces
Human faces were removed in 1962 to modernise the flag, when civil engineer Shankar Nath Rimal standardised it at King Mahendra's request.
Q 28The red of Nepal's flag represents bravery and which national flower?
The rhododendron
The rhododendron's nectar gives bees a toxin that turns their honey into 'mad honey', which can cause light-headedness and even hallucinations.
Q 29Nepal's official language grew out of the tongue of which people?
The Khas
The Khas speech of the western Karnali hills spread with the Gorkha kingdom's conquests, which is why it was called Gorkhali before it became Nepali.
Q 30Which animal did Nepal declare its national animal in 2015?
The cow
The cow, sacred to Hindus, was named in the same 2015 constitution that declared Nepal a secular state.