Nepal is a very interesting country from a democratic point of view. The country received its first democratic constitution in 1959, but the year after their king dissolved the parliament. After hard struggle, the democratic movement succeeded in 1990 to force through a new democratic constitution, where the king's absolute power was cut down. Hence, Nepal is a young democracy and we think that it is very interesting to see if this can be seen in classroom work. We firmly believe that this study will be a great asset for us as future teachers. Since Sweden nowadays is a multicultural society, it is important for us as teachers to develop knowledge and respect for other cultures. Also, when we now have returned to Sweden we think it is very important for us to share this knowledge with our fellow student teachers, future pupils and colleagues.
Geography
Nepal is a small mountainous country, 1/3 of the area of Sweden. The country is squeezed in between the two powerful countries India and China. Nepal is divided into three geographical zones. In the south, there is the lowland area, the Terai, where most of the agriculture takes place. The climate in the Terai is tropical, and there is a rich wild-life with, for example, elephants, tigers, rhinos and crocodiles. In the central part of Nepal, the middle-hill area, is the area where most of the people live. The landscape consists of fruitful hills, where rice often is cultivated in terasses. In the north, is the Himalayan mountain chain with eight of the world's ten highest mountains, and highest of them all is
Mount Everest (Utrikespolitiska institutet, 1998).
