ABSTRACT
This chapter presents background on the development of Nepali national identity in history and its appearance in tourism representations. It provides a commentary on polity that dominated the ‘national’ narrative of ‘Nepaliness’ or ‘Nepali identity’ in history, and illustrates how tourism became intersected with and companion to this ‘national’ narrative. In 1960 the Nepalese king dissolved the elected parliament and introduced the Panchayati system, a political system founded on absolute monarchy, which played a key role in the shaping of modern Nepali national identity that was largely based on the Nepali language and hill identity. Various symbols and icons were invented and aggressively employed to give a distinctive sense of Nepali national identity, and institutions were created to advance this ‘nationalist’ project. In 1990, Nepal adopted a multiparty parliamentary democracy. M. Liechty argues that Nepal’s development as a tourist destination was the result of the deep-seated Western longing for an imagined ‘otherness’.
