Newar language in the context of "Newari literature"

Nepalese scripts (Nepal Lipi: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑐮 𑐁𑐏𑐮, Devanagari: नेपाल आखल) are a family of alphabetic writing systems employed historically in Nepal Mandala by the indigenous Newar people for primarily writing Nepal Bhasa. It is also used for transcribing Sanskrit and Pali. There are also some claims they have also been used to write the Parbatiya (Khas) language.

These scripts were in widespread use from the 10th to the early 20th-century, but have since been largely supplanted by the modern script known as Devanagari. Of the older scripts, about 50,000 manuscripts written in Nepal Lipi have been archived.

The Rañjanā script (Lantsa) is an abugida writing system which developed in the 11th century and until the mid-20th century was used in an area from Nepal to Tibet by the Newar people, the historic inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley, to write Sanskrit and Newar (Nepal Bhasa). Nowadays it is also used in Buddhist monasteries in China, especially in the Tibetan Buddhist areas within the Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu; Mongolia, and Japan. It is normally written from left to right but the Kutakshar form is written from top to bottom. It is also considered to be the standard Nepali calligraphic script.

The Kathmandu Valley (Nepali: काठमाडौं उपत्यका), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (Nepali: नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. It lies at the crossroads of ancient civilizations of the Indian subcontinent and the broader Asian continent, and has at least 130 important monuments, including several pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists. The valley holds seven World Heritage Sites within it.

The Kathmandu Valley is the most developed and the largest urban agglomeration in Nepal with a population of about 5 million people. The urban agglomeration of Kathmandu Valley includes the cities of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Changunarayan, Budhanilkantha, Tarakeshwar, Gokarneshwar, Suryabinayak, Tokha, Kirtipur, Madhyapur Thimi, and others. The majority of offices and headquarters are located in the valley, making it the economic hub of Nepal. It is popular with tourists for its unique architecture, and rich culture which includes the highest number of jatras (festivals) in Nepal. Kathmandu Valley itself was referred to as "Nepal Proper" by British historians. As per the World Bank, the Kathmandu Valley was one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in South Asia with 2.5 million population by 2010 and an annual growth rate of 4%.

Newar (/nɪˈwɑːr/; Newar: नेवार, endonym: Newa; Newar: नेवा, Pracalit script: 𑐣𑐾𑐰𑐵𑑅‎), or Nepami, are primarily inhabitants in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and its surrounding areas, and the creators of its historic heritage and civilisation. Newars are a distinct linguistic and cultural group, primarily Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman ethnicities, who share a common language, Nepal Bhasa, and predominantly practice Newar Hinduism and Newar Buddhism.Newars have developed a division of labour and a sophisticated urban civilisation not seen elsewhere in the Himalayan foothills. Newars have continued their age-old traditions and practices and pride themselves as the true custodians of the religion, culture and civilisation of Nepal. Newars are known for their contributions to culture, art and literature, trade, agriculture and cuisine. Today, they consistently rank as the most economically and socially advanced community in Nepal, according to the annual Human Development Index published by UNDP. Newars are ranked the 8th largest ethnic group in Nepal according to the 2021 Nepal census numbering 1,341,363 people constituting 4.6% of the total population.

The Kathmandu Valley and surrounding territories constituted the former Newar kingdom of the Nepal Mandala. Unlike other common-origin ethnic or caste groups in Nepal, the Newars are regarded as an example of a nation community with a relict identity, derived from an ethnically diverse, previously existing polity. The Newar community within it consists of various strands of ethnic, racial, caste and religious heterogeneity, as they are the descendants of the diverse group of people that have lived in Nepal Mandala since prehistoric times. Indo-Aryan tribes like Maithils of Madhesh Province, the Licchavis, Kosala, and Mallas (N) from respective Indian Mahajanapada (i.e. Licchavis of Vajji, Kosala, and Malla (I)) that arrived at different periods eventually merged with the local native population by marriage as well as adopting their language and customs. These tribes however retained their Vedic culture and brought with them their Sanskritic languages, social structure, Hindu religion and culture, which were assimilated with local cultures and gave rise to the current Newar civilisation. Newar rule in Nepal Mandala ended with its conquest by the Gorkha Kingdom in 1768.

Lhasa Newar (or Lhasa Newah; Newar: ल्हासा नेवा) were the expatriate Newar traders and artisans who traveled between the Kathmandu Valley and Tibet from centuries ago. These Nepalese merchants conducted trade between Nepal, Tibet and Bengal, India over the Silk Road, and acted as a bridge for economic and cultural exchanges between South Asia and Central Asia.

Along with the merchants, there were colonies of artisans in various parts of Tibet who were engaged in creating Buddhist art. They were major players in the exchange of art styles across the Himalaya.

The unification of Nepal (Nepali: नेपालको एकीकरण, romanized: Nēpālakō ēkīkaraṇa) was the process of building the modern Nepalese state, by invading fractured Malla kingdoms including the Baise Rajya's 22 kingdoms and the Chaubisi Rajya's 24 kingdoms. It began in 1743 CE (1799 BS), by Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha. On 25 September 1768, he officially announced the creation of the Kingdom of Nepal and moved his capital from Gorkha to a city in Kathmandu Valley.

The Shah dynasty that Prithvi Narayan Shah founded would go on to absorb the various warring Malla kingdoms that once occupied parts of present-day Nepal into a nation-state that stretched up to the Sutlej River in the west and Sikkim-Jalpaiguri in the east. Before the Gorkha Empire, the Kathmandu Valley was known as Nepal after the Nepal Mandala, the region's name in Newar language.

The Tirhuta script, also known as Mithilakshar or Maithili script, has historically been used for writing the Maithili, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by almost 35 million people of Mithila region. The scripts of Maithili and Bengali are very much similar. Maithili, Bengali, Assamese, Newari, Odia and Tibetan are a part of the same family of scripts.

Tamang (Devanagari: तामाङ; tāmāng) is a term used to collectively refer to a Sino-Tibetian language cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal (Darjeeling) and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang (which is regarded as the most prominent) and other Tamang languages varies between 81% and 63%. For comparison, the lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is estimated at 89%.

In Vedic timekeeping, a tithi is a "duration of two faces of moon that is observed from earth", known as milа̄lyа̄ (Newar: 𑐩𑐶𑐮𑐵𑐮𑑂𑐫𑐵𑑅, मिलाल्याः) in Nepal Bhasa, or the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the Moon and the Sun to increase by 12°. In other words, a tithi is a time duration between the consecutive epochs that correspond to when the longitudinal angle between the Sun and the Moon is an integer multiple of 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration approximately from 19 to 26 hours. Every day of a lunar month is called tithi.