Nepal National Anthem

सयौं थुँगा फूलका हामी

Sayaun Thunga Phulka Hami

Hundreds of Flowers

Written 2007

Adopted 2007

Lyrics Pradip Kumar Rai (Byakul Maila)

Music Amber Gurung

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Key Facts

1. When it was first played on 3 August 2007, Nepal had gone nearly 14 months without a national anthem: after the 2006 people's movement the government had stopped playing the old one and chosen a new one through an open competition.
2. Byakul Maila's lyrics were judged the best of 1,272 entries. For the music, the government listened to six tunes, three by Amber Gurung, two from the Nepali Army and one by a young composer, and chose Gurung's second.
3. During the selection Byakul Maila had to prove he was not a royalist: officials and journalists combed through his background because he had once edited a book of poetry that included a contribution from the former king.
4. In August 2016 the BBC placed it third in its list 'Rio 2016: The most amazing national anthems', saying that rather than a military march or a church hymn, it sounds like 'a joyous Nepali pop song'.

Nepal National Anthem Lyrics

सयौ थुँगा फूलका हामी एउटै माला नेपाली सार्वभौम भई फैलिएका मेची-महाकाली। प्रकृतिका कोटीकोटी सम्पदाको आँचल वीरहरूका रगतले स्वतन्त्र र अटल ज्ञानभूमि शान्तिभूमि तराई पहाड हिमाल अखण्ड यो प्यारो हाम्रो मातृभूमि नेपाल बहुल जाति भाषा धर्म संस्कृति छन् विशाल अग्रगामी राष्ट्र हाम्रो जय जय नेपाल।

Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals

Analysis

Editorial

Nepal adopted "Sayaun Thunga Phulka Hami" in August 2007: on the 3rd, the speaker of the interim parliament, Subas Chandra Nemwang, presented it in public for the first time. It was part of the country's move away from monarchy, which the Constituent Assembly abolished on 28 May 2008. The royal anthem "Shriman Gambhir," official since 1962, had been criticised by some as a hymn of devotion to the king, and according to the journalist Alex Marshall, a change of anthem was one of the Maoists' terms when they agreed to make peace. The lyrics are by the poet Pradip Kumar Rai, who writes as Byakul Maila, and the music is by Amber Gurung. The text pictures Nepal as one garland woven from hundreds of flowers, a nation of many ethnic groups, languages, faiths and cultures, spread across the Terai, the hills and the Himalaya, from the Mechi river in the east to the Mahakali in the west.