A face contorted with willpower and strength, a warrior honorable, courageous, loyal and wise. He is a symbol of these qualities in war and peace. His fierceness is as legendary as his loyalty to the British Monarch and his regimental history is packed with acts of unbelievable bravery and sacrifice. The love of his mountains homeland and his family is deep and keeps luring him back after the call of duty. He is the unconquerable Gurkha soldier and a legend in his own right.
The word ‘Gurkha’ is derived from Gorkha. The latter is small town in Nepal and the significance of this place is indistinguishable to the history of the Gurkhas. The importance of this town is monumental for both Nepalese and Gurkha history. Ninety kilometers north of Kathmandu valley, lies the town Gorkha where it all began.
Prithvi Narayan Shah was the most famous king born in Gorkha. At a time when Nepal was dissected into various small kingdoms, Prithvi Narayan Shah managed to unite them all through his military skills and operation. As the operation progressed, ambition also grew with it. Northwards expansion towards Tibet angered The Chinese while southern expansion towards India alarmed the British. This brought the fierce Gorkhas or Gurkhas later known, into direct conflict with the British East India Comapany.
The Gorkha soldier known for their speed and their willingness to fight till death under extreme conditions had an intricate knowledge of the terrain and were perfectly suited for guerilla warfare. The British were reluctant to take on such an elusive and successful Gorkha force, which had required the strength of a vast Chinese army to push them out of Tibet. Eventually the Governor General of Bengal was authorized to declare that the British Empire was at war with the small but aggressive state of Nepal. The time this declaration was made, Nepal was under the insightful leadership of Prime Minister, Maharaja Bhim Sen Thapa. This was to be the first campaign for the British General with the unfamiliar hill army of Nepal.
