Nepal Nepal - Shangri La – the birthplace of the enlightened – Buddha: nowhere are heaven and earth so close together. The kingdom of Nepal lies in the majestic Himalayas – the roof of the world. It is a landlocked country with the nearest port 600 kilometres away, sandwiched between Tibet in the north and India in the south, east, and west. The distance between the north and south of the country is only about 200 kilometres. The country is divided into the Terei (plains), with a tropical climate in the south, the central highlands with numerous valleys and a pleasant subtropical climate, and the high alpine zone in the north with an almost Arctic climate and the highest elevations on earth. Around 1863 the prime minister of Nepal, Jung Bahadur Rana, returned from a trip to China with a small pack of Chinese tea seeds – a personal gift from the Chinese emperor. He entrusted them to his close relative, Colonel Gajraj Singh Thapa, the governor of eastern Nepal, where Nepal’s tea industry was established with its first plantations at Ilam and Soktim. The first tea factory, which was founded in 1873, is still there today. Today, the mountains are home to more than 40 tea gardens over an area of approximately 4,000 hectares. They are run as cooperatives for the most part due to the difficult conditions, and produce yields of only 150 kilograms per hectare. In areas adjoining the Indian border, very close to Darjeeling, there are another 50 tea gardens covering an area of around 6,000 hectares, as well as 16 factories for CTC production. By way of comparison: tea cultivated in India covers an area of around 500,000 hectares. While most of the orthodox black tea is exported (to the EU, Japan and USA), the CTC and fannings are kept for local consumption. It is worth pointing out that only two tea gardens employ organic methods of cultivating tea, but it grows in the mountains at altitudes of up to 2,200 metres; this means the tea is only affected by pest infestation in extremely rare cases, so there is hardly any need to use pesticides.