The following information is NOT printed on this postcard:
Good Nepalese hashish is among the best hashish on the planet. The legendary Eden Hashish Centre in Katmandu, Nepal was open for business from 1962 to 1973. Hashish and marijuana were available in retail and wholesale quantities. (They even advertised for a certain type of tourist trade, as shown on this postcard.)
In the early 1970's the USA pressured Nepal to stop allowing the sale of drugs by threatening to stop foreign aid to the country. In 1973, Nepal banned cannabis shops and exporting hashish. All hashish shops had to close down. Until that time, marijuana and hashish were legal and sold openly in government licensed shops.
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia and, as of 2010, the world's most recent nation to become a republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Nepal is a country of highly diverse and rich geography, culture, and religions. The mountainous north has eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest.
By some measures, Hinduism is practiced by a larger majority of people in Nepal than in any other nation. Buddhism, though a minority faith in the country, is linked historically with Nepal as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who as the Buddha gave birth to the Buddhist tradition.
A monarchy throughout most of its history, Nepal was ruled by the Shah dynasty of kings from 1768, when Prithvi Narayan Shah unified its many small kingdoms. In 2006, however, decade-long People's Revolution by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) along with several weeks of mass protests by all major political parties of Nepal culminated in a peace accord, and the ensuing elections for the constituent assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the abdication of the last Nepali monarch Gyanendra Shah and the establishment of a federal democratic republic in May 28, 2008. The first President of Nepal, Ram Baran Yadav, was sworn in on 23 July 2008.
