*Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha.” - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw The Gurkha Regiment is without question one of the most storied regiments of the British Army. Somewhat like the French Foreign Legion, however, it has traditionally been a regiment of adventurers and soldiers of fortune, with the simple difference that the Gurkhas represent only a minor ethnicity of the wider Nepalese population, distinguished by a long and august martial tradition. Traditionally, the officer corps of the various Gurkha regiments have been drawn from the regular ranks of the British Army, with fluency in Nepali a basic requirement. The rank and file, however, and more recently many officers, are drawn from the population of the Nepalese hill country. To the Gurkha, Nepal means not the 56,000 square mile territory known as Nepal today, but the Kathmandu Valley, or the Valley of Nepal, drained by the tributaries of the Bagmati River and surrounded by the Himalayan foothills that most Gurkhas call home. Today Nepal is an independent republic sandwiched between India and China, and occupying the southern lee of the Himalayas.