Where Time Is Always 15 Minutes Apart From Everywhere Else

A distinct time zone is just one manifestation of Nepal's singular national identity, which lies wedged between China and India. Quickly, what time is it in Kathmandu if it is 8:40 p.m. in New York? The time is 6:25 in the morning the following day, just as the capital of Nepal is coming to life with market women laying out fresh greens and chilies that are both slender and stout, Hindu and Buddhist holy men lighting incense and lamps made of clarified butter, and the smog drowning out the sounds of street sweepers and temple bells. Nepal’s unique national time zone — five hours and 45 minutes ahead of Coordinated Universal Time — is but one manifestation of how fiercely the country guards its singularity.  

Its flag, made up of twin triangles symbolizing the high Himalayas, is the only national pennant that is not a rectangle.  Nepal boasts its own calendar, too.  The year 2083 in Kathmandu is 56 years, eight months, and one day ahead of the Gregorian calendar that is used in most of the rest of the world. The geography of Nepal is the source of the national pride that gave rise to these distinct national symbols. There are dozens of ethnic groups living in its mountains and valleys, which are wedged in between China and India. It shares a border with Sikkim and Tibet, two other Himalayan states that were absorbed by those larger nations. When imperial powers carved up Asia, Nepal, with its mountain-bred warriors, resisted.

 “The Nepali people feel very proud of having been independent for centuries, not being colonized ever,” said Jaya Raj Acharya, a retired diplomat who served as Nepal’s ambassador to the United Nations.  "Even though we are currently speaking 123 languages in a country about the size of New York State, this sense of national identity unites us."

Nepal Standard Time was officially designated in 1986, 15 minutes ahead of India’s time zone.  This declaration of national exceptionalism, displayed at a Kathmandu clock tower first built in 1894, seems beloved by the populace, even if it forces Nepalis to engage in quick arithmetic when traveling or setting meetings outside of the country.

 Alan Thapa, 18, stood in front of the Kathmandu airport prior to his flight to South Korea to study global economics. He promised his family he would call when he landed and then proceeded to deduct 3 hours and 15 minutes from his arrival time. “I’m studying economics,” he said.  "It doesn't require much calculation." Mount Gaurishankar, a Himalayan peak that can be seen from the outskirts of Kathmandu on rare days without air pollution, is the longitude on which Nepal's time zone is set. There is a joke that Nepal Standard Time grants a 15-minute grace period to a perennially rushed populace.  The punchline makes sense when stuck in Kathmandu’s traffic jams, with their cacophony of cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cows and goats; their porters hefting impossible loads; their frequent celebratory processions of giant chariots trailed by demon-masked acrobats praying for rain or a good harvest.

 Kathmandu residents would visit a rectangular pool in the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, the seat of the monarchy, to determine the official time for centuries before Westerners took it upon themselves to decide time by choosing the Greenwich Observatory in London as the prime meridian and other longitudes to represent the other hours of the day. According to historians, water was reportedly poured into a series of bowls at specific intervals as soon as the sun rose over the city's Himalayan foothills. The best time to hold a wedding or a naming ceremony for a child could then be determined by consulting an astrologer. Since the constitutional monarchy was overthrown by a popular vote in 2008, the palace complex has been abandoned to tourists. Stone lions shade shaggy dogs as they sleep. In one courtyard, a rusted Land Rover is parked. In 1962, the then king survived an assassination attempt in the vehicle. 

King Birendra, his son and successor, was not as fortunate. In 2001, as the Shah dynasty was coming to an end, Crown Prince Dipendra killed himself after murdering nine members of the royal family, including the king and queen. The monarchy did not abolish all of the old customs. The Bikram Sambat is Nepal’s official calendar, based on Hindu precepts.  Based on the trajectories of the sun and the moon, a government-authorized committee of astrologers and astronomers determines the precise beginning time of the following year each year. The Bikram Sambat, in contrast to the solar Gregorian calendar, which has twelve fixed months and a quadrennial leap year, begins a little later, around the middle of April. There can be as many as 32 days in a month, depending on the year.

Shree Krishna Adhikari, an expert in astronomy and astrology, led the seven-member committee for four years, retiring last July.  Now 77, he presided over debates between orthodox and modernist committee members about how to decide the precise times of auspicious dates for prayer and celebration. He claimed that traditionalists relied on outdated mathematical methods, which led to incorrect calculations. “We didn’t have computers back then,” he said.  “We should trust math, science, the age of modern discovery.”

 Mr.  However, Adhikari resented the idea of converting to the Gregorian calendar. “We cannot abandon the world that our ancestors created,” he said.  "This is what distinguishes Nepalis." This diverse nation uses a Tibetan Buddhist calendar among other calendars. Another is the calendar of the Newar people, who practice both Hinduism and Buddhism and are native to the Kathmandu Valley. Since 2008, this calendar, too, has been given official status in Kathmandu.  Most years in the Newar calendar have 12 months, some have 13 and a few have 11.  It is now the year 1146 in Newar cosmology. There are apps to help Nepalis convert between calendars.  And while the country’s copious paperwork employs the Bikram Sambat, allowances are made for international norms.  The Gregorian calendar is used for Nepalese passports. The importance of both lunar and solar traditions to Nepali timekeeping is echoed in the country’s triangular flag, which is decorated with a moon and a sun.

 Most days for the past 20 years, Laxmi Narayan Shilpakar has stood in Durbar Square in Kathmandu, holding a Nepali pennant taller than he is.  Mr.  Shilpakar, 70, said he started his flag-waving to promote reconciliation soon after the country’s decade-long Maoist insurgency, which claimed nearly 18,000 lives. “At the time, people were trying to divide Nepalis by saying, ‘Are you a monarchist or a Hindu or Buddhist or whatever,’” he said.  "I wanted to say, 'We are all Nepalis displaying the same flag.'" Today, Nepal is governed by Balendra Shah, a rapper turned prime minister, who came to power in March after a Gen Z-led revolution.  Mr.  Shah was mayor of Kathmandu, and three years ago, in response to a mural map of an ancient Indian empire unveiled at the Indian Parliament that included parts of what is now Nepal, he displayed a map in his office of “Greater Nepal.”  It sprawled across land in present-day India that had been signed away in the 1816 treaty ending the Anglo-Nepal War.

 Steps away from where Mr.  Shilpakar wields the Nepali flag is the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, the symbolic heart of the country. Somewhere inside is the pool from which royal keepers of the clock carefully dispensed water into clay pots.  However, no one seems to be aware of the precise location of the ancient water clock in modern times, including neither a guard nor a guide, nor an amateur historian roaming the palace grounds. One pool in the palace has been cemented over.  Another is murky with algae, the secrets of Nepal’s chronometry lost to time itself.

 Sajal Pradhan contributed reporting.

 Hannah Beech is a Bangkok-based Times reporter who has covered Asia for over 25 years. She focuses on investigative and in-depth stories.

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