Firsts of Nepal: Directory of 'First Nepali to...' Milestones

"First Nepali to..." (pahilo Nepali) is one of the most searched general-knowledge (GK) categories for Loksewa Aayog (Public Service Commission) preparation, school quizzes and current-affairs tests. Despite the demand, there is almost no single, carefully dated and cross-checked English resource. This page collects verifiable national firsts, grouped by theme, and gives each a date in the Gregorian (AD) calendar, with the Bikram Sambat (BS) year added where it is well established.

Two cautions are built into every entry. First, we separate the "first person of Nepali origin" from the "first citizen of the state of Nepal", because on Everest in particular the two are often confused. Second, we distinguish constitutional milestones such as "first elected Prime Minister" from earlier appointed office-holders, since Nepal's head-of-government history spans Rana hereditary premiers, palace-appointed commoners and elected leaders.

Where a claim is contested or the record has since been surpassed, we say so plainly. Only well-documented, dated facts are included; live or fast-changing figures (such as the current Everest summit tally) are marked as of a stated date rather than presented as permanent.

The most famous ascent linked to Nepal is the first-ever summit of Mount Everest (Sagarmatha, 8,849 m) on 29 May 1953 by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, climbing from the Nepal (south) side via the South Col and Southeast Ridge. Tenzing was an ethnic Sherpa of the Everest region; his citizenship is claimed by both Nepal and India, so he is best described as the first person of Sherpa/Himalayan origin to summit rather than settling the nationality debate. The Swiss expeditions of 1952, on which Tenzing and Raymond Lambert reached about 8,595 m, were the first serious attempts from the Nepal side.

The clearest Nepali woman's first belongs to Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who on 22 April 1993 became the first Nepali woman to reach the summit of Everest, on her fourth attempt, via the South Col route. Tragedy followed on the descent: caught in a storm and out of supplemental oxygen, she and Sonam Tshering Sherpa died. She was posthumously decorated with the Nepal Tara (Star of Nepal), and the Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Foundation continues her legacy. (The first woman of any nationality to summit Everest was Japan's Junko Tabei on 16 May 1975, guided by Ang Tsering Sherpa.)

Nepal's Sherpa climbers hold several enduring endurance firsts. Ang Rita Sherpa, the "Snow Leopard", climbed Everest ten times without supplemental oxygen between 1983 and 1996 and in December 1987 made the first winter ascent without bottled oxygen. Nirmal "Nims" Purja completed all 14 eight-thousanders in six months and six days in 2019, a landmark speed record. Dawa Yangzum Sherpa in October 2024 became the first Nepali woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders and is Nepal's first internationally certified female mountain guide.

Nepal's first President is Dr Ram Baran Yadav, elected by the Constituent Assembly on 21 July 2008 (2065 BS) after Nepal became a federal democratic republic, defeating Ram Raja Prasad Singh in a second round with 308 of 590 votes; he was sworn in on 23 July 2008. The first woman President is Bidhya Devi Bhandari, elected on 28 October 2015 by 327 votes to 214 under the new 2015 Constitution, and she served as the country's second President overall until 2023.

On the office of Prime Minister, care is needed. Matrika Prasad Koirala was the first commoner (non-Rana) Prime Minister, appointed by King Tribhuvan on 16 November 1951 after the fall of the Rana regime. The first democratically elected Prime Minister was his brother Bishweshwar Prasad (B. P.) Koirala, whose Nepali Congress won Nepal's first general election of 1959; he took office in May 1959 before being dismissed and jailed in the royal coup of 15 December 1960.

Nepal's first woman to lead the executive and the judiciary is Sushila Karki: she became the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (2016) and later the first woman Prime Minister, sworn in as interim head of government in September 2025 following mass protests. These milestones mark Nepal's shift from a Hindu kingdom to a secular federal republic.

Nepal's first newspaper is Gorkhapatra, first published on 6 May 1901 (24 Baisakh 1958 BS) during the premiership of Dev Shumsher Rana. It began as a weekly, later became a daily (1961), and is today the oldest surviving newspaper in Nepal and among the oldest continuously published in South Asia. It remains the flagship title of the state-owned Gorkhapatra Corporation.

The first university in Nepal is Tribhuvan University (TU), established on 25 June 1959 (11 Ashar 2016 BS) under the Tribhuvan University Act and named after King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah. Located at Kirtipur in the Kathmandu Valley, it began academic activities in July 1959 and is still the country's oldest and largest university, teaching a substantial share of Nepal's higher-education students.

Broadcasting firsts followed the 1951 democratic opening. Radio Nepal, the first national radio broadcaster, began regular transmission on 2 April 1951 (Chaitra 1951, 2007 BS), evolving from the earlier revolutionary Radio Prajatantra. Nepal Television (NTV), the first television service, made its inaugural broadcast on 30 January 1985 (17 Magh 2041 BS), initially with a short daily schedule and only a few hundred TV sets in the country.

Nepal's first hydropower plant, and the second in South Asia, is the Pharping (Chandrajyoti) Hydroelectric Power Station, built during the premiership of Chandra Shumsher Rana and inaugurated by King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah on 22 May 1911. With an installed capacity of 500 kilowatts, it lit up Kathmandu and remained the country's only power source until the second plant (Sundarijal, about 640 kW) came online in 1936. Pharping was declared a living museum in 2010 and is preserved as a heritage site.

The first airport in Nepal is Gauchar (Gaucharan) aerodrome in Kathmandu, the site of the country's earliest recorded landings from 1949; the first aircraft into Gauchar arrived on 23 April 1949. Scheduled international service began in 1950 on Kathmandu-Patna-Kolkata-Delhi routes. The field was inaugurated and renamed Tribhuvan Airport by King Mahendra on 15 June 1955 in memory of King Tribhuvan, and became Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in 1964; it remains Nepal's principal international gateway.

In space technology, Nepal's first satellite, NepaliSat-1, a research nanosatellite (CubeSat) developed with Nepali engineers, was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station on 18 April 2019, marking the country's entry into space-based research. Nepal has not yet sent a citizen into space.

In Olympic and Paralympic sport, Nepal's first medal at Olympic level came at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, where para-taekwondo athlete Palesha Goverdhan won bronze, ending a decades-long wait since Nepal first competed at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. (An earlier taekwondo bronze by Bidhan Lama at Seoul 1988 did not count officially because taekwondo was then only a demonstration sport.)

In pageantry, Ruby Rana was crowned the first Miss Nepal in 1994, launching the national pageant that continues today. Across mountaineering, media, politics and infrastructure, these firsts trace Nepal's modern transformation from an isolated Rana-era kingdom into a connected republic.

A recurring lesson for quiz preparation is precision: the "first" often depends on how the category is defined - first person of Nepali origin versus first citizen, first appointed versus first elected, or first attempt versus first successful summit. When answering Loksewa or exam questions, note the exact wording, because examiners frequently test these distinctions.