GURKHA

also spelled Gorkha town, central Nepal. It is located on a hill overlooking the Himalayas. The town is famous for its shrine of Gorakhnath, the patron saint of the region. There is also a temple to the Hindu goddess Bhavani (Devi). The ancestral home of the ruling house of Nepal, Gurkha was seized in 1559 by Drabya Shah, the younger son of the king of Lamjung, who established his own kingdom. His descendant, Prithvi Narayan Shah, created an ethnically diverse military force that came to be known as the Gurkhas (or Ghurkhas), with which he conquered the Malla kingdom and consolidated the numerous petty principalities into the state of Nepal. These troops were, from the mid-1800s, heavily recruited by Great Britain and, since 1947, have been a significant minority within the army of India. Upon returning home, many of the Gurkhas become teachers and community leaders, bringing Western ideas and technology to the mountain regions. Pop. (1971) 4,832.