Heading north up to the cold high altitudes of the Himalayas. This is where we find the country Nepal. Landlocked on top of the mountain range this country has produced amazing survivors and equally impressive warriors. The Gurkha are infamous even today for their warrior spirit and their use of a Kukri.
Style: Weaponry
Country: Nepal
Origin: The Gurkha are a somewhat of a special inclusion on this. As they were well renowned for their warrior capabilities. Their fighting style for say, has never really been systemised into a named martial art. But that's not to say they did not have a warrior culture to speak of so we will include it here to talk about Nepal martial arts. Kukri (short for Khukuri) is the signature weapon of the Nepalese. A sort of curve dagger that functions similar to a small axe and meat cleaver mixed into one.
History: The origin of the name Gurkha refers to the Gorkhali empire. During the Anglo-Nepalese war, which was fought between the Gorkhali of Nepal and British East India company. The Gorkhali made a strong impression that the British began to employ the "Gurkhas" as part of their British Asian military. The Gurkhas much like the Punjabis were favoured as warriors or martial races that the British would rely on as loyal soldiers and even to this day the Gurkha regiment exists in the British Army.
Culture: Currently the Brigade of Gurkhas still exist as part of the British Military and even other militaries across Nepal, India, Singapore and Brunei have their own faction of Nepalese mercenaries called the Gurkha. Much like their original tradition, they specialise in the use of a Kukri knife and empty handed styles with strong similarities to Tibetan and Indian martial arts. But they also adopt modern military applications like Close Quarter Combat and disarming techniques for guns.
Warrior: In modern day Nepal, the use of martial arts and practice of it may not be systemised as a named fighting style. But people still train with the Kukri whilst adopting and adapting their own martial arts from other cultures. Notably Tibetan forms of Kung Fu, Kyokushin Karate, Muay Thai, among others. Currently the Nepalese have a community of Buddhist Nuns who specialise in form of Kung Fu and the Kyokushin Karate community in Nepal have adapted their own original style called Bajra (named after Vajra the Mace of Hindu god of Lightning Indra).
Media/Potential: While there has not been a lot of media representation for Nepalese martial arts. There is always a chance in future for the Gurkhas to get notice for their warrior culture, most notably while Marvel feature Himalayan or Tibetan settings for some of their fictional nations like Kamar-Taj (where Dr Strange learns magic and martial arts) and Kun Lun (Where the Ironfist trains). It would be accurate to look into Nepalese culture and martial art practices to recreate the styles. Interestingly King of Fighter 14 have a sand manipulating Assassin called Kukri named after the Nepalese weapon. Despite being North African and not wielding such a weapon it is possible that SNK had considered the possibilities of a Nepalese fighter but only kept the name and used a more Arabic Assassin motif instead. Youtube channel Great Big Story does cover a video on the Kung Fu Nuns of Nepal.
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