The past glory days are what we all enjoy basking to. It’s the same everywhere. But for others (the portrayers of freedom and democracy: the Western World) to bring points about the heroics of these Gurkhas does indeed bring about a sense of national pride espeically since we now live in these countries. Gurkhas are Nepalis and they have brought about a recognition for our nation in free-democratic socieites (excluding muslim zealots in Pakistan and Indonesians) which we all should be proud of. Why would you wanna discredit someone uplifiting the national pride elsewhere? Though I'm not related to any lahures and not a bhanja myself, it amazes me that Sumedhu and the other haters above make no sense all. They've built this huge hypothtical sand castle of words that lacks the basic foundation necessary and comes crumbling down every time my rebuttal comes about.

Today peeps leave Nepal mainly due to economic reasons with education being a minor factor too...These Gurkhas did the same (as per something I read a while ago, during WWII, most Gurkhas were so poor that they consumed tea for the first time while serving at Brititsh cantonments). Listen, these Gurkhas were the pioneers in exporting theit labor. As far as we've all known, they were the ones who educated folks back home about the exchange rate variance where the same work performed abroad would pay exponetially more than in Nepal since we Nepalis back then were still living in a nation that was still closed to foreigners and the outside world until the mid 60s. Face it, Nepali has no natural resources or factory produced goods that can be exported to compete in the global marketplace.  The only thing we export is labor and the remittance sent back home is the major reason our economy still floats. Thank the Gurkhas for bringing that about.

Found these excerpts from The Atlantic Monthly by Robert Kaplan, May 2006:

"The toughness of Gurkha skulls is legendary," writes the historian Byron Farwell. In 1931, on the North West Frontier, when a mess mule kicked a Gurkha havildar in the head with his iron-shod hooves, "the havildar complained of a headache and that evening wore a piece of sticking plaster
on his forehead," according to Farwell. "The mule went lame."

"Now take your Gurkha," Colonel Cross (Gurkha recruiter) went on. "He's a hungry peasant with a knife who is out for the main chance. There are none finer. I placed these western hillsmen in the Singapore police, and they never failed me. The Mongoloid doesn't die easily. Plainsmen will never defeat such people in hill battles without field artillery.

I found the old Gurkhas a haunting presence, because they were sharpened, refined, exaggerated forms of the Marines and soldiers I had been befriending and describing in previous travels.

Though many Marine and Army grunts make a good attempt at approaching the Gurkha corporal's standard, the fact is that we are a softer, more complaining, less fatalistic society than the one the Gurkhas represent

Afterward the Gurkhas fought for the British on India's North West and North East Frontiers, in China during the Boxer Rebellion, in Mesopotamia and elsewhere during World War I, and throughout the globe during World War II. The British army used Gurkhas in the Falklands and the Balkans, and has used them in Iraq. They have served as UN peacekeepers in many places. Gurkha enlistees in the British military tend to come not only from the same tribes but from the same clans and families. In the 1970s forty-six sets of brothers were serving at the same time in a single battalion-the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles. Plying a profession at times unfairly sullied, the Gurkhas have been Great Britain's most valued mercenaries, in both imperial and post-imperial British history.