Why Nepal is in the year 2083

Ask a shopkeeper in Asan what year it is and the answer, in 2026, will be 2083. This is not a joke played on visitors. Nepal's official calendar is Bikram Sambat, often written BS or VS, and it runs about 56 years and 8 months ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The Nepali year 2083 began in mid-April 2026 and will end in mid-April 2027.

The rule of thumb we give every traveller is short. Between mid-April and 31 December, add 57 to the Gregorian year. Between 1 January and mid-April, add 56. So a trek in October 2026 happens in 2083, and a winter trip in February 2027 still happens in 2083, because the Nepali new year has not yet come round.

Bikram Sambat is used for government, schools, the courts, the budget and most newspapers. The fiscal year begins on Shrawan 1, in mid-July, which is why you will see Nepali offices busy with year-end paperwork in early July rather than in December. Saturday is the weekly holiday, when offices close and many shops work short hours.

Tradition links the era to Vikramaditya, a legendary king of Ujjain in central India, said to have founded it after a victory around 57 BCE. Historians are more careful: the same count of years appears in old inscriptions under other names, and it was linked to Vikramaditya's name only later. Either way, the starting point is the reason for the gap of roughly 57 years.

Nepal used several calendars over its history. The Licchavi kings dated inscriptions in more than one era, the Malla kings of the Kathmandu Valley used Nepal Sambat, and the Shah state used the Shaka era for a time. Bikram Sambat became the calendar of government under the Rana prime ministers in the early twentieth century, and it has stayed official ever since.

India also has a Vikram Samvat, used for religious dates in much of the north and west of the country, but it is a lunar calendar with months that begin differently. India's official civil calendar is the Saka calendar. Nepal is the only country that uses Bikram Sambat as its everyday official calendar, solar months and all.

A Bikram Sambat month begins when the sun moves into a new sign of the zodiac, a moment called sankranti. Because the earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, the months are not equal. They run from 29 to 32 days, and the lengths change from year to year. A calendar committee works out the exact days and the printed calendar, the patro, is published each year. Families hang it on the kitchen wall, and many people check it every morning for the day's tithi and auspicious hours.

The year always opens with Baisakh, around 13 to 15 April, and ends with Chaitra. The table shows the usual match with the Gregorian months and what a traveller notices in each.

Here is the part that confuses most visitors. The months follow the sun, but most festivals follow the moon. A Hindu or Buddhist festival is fixed to a tithi, a lunar day counted from the new moon or the full moon. Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, eleven days shorter than the solar year, so a lunar festival slides earlier each year and then jumps later when an extra lunar month is added to catch up.

That is why Dashain can begin in late September one year and in mid-October another, and why Buddha Jayanti, on the full moon of Baisakh, can fall anywhere from late April to late May. Festivals tied to a solar date do not move much. Maghe Sankranti is always Magh 1, around 14 or 15 January, and Tamu Lhosar, the Gurung new year, is celebrated on Poush 15, usually 30 December.

When you plan a trip around a festival, use the dates published for that year, not last year's. We confirm festival dates from the current patro before we fix an itinerary. Holidays are announced by the government and are sometimes added at short notice, so check current status before you travel.

Bikram Sambat is not the only count. The Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley keep Nepal Sambat, a lunar calendar whose year 1 began in 879 CE. Its new year falls during Tihar, on the day of Mha Puja, when Newar families worship their own bodies and lives with lamps, fruit and a mandala drawn for each person. In late 2025 Nepal Sambat entered the year 1146, and it will turn 1147 at Tihar in 2026. The government recognised Nepal Sambat as a national calendar in 2008, and you will see both years printed on some notices and shop signs in Patan and Bhaktapur.

Local legend says Nepal Sambat was started by Sankhadhar Sakhwa, a merchant of Kathmandu who paid off the debts of the people, so that the new era began with no one owing anything. It is a story told with pride in the old city, and his name comes up every year at the Nepal Sambat new year processions.

Then there are the Tibetan-calendar new years. Sherpa families celebrate Gyalpo Losar in February or March, Tamang communities mark Sonam Lhosar in Magh, and Gurung families hold Tamu Lhosar at the end of December. In a single year in Nepal you can see four or five new year celebrations, each with its own food, dress and dances.

Most of what you book will be in Gregorian dates: your visa, international flights, domestic flights, hotel confirmations and trekking permits. The Nepali calendar appears in the places where Nepalis deal with each other. Long-distance bus tickets, newspapers, government receipts and school notices often carry only the Nepali date, sometimes written in Devanagari digits.

It helps to know three words. Miti means date, sal means year and gate is the day of the month, so Baisakh 1 gate is the first day of Baisakh. A date written 2083/07/15 means Kartik 15, 2083, because Kartik is the seventh month. Many Nepalis keep a patro app on their phone, and a free one will convert any date in a second.

A few practical points come up again and again:

• Check the Gregorian date printed on any bus ticket before you leave the counter; staff will write it for you if you ask.
• Government offices, including permit offices, close on Saturdays and public holidays, so plan permit days around them.
• Banknotes and number plates use Devanagari digits; learning the ten digits takes a few minutes.
• During Dashain and Tihar many offices close for several days in a row; confirm opening days a week ahead.