Friday, May. 06, 2011
The Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas are Nepalese fighting units of the British Army, named after a hill region that stretches from Nepal into India. They have been a part of the British military since 1815, when Gurkha soldiers were encouraged to join the East India Company's army to help "keep the peace" in newly conquered India. Following India's 1947 independence from Britain, several Gurkha regiments remained loyal to the crown. They have fought in the Falklands War, the Gulf War, with NATO, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and they've been on U.N. peacekeeping missions to Bosnia. To this day, no proper Gurkha soldier is without his age-old kukri, a curved dagger that these martial people have wielded for generations.