Since the mid 19th century, the world has been divided into distinct time zones. But Nepal refuses to play along. At UTC+5:45, its time zone is stuck between the full and half hours, a 15-minute anomaly that defies the way the rest of the world measures time. This isn't a geographic error. It is a combination of mathematical calculations and a deliberate act of national identity.
Nepal Standard Time is anchored to the meridian passing through Gaurishankar, a sacred Himalayan peak 7,134m (23,406ft) high, about 100km east of Kathmandu. Its twin summits are revered as the goddess Gauri and her consort Shiva, making it a fitting reference point for a nation where the sacred continues to play a central role in daily life and where the Himalayas play a huge spiritual, cultural and economic role.
Photo: Tom Vater
Photo: Tom Vater
As Professor Dinesh Raj Panta, a retired scholar from Kathmandu's Sanskrit University, explained to Crown & Caliber, "Nepal's unique time zone has been calculated according to latitude and longitude. It depends on the Kathmandu Valley and when the first sun ray touches Gaurishankar mountain: Nepali standard time is measured just like GMT."
At first, the professor dismisses the notion that the 15-minute offset is determined by politics. "It is just maths. We just followed it." He pointed to the ancient tradition of using Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh as a reference time for Hindu rituals across the subcontinent. "Even residing in different countries, Hindu rituals are the same, at the same time, irrespective of time zones."
But the chronology of Nepal's temporal break from India and its motivations are convoluted and disputed, even among those who lived through them.
A 2003 article in the Nepali Times by Trishna Gurung placed the key moment in 1956, reporting that Nepalis set their watches to Nepal Standard Time for the first time that year, with the meridian at Gaurishankar, 100km east of Kathmandu. The paper added that Everest had been passed over because Gauri Shankar sat "closer to Nepal's center of gravity."
In 2026, The New York Times told a different story: that the designation did not come until 1986, when Nepal moved 15 minutes ahead of the Indian time zone it had shared. This account suggests the clocks were not actually changed until 1986, despite the Gaurishankar meridian having been selected decades earlier.
Professor Panta acknowledged the political dimension but framed it carefully. "In 1956, King Mahendra was the ruler of Nepal and used this as a political precedent. He wanted Nepal to be different from India," he said, pausing and then adding: "But according to the sun's position, the time zones should be different anyway. So this is Nepal's sovereign choice."
For Ankur Jhunjhunwala, the owner of Swiss Timepieces in Kathmandu, Nepal's untimely exceptionalism creates professional frustration. As a seller and collector of luxury watches, he finds the complication almost useless at home.
Photo: Tom Vater
Photo: Tom Vater
"As a Nepali collector, it is a big hassle to have a GMT watch and use it," Jhunjhunwala said as he chit-chats with customers over time-honored cups of chiya - hot milk tea - while his employees remove timepieces from their display cases and arrange them on a dark felt trays. Outside, Kathmandu's horns blared and motorbikes rolled past, but inside Jhunjhunwala’s bright showroom, nothing much was heard other than hushed voices discussing watch movements. "Two-hour hands: one for home time, one for travel time. The minute hands always align. But if you are in a 24-time-zone world and in Nepal, it does not work. You are neither here nor there."
A conventional GMT watch shows a second time zone in full-hour offsets. But Nepal's offset to India is 15 minutes, to China two hours and 15 minutes. "The point of buying a GMT watch is lost because we have to make so many calculations in our heads to understand what time it is at home," said Jhunjhunwala.
In practical terms, the difference plays out daily in Jhunjhunwala's life. "I am out of the country and my wife is in a class. I cannot call her because when I look at my watch I have an approximate time and not an exact time."
A 10 a.m. meeting in New Delhi begins at 10:15 in Kathmandu. Aviation schedulers also wrestle with the fraction. Programmers write custom code for a time zone that breaks the one-hour rule.
For Jhunjhunwala, the practical frustrations don't diminish the symbolic weight. "In Nepal, time is very auspicious. The passing of time is related to religion," he said. "If we had adhered to India's time zone, it would have been easier." But Jhunjhunwala doesn't call for change.
Professor Panta framed it philosophically. "In Nepal's countryside, we still use the sundial, and every day the time is different. So we wear watches: we have accepted a standardized time that is not the same as the sundial. And yet..."
Nepal is one of only two places officially using a 45-minute offset. The other is the Chatham Islands, a territory of New Zealand, which runs on UTC+12:45, 45 minutes ahead of the mainland.
