Syalat
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
Syalat ཤྱལཏ | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Capital | Aphimagarh |
| Largest city | Kaloprayaga |
| Official languages | Khas Kura |
| Ethnic groups | |
| Demonym(s) | Syalati |
| Government | Conciliar ecclesiarchy |
• Caraparisad of the Gaxag | Indra Basnet Samrat Aryal Milan Rosyara Taral Mishra |
| Legislature | Consultative Assemblies |
| Mathadhisa Sabha | |
| Sarvajanika Sabha | |
| Foundation | |
• Independence | 20 May 1913 |
• Warlord Era | 1921-1944 |
• Civil War | 2004-2008 |
| Population | |
• 2022 census | 20,081,119 |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | $147.7 billion |
• Per capita | $7,354 |
| Gini | 57.4 high |
| HDI (2022) | 0.569 medium |
| Currency | Paisa |
| Driving side | right |
Syalat (Khas Kura: ཤྱལཏ), also known as the Jackal Coast, is a country in central Ochran stretching across the southern shore of the Chulha Sea. Its mountainous interior is bounded by the nations of Ankat and Shimlar-Pashmir to the east and south. The capital is Aphimagarh, formerly a minor city in the central highlands which was rebuilt and converted into the seat of the national government, relocating the administration away from the old capital and the current largest city Kaloprayaga. The country is named for the narrow strip of flat, arable coastal land along the southern edge of the Chulha sea where most of the population, economic activity, and major cities such as Kaloprayaga are concentrated. This eponymous Jackal Coast extends from the northern extremes where the steppes and badlands known as the Sunyata meet the sea to the far southwestern Azaghartian enclave of Pakhtunkwa. The hinterlands are dominated by the Prathara, a vast plateau region sitting between the lowlands of the Jackal Coast and the spine of the Devalaya mountains which mark the country's borders with its overland neighbors. The Prathara stands at an average elevation of 3,500 meters and is almost entirely arid, relying heavily on seasonal snowmelt from the upper mountain slopes to supply water to the plateau's towns and cities.
The government of Syalat is an ecclesiarchy in which temporal authority is principally vested within the religious institutions of the Agamana. The monastic establishment governs with contributions from the lay officials of the secular oligarchy by way of the Gaxag council, a conciliar body Kalon ministers who collectively wield executive power. Democracy plays a limited role in the governance of Syalat through the national consultative assemblies known as the Sabhas, whose membership is extracted from the religious and lay officials of the country for the purposes of advising the Kalons of the Gaxag as to the state of the country and the grievances of the common people. In practice, these assemblies draft legislative proposals and policy recommendations that the Gaxag can elect to adopt as state policy at their discretion.
History
The Ganas
Zilung era
Southern war
The Daksini Yuddha or "Southern War" was a conflict between the forces of Zilung administered Syalat and the Ratoghati Gana of the southern Pathara.
Pathara uprising
Independence
Khasarajya
1913-1921
Warlord era
Agamana movement
Government
The government of Syalat is officially oligarchic and draws sovereignty from the Sanghas, a class of local and national associations of religious, economic and political character. The Sangha, variably translated as "association", "guild" or "community", forms the fundamental unit of Syalati society and politics. The highest authority in the state of Syalat is the Gaxag, a quadripartite council of high ministers, which derives political legitimacy from the largest and most powerful Sanghas of Syalat. Beneath the authority of the Gaxag are various minor ministries and lay offices such as the national mint, secular and religious courts, as well as security forces ranging from the national SGS to local militias and the Sangha-run police entities. Democratic legitimacy for the Gaxag's government over Syalat is derived from two national consultative assemblies, the Mathadhisa Sabha and Sarvajanika Sabha. The former is made up of 100 abbots and former abbots representing the religious communities of Syalat's monasteries and temple-cities and is primarily dominated by the Dhan'ya Sangha, while the latter is made up of 214 lay officials representing secular society and is dominated by the major economic Sanghas. Each consultative assembly meets once a year for a multi-day session of debate regarding the rule of Gaxag and the successes or failures of state policy, and may make recommendations to the Gaxag, sanction the Gaxag's decisions or policies, and even appoint special officials to preform certain tasks until the next meeting of the assembly. Although the assemblies hold no legal authority as a legislative organ, they nevertheless wield considerable influence over the government as the most direct vehicles for the political will of Syalat's most powerful Sanghas.
Gaxag
The Gaxag (བཀའ་ཤག) is the ruling council of Syalat, headed by high officials bearing the Zilung-derived title of Kalon. The institution originally served as the cabinet of the Syalati monarchs before the downfall of the Khasarajya and the feudal order on which it was built during the Warlords era of Syalati history. When Syalat was reunified as a political entity in 1944 by the Agamana monks of Dhan'ya Sangha, the Gaxag was re-established and became a perpetual regency council sanctioned by the monks, subsuming the executive power which formerly rested with the monarch. For 64 years, the Gaxag ruled in this manner, until the political reforms accompanying the 2008 conclusion of the Syalati Civil War which formally abolished the institution of the monarchy and ended the regency. Since 2008, the Gaxag has held supreme authority over Syalat on a de jure as well as de facto basis.
The membership of the Gaxag has varied through the years of its existence as ministerial bodies have been created, merged and abolished, resulting in a variable number of Kalons through the council's long history.
Economy
The economy of Syalat is administered according to the principle of gaira hastaksepa, or "non-interference", an indigenous philosophy of government that includes a laissez-faire economic policy. Gaira hastaksepa, which proposes that the state sustain the minimum necessary degree of intervention in the lives of the people, results in low levels of taxation, restriction and regulation of economic affairs from the offices of the state and the national laws. Despite this, Syalat ranks low in the worldwide indices of economic freedom and ease of doing business, thanks to the high levels of private regulation and restrictions on business placed by the Sangha entities which dominate the Syalati economy. Many Sanghas act as proffesional associations and guilds that enforce a near-monopolistic control over a particular trade or productive activity either on a local, regional or national basis. The most prominent of these Sangha monopolies is the Yatri Sangha, internationally known as the Travelers Guild, which maintains the only nationwide distribution and commercial transportation network, enforced by anti-competition measures on the part of the Yatri Sangha. The sectors of the economy which suffer the least from Sangha-based private restriction are those involving international commerce and exports, as well as small-scale agricultural operations
Syalat is an agrarian country, with some 12 million of its citizens dependent on agriculture for income and subsistence. This preeminent agricultural sector is subdivided into dedicated cereal cropping of rice and barley, cash cropping of many economically important crops such as saffron crocus and opium poppy, and textile cropping of flax and cotton. Meat is uncommon in Syalati cuisine and is often expensive, restricting its regular consumption to the wealthier class of the citizenry. As a result, animal husbandry in Syalat is focused on production of wool and hides, with sheep being the principal farm animal in the countryside. Mining has a long history on the Prathara plateau, where some of the world's oldest active iron mines can be found. Taken together, the primary sector activities of the Syalati economy contribute roughly two thirds of the national GDP and employ more than 80% of the population. Secondary sector industries in Syalat are mainly based on the production of textiles and processing of the country's other agricultural products for export. The more industrialized textile mills, tool factories and other more modernized firms which can be found in the major coastal cities on the shores of the Chulha sea contribute disproportionately to the GDP relative to the portions of the national workforce involved in such enterprises. This phenomenon contributes to the significant economic inequality experienced in Syalat, adding to the concentration of wealth within a few firms in a handful of urban centers while the majority of the country remains underdeveloped and agrarian in nature.