Nepal, welcome your new beauty queens!

Anushka Shrestha won the Miss Nepal World title Thursday night. Shrinkhala Khatiwada crowned her successor during the coronation night of the 25th Hidden Treasure Miss Nepal. The 23-year-old commerce graduate was born and raised in Kathmandu. She has been living in Sydney where she went to pursue higher education in 2014.

Another major title, Miss Nepal Universe, was bagged by Kathmandu girl Pradeepta Adhikari, a third year medical student at Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences. She was crowned by Manita Devkota.

Crowned by Priya Sigdel, 23-year-old Riya Basnet from Kathmandu bagged the Miss Nepal Earth title in the same event that took place at Laboratory School in Kirtipur.

The titles of Miss International and Miss Supranational went to Meera Kakshapati and Rose Lama, respectively. Apart from the five winners, Rakchya Upreti and Sophiya Bhujel had made the top 7.

Various sub-titles were also awarded to the participants, including Miss Friendship that was achieved by Nancy Bogati, and Miss Beautiful Hair given to Meera Kakshapati. While Rose Lama won the Miss Glamor and Miss Photogenic awards; Anushka Shrestha went home with the Miss Intellectual and Miss Fascino awards. Jenny Maharjan, on the other hand, won Best Natural Skin sub-title.

Moreover, Pradeepta Adhikari became Miss Athlete, along with winning the Miss Talent award and Riya Basnet won Miss Popular Choice. The awards for Miss Confident and Beauty with a Purpose went to Nisha Pathak and Nitika Karmacharya, respectively.

A total of 25 contestants were competing this year. The event hosted by Sanjay Gupta saw live performances by Deepak Bajracharya, and – wait for it – choreographer Rachana Gurung Sharma who sang Shania Twain’s ‘You’re Still The One’.

The panel of judges this year consisted of Asmi Shrestha, Anoop Bikram Shahi, Sunny Rauniyar Pradhan, Om Bahadur Bhandari, Tulika Agarwal, Rajeev Shah, Navraj Silwal, Vidushi Rana, Pawan Bahadur Pande and Sunita Limbu Kharel, along with the chief judge Ila Sharma.

The winners will be representing Nepal at the ‘Big 5’ international pageants – Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Earth, Miss International and Miss Supranational – later this year.