The lush forest of Godavari-Phulchoki along the southern rim of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bringing-silicon-valley-to-kathmandu-valley">Kathmandu Valley</a> has double the annual <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">rainfall</a> compared to the city, and is known for the great diversity of plants, birds, butterflies and other insects. Soaring steeply from Godavari at 1,500m, Phulchoki Peak at 2,750m is the highest point on the Valley rim. The altitude range is also what gives this temperate broadleaf forest such <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/a-karnali-portrait?nSVg6Zb1%27))%20OR%20314=(SELECT%20314%20FROM%20PG_SLEEP(15))--%3D">rich biodiversity</a> with an interlocking <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-tigers-trees-and-rivers">mosaic of habitats</a>, allowing a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/conserving-mountains-for-people-and-nature-6761w34s">diverse range of species</a> to thrive – especially orchids.&nbsp; There is a breathtaking array of orchids, some common, many rare, and others so elusive they have only just been discovered and classified. Even the name Phulchoki means ‘Hill of Flowers’. The orchid plant has long captivated houseplant owners and botanists alike due to its natural beauty and unique form. But it also serves a vital function in maintaining the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-must-save-nijgad-forest-to-receive-climate-funds">forest’s ecosystem</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031513030_b54386422e9f9a3e99d0ccab767a8c3f747e08bd7d7602343fa30717f58e01c6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2025031513030_b54386422e9f9a3e99d0ccab767a8c3f747e08bd7d7602343fa30717f58e01c6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1418" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orchid 7"> <figcaption>Dendrobium bicameratum</figcaption> </figure>  The small paradise of Godavari-Phulchoki harbours <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/new-turmeric-species-in-nepal">plant species</a> that face mounting threats despite the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/unsung-heroes-of-nepal-s-tiger-recovery">conservation successes</a> in the watershed. The hill is home to the highest diversity-to-area ratio for orchid species, making it a hotspot because of the threats from increased <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">tourism</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-drives-wildlife-poaching">poaching</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/not-out-of-the-woods-yet-in-nepal">habitat disturbance</a>.&nbsp; The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been running the Living Mountain Lab in Godavari as a demonstration site for biodiversity conservation and appropriate technology. The Lab alone has recorded 54 orchid species, and the Godavari-Phulchoki landscape has over 80 species. &nbsp; Uniquely, the orchid’s survival depends even more on very specific ecological conditions, requiring the right balance of moisture, humidity and host plants to flourish – conditions that the Godavari-Phulchoki landscape is ideal for. Orchids mostly grow with support from other plants or on rocks, and are called epiphytes. Orchids have a sophisticated flower that is androgynous with a modified petal, and produces seeds that germinate symbiotically with fungi.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">Between existence and extinction in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031513038_0415681c7e4e0e7932388d65d2488d4a444e1588bd29a30a90846dc8ece5a242.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025031513038_0415681c7e4e0e7932388d65d2488d4a444e1588bd29a30a90846dc8ece5a242" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Habenaria"> <figcaption>Habenaria intermedia</figcaption> </figure>  This means the flowers need their own insect pollinators that are attracted by specialised scents and designs of the labellum that serve as landing pads for insects. In this ecologically diverse landscape, the orchids stand as a testament to the health of the region’s ecosystem. Healthy orchids indicate a happy forest.&nbsp; Hiking through the Phulchoki forest, visitors can easily spot many of the 80 indigenous species in their natural habitat. Others are more difficult to see.&nbsp; One of the most common orchids on Phulchoki is the Coelogyne nitida that has white petals and a sun-gold centre.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031513034_7c067b74cb8340c119792a81a198381f127782ce8a78e2de99fc9821d0e43c00.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025031513034_7c067b74cb8340c119792a81a198381f127782ce8a78e2de99fc9821d0e43c00" data-rendition-name="original" width="1394" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Nitida"> <figcaption>Coelogyne nitida</figcaption> </figure>  The orchid has prominent green pseudobulbs that store water and has abundant seed production, which is what makes it one of the more common species. &nbsp;&nbsp; Abu Hang Samuel is a botany student who has independently documented orchids for the past eight years. Last year, while looking into the dark undergrowth on Phulchoki, he discovered the Lecanorchis japonica, a rare species previously found only in China, Japan, and Korea (pictured, below).&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250315120352_5e6584b2e7cf41fecb5858ff93d98914eba1eb781768fb0a951ee7e896625bc8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250315120352_5e6584b2e7cf41fecb5858ff93d98914eba1eb781768fb0a951ee7e896625bc8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orchid 2 "> <figcaption> Lecanorchis japonica</figcaption> </figure>  “This rare orchid does not have leaves and mostly stays underground, living off fungi in the soil, which is why it is difficult to find,” Samuel explains. “When the season is right, slender flowers emerge from the forest floor for a few days before disappearing again. I was lucky to be at the right palce at the right time.”&nbsp; Orchids and other native plants in the Godavari-Phulchoki landscape face significant threats, including illegal collection and poaching, despite laws prohibiting their extraction from the wild.&nbsp; However, the bigger challenge comes from urban expansion and infrastructure projects, which lead to habitat destruction.&nbsp; “The Godavari bus park once had many trees covered in orchids,” Samuel notes, “but they were cleared to expand the parking area to accommodate growing numbers of picnickers.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250315120352_272e39bb7dbd1107f0f6e73384a938206901d29df0f1a27dad20d9fbdeb0e5a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250315120352_272e39bb7dbd1107f0f6e73384a938206901d29df0f1a27dad20d9fbdeb0e5a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="1394" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orchid 3 "> <figcaption>Phalaenopsis taenialis</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031514030_bf32140eaf73bc72cdb5f0053c94776f7877b3e686e2c36ea2d9e4e36c1adabf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_18" data-image-id="2025031514030_bf32140eaf73bc72cdb5f0053c94776f7877b3e686e2c36ea2d9e4e36c1adabf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1404" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orchid"> <figcaption>Rhynchostylis retusa</figcaption> </figure>  Similarly, road construction and development projects have led to the destruction of trees, boulders and slopes where orchids naturally grow, disrupting delicate ecological networks. &nbsp; Ecosystems function as intricate webs, with each species playing a role in maintaining balance. When habitat destruction disrupts this balance, this natural network of symbiotic relationships among plants and animals unravels.&nbsp; This sets off a domino effect with hazardous and sometimes unexpected consequences that ultimately threaten the survival of orchids and other interdependent species.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250315120356_5751088a8cdb03cdcf067192914ca70ad176fc34249304ef8906d8654192e627.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250315120356_5751088a8cdb03cdcf067192914ca70ad176fc34249304ef8906d8654192e627" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orchid 5"> <figcaption>Coelogyne cristata</figcaption> </figure>  Amidst rapid urban development, the primary goal of conservation is to protect plants, their habitats and the broader ecosystem they rely on.&nbsp; &nbsp;ICIMOD’s Living Mountain Lab, for instance, does a botanical tour called an ‘Orchid Walk’ to spread awareness about the strengths and struggles of this plant, all the while showing visitors the up-close beauty of the flowers. “The goal is to enhance the visitors’ experience and raise awareness about the incredible orchid biodiversity of the Godavari-Phulchoki landscape,” says Yufang Su, who heads the Lab. “We hope to inspire a deeper appreciation for these delicate blooms and the need for their conservation.”&nbsp;

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Here & Now

Orchids of Godavari-Phulchoki

Last month, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and Pokhara Mayor Dhanraj Acharya were burned when hydrogen-filled balloons exploded at the launch of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-s-tourism-woes">Pokhara Visit Year 2025</a>. Both were flown to Kathmandu for treatment. In 2023, Nepali Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Chandra Bhandari was severely burned in a kitchen fire. He was taken to India for treatment. His Rs5.6 million medevac and treatment bill was paid by the government. It took the<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/burning-in-the-aftermath,3757"> burn injuries </a>of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-nepal-s-vip-prisoners-do-in-jail">high-profile figures </a>in Nepal to finally spark action on an issue that affects mainly the country’s poorest. “We call this the burns paradox,” says Kiran Nakarmi at the Nepal Cleft and Burn Centre at Kirtipur Hospital, where the Pokhara patients received care. “Treatment is costly and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19400">most victims are poor</a>."&nbsp; About 60,000 people suffer <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/removing-scars?fbclid=IwAR2MiX-ZhGNSsqUwgDYfvLWE3a7ZeLaHncz66MMKLQGtSSraTjr9cF5mIWo">burn injuries</a> in Nepal each year and 2,200 of them die. The demand for care in Kirtipur is growing.&nbsp; In 2014, it treated 90 <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/A-burning-desire-to-help,881">burn patients</a> and this more than doubled to 194 in 2015, reached 373 in 2016, and peaked at 790 in 2023. Last year the Centre treated 753 patients, and in January alone this year it was 111. Ninety-two percent of cases come from outside Kathmandu from 75 districts,” says Nakarmi. “When we started it was 42%.”&nbsp; Ideally, burns treatment should be decentralised so that local levels have primary <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/altruistic-healthcare-models-in-nepal">burn care centres</a> no more than two hours away, where patients can get initial treatment like cooling and dressing of wounds, and fluid replacement. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/removing-scars?fbclid=IwAR3YJaMAa7AekbmwWYy3UlNnJkDj8XZk8qRxcagXd7Sl0M4m4SzolGs_0ow">Removing Scars</a>, Yugeshwor Koirala If necessary, they could be transferred to regional centres to handle surgery for minor burns. The government has already designated six such facilities across the country, and Nakarmi says the Centre could train their staff. He clicks forward on a slide to show a female patient brought in two months ago with her buttocks and thighs burned. “The wound was deep, it was not going to heal on its own. She needed some kind of graft.” If surgeons at a regional facility were properly trained, they could have done the graft. Instead, the patient waited for one month before coming to Kirtipur.&nbsp; Nakarmi is looking for funding for a 70-bed national burn care centre at Kirtipur Hospital, where patients can be isolated from the risk of infection that comes with sharing space in general wards. Another MP, Bindabasini Kansakar, is herself a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-acid-attack-survivors-find-a-saviour"> survivor of an acid attack </a>by a spurned suitor in 2013. She registered a Bill in Parliament last year that includes specialised burn units in all <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/devolution-for-development">government hospitals </a>with 100+ beds, and in some private hospitals and medical colleges in Kathmandu. She is also calling on the government to create a fund to give immediate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/justice-delayed-justice-denied-byrx8a1c">financial support to victims </a>and their families, discounts for women and children, especially from poorer communities, as well as training for health staff, twice yearly awareness programmes at local levels, and strong penalties to deter acid attacks and intentional burn injuries. Parliament’s delay in passing the Bill is ‘deeply frustrating, especially given my personal experience,’ Kansakar wrote to us.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250314110312_8d1a63b9d63d2ee0c116ffa1bc46e9a3aa5e63e7cdeeceb5a67fd7e772fbe957.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250314110312_8d1a63b9d63d2ee0c116ffa1bc46e9a3aa5e63e7cdeeceb5a67fd7e772fbe957" data-rendition-name="original" width="1446" height="717" loading="lazy" alt="burn incidents in Nepal"> <figcaption>Member of Parliament Bindabasini Kansakar before an acid attack by a spurred suitor in 2013 (left), after, and now. </figcaption> </figure>  ‘I know first-hand the physical, emotional, and financial struggles<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18771"> burn victims </a>endure. Delays mean more victims are left without proper care, financial support, or legal protection,’ she added. ‘If burns affected wealthier or more influential communities, the response might have been swifter. This inequality is precisely why the Bill is so crucial — to ensure<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/justice-delayed-justice-denied-byrx8a1c"> justice and support for all victims</a>, regardless of their social standing.’ Burn incidents are the second most common injury in rural Nepal, according to the World Health Organization, and researcher Kamal Phuyal says that making just a handful of simple adjustments to everyday life could prevent most major burns. Before <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ways-nepal-can-rebound-from-covid-19-2966ixvu">Covid-19</a>, he ran a research project in three municipalities in the mountains, hills and Tarai. After six months gathering data, the team told locals to make changes in their communities to prevent burns. For the next two and a half years, Phuyal worked with health staff, female community <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/enlisting-female-health-volunteers-to-fight-covid-19-b4qlgy1e">health volunteers</a> and other locals. In that time, the number of major burns in the three districts dropped from 21 to zero for two years running. The most effective change was to stop people from cooking on the ground. “If you can put the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">cooking stoves</a> just three feet (1m) off the ground, 50% of burns can be eliminated,” explains Phuyal.&nbsp; Nakarmi says that 70% of patients at Kirtipur Hospital, too, got burn injuries in the kitchen. “It should be the safest place to be, but it is the most unsafe,” she adds. Phuyal says<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/deputies-drive-development-in-rural-nepal"> local representatives</a> were convinced by his findings and, especially in Makwanpur, eager to make changes. He expected them to adopt a policy to approve construction of a house only if the plans included putting the cooking space 1m off the ground, to reduce burn incidents, Phuyal explained at a training session at Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital (SKMH) last October. But <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-uneven-covid-19-deaths">Covid-19</a> hit, the project ended, the officials were replaced after elections, and the work lost momentum. Today, no <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/local-government-by-the-people-for-the-people-of-the-people">local government</a> seems to have moved forward on <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18770">burn prevention</a>. During the training session at SKMH, the hospital’s deputy director, Rojina Shilpakar, described some of the burn cases at the facility in recent months. In Dailekh district, two boys were severely burned while collecting fodder. “The parents all thought that they would die so they didn’t take them for medical help. But after two weeks they survived and the story was posted on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-social-media-contagion">social media</a>.” The hospital reached out and arranged for both boys to be brought to Kathmandu, one to Kirtipur Hospital and the other to SKMH, with burns on 40% of his body. “He was emaciated, just flesh and bones, covered in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/medicine-goes-back-to-its-roots?fbclid=IwAR31DMkL6vtx8KFvX3KG79Jf6omKN8H8VZ0Dr9G-1UWtIBlFHNphMJi8mrY">herbal medicine </a>that looked like mud,” recalls Shilpakar. If he had been brought for treatment quickly, he could have recovered sooner, she adds. But he was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished">malnourished,</a> and contractures had developed where one part of the body sticks to another, preventing movement. “We couldn’t take him to the operating room right away because of his malnourished condition. He had to gain some weight, increase his haemoglobin levels. Even skin grafts were not taken properly, so it affected the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-art-of-healing">healing,</a>” explains Shilpakar. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/pandemic-of-poverty">Poverty</a> prevents many families from<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/it-s-an-emergency-nepal-needs-to-improve-trauma-care"> seeking care</a>, although both facilities will not turn away burn cases for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/poor-cash-rich-nepal">lack of money</a>. SKMH paid the bills for the Dailekh boys' treatment, including an eight-month hospital stay. Now seven, the youngster has already had a follow-up surgery and is likely to need more operations as he grows. Smaller <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/healthcare-moving-from-hospitals-to-homes">hospitals</a> outside Kathmandu often do not not accept severe burn cases, and instead send them immediately to a larger facility. “If the patient dies within a few hours, they will be blamed, So they just try to push them away,” adds Shilpakar. SKMH has been <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16801">training health workers</a> from across the country to treat burns since 2012. This includes countering the prevalent belief at the time that burn victims should not be given fluids. Patients would reach the centre <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/dirty-dangerous-difficult-and-dehydrating">dehydrated</a>, and then go into acute <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/saving-kidneys-to-save-nepal">kidney failure</a>. Some with a high percentage of burns die. Those cases have decreased in the last few years because <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-health-workers-at-risk-of-workplace-hazards">health workers </a>have been trained, including to give fluids to patients. The treatment at the Cleft and Burn Centre has become much more effective since it opened in 2014. Says Nakarmi: “Back then we could not save anyone who had 40% burns or greater. Now we can save half of victims with 40% burns, and if someone has 60% burns, they have a 15% chance of survival. We aim to save half of patients with 60% burns.” The centre developed a six-day training for health staff on burns care for workers from facilities country-wide, but funding was provided by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/how-usaid-cut-affects-nepal">USAID</a> and has been cut. There is no replacement in sight. Recent increase in government support for burns treatment seems to have been sparked by the case of MP Bhandari. In October, the government announced free treatment for patients from the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-nepal-s-poverty-rate-is-stuck"> poorest families</a>.&nbsp; “But there is a little catch,” says Nakarmi. “The treatment of destitute burn victims, are supposed to be covered right? But everyone else also wants to get support. A lot of Nepali people are not destitute, but they are poor. We just try to cover their costs as much as possible.”

Marty Logan

A burning problem that needs solutions

Last week was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/maha-shivaratri">Shivaratri</a>, and this week it is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/everyday-as-if-it-is-women-s-day">International Women’s Day</a> on 8 March. What better way to marry the two than to investigate Shakti, the feminine creative aspect of the universe.&nbsp; Shiva’s consort has many names: Parvati, Shakti, Durga, Uma, Gauri. She is the embodiment of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/midwives-to-the-rescue-in-nepal">motherhood</a>, love and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/future-proofing-nepal-s-population-strategy?s=04">fertility</a>, and she balances Shiva’s destructive attributes with creation.&nbsp; Alongside the triumvirate of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-hindu-gods-of-buddhist-thailand">Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver</a>, is <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6983">Shiva the destroyer-creator</a>. He is the Lord of making things end so that the new can take their place.&nbsp; Hinduism may be perceived and practised as a multitheistic religion, but in its tenets, all is one, the gods and their many avatar are but different names given to the one truth of existence and reality. And in this, Shiva can be referred to as the Supreme Being. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tolerating-nepal-s-religious-tolerance">Tolerating Nepal’s religious tolerance</a>, Shekhar Kharel Shiva is considered masculine, and conceptualised as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/communicating-existence-through-art">pure consciousness</a> -- call it soul, transcendent spirit, whatever that exists beyond the material. Shakti is feminine energy and is a dynamic reality. The union of Shiva-Shakti symbolises creation and the coming together of male and female energy.&nbsp; One of the most sacred texts in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11957">Hinduism </a>is the Shiva Purana, and it describes Shakti as having a ‘parturient’ trait. Parturient is used to describe a woman in labour, so Shakti is thought of as fertile, and always on the verge of creation if the pure consciousness of Shiva wills something. This may seem to suggest that the feminine aspect is submissive and waiting for the masculine form to act and uphold the need for creation. But we have to see this as a human conceptualisation to make sense of our own existence and the need to explain reality.&nbsp; Another way to interpret the gendering could be that the masculine is not of much use if the feminine does not exist. In other words, what good would it be if there was nothing to be conscious of, and there was only a destroyer. It is the feminine form that holds the power of creation.&nbsp; Parvati may have been regarded as feminine because she creates, gives birth. And consciousness as masculine because of its association with Shiva, the yogi-ascetic.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/a-thousand-sadhus-and-a-hanuman">A thousand Sadhus and a Hanuman</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030813038_5393d1feffb9952b8c3df26d0cd6142ffaef9cf503b163b0e866c478e64e0625.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025030813038_5393d1feffb9952b8c3df26d0cd6142ffaef9cf503b163b0e866c478e64e0625" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="980" loading="lazy" alt="Shiva"> <figcaption>This 12th century stele of Uma Maheswar depicting Shiva and Parvati was stolen from Tangal Hiti in Patan 45 years ago and returned to Nepal in 2018 from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.</figcaption> </figure>  The Shiva Purana perspective is that both are balanced and the same, and neither can exist without the other.&nbsp; ‘Just as Shiva, so also the goddess. Just as the goddess so also Shiva. No difference shall be thought of between the two as between the moon and the moonlight’, says the text, which is part of the Shaivite literature corpus. In fact, the composite deity of &nbsp;‘Ardhanarishvara’ expresses precisely this union and can be translated as ‘the Lord who is half woman’. Ardhanarishvara is a depiction of a being that is split straight down the middle: the right half is traditionally Shiva with his masculine features and Nandi the bull consort, and the left side is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/swasthani-lecture">Parvati or Durga </a>with feminine traits and a tiger consort.&nbsp; “The paintings and statues of Ardhanarishvara show that Shiva and Shakti are both inseparable and the same,” explains historian and author Govinda Tandon.&nbsp; “This is all the Hindu concept of ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti, that truth is one, but called by many names,” Tandon adds, pointing out that the the bull and tiger consorts co-exist in the divine pair, although they would be prey and predator, further reinforcing the concept that opposing characteristics can prevail in the same being.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/giving-a-face-to-a-deity">Giving faces to a deity</a>, Shaguni Singh Sakya The Shiva-Shakti postulation of the coexistence of opposites exists in other faiths as darkness giving way to light. It is an attempt to understand the universal truth that what appears to be antithetical are essential to reality, and meaningless without the opposite aspect.&nbsp; Other philosophies also share this understanding of dual oneness. Ancient Chinese belief systems came up with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14536">Yin-Yang</a>, where Yin is receptive and dark, and Yang is active and bright, each containing a seed of the other.&nbsp; The message is not to rank one better than the other, but that maintaining a balance between the two is key to living in Tao, or the natural path of the universe.&nbsp; Western thinkers have also described the two as Chaos and Order, or Nature and Culture. Too much chaos, and nothing sustains itself (think <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">Nepal’s politics</a>). Too much order, and everything stagnates, like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-creeping-coup">in a dictatorship</a> where anything that deviates from the strict command is punished, and nothing truly new and revolutionary is allowed to foster. All of these ways to see the duality somewhat echo each other, although they may not be exactly the same. But what is common to all these ideas of Shiva-Shakti, Creation-Destruction, Ying-Yang, Light-Darkness, is the same overarching message: that both forces are inseparable and must exist in a cosmic dance for it to be optimal.&nbsp; Nataraja is another manifestation of Shiva, where he dances with wild abandon (Tandava), symbolising the creation and destruction of the universe. In Tantricism, creation follows destruction as Shiva and Shakti join in this union.&nbsp; This notion also aligns with the latest discoveries in<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17254"> astrophysics </a>of matter and antimatter, and the singularity in a black hole where time and space merge. The Shiva-Shakti duality can also be regarded as a singularity. A photon, for example, is a quantum of light and can be both a particle and a wave. In the ‘wave-particle’ duality, light can behave as a particle when hitting something, but act as a wave when travelling through space.&nbsp; Or, take the Observer Effect in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-destroyer-of-worlds">quantum physics</a>. Electrons fired at a card with two slits will behave like waves, creating ripple patterns beyond the slits. But introduce a detector, and the electron behaves like a particle, the ripples disappear.&nbsp; Shiva is tangible reality, Shakti is pure energy. Some physicists who study sub-atomic particles say that the deeper they investigate, the more they begin to see the hand of a Supreme Being.&nbsp; The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-script-of-the-scriptures">scriptures</a> and their depictions of the divine transcend and exist in the everyday world around us. Evolution, for example, is possible because of natural selection through the act of reproduction, the fusion of gametes from two parents that creates the genetic variation so they can ‘be fruitful and multiply’.&nbsp; Govinda Tandon used to be the chair of the Pashupati Area Development Trust committed &nbsp;to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-nepal-s-conservation-heroes">managing and conserving</a> the temple dedicated to the benign manifestation of Shiva, one of the holiest Hindu shrines in the world.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-healer-of-pashupati">The healer of Pashupati</a> The temple itself is regarded as the site where Shiva and Parvati once took the form of antelopes on the forested banks of the Bagmati. For Tandon, there is a strong message from the divine union of Shiva-Shakti, Uma-Maheswar, Gauri-Shankar, Shiva-Parvati: “The masculine and feminine principles existing in the same form as equals should inspire us. Societies, families work best when men and women respect each other as equals. One complements the other.”

Vishad Raj Onta

The sacred female energy of Shakti

This is the 59th edition of Diaspora Diaries, a regular series in Nepali Times with stories of Nepalis living and working abroad. Growing up in Okhaldhunga, my sisters never went to school. I got a chance to take functional literacy classes and learned to read and write. This made me realise the importance of education, so I asked my father to send me to school. He agreed.&nbsp; I had to create this situation for myself. I was fortunate to get my father’s approval despite his initial reluctance because the trend back then was to<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/can-nepal-end-child-marriage-by-2030-gmx92qf3"> marry off daughters</a> after they reached 14 or 15. That was all he had known.&nbsp; Fortunately, my father did not insist on me marrying young. It helped that my brothers in Kathmandu were supportive.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030316_5d69794595d47468c9c3a3577cb39c3045aedf47dc758d9abd6cd512b231b2cd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250308030316_5d69794595d47468c9c3a3577cb39c3045aedf47dc758d9abd6cd512b231b2cd" data-rendition-name="original" width="966" height="1138" loading="lazy" alt="With family DD"> <figcaption>STEERING MY OWN LIFE: With my parents before leaving Nepal for the UAE in 2015. My father died soon after I left.</figcaption> </figure>  What was it about marrying young that did not appeal to me? I am not sure. But the thought of it used to make me anxious because conversations with my aunts back then made it seem like they had to give up on everything once they got married. There is no <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/from-slave-to-freedom-fighter">freedom</a> to do what one wants in life.&nbsp; For example, even when there were free all-women adult literacy classes in our village that many of my aunts were keen to join, their families did not approve. Some accepted life the way it was (“यस्तै त हो नि”). Others were sad about having to kill their ambitions.&nbsp; Marrying young felt too restrictive for me, I just was not ready for it. Instead, I came to Kathmandu after Grade 8 to join two of my brothers.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/how-the-climate-crisis-adds-to-child-marriage-in-nepal">How the climate crisis adds to child marriage in Nepal</a>, Sonam Lama Between working as a cook at an office and attending school, where I often had to miss my last class to make it to work on time, I somehow managed to pass my SLC. I then did odd jobs like work as a receptionist and later as a cashier at a Chinese restaurant. I also invested with my brother on Momo Palace, a restaurant that unfortunately did not succeed because there was not enough money to buy a refrigerator, and there were <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-they-kept-nepal-in-the-dark-ages">long power cuts in those days</a>. After finally getting married and having a child in 2010, I was a stay-at-home mom for a bit. After <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lessons-not-learned-from-2015-o2etq6zu">the 2015 earthquake</a>, I left for the UAE leaving my son behind with my family.&nbsp; I first worked at a beauty parlour, waxing, straightening hair, threading. Many of my clients were Filipinas with whom I used to have engaging conversations. I asked for advice about career prospects, and they were generous with suggestions.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030803034_9b84a14526f5ef61c634439d500f1b4c0dbc8126231e8d41f8463771ee9f697e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2025030803034_9b84a14526f5ef61c634439d500f1b4c0dbc8126231e8d41f8463771ee9f697e" data-rendition-name="original" width="720" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Beauty parlour DD"> </figure>  &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030312_c85e454d376bdec42d2f9b1de794a111fbe756542f853c6efd44e031cb623d3d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250308030312_c85e454d376bdec42d2f9b1de794a111fbe756542f853c6efd44e031cb623d3d" data-rendition-name="original" width="528" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="With mother DD"> <figcaption>With my mother in Dubai in 2017, when I worked in a beauty parlour, but passion was always to learn to drive.</figcaption> </figure>  I was always fascinated with driving. Back in Nepal, I used to be in awe of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/women-in-the-driving-seat">women who drove </a>six-wheelers. I used to wait for auto rickshaws driven by women, and had a deep sense of appreciation for what they did because they were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/nepali-mountaineer-breaking-barriers,2708">breaking barriers</a>.&nbsp; My customers from the Philippines said they drove company cars or were chauffeurs for Emirati families. I was really interested, and used to call them up in the evenings to seek more advice.&nbsp; The work at the parlour was a necessity, I knew my interests were elsewhere. But the idea of driving on the busy streets was scary at first. But my customers assured me that it was difficult at first, but once you understood the rules, how the system worked, it was safe and driving was very doable.&nbsp; Initially, I faced challenges obtaining my driving license because back then the work visa category determined eligibility.&nbsp; For example, only those in the transport sector, in managerial positions and in security qualified for a license.&nbsp; It was disappointing, but I sought a job at a transportation company and worked as a school bus driver’s companion to manage children on their way to school and back, what we call a खलासी in Nepal.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-flying-doctor">Nepal’s flying doctor</a>, Kunda Dixit I enjoyed the job as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mixed-picture-for-nepal-s-children">the children </a>were friendly, and reminded me of my son of similar age back home.&nbsp; I worked there for a couple of years, even though the pay was 300 Dirhams less than my wages in the salon. But I was so committed to a driving job that I just wanted to get a toehold to obtain a UAE-license. I was the only woman in driving class, the others would be curious about where I was from and why I wanted to drive. I took the lessons seriously, and worked hard to study traffic rules. Such was my determination to obtain a license.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030316_f72b15112e7971eefdce49abc88c863d946bd3d6d55ec205631ac945de59b236.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250308030316_f72b15112e7971eefdce49abc88c863d946bd3d6d55ec205631ac945de59b236" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="In UAE DD"> <figcaption>It was a proud moment when I took my son and mother around the UAE in my car in 2017. Wished my father was also there to see me.</figcaption> </figure>  I passed both theoretical and practical tests at one go, and bought a cheap car. My dream had been to drive my mother around, and in 2017, my mother and son came to Dubai, their first trip abroad.&nbsp; I was emotional back then because my father had died unexpectedly just a month after I left for the Emirates. He had asked me to buy him a touch phone, but he died before I even made my first pay check with which I planned to buy it for him.&nbsp; He would have loved to see me driving around Dubai. I took my mother around and also bought her a phone. What I could not do for my father, I did for her. My son was a bit distant at first, as we had been separated for two years. But by the time they were headed back to Nepal, he could not stop crying and clung on to me.&nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/from-retail-to-selling-chiya"> From retail to selling chiya</a>, Gautam Guvaju I first started by driving a taxi. There were a few women driving taxis, including two Nepalis. Initially, it was difficult to find my way around Abu Dhabi. If I missed one turn, it could delay customers, and some who were regular on that route would create a fuss.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030316_be44085e095b54fca1089bd46303909b8ec1fa971c8ac463907c537a4cfa3911.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250308030316_be44085e095b54fca1089bd46303909b8ec1fa971c8ac463907c537a4cfa3911" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="Abu Dhabi DD"> <figcaption>I drove a taxi around Abu Dhabi for five years, but always wanted to do more.</figcaption> </figure>  I wanted to avoid them complaining to my employer, so I would apologise and ask them to just pay their regular fare. Some agreed, others understood that I was a beginner and paid the full fare.&nbsp; I steadily got to know my way around, and drove taxis for five years. I used to read the local news quite a bit to stay informed about traffic law updates.&nbsp; One day, I read that there were women from the Philippines and African countries who were driving buses. I decided to get a bus license.&nbsp; When I first went to apply for it, they questioned me about why I wanted to drive a bus. I told them confidently that I could drive a bus, which was met with much surprise and amusement.&nbsp; I took the classes, the solo female student yet again. As the only woman in a group of 35 during the road test, I used to avoid the ‘ladies first’ offers because I wanted to see how others before me did so I could observe them.&nbsp; I was already a nervous driver, and I got even more nervous when they offered to let me go first. Eventually, I was one of the only seven who passed in the group of 35 drivers. Finding a job as a woman bus driver was somewhat tougher than getting the license. Abu Dhabi did not allow it due to the absence of policies for female bus drivers, so I had to look for a job in Dubai.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/three-toots-for-tootle">Three toots for Tootle</a>, Sonia Awale&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030324_d984dee93e0d168a9d049d92594c8882b7e876622972599bcacd3dbb0be978ad.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250308030324_d984dee93e0d168a9d049d92594c8882b7e876622972599bcacd3dbb0be978ad" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Women;s day DD"> </figure>  I was thrilled when I was finally hired by a company that invested in my training as I taught myself the route. With my trainer's help, I used to draw a map of my route with the relevant stops. After the workday, I drove through the route in my car to make sure I was familiar with it. &nbsp; Since then, I have been driving a double-decker bus and taking tourists to old and modern Dubai.&nbsp; It is important to stay curious and keep pushing ourselves. I have invested a lot of money in getting a bus license, classes and other skills training, and I see it as an investment for my future.&nbsp; I don’t know what awaits me. I am 41 now, but want to keep trying new things, and refuse to let my age determine my drive. If I did, I would have stuck to my parlour job instead of taking risks and a pay cut.&nbsp; Many people choose to play it safe in life, but I have always believed in stepping outside my comfort zone and challenging what is considered appropriate work for women.&nbsp; That is what I tell <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/youth-led-feeding-campaign-spreads-across-nepalhttps://nepalitimes.com/here-now/youth-led-feeding-campaign-spreads-across-nepal">Nepali youth</a> who are considering <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/speaking-the-language-of-overseas-work">going abroad for work</a>: do not migrate empty-handed without any skills. Paper certificates do not hold much value if they do not translate into practical abilities. I enjoy my job driving the Big Bus. Earnings aside, it is rewarding to be appreciated by tourists who hop on. They want to take pictures, and ask me about myself. At traffic stops, people crossing the road sometimes wave at me.&nbsp; Such appreciation is like an extra bonus pay, and it motivates me even more. I feel proud to know that I am the first woman double decker bus driver in the tourism sector here.&nbsp; Nepalis in Dubai also shower me with a lot of affection. They tell me they have seen me on the news or on social media, and want to take selfies with me, smiling widely.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250308030332_b2d59d63c0ffff6d6e86e8bc6a7aa583881ab0dbb64ce0e8e253421aa3627436.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250308030332_b2d59d63c0ffff6d6e86e8bc6a7aa583881ab0dbb64ce0e8e253421aa3627436" data-rendition-name="original" width="590" height="1020" loading="lazy" alt="Son DD"> <figcaption>My son on the top deck of my Big Bus when he visited Dubai recently.</figcaption> </figure>  My son tells me how his teachers and friends back home asked about me after seeing video interviews about my journey. It was a proud moment for me recently to drive my son around Dubai on the double decker.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kalpanas-auto-autonomy">Kalpana's auto autonomy</a>, Maheshwor Acharya Diaspora Diaries is a Nepali Times collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working, studying abroad.

A woman’s drive to push boundaries

Public health expert Aruna Uprety was flying from Dolpo to Nepalganj a few years ago when she struck up a conversation with a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/1-in-2-pregnancies-in-nepal-unintended">pregnant woman</a> who told her she was travelling to the city for a doctor’s appointment.&nbsp; Uprety’s initial happiness at learning that rural women were actively seeking <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/3-nepali-mothers-still-die-daily-at-childbirth">prenatal care </a>turned into shock when the woman, who had two daughters, said she would terminate her pregnancy if the ultrasound showed a female foetus.&nbsp; When Uprety recounted her conversation with nurses at a hospital in Nepalganj, they did not bat an eyelid, telling her that pregnant people came from all over the Karnali to get ultrasounds for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-missing-girls">sex-selective abortions</a>. &nbsp; This example, multiplied tens of thousands of times every year, is visible in the 2021 census data: there are significantly more male than <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/fatal-discrimination">female live births</a> in Nepal, giving the country one of the highest sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Asia. SRB indicates the number of boys born for every 100 baby girls. Globally, biological birth ratios are slightly biased towards male babies, and the theoretical or expected SRB is 105 males per 100 female live births. Higher values indicate much higher numbers of newborn boys than girls.&nbsp; According to the 2021 census, Nepal has a SRB of 112 males per 100 females, up from 106 recorded in the 2011 census. &nbsp;Dhanusa district bordering India has the highest SRB (133) while Mustang in the trans-Himalaya has 92 boys per every 100 girls born. The Madhes (118) has the highest SRB among Nepal’s provinces.&nbsp; Experts are worried that this trend could lead to long-term <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">demographic disparities</a>, and say there has not been enough research into the drivers of this imbalance. “Nepal’s skewed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/future-proofing-nepal-s-population-strategy?s=04">sex ratio</a> at birth is one of the most concerning demographic issues,” says Yogendra B Gurung of the Central Department of Population Studies at Tribhuvan University.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030704034_17e79dea4ed359ae991a9be6a1c765538cebd2640dcb3075b7175ae3055404ac.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2025030704034_17e79dea4ed359ae991a9be6a1c765538cebd2640dcb3075b7175ae3055404ac" data-rendition-name="original" width="926" height="385" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> <figcaption>Source: 2021 NEPAL CENSUS </figcaption> </figure>  Contributing to this is gender-biased sex selection (GBSS) and other forms of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/quality-of-equality-for-women">discrimination and inequality </a>enabled by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/perpetuating-patriarchy-in-nepal">Nepal’s patriarchal</a>, socio-cultural, traditional structures.&nbsp; Gender-biased sex selection determines the outcome of a pregnancy, and can be postnatal or prenatal. Postnatal sex selection can be due to neglect, differences in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/covid-undermines-nepals-mother-child-gains">maternal nutrition</a> and child care, or infanticide of a girl child.&nbsp; Prenatal gender-biased sex selection occurs prior to or during conception, either by the selection of a particular sex during <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/freezing-a-future-family-IVF-embryo-surrogacy,3881">fertilisation</a>, or through termination of pregnancy when the sex of the foetus is determined. Across the world, GBSS is an outcome of a preference of sons over daughters.&nbsp; The census result proves that &nbsp;Nepalis are increasingly opting for sex selection and consequently, sex-selective abortions through the use of prenatal diagnostic technologies to determine the sex of a baby, even though the law prohibits clinics from revealing the sex of a foetus.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-nepali-mothers-on-mother-s-day">Saving Nepali mothers on Mother’s Day</a>, Naresh Newar “There are three detriments that enable gender-biased sex selection: our socio cultural norms, and the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/female-foeticide-to-football">preference of sons over daughters</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/tech-and-transition-in-nepal">the availability of technology</a> that is able to determine the sex of a foetus,” explains Apekchya Rana Khatri at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Kathmandu. “We analysed the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-demographic-dividend">social and demographic trends</a>, and identified Nepal as one of the countries where GBSS prevails based on the prevalence of these three issues.” Many Nepali families prefer sons because they are still expected to solely carry forward the family lineage, provide economic benefit to the family and actively engage in society, take care of their parents in their<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/home-sweet-home-for-older-nepalis"> old age</a>, perform <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-quake-survivors-wait-for-kin-to-return">funeral rites</a>, and gain inheritance.&nbsp; Imbalanced sex ratio at birth is not just a problem in Nepal. The sex ratio at birth of countries in the region, including India and China reflect socio-cultural norms that ascribe more importance to boys. &nbsp; Sex ratio at birth in India (108) is mostly due to cultural factors, while in China (112) it is a legacy of the previous One Child Policy. The imbalance has actually begun to improve in the past years in both countries. However, in Nepal, the opposite has happened: SRB rose from 104 in 2001 to 106 in 2011 to 112 in 2021.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030704034_824d9daf1f2b630bcdae6edba2a14733593c119f87b2fb5426103a8121907309.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="2025030704034_824d9daf1f2b630bcdae6edba2a14733593c119f87b2fb5426103a8121907309" data-rendition-name="original" width="894" height="542" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> <figcaption>Source: 1952/54-2021 NEPAL CENSUSES</figcaption> </figure>  The 2021 census also shows that sex ratio at birth in Nepal’s urban municipalities is 114 -- higher than rural municipalities (109). This is in contradiction to the belief that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4975">discrimination against girl children</a> is less among educated and better off city dwellers than in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health">rural areas</a>. &nbsp; Better <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-are-dying-because-they-are-poor">access to healthcare institutions</a> might also account for higher sex ratio at birth in urban areas. In the case of Madhes Province, access to both legal and unsafe abortion across the border could be why SRB is higher. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/1-in-2-pregnancies-in-nepal-unintended">1 in 2 pregnancies in Nepal unintended</a> “Nepal’s sex ratio at birth shines a light on the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/coping-with-patriarchy">deeply-entrenched patriarchy in our country</a>,” says demographer Gurung. “And it also clarifies the misconception that traditional and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/ill-fitting-in-nepali-society">conservative mindsets</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-caste-struggle">discriminatory practices </a>exist exclusively in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-rural-lifeline">rural communities</a>, because the data points to educated, economically well off people engaging in practices like GBSS.” Historically, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/nepal-s-remittance-villages">agrarian societies</a> like Nepal preferred to have many sons because men were considered better suited to physical work. Today, many Nepalis hope to have male children so that they can <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/making-overseas-migration-better">migrate overseas</a>, earn livelihoods, and support their families.&nbsp; “Although evolving political, legal, and social systems have given women more robust rights to education and rights to inheritance, and ensured their participation in the workforce, the implementation of interventions is another matter,” says Aruna Uprety. “Our cultural and especially <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tolerating-nepal-s-religious-tolerance">religious practices</a> have continued to reinforce gender inequality.” Experts say they have been unable to collect relevant data from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/is-free-health-care-possible-in-nepal">medical and health facilities</a>.&nbsp; “Even when we identify the issues contributing to sex-selective practices, we are largely working on assumptions because there is no officially-backed data about sex-selective abortions through legal channels or unofficial and unsafe providers,” says Won Young Hong, UNFPA Country Representative for Nepal. “We need to obtain more data from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/healthcare-moving-from-hospitals-to-homes">hospitals</a>, clinics and the many other service providers so that we can conduct more extensive research.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030704034_a8bfc315b27a4db412109a547d483e2d3b571957a67c6bf4e5e3cbd6debe403b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_31" data-image-id="2025030704034_a8bfc315b27a4db412109a547d483e2d3b571957a67c6bf4e5e3cbd6debe403b" data-rendition-name="original" width="925" height="584" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> <figcaption>Source: 2021 NEPAL CENSUS</figcaption> </figure>  Another dimension to sex determination, selection, and sex-selective abortion is that it is not always a pregnant person’s choice to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5884">terminate a pregnancy</a> if they find their child is female. Studies at local levels have revealed that husbands and mothers-in-law play pivotal roles in decision-making regarding prenatal sex determination. Nepal’s decreasing total fertility rate also contributes to a warped sex ratio at birth. Two decades ago, Nepal’s total fertility rate was 4.6, today a Nepali mother on average gives birth to only 2.1 children -- which is at replacement level. And since Nepalis are having fewer children, especially if they plan to have only one child, they want to make sure they have a son. Studies by the Center for Research on Environment Health and Population Activities (CREHPA) show that while neither women nor men have a preference for the sex of their child during the birth of their first child, having a female child first will lead to a preference for sons from the second birth, the preference increases in subsequent birth orders.&nbsp; Although Nepal’s sex ratio at birth is skewed towards boys, the country has more women than men, as differences in lifestyles contribute to a higher male mortality rate. The 2021 census shows that Nepal’s sex ratio is 95.6 males per 100 females. However, the male to female ratio from ages 0-19 has gone from 102 in 2011 to 107 in 2021, mainly due to rising sex ratio at birth. In the coming decades, the number of females above age 19 will decline.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030704034_36447ddf5354ec42a8fdf566ba8ee1d0c8fc0c6b0fae798d2cc49beaa04d5c6d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_33" data-image-id="2025030704034_36447ddf5354ec42a8fdf566ba8ee1d0c8fc0c6b0fae798d2cc49beaa04d5c6d" data-rendition-name="original" width="852" height="679" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> <figcaption>Source: 2021 NEPAL CENSUS</figcaption> </figure>  The number of males under 20 being higher also proves that gender-biased sex selection has been going on in Nepal for at least the three decades, says Gurung.&nbsp; “Nepal’s sex ratio at birth could indicate a larger demographic shift in the long run where the male population outnumbers the female population,” he adds.&nbsp; This would in turn have an impact on fertility, male-female partnerships and marriage dynamics, the work force, and Nepal’s existing social structures as a whole. In particular, a population significantly skewed towards males might make women and girls more vulnerable to abuse, sexual exploitation and assault, trafficking, forced marriages, and other serious crimes, say experts.&nbsp; Studies have also found that birth registration right after the birth of a child is not common in Nepal, and some couples register the birth of sons and ignore daughters, which may be reflected in fewer recorded female live births.&nbsp; Cultural norms and practices do not change despite laws, and Nepal needs to do much more to change societal values, protect, and educate its women and girls. UNFPA, for example, in 2021 supported the Ministry of Health and Population to draft the first-ever national strategy to address gender-biased sex selection, its implementation already in place. The agency's Ruparantan program also equips adolescent girls with practical skills and knowledge on gender equality and decision-making.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250307040328_777fae9a19465a149ba0fd0b41cd0e6dde0d4a0f46128bf2a39191974a4b6cf2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_34" data-image-id="20250307040328_777fae9a19465a149ba0fd0b41cd0e6dde0d4a0f46128bf2a39191974a4b6cf2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1828" height="1254" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> </figure>  But for this to work, new policies and political will to implement them by the government are critical. Strong regulatory mechanisms to monitor prenatal sex determination technologies will also be required. In addition, Nepal needs systems in place to guarantee safety and security of its ageing population, so that there are less financial and socio-cultural pressure on sons to take care of their families, and less incentives for parents to opt for male children. &nbsp; “The state needs to prepare to provide adequate services for the elderly population, especially with the anticipation of the growth in ageing population,” says Won Young Hong at UNFPA.&nbsp; India has stricter regulations over the use of prenatal diagnostic technologies to determine the sex of a baby, as well as rigorous campaigning across state and national levels like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program that have helped address the country’s declining female births.&nbsp; Nepal also needs to address the drivers of its skewed sex ratio at birth while safeguarding the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/support-for-reproductive-health-of-nepali-women">reproductive rights of women</a> and the right to safe abortions.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025030704034_2631b558d26c555d1d2944e6837fd6447cad40da7ae5a1685c3c0ec44d895f5d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_36" data-image-id="2025030704034_2631b558d26c555d1d2944e6837fd6447cad40da7ae5a1685c3c0ec44d895f5d" data-rendition-name="original" width="637" height="696" loading="lazy" alt="The slaughter of our daughters NT"> <figcaption>Sex ratio at birth (2021) in selected Asian countries. Source: OUR WORLD IN DATA</figcaption> </figure>  Access to these services have contributed significantly to lowering the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-has-progress-in-saving-women-s-lives-stalled">maternal mortality rate</a>. Abortions are important for medical emergencies, for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/justice-eludes-many-rape-survivors">survivors of sexual assault</a>, for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-conceivable-reason-for-unwanted-pregnancies">family planning</a>, and to ensure the right of women to choose what to do with their own body. “Safe abortion is a right, and cutting off access to it will not stop gender-biased sex selection,” says Aruna Uprety. “Legality has no bearing on people’s decisions-- women were getting abortions in private facilities across Nepal and India even when it was not yet legal.” What is needed is a multi-sectoral approach that addresses existing socio-cultural norms, what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-goal-is-empowerment-and-independence-of-women">women need to be empowered</a> and linked to jobs, as well as policies that promote women and girls, giving them <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/sky-is-the-limit-for-nepal-s-women-scientists">opportunities</a>.&nbsp; Adds Uprety: “Socio-cultural interventions are just as important as legal and policy ones, and we cannot address society’s preference for sons unless we look critically at our patriarchal cultural practices. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-state-for-women">Gender discrimination</a> is a cross-cutting issue.” &nbsp; This article is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250307140328_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758.jpg" data-media-id="editor_46" data-image-id="20250307140328_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758" data-rendition-name="original" width="680" height="103" loading="lazy" alt="SDG logo"> </figure>

Shristi Karki

The slaughter of our daughters

This is the 58th edition of Diaspora Diaries, and a followup to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/diaspora-diaries-4-xprqcf4x">#4 in this series</a>, published in Nepali Times #1104, 25-31 March 2022. We recommend reading that piece, available online at our website, before this one. It has been three years since I returned to Nepal from Lebanon. I did not think I would make it out alive after 12 years working for a family that never paid me. I returned empty-handed, and it was my mother who supported me. Without her, I do not know what would have happened to me.&nbsp; For some time after returning, I did not do anything. But I finally &nbsp;gather myself together, and trained as a beautician. Perhaps it was the trauma of my experience overseas, but I was introverted and did not socialise much in class. No one knew what I had been through in Lebanon. My troubles were mine to keep. I did not share them with anyone. The training centre also offered us jobs and I tried working for a few months on facials, hair straightening. But the chemicals made my chest hurt, so I quit. I found it <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-art-of-healing">therapeutic</a> to cook, and started <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/youth-led-feeding-campaign-spreads-across-nepal">preparing meals for households</a>. I cook the morning and evening meals for a family. Sometimes I cater home gatherings.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250228120224_f8cdc6a45443f90875dd91b71323e5eda2948cce753a39108ea140b64c1069f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250228120224_f8cdc6a45443f90875dd91b71323e5eda2948cce753a39108ea140b64c1069f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Enslaved Nepali migrant worker rebuilds her life Diaspora Diaries NT"> <figcaption>Sajita Lama ponders her future in the tin hut where she cooks for a living.</figcaption> </figure>  These orders come mostly from referrals and word of mouth, and I can cook single-handedly for 40-50 people. Everyone has appreciated my food, which makes me happy. My specialty is <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/Thakkhola,328">Thakali food</a>. I learn <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/featured-videos/recipe-for-nepali-culinary-diversity">a lot of recipes</a> from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/mobile-nepal-is-hooked-on-youtube">YouTube</a>. I have had no formal training, but I have a lot of experience from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/who-is-up-for-a-quarantine-cooking-challenge">cooking</a> for the Lebanese family. It is just that the meals I prepared there were less oily and more bland. I listen to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrating-with-the-music-of-nepal">music </a>and try to enjoy cooking, but I often have flashbacks that take me back to those 12 years in Lebanon. How could they get away without paying me anything? All the toil amounted to nothing. Here, in Nepal, people pay me by the hour or sometimes on a daily basis. There are tips. Even though it is not a lot, at least I am paid here. It was so different in Lebanon. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/you-must-be-having-so-much-fun-there">“You must be having so much fun there!”</a> Sujata Dhungana I see migrant workers who have returned to Nepal with money they have saved which they invest. I came back with nothing. In fact, I barely made it back alive. But, I am trying to move on and I have made progress. I keep myself busy, and get paid for it, and this work allows me to socialise a bit with my customers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250228120224_388d970a8354d7b83d46ec74e9dba4b96f095b29c70061732788f29531418521.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250228120224_388d970a8354d7b83d46ec74e9dba4b96f095b29c70061732788f29531418521" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Enslaved Nepali migrant worker rebuilds her life Diaspora Diaries NT"> </figure>  After returning from Lebanon I kept confusing Arabic and Nepali. By now, my Arabic has died. I weighed around 30kg when I came back and could not eat anything. Now I at least have an appetite even though I do not eat a lot. I try to forget everything about my <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-hard-working-students-overseas">overseas experience</a>, except an ongoing legal case for back payment of my wages. I still have not received my dues. I don’t know when or if I ever will. I have been assured that such legal cases take time and I will eventually get paid.&nbsp; I am now thinking of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-not-a-wish-but-necessity-for-nepalis">migrating overseas </a>again, this time to work in a parlour or as a cook. Dubai, maybe. But with the case pending, I am hesitant to leave because what if I am needed here for official reasons pertaining to my case that require my presence? I cannot just leave and immediately come back. If I receive all my back pay, I may not even migrate. I will start a small खाजा घर, ideally an eatery near a bus park where it is busy and there is a good flow of people. I don’t have big aspirations, I will start small and expand step by step.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250228120224_16e754351fb2f593f8af1e37d9ccc7b7dd7e43b41905e68402c71709e2ffcd37.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20250228120224_16e754351fb2f593f8af1e37d9ccc7b7dd7e43b41905e68402c71709e2ffcd37" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Enslaved Nepali migrant worker rebuilds her life Diaspora Diaries NT"> <figcaption>Lama also runs a catering business through Instagram.</figcaption> </figure>  I can survive on what I am doing now. But that is it, I cannot do more. At this age, I have it in me to spend a few years overseas and return to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal">invest in</a> a business. But sometimes I fear another <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Surviving-trauma,2211">traumatic experience</a>. What if things go wrong again? I still have to confront the demons inside me. Then I think, just because it happened once it does not mean it will happen again. I mostly try not to think about my time in Lebanon. One of the daughters I took care of was two-and-half years old when I got to Beirut. The other was born while I was there and I took care of her from the very next day after her birth. By the time I left, they were both grown up. My mother keeps reminding me to keep looking ahead and forget what has happened. She reminds me that there is nothing I cannot achieve. My dream, which seems unrealistic now, is to own a house in Kathmandu. I will live on the second floor and on the first floor I will take care of the poorest, the sick, those without anyone to turn to for support.&nbsp; I will feed them and take care of them. It would give me so much joy. But I do not know if I will ever achieve this dream. To help others, you first have to be in a position to help yourself. &nbsp; <h2>Diaspora Diaries #4</h2> Excerpt from <a href="https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_1104.pdf">Nepali Times, &nbsp;#1104, 25-31 March 2022</a> I first came to Lebanon when I was 18 years old. I lived in the country for 12 years as a domestic worker. Of the 12 years, I was only paid my salary for 1 year and 9 months.&nbsp; My case is unique because unlike others, I did not realise that I was being cheated through most of my stay there. I got along well with the family that I worked for. When they said they were saving up my wages in the bank, I believed them. Why would I not? They were like family, or so I thought. The idea of taking home a lump sum of money all at once was very appealing to me. After all, I had come to Lebanon to earn money to support my family back home in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250228120220_9f914904869fb85ae3b5ecd700e2e09b759bef4e9b13018a213725b14dbe7525.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250228120220_9f914904869fb85ae3b5ecd700e2e09b759bef4e9b13018a213725b14dbe7525" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="NT #1104"> </figure>  Now I realise that I was too trusting, and it was naive of me to believe that we were like family. They were just exploiting me, and trying to squeeze as much work from me as possible without paying for any of it. When I had first left Nepal in 2010, I had a 5 rupee note with me given to me by my sister-in-law. I kept that red bank note with me throughout my time in Lebanon. And that is all the money I brought home with me. I have now laminated the 5 rupee note. I will not forget this Nepali money because that is all I left with, and that is all I returned with. <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="//cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FbrF-iDT5jy8%3Fsi%3DFJF63RjLdv1pzSNl&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div>Watch this video prepared by the activist group This is Lebanon of Sajita Lama’s homecoming in 2022 at Kathmandu airport, and interviews with her Lebanese employers. Parts of this video may be distressing to some viewers.</div> Diaspora Diaries is a Nepali Times collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working, studying abroad.

Enslaved Nepali migrant worker rebuilds her life

In Bhutan, this is one sentence one hears often: “We are learning from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/now-the-economy-stupid">Nepal’s mistakes.</a>” Considering lack of political accountability and chronic incompetence of the past decades, Nepal indeed sets an example of what not to do. But Nepal has not forcibly evicted one sixth of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-population-to-cross-30-million">its population</a> like Bhutan did in the early 1990s. More than 100,000 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mindfulness-about-bhutan-s-refugees">refugees </a>were transported across India to Nepal and lived for over 15 years in camps in eastern Nepal. Most have since been resettled in third countries, but there are still about 6,000 elderly refugees who want to return to their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home">homeland</a>. This history has strained relations between the two Himalayan nations which share many of the same socio-economic, geopolitical and environmental challenges. Despite the asymmetry in size and population between Bhutan and Nepal, there is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">untapped potentia</a>l for them to learn more from each other and cooperate.&nbsp; Both have abundant <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-new-national-natural-resources-and-fiscal-commission">natural resources</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pump-water-store-energy">clean energy sources</a>, both are sandwiched between two giant emerging global powers. Nepal and Bhutan also struggle with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/staying-home-to-create-jobs">creating enough jobs at home</a> and prevent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-migration-myth">mass outmigration</a> of their youth. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-column/nepal-in-the-new-world-order">Nepal in the new world order</a>, Dhirendra Nalbo Bhutan’s defence and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/no-binary-foreign-policy?fb_comment_id=3583384368393672_3586424038089705">foreign policy </a>are handled by New Delhi, and there is a heavy presence of the Indian Army along Bhutan’s border with China, especially along the disputed Doklam region. Nepal is nominally more independent, and has tried to steer equidistant relations with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-china-rail-race">India and China</a>. Bhutan generates 2,326MW of electricity from plants built mostly by Indian companies and half this power is exported to India. The government’s Druk Holdings and Investment is looking to harness an additional 15,000MW of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-1st-hydroelectric-plant-is-a-museum-piece">hydroelectric</a> and 5,000MW solar power for which it will need over $25 billion in investments. There seems to be an acceptance among Bhutan’s officials that this is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">the geopolitical reality</a>, and the country has to live with exclusive <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-india-power-play">Indian involvement </a>in its energy planning.&nbsp; Nepal pursued a different path in developing hydropower, with private producers and international investors generating nearly 70% of electricity in the country. But India has gradually asserted itself in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-hydropower-goes-international?fbclid=IwAR1bfKP8flv5RQTnYALhmupWQH2hKL_BKiuylbGogpIbCd-dwY1goNvYsUY_aem_ASFlf8dMv3b2J0BWfSJITaR74lDt3yxH9t8Cg-eYZxRLLOS_dVwJwMTXqK7nxD6tfvI&amp;mibextid=Zxz2cZ">Nepal’s hydropower development</a> by sidelining Chinese involvement, and pressuring Nepal not to allow outside investment in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/reservoirs-of-suspicion/hydropower-geopolitics%20,3991">large reservoir projects</a> on its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-revenge-of-the-rivers">rivers</a>. The cascade of three out of four big hydropower plants in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/upper-arun-question-mark">Arun Basin</a> in eastern Nepal are all being built by an Indian state enterprise, more or less along the same model as Indian projects in Bhutan.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022812024_ac6cf08607ee0873bb4f82e19d0917050c73b7efa8e7c3912525a3cd2efa85f0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="2025022812024_ac6cf08607ee0873bb4f82e19d0917050c73b7efa8e7c3912525a3cd2efa85f0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1439" loading="lazy" alt="Photo: GMC"> </figure>  “We are a 100% hydro energy portfolio with about 2.5GW installed capacity with about another 1.5 GW in the pipeline in the next year or so,” says Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holdings and Investment. “While we are a net exporter of energy over a year, winter demands are increasing and we look to invest for additional power and importantly firm power.” Nepal also imports power from India in winter when its rivers are running low and demand is highest, but this is at a more expensive price than it exports during the rest of the year. Ecological and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/agroecology-nepal-s-answer-to-climate-change">climate concerns</a> are prompting Bhutan to diversify from harnessing hydropower to explore pump storage, geothermal and solar power – a model that Nepal could also pursue. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pump-water-store-energy">Pump water, store energy</a>, Dipak Gyawali and Sudhindra Sharma While tensions between India and China affect Bhutan more than Nepal, Kathmandu has failed to adopt a more independent water and energy strategy. Despite being four times larger than Bhutan, Nepal has only 3,3000MW of installed capacity. It has also failed to increase domestic demand by electrifying industries, irrigation, transport and household consumption so surplus energy is not wasted. Nepal’s goal is to generate 28,000MW by 2035 but transmission and distribution infrastructure will have to keep pace. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-great-game-2nd-half">suspension of the US-supported MCC project </a>may further delay energy trade and distribution. Climate collapse is rapidly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/himalayan-icecap-melting-faster-than-thought">melting Himalayan glaciers</a>, and it is going to be risky building large expensive hydropower plants in Nepal and Bhutan. Both countries must learn from a glacial lake outburst flood in 2023 that swept away the 1,200MW Teesta III Projectin Sikkim, a $1.7 billion dam. In Nepal, the $800 million <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-monsoon-mess-in-melamchi">Melamchi Water Supply Project </a>for Kathmandu Valley was severely damaged in a flood in 2021. The eastern Himalaya in Nepal, Bhutan, India and southern Tibet are affected more severely by glacial lake expansion, and combined with seismicity post a major threat to energy security in the region. “We cannot predict disasters like these but we can’t also be fatalistic, we need to be pragmatic and strike the right balance,” says Pema Gyamtsho from Bhutan, and director general of Kathmandu-based ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development). “We have to invest in risk assessment before developing mega infrastructure. Where the risk is high, we should opt for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/small-is-still-possible">smaller hydropower and other alternatives like solar and biogas</a>. We should have options rather than putting all our eggs in the same basket.” <h2>GDP, GNH, GMC</h2> Bhutan’s audacious Gelephu Mindfulness City mega-project is a risky gamble on the future&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022812020_64d59d3ca75b44983167c70ba340afa56b1f88e4b6807605101bed4671abe198.jpg" data-media-id="editor_26" data-image-id="2025022812020_64d59d3ca75b44983167c70ba340afa56b1f88e4b6807605101bed4671abe198" data-rendition-name="original" width="1778" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Small Bhutan dreams big NT"> <figcaption>Rendering of a section of the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), which is currently under development. Photo: GMC</figcaption> </figure>  On 17 December 2023, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck announced the setting up of the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) to be an international hub focused on energy, connectivity and skills for the 21st century.&nbsp; The city will be a 2,500 sq km Special Administrative Region to take advantage of Bhutan’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepal-can-lead-in-zero-carbon">clean energy</a> to power an information technology corridor with AI data centres. It will try to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/turning-nepal-into-singapore">replicate Singapore</a> in a city three times larger, with its own hydropower plants generating 5,000MW.&nbsp; “Gelephu will become a gateway connecting Bhutan to the world and the future,” the King said. “The road we have chosen is a gateway to the world – to markets, capital, new ideas, knowledge, and technology towards our future, and to chart our destiny.”&nbsp; The rapid spread of energy-intensive <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/nepal-as-an-ai-power-bank">generative AI applications</a> have prompted technology companies to scout for clean energy sources to power their data centres. Some like Amazon and Google are even building their own small nuclear power plants.&nbsp; “Investing in green energy with our hydro potential of over 35,000MW is a priority and the strategy on AI data centres are an important anchor industry,” says Ujjwal Deep Dahal of Druk Holdings and Investment. Bhutan’s Finance Minister Lyonpo Lekey Dorji told visiting editors here earlier this month that energy cooperation under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) were going nowhere, and a new framework was needed. “Significant connectivity challenges, poor infrastructure, and often tense diplomatic relations lead to limited cross-border trade and movements of goods and people,” Dorji added. “The GMC is envisaged to help not only Bhutan but also the South Asian region, and particularly the neighbouring states of India.”&nbsp; Economists say that if countries in the region could go beyond geopolitical differences and increase trade, each country in South Asia stands to gain from the regional energy trade. While Nepal and Bhutan have export potential for clean energy, Bangladesh can reduce its carbon footprint by buying cleaner fuel from neighbours. “There are significant benefits if you increase investment in transmission across the region, increase connectivity, with more liberal trade,” says Simon Stolp of the World Bank. In the first phase, the GMC will build infrastructure including an international airport, and a regional railway linking Gelephu to Assam with a six-lane highway. Bhutan is one of few carbon negative countries in the world, and officials assure that 60% of the GMC area will retain its forest cover with two protected areas, a national park and a wildlife sanctuary. The Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been hired to come up with a sustainable urban plan.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022812020_f9e04d55bb349a64031f8133b0ad0f38dbe608f00070cb8d62dd2cab22bf1bb3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_30" data-image-id="2025022812020_f9e04d55bb349a64031f8133b0ad0f38dbe608f00070cb8d62dd2cab22bf1bb3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="590" loading="lazy" alt="Small Bhutan dreams big NT"> </figure>  GMC is also Bhutan’s response to the increasing outmigration of its young people, primarily to Australia — a problem similar to what Nepal faces.&nbsp; Youth unemployment in Bhutan in 2022 was 28.6%, and in 2023, 1.5% of the country’s 800,000 people moved just to Australia to work and study. Bhutan has a total fertility rate of 1.4, which is much below replacement level. These demographic trends have raised questions about Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) approach to development. It has been hailed as a new age concept by some and ridiculed by others, especially because the regime has never answered for the eviction of one-sixth of its population in the 1990s (box).&nbsp; In that sense, the GMC could be Bhutan’s way of turning the page on GNH. Officials here said privately that Gross National Happiness has been largely misunderstood to be an idealistic dream, but it does not mean de-emphasising economic growth or GDP per capita. In the first 20 years, the Gelephu Special Administrative Region will be a ‘mindfulness city’ under complete autonomy with a legislative, judicial and governance system independent from the rest of Bhutan. After that will be the ‘convergence phase’, when the rest of Bhutan will have caught up with Gelephu in terms of development and socio-economic status. Gelephu was chosen for the mega-project because of the narrow strip of plains in a mostly mountainous country. This will make it easier to build infrastructure, especially the proposed new international airport which will be an alternative to Paro in which only specially trained pilots are allowed to land because of difficult terrain and weather.&nbsp; “GMC represents a new era for growth and opportunity for Bhutan, a bold experiment in &nbsp;governance, sustainability and economic transformation, all the while preserving Bhutanese identity, cultural and spiritual heritage,” explained GMC’s Rabsel Dorji. “We have the unprecedented opportunity to build a Special Administrative Region from the ground up, and for Bhutanese this is a nation-building experience.” Officials say that GMC needed to be a Special Administrative Region in order to speed things up, including decision-making so there would be no <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bureaucratic-hurdles-in-researching-nepals-bureaucracy">bureaucratic hurdles</a> to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/why-there-is-no-foreign-investment-in-nepal">foreign investments</a>.&nbsp; But will such a separate ‘state’ not create a gap between haves and have nots, much like other parts of the world which have set up Special Economic Zones? Officials here are convinced that since GMC is the brainchild of King Jigme himself, it will succeed without compromising Bhutan's culture. Bhutan lies in the emerging economic corridor between South Asia and Southeast Asia, which has close to half of the world’s population. The idea is that with better connectivity, GMC will be strategically located to attract investors, residents and retirees.&nbsp; Planners here hope this will also replenish Bhutan’s shrinking population and allow just GMC to accommodate up to 2 million people — more than double Bhutan’s current population. Bhutan has the third highest GDP per capita in South Asia after the Maldives and Sri Lanka because of income from hydropower and tourism. It now wants to build on this for future growth with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/putting-nepal-on-the-right-track?fbclid=IwAR2NwzuRGlfxnbjoMcTWRTlRMwXlRuTRA45k-lpnXQoZ1lxl5mBrow9YU08">clean energy and connectivity</a>. &nbsp; Added Rabsel Dorji: “The quality of life in Bhutan is very good but one could say <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/not-rising-nepal">the standard of living</a> could improve. With the GMC, we are trying to mix the two such that people have <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-qatar-job-mirage">high-paying jobs</a> while retaining the Bhutanese way of life.” &nbsp; <h2>The Gelephu connection</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022812020_df5f1c680b18261d89a005da0e4eaca4877909738ae691285e745b562558116e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_36" data-image-id="2025022812020_df5f1c680b18261d89a005da0e4eaca4877909738ae691285e745b562558116e" data-rendition-name="original" width="946" height="599" loading="lazy" alt="Small Bhutan dreams big NT"> <figcaption>Bhutan Refugee Camp in Beldangi-2 in Jhapa district, Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>  Situated along Bhutan’s southern border with India at a point where the mountains meet the Brahmaputra plains, Gelephu was home to some 40% of the country’s 100,000 Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people. Many of their family members were forcefully evicted from Bhutan over 30 years ago. Rights activists have opposed the GMC project, especially since many of the refugees still have land titles for property they left behind in Gelephu. People from Nepal were first invited by the Bhutan government to populate the lowlands in the south from the mid-19th century onwards. Over time, Nepali-speaking people accounted for one-sixth of the population of Bhutan, and were relatively better off because of their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/kathmandu-wards-off-evil-spirits">agrarian lifestyle</a> in the fertile southern plains.&nbsp; ‘However, their growing numbers and the formation of a political party were perceived as a threat to the cultural and political order of Bhutan,’ notes Human Rights Watch in an explainer.&nbsp; The Lhotsampa ('people from the south') were driven across India and dumped in Jhapa and Morang from 1990-92. They lived in refugee camps until they were resettled in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries between 2007-2016.&nbsp; Now, 6,577 refugees, most of them elderly who want to go back to Bhutan, remain in the camps even after UNHCR and WFP withdrew support in 2016. Back in Gelephu, there is still a township of 15,000 people. One of the families there is that of a Bhutanese sociologist. In a carefully worded reply, he told us in Thimphu: “All of my childhood memories will soon be gone, but perhaps it is for the greater good.”&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mindfulness-about-bhutan-s-refugees">Mindfulness about Bhutan’s refugees</a>, Archana Darji&nbsp;

Small Bhutan Dreams Big

The grey mist hangs heavy in the early morning, wrapping the trees, silencing the birds and reducing the sun to an orange disk. We all shiver in the damp air, but none more so than the rows of patients sitting on blue plastic chairs after a long overnight stay in the community hospital, wrapped in shawls and blankets following eye surgeries the day before.&nbsp; Mostly old and patently poor, each has one eye neatly taped with gauze, except for one old man in a blue fleece cap and blank expression, who has both eyes covered.&nbsp; This morning the bandages are due to come off. All tremble in anticipation of the revelation of restored sight as much as the chill of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/fogbound-tarai">the Tarai winter</a>.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-far-sighted-eye-care">Nepal's far-sighted eye care</a>, Sonia Awale&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250225090232_6438e31ecf871928ded38e23624a6cd54f7951f159a54774fd8a6143f3a1f63f.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250225090232_6438e31ecf871928ded38e23624a6cd54f7951f159a54774fd8a6143f3a1f63f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2330" height="1302" loading="lazy" alt="Eye surgery patients "> <figcaption>Patients wait for their bandages to be removed at the eye camp in Hetauda, an initiative started in 1997.</figcaption> </figure>  The Gift of Sight annual eye camp is one of Rotary Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town’s oldest projects. The need for care of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/seeing-it-a-different-way-for-visually-impaired-in-Kathmandu,2933">avoidable blindness </a>continues to be severe in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health">Nepal’s rural areas</a>, the most prevalent problem being milky cataracts obscuring sight mainly in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/home-sweet-home-for-older-nepalis">older people</a>.&nbsp; Every year since the first camp in a school in Chitwan in 1997, the number of patients has been growing because of a publicity program that includes posters, leaflets, miking and local FM radio in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/chitwan-s-bote-people-in-a-changing-world">Chitwan’s villages</a>, and from as far afield as Phaparbesi, Chitlang, Tistung, Palung, Chisapani and Birganj. In two days, 124 cataracts have been removed and intraocular lens implanted by skilled eye surgeons. This was an initiative originally inspired by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times%20Buzz/sanduk%C2%ADruit%C2%ADtilganga,2574">Sanduk Ruit</a> of Tilganga, who had identified Makwanpur as being particularly susceptible to eye disease due to mineral deficiencies, waterborne infections, smoke induced by wood fires and genetic defects.&nbsp; Many patients who had one eye done last year are here for their second cataract removal and intraocular lens surgery. Although still called an eye camp, the operations are done in the state-of-the-art Hetauda Community Eye Hospital opened in 2008.&nbsp; The camp in January had ophthalmologist Sunil Thakali in charge. Free accommodation and meals were provided to patients, their relatives and attendants during the pre- and post-operative period. Each was given counselling, dark glasses and medication before discharge and sent home by bus to their villages.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250225090236_5e3d48d21f189760e61222b37fc62918a2073f3dcce15c46ffecbaa2f79d25a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250225090236_5e3d48d21f189760e61222b37fc62918a2073f3dcce15c46ffecbaa2f79d25a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="Eye surgery "> <figcaption>Originally from Jomsom opthalmologist Sunil Thakali did 124 cataract surgeries in two days at the Hetauda ye camp.</figcaption> </figure>  Under bright lights Thakali operates, peering through a microscope, the eye of the otherwise swathed patient propped open with a metal frame whilst he coaxes out the hard cloudy film that has shrouded their sight.&nbsp; The nurse at his side confidently and calmly anticipates the surgeon’s needs, handing him sharp instruments and syringes in a well-rehearsed ballet.&nbsp; The extracted small dark disk is displayed to us on a green cloth whilst the new lens, calibrated for each individual, is inserted with precision tweezers into the eye. The invaluable gift of sight is bestowed on another Nepali who could otherwise never afford it. Over the years the real groundwork and annual organisation has been undertaken by Rotary Club Hetauda, led by Siddhi Lal Shrestha. His special skill is motivating local governments, religious organisations, scouts and volunteers for the smooth running of the eye camp. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250225090240_7f1a4fcba0fe8e0866c9fa9e5444601f34be4a47771b44da187441695b2b0af7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250225090240_7f1a4fcba0fe8e0866c9fa9e5444601f34be4a47771b44da187441695b2b0af7" data-rendition-name="original" width="2268" height="4032" loading="lazy" alt="Eyesight"> <figcaption>Originally from Jomsom ophthalmologist Sunil Thakali did 124 cataract surgeries in two days at the Hetauda eye camp.</figcaption> </figure>  This year the preliminary screening was undertaken with 1,065 people identified as needing surgery who were brought to the Hetauda Community Eye Hospital, with free transportation, accommodation and food.&nbsp; Continuity to the Gift of Sight project has been possible with decades of financial support from Rotary Clubs of Garden City Singapore, Yuanshan Taiwan, Tainan East Taiwan, Jingfu Taiwan, Science Park Taiwan and personally from CC Chong from RC Garden City Singapore.&nbsp; As the sun struggles through the fog, we are invited to peel off the bandages from the wrinkled upturned faces, helped by Rotary colleagues and guided by hospital staff. It is impossible not to be deeply moved by the emotion of the moment.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250225090240_30185d63f679559233d31348f693a64924838a9a1c3e1642da0090a8615a74f5.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250225090240_30185d63f679559233d31348f693a64924838a9a1c3e1642da0090a8615a74f5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1778" height="1290" loading="lazy" alt="Eyesight 1 "> <figcaption>A patient who had cataracts in both eyes replaced with intraocular lens looks out at his newly-revealed world.</figcaption> </figure>  Thakali moves along the rows with his team, checking and reassuring whilst humbly acknowledging the out-stretched hands thanking and appreciating him. Already the new day’s patients are queueing in the arrival area, awaiting the doctor’s return to office for another full day of work. &nbsp; A man in a blue fleece hat looks out at his newly revealed world with an expression hard to describe. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-surgeon-with-a-vision-for-the-world">Nepali surgeon with a vision for the world</a>, Kunda Dixit

The gift of sight in Hetauda

As a child, <a href="https://bandanatulachan.com.np/">Bandana Tulachan</a> used to flip through illustrated pages of books left behind by Japanese tourists visiting her home. She never thought she would become an illustrator, and even when enrolled in Kathmandu University’s Fine Arts program she was simply trying out different things. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/early-nepal-drawings-come-full-circle">Drawing</a> just became the thing that I loved to do, and I developed a personal attachment to it,” recalls the thirty six-year-old, who is now a much sought-after illustrator of children’s books.&nbsp; Tulachan loves to read <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/writing-for-young-minds">children’s books</a> even as an adult, and is convinced they are formative in communicating to youngsters the right values of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tolerating-nepal-s-religious-tolerance">tolerance</a>, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Every-act-of-kindness-counts,116">kindness</a> and cooperation. She says, “As children, we simply read the books, but as we grow older we begin to see the wisdom embedded in them.” Tulachan has seen for herself the immense power of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tolerating-nepal-s-religious-tolerance">storytelling</a>, especially for children. Every book may not carry a grand lesson, but it exposes young minds to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/voice-of-the-entire-nation">meaningful stories</a> that reflect the world around them. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/covid-derails-child-development-in-nepal">Childhood</a> is such an important phase of one’s life,” she adds. “If something I create can bring joy to even one child, then it is worth everything.” Over the years, Tulachan has also grappled with the idea of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/seeking-identity-in-diversity">Nepali identity</a> in her work. Early on, she was often told that her illustrations needed more 'Nepaliness' but for her <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-turning-into-a-nation-of-hybrid-identities">Nepal is not a monolith</a>. The country’s <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13934">cultural diversity</a> cannot be restricted to a few visual stereotypes. “Nepal has so many ethnicities, so many stories,” she says. “Instead of trying to homogenise it all into one identity, I explore it one space, one culture at a time.” Her comics story <a href="https://bandanatulachan.com.np/portfolio/shanti-beyond-the-veil/">Shanti: Beyond the Veil</a> was inspired by the life of poet and activist Shanti Chaudhary with whom Tulachan spent three days at her hometown in Bara, walking through the places that shaped her life. “She took me to her childhood home, her surroundings, the house she moved into after marriage,” Tulachan recalls. “It felt important to tell her story.” The work was selected for Goethe-Institut’s Movements and Moments Project for its representation of indigenous <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/of-women-for-women-by-women">feminist activism</a>. Asked about her favourite work, Tulachan cites <a href="https://bandanatulachan.com.np/portfolio/sanu-and-the-big-storm/">Sanu and the Big Storm</a>, the very first book she both wrote and illustrated back in 2015, a challenge that initially terrified her. She recalls, “I wasn’t used to writing, and the process felt scary. But I had so much support to complete it.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222160228_1659df66f8b631be0f09cbb64dcfb02c4f0f0e858f5620020e3e2ace5d36c4c3.png" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250222160228_1659df66f8b631be0f09cbb64dcfb02c4f0f0e858f5620020e3e2ace5d36c4c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="709" loading="lazy" alt="Sanu and the Big Storm "> </figure>  More recently, Tulachan illustrated <a href="https://littlepeoplebigdreams.com/book/tenzing-norgay-2/">Little People Big Dreams: Tenzing Norgay</a>. Having roots in Mustang, she has always felt a strong connection to the mountains. And after visiting Solukhumbu, she immersed herself in visually telling the story of Tenzing Norgay’s life with drawings that use the grainy tone of early photographs.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222160232_df358487c139906668803266b4246f980d00e68c2753c7b91a25437eb4a03ba6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250222160232_df358487c139906668803266b4246f980d00e68c2753c7b91a25437eb4a03ba6" data-rendition-name="original" width="5039" height="3150" loading="lazy" alt="Tenzing Norgay"> </figure>  “It felt like a full-circle moment, illustrating a story so deeply rooted in the landscape I cherish,” she adds. The text is by <a href="https://www.slj.com/author?query=S%C3%A1nchez%20Vegara%2C%20Maria%20Isabel">Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara</a> and the book is published by <a href="https://www.slj.com/publisher?query=Quarto/Frances%20Lincoln">Quarto/Frances Lincoln</a>. Looking back, she knows it is far from perfect, but seeing children recognise and love the book makes it one of her most rewarding experiences. Tulachan sees exciting growth ahead for illustrators of children’s books with the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/communicating-existence-through-art">rise of the art</a> market and fresh, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/sooner-or-later-everyone-comes-home">younger talent</a>. As for what the future holds, Bandana Tulachan is certain that more books lie ahead. “I want to make something amazing, something personal yet something that resonates with people,” she says. &nbsp; As Tulachan takes on more challenges, delving into <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/opportunities-for-women-animators?fbclid=IwAR11KzS9nw6uit5e5fT1OEr-SLLV0dTzhe_mTHQ_0OO4dbozI-u6sBK9DMk_aem_ARiYhqGw6C9yMLaFPFYX0XHH87R2-ckJQ0wQKWoyi3-_p9RO6SYFknc-2c7Sf054DVM">animation</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/women-s-stories-in-pictures-and-words">graphic novels</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/adventures-of-a-little-dumpling-named-momo-and-other-books">children’s book illustrations</a> are still what hold a deep personal and emotional bond for her. And she likes it that unlike other writers or artists she does not have to explain her work. Says Bandana Tulachan: “Whenever you create something, a part of you goes into it, but I don’t feel the need to explain my art. Whatever people take from it is theirs to keep.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/for-children-about-children">For children, about children</a>, Ashish Dhakal

Illustrating innocence

Throughout human history, civilisations have been named after the rivers along which they flourished: Indus Valley, Nile, Tigris-Euphrates. Many of these cultures later collapsed, partly because they could not manage their water needs properly. Three recent books about Himalayan rivers look at their history and geography, and how they nourished civilisations downstream. The rivers gave birth to the world’s major religions, their waters and the mountains from which they sprang were revered. Mythology and geology converge in High Asia. Mt Kailash is holy to the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Bon faiths as the centre of the world and the abode of the gods. Indeed, from its vicinity emerge Asia’s great rivers: the Indus and Sutlej, Ganga and the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) and Karnali (Mapcha Tsangpo).&nbsp; Legend has it that Kathmandu Valley was once a primordial lake drained by Manjushree who cut a mountain with his flaming sword. There is scientific evidence that the paleo lake was indeed emptied in stages starting 40,000 years ago after a tsunami unleashed by a major earthquake epicentred in Langtang. The Bon faith describes the Tibetan Plateau being pushed up from a roiling primeval sea, confirming current evidence about the orogenesis of the Himalaya. In local lore, supernatural lha (animal deities) and lu (serpents, naga) moved from sea to land, just as the theory of evolution explains the emergence of early amphibians and land creatures. In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Rivers-of-the-Asian-Highlands-From-Deep-Time-to-the-Climate-Crisis/Gamble-Tan-Xu-Beavis-Maurer-Pittock-Powers-Wasson/p/book/9781032490595?srsltid=AfmBOopjkpgcN1_7t1jTI_Z1_27yRthBTbdHA15OWcE9Ge3S409jhUX3">Rivers of the Asian Highlands: From Deep Time to the Climate Crisis</a>, Himalayan historian <a href="https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/rgamble">Ruth Gamble</a> and co-authors begin by tracing the genesis of the Himalaya, citing evidence that the Tibetan Plateau pre-dated the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates 50 million years ago. Asia’s main rivers co-emerged with the mountains, their waters cutting canyons through rocks as they were uplifted. The gigantic pileup acted as a moisture trap for the proto-monsoon, the rain and ice sculpting peaks as they rose. But so strong were tectonic forces that the uplift outpaced erosion on the Tibetan Plateau. These dynamic processes are still at work, but in many places across High Asia there is a new factor at play: modern infrastructure (like haphazard road-building in Nepal) is increasing erosion faster than the uplift rate.&nbsp; ‘This is an example of human action overcoming tectonics,’ write the authors in Rivers of the Asian Highlands, in which the chapters look at Himalayan rivers from a planetary scale, their socio-cultural histories, to present-day engineering to regulate them. An ongoing dam-building spree and anthropogenic climate breakdown combine to bring about the most rapid change the Himalaya and their rivers have seen for millions of years. One example is the Medog Hydropower Station being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo at a bend on the Brahmaputra before it enters India. The river drops 2,000m within a 50km stretch, the gradient allowing it to generate 60,000MW — the biggest single hydroelectric plant in the world. Gamble and the authors of Rivers of the Asian Highlands highlight the Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) of the Himalaya that allows falling water to be converted into electricity. But GPE also unleashes landslides, rockfalls, avalanches, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and Landslide Lake Outburst Floods (LLOFs), the risks posed by them magnified by climate change and seismicity. <blockquote>The Asian Highlands’ abundance of Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) can support the region’s energy transition, but it needs to be produced in much less hazardous and less environmentally and socially impactful ways. The best means of doing this is through off-river, pumped-storage hydropower stations that back up solar and wind energy generators. Smaller projects such as this would also involve less risky tunneling and displacement.</blockquote> Rivers of the Asian Highlands: From Deep Time to the Climate Crisis by Ruth Gamble, et al. There is geological evidence that megafloods on Himalayan rivers are more responsible than mass wasting in weathering down the mountains. One big LLOF, for example, could ‘move 1,000 times more sediment than would otherwise be transported over millions of years’. Permafrost melting in the Tibetan Plateau and inside moraines caused recent back-to-back GLOFs in Chamoli in the Indian Himalaya, Melamchi in Nepal, and the South Lhonak in Sikkim — all deadly disasters that together destroyed billions of dollars worth of infrastructure downstream. Rivers of the Asian Highlands travels from deep time to the present climate crisis, taking readers through neatly divided chapters titled Mountain Rivers, Climatic Rivers, Frozen Rivers, Living Rivers, Human Rivers, Territorializing Rivers, Agricultural and Pastoral Rivers, even NGOs and Rivers.&nbsp; Although the book’s title is about the ‘Asian highlands’, it <a href="https://www.himalmag.com/comment/eastern-himalaya-cradle-ethnogenesis">focuses mainly on the Dri Chu (Yangtse)</a> and Yarlung Tso (Brahmaputra). Readers looking for references to Nepal’s rivers will be disappointed, although there is quite a bit about Bhutan. This is surprising because 70% of the annual flow in the Ganga is from tributaries in Nepal, some of them rivers like Karnali, Arun or Bhote Kosi that traverse the Tibetan rimlands. As demand for water and energy grows in the large and increasingly affluent population of north India, and climate breakdown melts Himalayan glaciers, storing monsoon runoff on reservoirs in Nepal is going to be the geopolitical issue of the next decades.&nbsp; The chapter on NGOs and Rivers also fails to cite the work of Nepal’s civil society groups like the Alliance for Energy that built international solidarity in 1995 against the Arun III project on a river that starts in Tibet and flows into Nepal. Ultimately, the World Bank pulled out of the project and the Nepal government invested in smaller decentralised plants. Today, a cascade of power plants are being built by Indian companies on the Arun which do not seem to have taken into account the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads2659">2023 Sikkim GLOF</a> that swept away the $1 billion dollar Teesta III and destroyed other infrastructure. The World Bank itself is back with the Upper Arun project located directly below expanding glacial lakes in Tibet.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222020256_f2b33e60e6b386308bdf59b58b59e116e90e2e4466a06200faf76fd851f53505.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250222020256_f2b33e60e6b386308bdf59b58b59e116e90e2e4466a06200faf76fd851f53505" data-rendition-name="original" width="5712" height="3213" loading="lazy" alt="Teesta"> <figcaption>The Super Trisuli project in Nepal has ruined the most scenic and ecologically sensitive part of the river to generate just 100MW of power. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Despite geographical gaps, Rivers of the Asian Highlands reads like an encyclopedia of Himalayan rivers. The authors look at them not in isolation but as interconnected systems which need a multidisciplinary approach to study the geological, religio-cultural, infrastructure, climate and ecosystem services aspects of catchments.&nbsp; Mt Kailash (Kang Rinpoche) is a case in point. It is fascinating to think that it was part of a mountain range even before the collision of the continents that formed the Himalaya, and was probably buried in ice 3km thick till 15,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022203020_23c02ec4671f5c3c561fa6b450c1f209720a25794e067b9bb5db0f4649b1b6dc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2025022203020_23c02ec4671f5c3c561fa6b450c1f209720a25794e067b9bb5db0f4649b1b6dc" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Mt Kailash"> <figcaption>Mt Kailash. Photo: NABIN BARAL</figcaption> </figure>  Lake Mansarovar and Mt Kailash are also the subject of the new Nepali language book छालबाटो (Road by the Waves) by environmental journalist <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-and-china-to-study-trans-himalayan-railway">Ramesh Bhushal</a> in which he walked, rafted and drove from the source of the Karnali in Tibet, right through 500km of western Nepal, and on to India <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/dancing-with-the-river">where the river meets the Ganga</a>. In his entourage is activist, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Comment/rivers-fighting-back,993">Megh Ale</a>, who is on a campaign to stop dams and infrastructure on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/dams-and-dreams-a-journey-down-the-karnali">Nepal’s longest and only free-flowing river</a>. The book profiles his lonely upstream struggle to conserve the country’s rivers. “We worship rivers, but we don’t love them,” laments Ale. Bhushal’s book is as much about the landscape of this transboundary river as it is about the people he meets along the way, and their relationship with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-denial-in-the-himalaya">a river that most regard as a curse </a>keeping them poor because they believe it flows out of Rakshas Tal (Lagngar Tso) in Tibet, regarded as a lake of demons, unlike the sacred Mansarovar nearby. The expedition is out to prove that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/a-karnali-portrait">Karnali River</a> actually starts in the mountains 50km southwest of the Mansarovar (Mapamyu Tso) at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ9Za5QDkvY">Peacock Falls (Mapchu Khambap)</a>. The Indus is called Sengge (Lion), Sutlej is Langchen (elephant) and the Brahmaputra is Tamchok (horse), all starting within 60km of Mansarovar but flowing out in different directions. <blockquote>“I have visited hundreds of rivers around the world, but for some reason I have never seen a river as beautiful as the Karnali. One day I would like to visit its source.”</blockquote> River conservation activist Megh Ale quoted in छालबाटो by Ramesh Bhusal. But all this reverence for the mountains and rivers may not be enough to save the region from the impact of climate breakdown. Heat stress in the Subcontinent will coincide with a shortage of water in the coming decades.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/opinion/himalayas-mountains-dams.html">Sunil Amrith</a> in his 2019 book, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-monsoon-and-nature-s-arithmetic">Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia’s History</a> takes a broader look at how geotectonics, geopolitics, colonialism and nationalism have determined the relations between human beings and rivers. The Himalayan water cycle starts from monsoon moisture that precipitates with orographic uplift along the mountains, atmospheric rivers unleash cloudbursts, ground water emerges from springs that join up to flow down to rivers and the ocean. The Third Pole is the biggest repository of fresh water stored as ice after the polar regions. But it is a hotspot both because of the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions, which impacts on river basin cooperation, early warning data sharing, and ultimately in mitigation of greenhouse gas emission and planning for new risks faced by infrastructure. After independence, India adopted the colonial extraction model for rivers. Inaugurating the Bhakra-Nangal Dam in 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru called it “a temple of &nbsp;modern India … worthy of worship’. Gamble also alludes to this in her book about the European attitude about rivers as a resource to be ‘enclosed, extracted, scrutinised, commodified’. <a href="https://dialogue.earth/en/water/review-unrully-waters/" target="_blank">Amrith</a> profiles the work of Sir Arthur Cotton who was building canals linking rivers in British India at about the same time his contemporaries like botanist <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/republic-of-nepal-s-animal-kingdom" target="_blank">Joseph Dalton-Hooker </a>were exploring the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-kangchenjunga" target="_blank">Teesta and other rivers</a> in the Himalaya to catalogue new plant species. India's current National River Linking Project that would join 37 rivers with 9,000km of canals builds on Cotton’s early work. <blockquote>If there is one consistent lesson in Unruly Waters, it is that water management never has been, and can never be, a purely technical or a scientific question; neither can it be addressed on a purely national scale … the battle continues to understand the monsoons and mountain rivers that shape Asia.</blockquote> Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia’s History by Sunil Amrith And in Nepal, hydropower has become the holy grail as the government unveiled an Energy Development Roadmap to generate 28,500MW by 2035 at a cumulative cost of nearly $50billion. This means no river in Nepal will be left free-flowing. The Trisuli along the Prithvi Highway is being dammed for only 100MW of power, destroying the most scenic part of a river that has rapids famous internationally for white water rafters. Even before it was completed, the dam site suffered Rs200 million in damage in last September’s flood.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022203020_d9610a11bccb593d32bf4d214479caa17dfbdd6cdfe5e8c38fdcb8eb752fc0ec.jpg" data-media-id="editor_18" data-image-id="2025022203020_d9610a11bccb593d32bf4d214479caa17dfbdd6cdfe5e8c38fdcb8eb752fc0ec" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="Trisuli"> <figcaption>Boulders and sediment 80m deep were brought down by the Teesta after a GLOF destroyed the $1 billion Teesta III plant in Sikkim in 2023. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  In Sikkim, there is strong <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/02/political-stir-follows-expert-panels-approval-to-rebuild-teesta-dam-in-sikkim/">local opposition to rebuild Teesta III</a> but investors are looking at the huge economic windfall from the river as it drops from 5,000m below Kangchenjunga to 300m within 80km — one of the highest Gravitational Potential Energy of any river in the world. Besides Nepal and Bhutan, the ‘watersheds’ of the Himalaya are turning into ‘powersheds’ as India and China compete for hydro-hegemony. India is said to be planning to dam the Brahmaputra to offset the disruption caused by China’s Medog Dam upstream (see map, below).&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022203024_37c60bd2a45a32cd23928c900615b6c7045b2e0265050c4761c3749361181999.png" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025022203024_37c60bd2a45a32cd23928c900615b6c7045b2e0265050c4761c3749361181999" data-rendition-name="original" width="1918" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="Himalayan rivers map"> </figure>  The thread running through all three books is the need to recognise the ecosystem services that the inhabitants of High Asia provide by protecting our rivers. Not all rivers need to be monetised, conserving rivers and the cultures they retain protects a nation’s natural wealth into the future as the humans of High Asia try to survive climate breakdown. The highlands will be under even more pressure in the coming decades as people in the plains migrate en masse to higher latitudes or higher altitudes to escape deadly heat and ocean expansion.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022203028_524a74bf65111db3826bfd246576329c45cd4bd0a48b15024b6a520582bbf05a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025022203028_524a74bf65111db3826bfd246576329c45cd4bd0a48b15024b6a520582bbf05a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="River of Asian Highlands cover"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022203028_20c17a9b92b11c8bb33df5f2fc2781498464288533c310ccd61e1245e709d99c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="2025022203028_20c17a9b92b11c8bb33df5f2fc2781498464288533c310ccd61e1245e709d99c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Unruly waters cover"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222030212_649cc2ba02e806da2b128fccaf5de2e5c830e10646ba0b43d56da39f65a70f9f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250222030212_649cc2ba02e806da2b128fccaf5de2e5c830e10646ba0b43d56da39f65a70f9f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Chaalbato cover"> </figure>

Kunda Dixit

Saving what is left of Himalayan rivers

Nepal’s former king Gyanendra was greeted by flag-waving supporters as he arrived at Kathmandu Airport on Sunday afternoon from Pokhara after attending pro-monarchy rallies in various parts of the country. Gyanendra and his family were escorted from the airport by supporters to his residence at Nirmal Niwas, where his family has been living since 2008 when the Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy. The 2015 Constitution then turned Nepal into a federal democratic republic. The deposed monarch had been on a two-month long tour of religious sites and local communities across western Nepal, ending in a two-week stay in Pokhara. After staying out of controversy, Gyanendra made a statement on Nepal’s Democracy Day last month in which he said he was willing to play a role in “saving the country”. There has been a surge of pro-monarchy posts and videos on social media, where the country’s previous kings have been glorified as being nationalists who were respected by the international community.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_07b324fee8d082ed3f8566544e24d45fcd600bbb122374fc39c7a94ce3d044f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250309120340_07b324fee8d082ed3f8566544e24d45fcd600bbb122374fc39c7a94ce3d044f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1914" height="1276" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_769f688f3a5eb3602f4c24c350ba1caa6965a171c079d783e28db0f746b810d0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250309120340_769f688f3a5eb3602f4c24c350ba1caa6965a171c079d783e28db0f746b810d0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>  Nepal’s monarchists, which include Gyanendra’s backers, several pro-monarchist parties and other anti-government figures, think <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/new-year-same-difference">public disillusionment </a>with the country’s ageing and ineffective leaders and institutions is at breaking point.&nbsp; There is also disappointment with elected leaders and technocrats from new parties like the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), with its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rabi-s-detention-churns-nepali-politics">leader Rabi Lamichhane under investigation</a> for his alleged involvement in a scandal involving diverting funds from cooperatives. One of the staunchest backers of Gyanendra’s comeback as king is former BBC journalist Rabindra Mishra, who has been active on social media platforms posting videos and text extolling the monarchy. He has referenced recent street uprisings in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Syria, cautioning Nepal’s mainstream leaders not to dismiss support for the monarchy. ‘Support for a return to monarchy is increasing even though the mainstream parties may dismiss it,’ wrote Mishra. ‘Like the leaders of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, they should not try to suppress the voices on the streets.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_d8758f6b7474c9f3aea3661ccd60955d8553971cb0d799039bbfd232aa1a0691.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250309120340_d8758f6b7474c9f3aea3661ccd60955d8553971cb0d799039bbfd232aa1a0691" data-rendition-name="original" width="1890" height="1260" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_63613759744c0fac33ff3eabc298079c3e525063882f4b3760954bbc0833b5cd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250309120340_63613759744c0fac33ff3eabc298079c3e525063882f4b3760954bbc0833b5cd" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>  But for all their bluster, Nepal’s mainstream politicians who have rotated leadership of the country between themselves, seem worried about the crowds on the streets in support of the monarchy. The TikTok ban last year, which the government said was to ‘maintain social harmony’ was put into effect to prevent pro-monarchy groups from organising on the platform. The ban on TikTok has now been lifted, and supporters of the monarchy have mobilised platforms to fan nostalgia of the golden age of royalty, and to brand former kings Mahendra and Birendra as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/a-past-foretold">nationalists who upheld Nepal’s sovereignty during the Cold War</a> and commanded respect worldwide. Archival video clips of Mahendra being received by President Eisenhower in 1960 and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">Birendra </a>by President Reagan in 1983 have been liked by thousands. Comments contrast this to the incompetence and poor standing of Nepal’s current prime ministers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_7dab05f5703e17a82da73277f0b39bf178c1005e0758aa50077ffe1a037f4af6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250309120340_7dab05f5703e17a82da73277f0b39bf178c1005e0758aa50077ffe1a037f4af6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1810" height="1206" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_1ab38cdccfd076babd78579fa345520a7b2fa9c838322226a259540c8c290437.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250309120340_1ab38cdccfd076babd78579fa345520a7b2fa9c838322226a259540c8c290437" data-rendition-name="original" width="1812" height="1206" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>  While most of the people present at the demonstration included the older demographic, younger people have especially used social media to express their support for the monarchy. Young Nepalis, disillusioned with leaders who have been prime minister multiple times since the mid-1990s, are attracted to the idea of reinstating the monarchy as a form of anti-incumbent protest, but also because they have little to no memory of living under an authoritarian absolute monarchy. ‘Those who say the monarchy is paramount today are the ones who did not live through it in the past, and are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs,’ wrote Guna Raj Luitel, Chief Editor of Nagarik Daily, in an op-ed in the newspaper on Sunday.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_720d0059207b9918def39e983d9b5c114b6afb4e7ac0ed1dadd2cba2f20f9aa6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250309120340_720d0059207b9918def39e983d9b5c114b6afb4e7ac0ed1dadd2cba2f20f9aa6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_bfe50ebd413d1b177ebd02df5f837038d8a04c9d343afe39be1ebcde36db893a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250309120340_bfe50ebd413d1b177ebd02df5f837038d8a04c9d343afe39be1ebcde36db893a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>  He added: ‘For those of us who have spent parts of our lives under the rule of the king… we have not yet forgotten those days, when the institution was unable to do any useful work, a disheartening period characterised by Nepalis being unable to speak freely.’ Commentators have especially been pointing to Gyanendra’s military coup in 2005 when he dissolved parliament, and tried to take the country back to the time of absolute monarchy, just like his father Mahendra did in 1960. Gyanendra became king after his brother and most of his family were killed in the royal palace massacre in 2001. Many Nepalis still seem to believe that Gyanendra was responsible, and some of this is reflected in comments on monarchist social media posts. As the monarchist rallies spread, Prime Minister K P Oli said last week that if Gyanendra really wanted power, he should form a political party and run in the next elections in 2027. Other leaders have urged the former king to honour the 2008 Constitutional Assembly decision to abolish the monarchy, as well as Nepal’s 2015 Constitution.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_978ef979c7774312ac00d3192803d974ea57ec45d704f89663b301f4f0cc9704.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250309120340_978ef979c7774312ac00d3192803d974ea57ec45d704f89663b301f4f0cc9704" data-rendition-name="original" width="1832" height="1221" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250309120340_d11276de0161d258f135e8fba4d3eb37d0a9e579b06a4819c6609b4ecdbbe51e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20250309120340_d11276de0161d258f135e8fba4d3eb37d0a9e579b06a4819c6609b4ecdbbe51e" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;In response, royalist leaders including Kamal Thapa, Rajendra Lingden, and Rabindra Mishra have responded that the monarchy is above the electoral system, calling for the reinstatement of a constitutional monarchy in which Gyanendra would be a figurehead. “There is no question of the king contesting an election, that is our job,” said RPP-Nepal chair Kamal Thapa in a tv interview. “The monarchy is a custodian of the nation, it is an institution above electoral politics.” However, there does seem to be a disagreement between hardline royalists who want a return to absolute monarchy in which Gyanendra would actually hold executive powers, and those who favour a ceremonial one. Gyanendra recently visited Bhutan, where he was given a royal welcome, and has made several trips to India where there is some support for reinstating Nepal as the world’s only Hindu kingdom.

The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal

Kathmandu was once a lake inhabited by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/snakes-on-plains">serpents</a>, until Manjushree visiting from present-day China saw a fluorescent lotus in the water. To reach it, the sage used his flaming sword to cut a gorge <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/dry-port-at-chobhar-faces-resistance">at Chobhar</a>, draining the lake and turning it into a fertile valley. The Manjushree Trail Race (MTR) is inspired by this legend. There are five categories along a near-circular route around the rim of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bringing-silicon-valley-to-kathmandu-valley">Kathmandu Valley</a>: 10k, 30k, 50k, 100k, and one that is 100 miles that is 157.7km (map, right). The 100 miles category starts at 8AM on 14 March, and runners have 52 hours until noon on 16 March to complete it. Arjun Kulung Rai’s 26:52:56 is the current record, set in 2024. “<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17327">The Manjushree legend</a> and the perfect loop make the race very meaningful, and I wanted to do it,” says participant Dong Sheng from the northern Chinese city of Harbin who started running in 2016 with 5k until he accomplished a 100 miler in 2022. “<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/first-edition-ultra-trail-kathmandu,1050">Running </a>is spiritual, as you are always trying to overcome what you could previously do.” Sheng is one of 131 international runners who have signed up for the Manjushree race, where there are a total of 502 participants this year, 94 of them women. The first edition of the race only had 7 runners total. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-trail-running-champions">Nepali trail running champions</a>, Preeti Khattri “A reason this race is popular is because it is a good mix of rural and accessible,” says Jimmy Oostrom, a Dutch runner. “Often, 100-milers are way out of the way. Here, the start is only a short drive after landing in Kathmandu.”&nbsp; The 100 mile and 50km are now qualifier races for the Asia Trail Masters, an international series of trail races based in Hong Kong. Last year, a Nepali team competed and won in the Asia Trail Master Championship series in Borneo. The 100-mile category starts and finishes at Single Tree on Nagarjun, other distances have different start and end points. On the winning team was Rashila Tamang, who is part of Trailmandu that implements logistics for the race, such as recruiting and training volunteers, and marking the route. “Nepal has great <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9938">geography</a> for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mira-rai-racing-to-help-other-runners">trail running</a>, but it is still very hard to make it your career,” says Tamang.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031219034_98b83aa3d42c7d5e8a2ef2f80dc03512374413e31eb55441234cd075bea7e113.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2025031219034_98b83aa3d42c7d5e8a2ef2f80dc03512374413e31eb55441234cd075bea7e113" data-rendition-name="original" width="1244" height="598" loading="lazy" alt="Manjushree Trail map "> </figure>  The MTR has a guidebook detailing the categories, route, checkpoints, rules and what is available at each stop.&nbsp; “If we say we’re going to start at 8, we’re going to start at 8,” says Narayan Acharya, the man behind naming the race ‘Manjushree’. “People tried to sign up after the deadline, we had to tell them no.” Acharya who builds <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/foundations-for-sustainable-buildings-in-nepal">traditional rammed earth houses</a> through his company Sustainable Future Nepal, has been long involved with promoting trail running in Nepal, and hailing from Jumla himself, mentored <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/run-sunmaya-run">Sunmaya Budha</a> also from Jumla, now a trail running star in and outside Nepal. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/sunmaya-budha-stays-in-the-running">Sunmaya Budha stays in the running</a>, Vishad Raj Onta&nbsp; The organisers are sponsoring up to 50 runners from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/portrait-of-a-photographer-in-rural-nepal">rural Nepal</a> who may not afford the Rs6,000 entry fee to participate. “It is hard to get sponsors to give us money because Nepal is still a pretty small market,” says Oostrom, currently on crutches due to an ACL injury. “We also have to take the necessary precautions to make sure we can quickly help a runner in trouble.” The logistics of an ultra trail race are more complicated than a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1223">marathon</a>. Marking and maintaining the trail requires careful work, especially as signs often get lost. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-steadfastness-of-a-long-distance-runner">long distances </a>also require runners to run through the night.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031219030_19111e03939541b8980007437c89966dc7a8fd6246b8407440694503bf7890a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025031219030_19111e03939541b8980007437c89966dc7a8fd6246b8407440694503bf7890a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2250" height="1501" loading="lazy" alt="Manjushree Trail "> </figure>  A <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/buddha-air-gets-state-of-the-art-flight-tracking-system">live tracking system </a>would ensure a runner’s safety as well as prevent cheating, but for now organisers are relying on vigilant volunteers and fellow runners to find runners needing help. There are strict rules for the race, and breaking them can result in significant time penalties or even disqualification. Get food or drink assistance outside of the checkpoints and you get a penalty of 15 minutes. Miss any pieces of mandatory gear and an hour is added to your time. Take some sort of shortcut or cheat using a vehicle, and you are disqualified. There are dangers like cliffs <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/cantilever-trail-nepal">along the trail</a>, lightning on exposed ridges, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/disasters-in-nepal-come-in-waves">landslides caused by earthquakes</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/trekking-to-save-nepals-snow-leopards">leopards</a>, and hornet swarms. Ultra running takes a massive toll on the body. The brain may shut off certain areas to be able to keep going, so volunteers watch runners carefully.&nbsp; “After mile 50, your body starts digesting itself,” says Oostrom.&nbsp; Alongside Acharya and Oostrom, the organising crew is made up of race director Ashish Mishra, and Jeevan Lama and Rashila Tamang from Trailmandu. “We can execute this race well because we are all passionate runners ourselves,” says Acharya. The team has taken measures to make the race safe and comfortable for female participants. ‘Run freely, speak openly, and wear what makes you feel comfortable in our races,’ says the guidebook. Prize money is the same for male and female winners, across categories.&nbsp; Lately, Nepal has been steadily building itself as a destination for<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/taking-the-high-line"> adventure sports </a>such as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-pushes-mountain-bike-tourism">mountain biking</a> and trail running. And with the Manjushree race, enthusiasts have hopes to set the standard for other trail races in the country. Sheng has been part of big races in China. “The better the economy, and more money people have, the more they can get involved in such pursuits,” he says. “But I have to say, for the scale of this race, everything has been done very professionally.”&nbsp;

Around Kathmandu in 100 miles

Frustrated with revolving door <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">politics</a> with the same <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/tried-tested-and-failed">tired, tested and failed </a>leaders, Nepal’s cybersphere is harking back to the good old days when we had strongmen rulers like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/jung-bahadur-s-destitute-descendants">Jang Bahadur Rana </a>or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/king-mahendra-didn-t-pay-hunting-bill-in-us">King Mahendra</a>. The<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/inside-story-of-nepal-s-rana-dynasty"> century-long Rana oligarchy</a> ended 74 years ago this week, and the Shah kings airbrushed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-insect-that-changed-nepal-s-history">Nepal’s history</a> to downplay their achievements and glorify their own dynasty. After <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">the monarchy</a> was abolished in 2008, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-role-of-rituals-in-royalty">the Shah kings</a> were similarly vilified. But Nepali society is mature enough to realise that the truth is not all black and white. Jang Bahadur may have usurped power in a ruthless coup, but he was a geopolitical strategist way ahead of his time. Whatever you may say about King Mahendra’s efforts in quashing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/is-democracy-too-expensive-for-nepal">democracy</a> and pushing a unitary state, he defended <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/nepal-should-recognise-palestinian-sovereignty">Nepal’s sovereignty</a> and projected its international image right through the sensitive Cold War period. Jang Bahadur in England is a new Nepali language book by journalist Gajendra Budhathoki about the visit in 1850 by Nepal’s prime minister to England and France, the first by a South Asian potentate. He met Queen Victoria and by all accounts was able to establish Nepal’s presence on the world stage. Historians have long mulled why a devout Hindu like Jang Bahadur would want to break the taboo and cross the Black Waters. Budhathoki recounts the incident upon his arrival at Southampton on 2 May 1850, when British customs officials tried to check the belongings of the Nepali entourage. Furious, Jang Bahadur threatened to sail right back to France if they opened any of the bags. Jang had three main reasons for his trip. Essentially he was on a spy mission to assess <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-forgotten-gurkha-rebellion-e8z403ab">British military</a> might to decide if it was worthwhile for Nepal to try to militarily take back territory ceded to British India in the Sugauli Treaty of 1816. So, Jang asked his perplexed hosts to show him cannon factories, artillery and naval yards. He even visited Woolwich Arsenal (now the Royal Arsenal) not once, but three times.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/looking-back-at-the-1923-nepal-britain-treaty">Looking back at the 1923 Nepal-Britain Treaty</a>, Santa Gaha Magar Suitably impressed, Jang decided to be Britain’s BFF, and even rode down to Lucknow with 3,200 Nepali troops to rescue the British from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. As a reward, the British gave back the Tarai districts of Banke, Bardia, Kailali, and Kanchanpur (Naya Muluk). This close relationship continued with Jang’s descendants right till the time the British left India in 1947. Jang Bahadur was also fed up with the Governor General Lord Dalhousie in Calcutta who tended to bully Nepal, and wanted to build direct contacts with his bosses in London. The British told him Dalhousie was their man in India, and Jang should deal with him. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-way-we-were">Jang’s visit to France</a> does not get as much attention in the book, but he was also trying to gauge France’s strength and to see if its military was more powerful than Britain’s. At that time, France was Britain’s main rival and was trying to make inroads in India. At the Louvre, Jang Bahadur was drawn to exhibits reflecting French military prowess. Later, when he met Louis Napoleon III, he asked if he could see a parade of 900,000 troops to assess France’s military might.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/nepal-france-ties-in-photos">Nepal-France ties in photos</a>, Reeti KC Freshly returned from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-long-way-to-europe">Europe</a>, an emboldened Jang Bahadur Rana led Nepal in a war against Tibet in 1855 which ended with the Treaty of Thapathali a year later. This was the third time Nepal and Tibet had fought, the first time being soon after <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/Prithvi-Narayan-Shah-a-visionary-leader,1102">Prithvi Narayan Shah</a> in 1788.&nbsp; The Qing Dynasty came to the rescue of Tibet, and while both sides claimed victory, the Sino-Nepalese War ended essentially as a stalemate with the Treaty of Betrawati.&nbsp; All of this is detailed in Axel Michaels’ book, Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present which is a recent English translation of his German Kultur und Geschichte Nepals published in 2018.&nbsp; Michaels is a Professor of Classical Indology and Religious Studies at Heidelberg University, and writes that Nepal mattered little to China. Proof of this is that while both Nepal and Tibet agreed to accept the suzerainty of the Qing emperor following the war, Nepal managed to retain its autonomy but Beijing asserted its control over <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/himalaya-to-lhasa">Lhasa</a>. And despite a clause in the treaty which stated, ‘if a foreign power attacks Nepal, China shall support Nepal’, China never did so during the1814–16 war with the East India Company.&nbsp; This practice has continued to this day. Aside from token petroleum shipments, Beijing did not help out Nepal during the Indian Blockade of 2015. Even though Nepali leaders have tried to play India off against China, the two do not find Nepal important enough to fight over and prefer to leave it as a buffer state between them.&nbsp; In that sense, Britain also did not press home its victory after 1816 and left Nepal alone. The malarial jungles to the south, rugged Himalayan terrain and the lack of marketable products (except soldiers) may have persuaded the traders at the East Indian Company that it was not worth the effort. There is a lesson from history here for Nepal: the country must look out for itself, and this requires deft diplomacy to understand what our giant neighbours really want and leverage it for our gain. This may require strategies like the ones made by Jang Bahadur and King Mahendra after all. Michaels is not a fan of either the Rana or the Shah dynasties. He says that although the Rana era is characterised as ‘a century of tyranny’, the description holds true for the Shah period as well.&nbsp; Michaels does not mince his words about Gurkha recruitment into the British and Indian Armies (another legacy of the Sugauli Treaty). He calls the mercenaries ‘cheap labour’ and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘represents a continuation of the King-Brahmin alliance’. In fact, he goes at length to discuss how the Khas-Arya used ‘Hindu state’ to homogenise a country that couldn’t have been more diverse. But democracy has not served Nepal well either. Corruption, impunity and lack of transparency are rife. And so, Michaels asks if Nepal is a failed state. No it is not, but it is a fragile state. He leaves us with these parting words: ‘If Nepal succeeds in continuing down this road, preserving its ethnic and cultural diversity, leaving the ethnic populations with a certain degree of autonomy, while at the same time integrating them into political decision-making processes, and if it manages the reforms needed for land-ownership, labour, education, infrastructure, then the country can become a model for unity in diversity, even in the age of leveling globalisation.’&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222070248_a32db0a1e39c4a3a5158af81bbcf927aeb96524bcbc6b41086a223685642b367.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250222070248_a32db0a1e39c4a3a5158af81bbcf927aeb96524bcbc6b41086a223685642b367" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Jang Bahadur in England "> </figure>  &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250222070252_e2fa5309f10d36f963243c24ea06d7d354d3dfaf24c7ef283d70369fbeabd02e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_18" data-image-id="20250222070252_e2fa5309f10d36f963243c24ea06d7d354d3dfaf24c7ef283d70369fbeabd02e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Book"> </figure>  &nbsp;

Orchids of Godavari-Phulchoki

A burning problem that needs solutions

The sacred female energy of Shakti

A woman’s drive to push boundaries

The slaughter of our daughters

Enslaved Nepali migrant worker rebuilds her life

Small Bhutan Dreams Big

The gift of sight in Hetauda

Illustrating innocence

Saving what is left of Himalayan rivers

The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal

Around Kathmandu in 100 miles

Nepal is not a failed state, but it is a fragile one

Saving what is left of Himalayan rivers