On 16 March 2024, New Delhi Police arrested Neeraj Chauhan and others for selling fake anti-cancer drugs to patients at a hospital in a suburb of the Indian capital.
The <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/fake-cancer-drugs-case-4-more-employees-of-delhi-gurgaon-hospitals-arrested-9217401/">Indian media reported</a> they were filling empty vials of expensive drugs with fake ingredients for which they charged up to INR300,000. They ran the racket in collusion with hospital staff, drug dealers, pharmacists, and brokers.
Here in Nepal, the family that lost its mother two years ago to oesophageal cancer was shocked by the news. They had ordered a medication for cancer from the same Neeraj Chauhan in Delhi.&nbsp;
The woman’s daughter told us her mother was treated between 2021-2023 at <a href="https://www.nepalmediciti.com/" target="_blank">Nepal Mediciti Hospital</a> by a team including oncologist Pankaj Barman, who is also Indian and allegedly put her in touch with Neeraj Chauhan.
Barman’s team at Mediciti had treated the woman with chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital. She was readmitted to Mediciti on 5 February 2022 where Barman and another doctor, Vijay Sah, put her on Nivolumab, an immunotherapy drug, among others at various stages of treatment.
She was in remission for a while before the cancer came back. The family reached out to Barman and Sah after the relapse, who advised another immunotherapy drug called Pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda.
The daughter was told the drug was not available in Nepal because it was very expensive and needed temperature control for storage. Barman is then said to have told the family about Neeraj Chauhan, who also supplied drugs at a cheaper rate to other Mediciti patients.&nbsp;
The family purchased the drug, and started administering it to their mother, but her health deteriorated and a month later she died on 9 February 2023.&nbsp;
Believing that they tried their best to save their mother, but she eventually died of a complex illness, the grieving family moved back to everyday life. A year later, the daughter chanced upon a news item in the Indian Express news about Chauhan’s arrest.
Was the medicine they had ordered for their mother from Chauhan also a fake? This question haunted the family, and they started to investigate the drug and the company.
When they went to the Department of Drug Administration (DDA), they found that Keytruda was not even registered in Nepal when it was prescribed to their mother.
The daughter opted for legal remedy and filed a case at the Lalitpur District Court against Mediciti, the doctors Barman and Sah and Neeraj Chauhan as defendants demanding a compensation of NPR70 million.&nbsp;
Counterfeit drugs is a major problem worldwide, and Nepal is affected because it borders <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3765" target="_blank">two of the biggest sources of fake medicines</a>. Domestic production now meets <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-taste-of-our-own-medicine" target="_blank">half of Nepal's needs</a>, but even here quality control is lacking with some manufacturers.&nbsp;
Mediciti Response
Earlier this year, Mediciti Hospital filed a response at the Lalitpur District Court through its lawyer Manju Phuyal. It alleged that while the woman was indeed at Medicti, the family had tried to conceal that the patient was also treated at Paras Health in India in 2021.
It also states that drugs not registered in Nepal have been used for treatment, since the law allows a doctor to recommend medicines essential for a patient, if a special permission is granted by the DDA. &nbsp;
However, the department does not appear to have approved the use of Keytruda for the concerned patient.
Mediciti also argued that there is no proof that the person mentioned in the news is the same Neeraj Chauhan who sold the medicine for the patient.
Raj Rana, Medical Superintendent of Mediciti says the two doctors left the hospital voluntarily. Rana added, “Since it was a recommendation made by the doctor, the hospital was not responsible.”
The Nepal Medical Council has launched an investigation and taken steps against Barman for practicing without renewing his license. Foreign citizens must apply for registration with the council every year, but Barman had not. The Council has also written to Chitwan Medical College where Barman now works. Sah has not been investigated.

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News

Drug dealers push fake medicine

Marking 80 years since the dawn of the nuclear age, peace advocates, diplomats, educators, and atomic bomb survivors from around the world gathered for the ‘Choose Hope’ Symposium recently in Santa Barbara, California.&nbsp; Co-organised by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) and Japan’s Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the symposium was inspired by the 2001 dialogue book Choose Hope co-authored by NAPF founder David Krieger and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, revisiting the ethical and strategic urgency of nuclear abolition. “This is not just about legacy,” said Ivana Nikolić Hughes of NAPF. “We are here to continue the journey they started and to build a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.” Tomohiko Aishima, Director of Peace Affairs at SGI, recalled witnessing their dialogue firsthand: “What impressed me most was that their dialogue was not merely about ideals—it was a call to action, rooted in practical solutions.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025062212068_492dba80d3efcb28180c4114d0d892d1be5cb305b1a18b80fe55923eadebb53d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025062212068_492dba80d3efcb28180c4114d0d892d1be5cb305b1a18b80fe55923eadebb53d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1536" height="1311" loading="lazy" alt="Tomohiko Aishima of SGI opens the symposium with reflections on the dialogue between Daisaku Ikeda and David Krieger, which he witnessed during his time as a reporter at Seikyo Shimbun　"> <figcaption>Tomohiko Aishima of SGI opens the symposium with reflections on the dialogue between Daisaku Ikeda and David Krieger, which he witnessed during his time as a reporter at Seikyo Shimbun.</figcaption> </figure>  In the keynote lecture, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author Annie Jacobsen posed the question: “What happens if nuclear deterrence fails? No matter how it begins, nuclear war will end in total annihilation.”&nbsp; She explained that once a nuclear exchange is triggered, retaliatory strikes could spread globally within just seven minutes, leading to uncontrollable destruction and the collapse of human civilisation. A panel moderated by Hughes, Princeton University’s Professor Emeritus Richard Falk, Jimmy Hara of Physicians for Social Responsibility–Los Angeles (PSR-LA), Professor Peter Kuznick of American University, and ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke addressed policy transformations urgently needed to prevent such a catastrophe. SGI’s Director for Disarmament and Human Rights, Chie Sunada warned against the increasing role of nuclear weapons in national security doctrines and said: “Nuclear deterrence itself is a threat to human survival.” Ambassador Elayne Whyte, who presided over the 2017 UN negotiations that adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), emphasized the need for sincere dialogue, even with those who hold opposing views. Atomic bomb survivor Masako Wada from Nagasaki addressed the symposium via video message, urging participants: “Continue telling the truth about the horrors of the bomb.” Mary Dickson, a thyroid cancer survivor and US ‘downwinder’ affected by radioactive fallout from nuclear testing, said: “We were deliberately exposed. Justice is needed not only for us, but for victims in the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Polynesia, and everywhere else.” SGI United Nations Office Disarmament Program Coordinator Anna Ikeda shared testimony on the health effects, stigma, and trauma experienced by victims. “Nuclear justice means establishing the collective understanding that the use, testing, or threat of nuclear weapons can never be justified,” she said. Togzhan Kassenova from Kazakhstan presented findings on intergenerational health effects stemming from Soviet-era nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk in her country. Christian Ciobanu, representing Kiribati and Youth proposed establishing an international fund for victim assistance and environmental remediation. Veronique Christory of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stressed the importance of humanitarian principles in disarmament efforts.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025062212068_73f295f941b747e0d93946e73286b7f90b33f6a95175ac00b09ef123dd142d3f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025062212068_73f295f941b747e0d93946e73286b7f90b33f6a95175ac00b09ef123dd142d3f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1224" loading="lazy" alt="Miyuki Horiguchi of SGI left moderates the final panel discussion The Intersection of Climate and Nuclear Justice Empowering Youth for Change"> <figcaption>Miyuki Horiguchi of SGI left moderates the final panel discussion The Intersection of Climate and Nuclear Justice Empowering Youth for Change</figcaption> </figure>  In the final panel on The Intersection of Climate and Nuclear Justice: Empowering Youth for Change moderated by SGI Disarmament Program Coordinator Miyuki Horiguchi, Anduin Devos of NuclearBan.US reflected on how concern over the climate crisis led her to become involved in the anti-nuclear movement.&nbsp; “Resources spent on nuclear weapons should be redirected to address climate solutions,” she said. Young activists Kevin Chiu and Viktoria Lokh spoke on the importance of integrating youth voices into nuclear policy discussions. Horiguchi cited a Native American proverb ‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children’ and a quote from the book Choose Hope: ‘Hope is another name for youth.’ The symposium’s final declaration also underscored the role of culture and creativity in promoting peace and deepening empathy and concluded with the adoption of <a href="https://www.nuclear-abolition.com/language/full-text-choose-hope-symposium-declaration/">the Choose Hope Declaration</a>. With the Doomsday Clock set at 89 seconds to midnight, the declaration warned that a nuclear-free world is possible only through intentional and collective choices.&nbsp; ‘We choose hope over despair,’ it stated. (<a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/">INPS Japan</a> in collaboration with <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/">Soka Gakkai International</a>.) <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yX2XfmoIsyQ?si=kyweJ4SISA4rKw2a" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX2XfmoIsyQ">Annie Jacobsen, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Nuclear War: A Scenario delivers the 20th Frank K Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future at the start of the symposium.</a>&nbsp;

From deterrence to disarmament

Widespread abuse of antibiotics has led to patients not responding to treatment because bacteria causing infections have developed resistance to the drugs.&nbsp;
In 2021 alone, the last year for which statistics are available, nearly 20,000 patients died because the antibiotics they were prescribed did not work for such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia and other infections.&nbsp;
Now, public health experts are pushing for vaccines to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Nepal. Vaccines are highly effective tool since they prevent infections, reduce the need of antimicrobial use thereby mitigate the emergence and spread of AMR.
Last week, the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership Nepal (GARP -Nepal) in collaboration with Nepal Public Health Foundation and The One Health Trust launched a policy brief titled ‘The Value of Vaccines to Mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance’.&nbsp;
“We need to integrate vaccines more effectively into national AMR strategies and cross-sectoral collaboration under the One Health framework,” said Sharad Onta of the Nepal Public Health Foundation. “The solution to antimicrobial resistance in Nepal is prevention, since there is no cure for it. And vaccines are an effective tool.”
Narayan Dhakal of the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) agreed that preventing infections was easier and cheaper than treating it with antibiotics. He added: “Promoting WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) and infection prevention measures can be effective complementary strategies.”
The launch event brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministry of Health and Population, the Department of Livestock Services, academia, clinical professionals, veterinarians and non-government stakeholders like World Health Organisation, and FHI360.
Overuse of antibiotics in the veterinary sector has also contributed to AMR in humans due to the chicken, eggs and various other meats in the food chain. &nbsp;
Paras Kumar Pokharel of GARP-Nepal said: “Effective vaccination programs can lead to herd immunity, where a large proportion of the population is immune, protecting even those who are not vaccinated. So, maximise coverage and minimise anti-microbial uses.”&nbsp;
Sameer Mani Dixit of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN) said: “We need more action, not more words to fight AMR in Nepal.”
The GARP policy brief recommends actions that include sustained policy advocacy, use of health economics to demonstrate vaccine benefits, and learning from best immunisation practices. It calls for inclusion of the livestock sector, adherence to treatment guidelines, prioritisation of high-risk populations, and improved surveillance systems.&nbsp;
The brief also emphasises the need for evidence generation, investment in vaccine development and regulatory support, international collaboration, and efforts to ensure equitable access, public education, and AMR awareness.

Drugs vs Bugs

This week, all seven of Nepal’s provincial governments announced their annual budgets even as debate in the federal parliament over the central budget has been stalled for two weeks due to obstruction by the opposition RSP. There are no big surprises in the provincial Red Books — they are all in the red with reduced allocations from the centre. Even so, while Gandaki and Lumbini have slightly reduced the size of the budget compared to the preceding fiscal year, the budget for the other four provinces are marginally bigger. Even though revenue is short, the central and provincial governments have chronically been plagued by their inability to spend what has been budgeted, especially under capital expenditure. Five out of the seven provinces have in fact spent less than half of their allocated budget, the other two have fared only slightly better. The provinces’ underspending, as well as the flurry of last minute budget dispensation across projects (known as ‘असारे खर्च’ after the current Nepali month) has been attributed to competing political interests, mismanagement and kickbacks on projects. For instance, while Lumbini has been able to spend 59.1% of its allocated capital expenditure, Madhes Province has managed to spend just 16% of its development budget even though it has the second biggest budget among the seven provinces for the upcoming year. Even as provinces struggle to spend their budgets and implement development projects, the federal leadership in Kathmandu continues to display its reluctance to decentralise power to the provinces, and to hold tightly to the purse strings, rendering the provinces largely functionless.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025062001064_0ccb183b0c1f65fcd798ecb826c5d11f04d0a381c78f864bf00698041ad74450.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025062001064_0ccb183b0c1f65fcd798ecb826c5d11f04d0a381c78f864bf00698041ad74450" data-rendition-name="original" width="1337" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Federalism express NT"><figcaption>Photo: @PHALANO</figcaption></figure>  August marks the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of the 2015 Constitution and the establishment of a three-tiered system of government that envisioned the devolution of political power from Kathmandu to provinces and local municipalities. In the decade since, local governments have been lauded for their performance as the country’s municipal units saw multi-sectoral grassroots development. Rural municipalities and elected ward councils were forced to be more accountable to voters since they were in close proximity. However, the mainstream political parties and their leaders have continued to override the authority granted to provincial governments by the Constitution – especially when it comes to revenue collection, policy-making, and decisions on development projects. Earlier this month, Gandaki Province decided to suspend its newly-introduced Ride Sharing regulatory guideline after the Prime Minister’s office sent a letter instructing it to temporarily halt implementation following nationwide protests by public transport entrepreneurs associations who oppose the new regulation, and many of whom are affiliated to the ruling parties. The federal government’s circular overriding a provincial decision on local transport went against the Constitution and infringed upon the rights of the provinces. “Our federalism was supposed to be a cooperative system,” explains federalism expert Khim Lal Devkota. “But citizens and civil society, the political leadership and bureaucracy across all three levels of government have not yet let go of their Kathmandu-centric mindset.” The dissatisfaction with dysfunctional provincial governments has contributed to the perception that federalism is wasteful and should be scrapped, a narrative that the pro-monarchist parties have used in their rallies to get rid of the 2015 Constitution. It is true that federalism was an outcome of the peace process, and a demand the Maoists wanted fulfilled in exchange for giving up arms. But devolution was never allowed to deliver at the grassroots. “Nepal’s three-tired government was the result of our vision not of a limited government, but one with maximised capabilities of looking over all affairs of the state,” explained political scientist Sanjeev Humagain at a recent event discussing the rise of right-wing populism in Nepal and globally. “But perhaps we have not fully understood the concept of this political system, or we think of federalism as a transitional idea until we eventually adopt another form of governance,” he added. A recent survey by Social Science Baha gauged how Nepal’s ‘local elite’, people who wield socio-political influence at the subnational level, view federalism. As expected, the survey found that a majority of the respondents feel positively about the performance of local governments. The survey also showed support for federalism, but there was dissatisfaction with the functioning of provinces, along with recognition that there was too much interference from political parties and their leadership in Kathmandu reluctant to cede authority to them. ‘The state of federal and regional party politics marked by ever-changing alliances leading to frequent changes in government at both levels has eroded confidence in the provincial governments being able to perform efficiently,’ read the report. ‘Government officials and civil society representatives alike also viewed provincial governments as passive recipients of the federal governments’ plans, policies and projects contradicting the very purpose of creating provincial governments in the first place.’ But not everything can be blamed on the central government. Many provincial leaders are happy to be proxies of their parent parties, and lack initiative to use their constitutionally mandated right to self-governance. Opposition to federalism is also fueled by the idea that it has merely decentralised corruption, that it unnecessarily triplicates overhead costs of government and is wasteful. The general feeling is that it is an expendable and costly second tier of government. But data contradicts this. Nepal’s Economic Survey 2024/25 shows that the share of provinces in the total national expenditure last year was just 10%, and has remained consistent since the first elections under the federal system in 2017. Says Khim Lal Devkota: “Federalism is still nascent in Nepal, and we must give it a chance to stand on its feet. Nepal must not be a laboratory to experiment with new systems of governance just because the existing one is not working fast enough for our liking.”

Shristi Karki

Federalism Express

An international conference on looted cultural objects in Nepal was strategising about how to repatriate sacred icons, when news broke that a 400-year-old jewel studded gilt-copper necklace stolen from Kathmandu was up for auction in Belgium. The Matrika Necklace from the reign of King Pratap Malla (1641-74 CE) was being auctioned at the Veilinghuis Loeckx in Gent and the event beamed live on <a href="http://invaluable.com/" target="_blank">invaluable.com</a> on 17th June. It was advertised for was €1,200.&nbsp; But that was before participants at the Kathmandu conference sent frantic emails to the Brussels auction house and the Dutch gallery where the necklace was sourced from. The item was withdrawn from the auction because of 'questions about provenance'. The auction house initially mentioned Astamangala Gallery in the Netherlands as provenance when it was actually stolen from a Kathmandu temple, and the item was similar to another rare necklace looted from the Taleju Temple in 1976, and now housed at the <a href="https://www.artic.edu/" target="_blank">Art Institute of Chicago</a>. The 400-year-old object has been taken off display there after Nepali activists started demanding its return. Interestingly, the necklace in Chicago was also in the logo design of the International Conference on the Recovery of Cultural Heritage held in Patan from 16-18 June where experts and activists from Nepal and around the world discussed the repatriation of stolen cultural artefacts. In Nepal, the idols were being worshipped when looted, and activists said their return helped in healing and reconciliation of communities.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618140640_65c8453ff13d38de4292817bbe639416e4e4bca1d5d5e6ba9f6ef6fa10d57abe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250618140640_65c8453ff13d38de4292817bbe639416e4e4bca1d5d5e6ba9f6ef6fa10d57abe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1272" loading="lazy" alt="Taleju necklace"> <figcaption>Taleju necklace</figcaption> </figure>  One panelist was Devendra Bhattarai, the journalist who broke the story of the necklace depicted in the logo. He found it ironic that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was deporting undocumented Nepalis, while wanting to hold on to Nepal’s heritage items in its museums. “The US authorities want evidence that the object was stolen, and to prove that Nepal’s royal family is not allowed to sell or gift such artefacts,” Bhattarai said. “A cultural artefact cannot be gifted, even by the royal family, and there can be no such proof.” “We from the community are asked to provide proof when the burden of proof should lie with the holders of the artefacts,” said Kanak Mani Dixit of Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign (NHRC) that convened the conference. “Collectors and museums prevaricate and want to run you down, your patience, your interest, your time, hoping that we will lose interest.” NHRC partnered with Nepal’s Department of Archaeology to organise the international conference, which also looked into the impact of cultural property thefts from Kathmandu Valley, Simraungad in the Tarai, Nuwakot, and monastic villages in the trans-Himalaya. “There were and are hundreds of monasteries in Mustang, but most of them are totally empty,” historian Ramesh Dhungel told one session. “It makes you want to cry. The monks sleep in locked rooms with their idols so they are not stolen at night.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618140640_80a15c5bc9da2eaf8b96fcbb42fd7fdb9b78d00e2258e1995c21ac6f70211dbc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250618140640_80a15c5bc9da2eaf8b96fcbb42fd7fdb9b78d00e2258e1995c21ac6f70211dbc" data-rendition-name="original" width="3933" height="2381" loading="lazy" alt="cultural recovery conference"> <figcaption>Historian Ramesh Dhungel during his panel discussion. Photo: BIKAS RAUNIYAR</figcaption> </figure>  Most of the looting of cultural heritage items in Nepal took place during the absolute monarchy days in the 1980s. Dhungel remembers three helicopter loads of stolen thangka, idols and scrolls airlifted from Olangchungola to Kathmandu at the time. Most of them ended up with American and European collectors, and unsold items are still at the National Museum in Chhauni.&nbsp; There are documents to identify the powerful people in Kathmandu who sold the artefacts to smugglers and middlemen. But there were also the likes of Lain Singh Bangdel and Jürgen Schick who did pioneering work to document the pillage in their books Stolen Images of Nepal (1989) and The Gods Are Leaving the Country: Art Theft From Nepal (1997). Today, anonymous investigators at Lost Arts of Nepal have been using social media to document the whereabouts of stolen objects in museums so that repatriation activists can bring them back. Even as the international conference was ongoing on Wednesday, Lost Art of Nepal posted a finding about a 800-year-old Bodhisattva Avalokiteswar statue that had been at Thambahil in Kathmandu next to a Shiva Linga at the temple. It was stolen in the 1980s and auctioned by the Doris Weiner Collection at Christie's in 2012 for $2,490,500 and is now at the Berkeley Art Museum.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618170620_415b139c11cbcee8c27cb9742d06882bc2468db682621fa2445b8c3797e1f81a.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250618170620_415b139c11cbcee8c27cb9742d06882bc2468db682621fa2445b8c3797e1f81a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2044" height="1100" loading="lazy" alt="Heritage recovery conference"> <figcaption>800-year-old Bodhisattva Avalokiteswar.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618170624_5884894a696f3bba6af228101ed26714433ae62d96dfea825a1dd48e99d4097f.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250618170624_5884894a696f3bba6af228101ed26714433ae62d96dfea825a1dd48e99d4097f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1880" height="1166" loading="lazy" alt="heritage recovery conference"> </figure>  “Lost Arts of Nepal has been the biggest source for media and heritage activists. We must acknowledge them for their hard work in tracking down these items,” said Kunda Dixit, who hosted a panel on the role of media in combating illicit trafficking of artefacts.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618140640_60e894c158867774cfc33ec09a76ebe2e022a9d273b5d157212f9eb6a61fbedf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250618140640_60e894c158867774cfc33ec09a76ebe2e022a9d273b5d157212f9eb6a61fbedf" data-rendition-name="original" width="3933" height="2664" loading="lazy" alt="cultural recovery conference"> <figcaption>Kunda Dixit during a panel on the role of media in combating illicit trafficking of artefacts. Photo: BIKAS RAUNIYAR</figcaption> </figure>  So far, 198 sacred objects have been returned to Nepal: 125 from the United States, 29 from China, 22 from the United Kingdom, 13 from India, 5 from Australia, and one each from Germany, Austria, Italy and a European collector. But there are 105 identified but not returned items in private collections, museums and auction houses in Sweden, the UK, France, Switzerland, the US, Austria, Australia, China, Singapore, Thailand and Belgium. And there are thousands of others which have vanished without trace. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stolen-cambodian-artifacts-american-museums-private-collections-60-minutes-transcript-2024-06-23/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab5j&amp;linkId=479097769&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawK_NaJleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF6MDVPZ1ZlV3NsQ3E4ak04AR7feaeuu4qaAq4mv3cpN4dGSEctsQr44vZjkkWkrKL57xQqo4Id0b_P1rLgog_aem_gS5R_PQyCvCgBLKGBHTrMw" target="_blank">Bradley J Gordon</a>, a lawyer with Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, was thrown out of The Met in New York last year during an inspection. He also spotted scores of antiquities from Thailand and Nepal in the storage of the museum only a few weeks ago. “Many of the art dealers selling a<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/30-looted-antiquities-returned-kingdom-cambodia" target="_blank">rtefacts from Cambodia</a> were also selling cultural objects from Nepal,” Gordon told the panel. Bruce Miller Antiquities of Sausalito in California with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/arts/douglas-latchford-antiquities-trafficker-daughter.html" target="_blank">Bangkok-based Douglas Latchford</a> have been named as those involved in selling stolen objects from Cambodia and Nepal to collectors and museums. The conference also heard case studies from Cambodia, India, Poland, Vietnam, Lebanon, Syria and Afghanistan with a special focus on existing laws and international frameworks for repatriation as well as new digital interventions such as augmented reality, photogrammetry and data-driven provenance. Plunder of heritage items from war zones like Syria and Afghanistan is rife, said Amr Al Azm of the Shawnee State University in the United States. “Antiquities do not suffer as much in the actual battles as they do from thieves while a conflict is going on,” he added. “They sell the stolen items through social media accounts, the platforms are the great magnifier in this international trade in stolen cultural items.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618160624_0677d2519b35f092dc017116cfeaa575bb2667770674a6d1c5c83a01d5489043.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250618160624_0677d2519b35f092dc017116cfeaa575bb2667770674a6d1c5c83a01d5489043" data-rendition-name="original" width="3904" height="2086" loading="lazy" alt="cultural recovery conference"> <figcaption>Heritage conservationist Alok Siddi Tuladhar discussing a pauba depicting a Tuladaan ceremony the reign of King Pratap Malla of Kathmandu. The 361-year-old wsas stolen from Kathmandu and is now in Paris. Photo: BIKAS RAUNIYAR</figcaption> </figure>  There are often differing views when it comes to the prosecution of heritage theft. Some believe in punishing the perpetrators with jail time and fines, while others have prioritised repatriation itself, getting the objects back to inspire pride in youth to continue their tradition, to educate the community about the culture and spread awareness about the illegal trade. “We can use repatriation activism to increase the perception of risk, to convince people to not enter into the business because they don’t want to end up in jail or publicly humiliated, to make people think about their reputation either positively or negatively,” said Erin L Thompson, art crime professor in New York during her keynote at the conference.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618140644_e65569f232b78e1daba5f5c7399de5f492afb772fe6882efc3a2ae51c8e10daf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250618140644_e65569f232b78e1daba5f5c7399de5f492afb772fe6882efc3a2ae51c8e10daf" data-rendition-name="original" width="3543" height="2858" loading="lazy" alt="cultural recovery conference"> <figcaption>Art crime professor Erin Thompson during her keynote. Photo: BIKAS RAUNIYAR</figcaption> </figure>  She added: “Things are just starting to come back, we will find so many uses of repatriated objects in the years, decades, and generations to come. It’s taken hundreds of years of theft for these objects to leave their culture of origin, and I think it will take hundreds of years to bring them back. But we have the opportunity now to shape what those hundreds of years will look like.” <h2>BREAKING: Auction halted</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250618140636_e6242c602340291c7af430144e17860ed8f44811c6ea14ad2c47a19451537556.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250618140636_e6242c602340291c7af430144e17860ed8f44811c6ea14ad2c47a19451537556" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Matrika necklace"> <figcaption>Matrika necklace</figcaption> </figure>  On the evening of 17 June, participants at the Kathmandu conference discussing Nepal’s stolen heritage items found out that a 400-year-old gilt-copper Matrika necklace donated by Pratap Malla was being auctioned in Belgium. This was a moment of truth, the very thing the conference was trying to shed light on. One of the participants, Emiline C H Smith, a lecturer in criminology at the University of Glasgow heard about the auction while at the conference. The pre-bid for the necklace was €1,200, but it would have sold for many times more. She informed the Belgium art crime police squad after gathering more information on the necklace. She found out that the item was up for auction that very day, 17 June, and it would be livestreamed. The necklace from Nepal was at lot 328, and the auction order was already at 250. Time was of the essence. Smith stepped out of the conference hall in Patan to try to call the auction house in Brussels, couldn’t get through and sent them an email, commented on their website, and posted on Bluesky and Facebook. She also emailed the Dutch gallery mentioned in the provenance. During the live auction on www.invaluable.com, the lot came up for sale. But suddenly the auctioneer got a message from someone off-screen. He stated in Dutch: “This piece cannot be sold because there are problems with the origin. Withdrawn.” After the dramatic cancellation of sale, Smith found out that the former owner of the necklace was a Tibetologist who acquired it in 1995 from a collector in Groningen, who had purchased it in the 1970s from a gallery in Amsterdam. “The art market needs to know that there is no excuse to auction off invaluable and inalienable Nepali cultural objects like this stunning Pratap Malla necklace,” Smith told Nepali Times. “Nepali activists have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the devastating consequences of the market demand for Nepal's irreplaceable cultural heritage, so auction houses, art dealers and buyers should know better by now. We can all hold them accountable for their role in the looting and destruction of Nepal's heritage.”

Sonia Awale

Repatriation for reconciliation

Thousands of Nepali students dreaming of an American education have been forced to look elsewhere as the Trump administration’s visa restrictions make their future uncertain.
The US was long considered a top destination for higher studies, making Nepal the 10th biggest country of origin for international students in America.&nbsp;
However, that number has seen a significant decline with the total for Nepali students now at 16,482. Some 8,000 Nepali students obtained no-objection certificates to study in the US from the Ministry of Education in the past year.&nbsp;
India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom and Japan are the other popular destinations for Nepali students. There are no clear numbers for Nepalis going to India, but a slight decline was noted this year after the deaths of two female students.
The US State Department has issued a circular to its embassies not to issue new visas to applicants until further notice. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the directive stated that the department planned to expand the screening of applicants' social media.&nbsp;
While new applicants are barred including those applying for visitor visas, students with scheduled interviews are allowed to proceed.
“Many of our students are affected by the new restrictions, but those who had applied for student visas earlier have got interview dates,” one Kathmandu-based college counsellor told us.
Meanwhile, even foreign students with spotless records already in the US have not been spared, as visa scrutiny intensifies under the new policy. In a move that underscores the growing sense of insecurity, many US colleges advised international students to carry their passports and documents at all times, even when traveling locally.
“Me and my friends did not go home this summer because we were not sure we would be allowed back, so we just went to Niagara Falls,” said a Nepali undergrad in Ohio, who like many interviewed for this report did not want her name used for fear of repercussion.
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Nepali students have adopted a cautious stance, with many choosing not to return home during summer vacation due to fear of visa revocations as well as travel bans. Meanwhile, over 7,000 Nepalis with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will have to come back to Nepal by 5 August or face deportation. Thirty-seven were flown back to Kathmandu on Omni Air last week.
“The US is one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education, and the ban will definitely impact bright students,” says Narottam Aryal of the King’s College in Kathmandu.
Indeed, Nepali undergraduates admitted into Ivy League colleges for the 2025 academic year have been asked to look for alternatives. The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board resigned on Wednesday citing interference from the Trump administration on the selection of this year’s cohort. Some Nepali students already on Fulbright scholarships have noted disruptions, delays and even cancellation of stipends.&nbsp;
The student visa restrictions were initially just for foreign students admitted to Harvard University, but it was later extended to all Chinese students and now to all students. Universities like Columbia which actively recruit foreign students, face sharp enrolment declines, threatening their financial stability and diversity.
An Indian female PhD candidate at Columbia University had her visa revoked by the US State Department, and said she was targeted on the basis of her social media posts on Israeli military attacks in Gaza. Social media vetting of political activism has raised concerns about privacy and freedom of expression in a country where such rights were a given.
Many students have been informed via email that their visas have been revoked for getting speeding or parking tickets, but even others with no criminal record have been affected. The fear of deportation looms large amongst international students, including those from Nepal.&nbsp;
For most Nepalis who migrate to the US for education, the journey is a high-stakes investment. They come largely from middle-class families, often rely on a patchwork of scholarships, work-study programs, loans, or even the sale of family assets to afford fees.
Most Nepali students pursue STEM subjects which offer extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) periods that help fund their education. But with the US backsliding on education and humanitarian matters, countries like the UK and Canada are becoming more attractive despite their own recent stricter controls on student visas.&nbsp;
The UK universities saw a 63% rise in Nepali students’ admissions in 2024. Japan is another popular destination with 64,816 Nepali students enrolled as of 2024.
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Already, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia are poised to benefit from the increased scrutiny of US student visas. Several Hong Kong universities are offering unconditional admission to affected students, while Malaysian institutions are targeting previously US-bound Asian students. China and India have 330,000 and 280,000 students respectively in America, but the numbers for China have seen a sharp drop in the past year.
Elsewhere, branch campuses of American institutions such as NYU in Abu Dhabi, Georgetown in Dubai and Northwestern in Doha are getting more admission applications, and universities in the Gulf region are expanding infrastructure to accommodate those who would otherwise have gone to the US.&nbsp;
Even educational institutions in Nepal are hopeful that the US visa restrictions can be an opportunity to at least keep Nepali undergrads in Nepal, and also attract foreign students from the region.&nbsp;
“Many students might choose to complete their undergraduate degree here in Nepal and then move abroad for their Master’s degree later,” says Aryal of King’s College. “There was a need for quality higher education in Nepal anyway in terms of innovation and opportunities, so this could be the time to reduce our dependence on other countries.”
Nepal’s strategic position between India and China makes it sensitive to US policy shifts. India, a key ally, is also under US scrutiny for potential student travel restrictions. Chinese universities are already offering more scholarships to Nepali talent to capitalise on the US retreat.
American universities have challenged student visa restrictions in the courts. A federal court in Boston revoked the blanket ban on Harvard, and the State Department has ordered the resumption of processing student and exchange visitor visas.&nbsp;
Some are still hoping that President Trump will backtrack on the student visa restrictions, just like he has done with many of his more drastic executive orders.
Even so, the visa see-saw and longer-term uncertainties about living in the United States and its education system means students across the world are making alternative plans.
Says Aryal: “Policies of foreign countries change according to their needs, so excessive dependence was never a good idea. We should work to create different opportunities and choices of higher education within Nepal, so students are retained.” &nbsp;

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

On World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, Reporters without Borders issued a map of the world with the status of press freedom in each country. Most Asian countries had restrictions on the media, and Nepal was a beige island in a vast expanse of red. Nepal’s record of democracy and press freedom may now be in jeopardy because of a recent slew of decisions by the courts and law enforcement to intimidate journalists reporting on corruption. The Kathmandu District court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against journalist Dil Bhushan Pathak on cybercrime charges, three weeks after he posted an explainer video on his Tough Talk YouTube channel on Jaiveer Singh Deuba’s alleged investment in Kathmandu’s Hilton Hotel, and business dealings overseas. Jaiveer Singh Deuba is the son of Nepali Congress (NC) chair Sher Bahadur Deuba and Foreign minister Arzu Deuba. Pathak based his content on news previously published on various online platforms. On the same day, the Kathmandu District Court also issued an temporary order to remove news published on Nepal Khabar and Bizmandu about the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON), whose Chair Santosh Narayan Shrestha had filed a complaint. The court even directed the sites not to report on the subject anymore.&nbsp; The moves reignited fierce debate about politicians, bureaucrats and businesses becoming increasingly intolerant of media exposés of wrongdoing, and trying to squelch constitutionally guaranteed protection of freedom of expression. As of press time on Thursday, Pathak had switched off his phone and was avoiding arrest. Last year, police arrested a person for sharing a video of people chanting slogans against Prime Minister K P Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba during a festival in Kathmandu. Another Nepali was arrested for posting a photo of Oli and calling him corrupt. Both were taken into custody under cybercrime charges.&nbsp; “Whenever someone raises questions about a public figure in Nepal, there is a tendency to file a cybercrime case without any investigation,” notes former Supreme Court Justice Balram KC. “this is reminiscent of the Panchayat era.” &nbsp; Interestingly, the warrant against Pathak was issued under the Electronic Transactions Act following a complaint filed at the Cyber Bureau. That Act was legislated to regulate online transactions and money laundering. The government has been resorting to that law to intimidate and jail journalists. &nbsp; “The Act is being misused by political leadership and those who wield power to target those who question, criticise and attempt to hold them accountable,” says CIJ-N editor Kiran Nepal. “This is blaming the messenger, and completely wrong.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612060644_ca0b1b4817494f640808ee6ddbb4703b1f1402363c07c83489f59145d8d310ae.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250612060644_ca0b1b4817494f640808ee6ddbb4703b1f1402363c07c83489f59145d8d310ae" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1001" loading="lazy" alt="No freedom after expression NT"> <figcaption>World Press Freedom Index 2025. Map: REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS</figcaption> </figure>  There is growing public anger against the three main political parties that have been in power since 2006 for not addressing problems like unemployment, social welfare, shoddy infrastructure. Lack of accountability and corruption lie at the root of those problems, and when journalists investigate them they are targeted. Prominent journalists like Pathak are singled out to set an example, and intimidate others.&nbsp; Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the media’s rights to publish and broadcast news without restriction. This has protected the mainstream press somewhat, but it is mostly online media that have felt official wrath. The legacy media also posts content online, and some have also had contempt of court and defamation cases filed against them. &nbsp; “In Nepal, the medium through which news and views are expressed have become more of a target than content,” says attorney and cyber law expert Baburam Aryal. “A crime is a crime no matter where it is committed, why should it be all right to print the same news in a newspaper but not online?” Taranath Dahal, former president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists and founder of Freedom Forum, says that the court can order the removal of news only if it causes serious harm to someone's life and reputation.&nbsp; He adds: “It sets a dangerous precedent if a person who holds public office orders the removal of news content instead of factually refuting the allegations reported in said news.”&nbsp; To be sure, both legacy and online media in Nepal have problems. Click baits and views-chasing for revenue on YouTube have allowed disinformation and hate speech to proliferate. Algorithms reinforce and further radicalise entrenched beliefs, amplifying toxic trolling and fanning populism. Experts have called for regulation that does not undermine the citizen’s right to know. &nbsp; Just this week, journalists were arrested in Rautahat on corruption charges after colluding with local authorities to falsify documents of a local government bidding notice. Any complaint against Dil Bhusan Pathak should have gone to the Press Council, which is legally mandated to respond to complaints regarding media content, including on digital platforms. But powerful political and businesses prefer to file cases directly in court, and invoke the Electronic Transaction Act because it allows the journalist to be held in custody during investigation. “This practice has led to not just the violation of press freedom, but also of civil liberties,” says attorney Santosh Sigdel. “The attempt to limit digital spaces and restrictions on the right to gather peacefully in public spaces, is an attack on our democratic values and norms.” --- Thirty-four editors of mainstream media led by Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal have issued a press note condemning the arrest warrant of journalist Dil Bhushan Pathak for his explainer video on Jaiveer Singh Deuba’s alleged investment in Kathmandu’s Hilton Hotel, and business dealings overseas. Pathak was book for cybercrime charges under the Electronic Transactions Act which was kegislated to regulate online transactions and money laundering. Editors also denounced Kathmandu District Court’s temporary order to remove news published on Nepal Khabar and Bizmandu about the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON) following chair Santosh Narayan Shrestha’s complaint. The court even directed the sites not to report on the subject anymore.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061505060_861c4d51f9eb490e4dab7495d7c83d86347c89483a69936145e64daf37da5501.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025061505060_861c4d51f9eb490e4dab7495d7c83d86347c89483a69936145e64daf37da5501" data-rendition-name="original" width="936" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="CIJ press note 1"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061505060_2467ac25a8db8e27a046b1d109425c96e9013169b53a5df072b9e1a6b743ddd7.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025061505060_2467ac25a8db8e27a046b1d109425c96e9013169b53a5df072b9e1a6b743ddd7" data-rendition-name="original" width="932" height="1206" loading="lazy" alt="CIJ press note 2"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061505060_2454565881de8b34133ba84a957827ef88ac1393d49df01e46302ae2b78a2a92.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025061505060_2454565881de8b34133ba84a957827ef88ac1393d49df01e46302ae2b78a2a92" data-rendition-name="original" width="3000" height="1510" loading="lazy" alt="CIJ press note 3"> <figcaption>Photo: MANISH PAUDEL/CIJ</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;

No freedom after expression

On 21 March, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement to launch the Sustainable Tourism Project (STP), a &nbsp;$5 million endeavour that aims &nbsp;to improve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/a-new-architecture-for-nepals-tourism">Nepal’s tourism infrastructure</a>, workforce, and destinations to generate employment and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/life-and-livelihood-in-remote-nepal">livelihood opportunities for local communities</a>. The project, with set metrics to achieve its goal by 2028, aligns with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/how-will-nepal-develop-in-the-next-decade">Nepal’s Sustainable Development Goals</a>, which emphasises commitments to environmentally <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">sustainable and inclusive tourism</a> efforts. Sustainability-related buzzwords are pervasive in the STP’s broadly outlined goals, which in its broad terms are agreeable, but until clear regulations, standards, and methodologies are incorporated in the project, applause must be withheld. Improving <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-tourism-in-2023-9ukoi8iz">the tourist experience</a>, expanding local opportunities, bolstering <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/poor-cash-rich-nepal">Nepal’s economy</a>, and being <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/seams-sustainable">environmentally responsible </a>can be achieved simultaneously through strategic initiatives. The STP promises to deliver upon all of these goals. The question is: how do we balance the growth of the tourism sector while committing to sustainability and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/culture-cannot-be-an-afterthought">cultural preservation</a>? The skepticism of the efficacy and implementation of the STP comes from longstanding observations of the often environmentally harmful construction and building industry in Nepal. As it stands, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-train-project-struggles-to-stay-on-track">under-regulated and budget-conscious construction projects</a> have mushroomed both in Kathmandu and across rural Nepal— glass and concrete blocks sprawl next to the few remaining traditional homes in the valley, while tin-based enclosures have replaced mud and thatch-roof as well as traditional stone houses in the mountains. And while <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/home-away-from-home-in-nepal">hotels and guesthouses</a> proliferate, they are incongruent with the number of tourists who visit Nepal, and often remain under-occupied.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250610110624_2371c0aec43fde0ea705285ce3b46b77d09f2493ea790f01f0b42940fe60ff11.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250610110624_2371c0aec43fde0ea705285ce3b46b77d09f2493ea790f01f0b42940fe60ff11" data-rendition-name="original" width="1216" height="544" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism"> <figcaption>Bad waste management in the Himalayas, out of sight of tourists (left). Photo: ALTON BYERS Stalling on the road for hours to Makalu National Park due to poor muddy road conditions is a regular occurrence (right). Photo: HANNA WELLS</figcaption> </figure>  The STP recognises that Nepal’s greatest resource is its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-healing-power-of-nature">natural beauty</a>. But it is ironic that the very reason why tourists flock to Nepal has been marred by shoddy infrastructure that aims to make it accessible to tourists. A significant number of hotels in Kathmandu and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai </a>are built with synthetic materials that perpetuate a vicious cycle of industrial, mass-manufactured goods which contribute to the global climate crisis. The industrial concrete sector has a strong socio-political and economic influence in Nepal, and <a href="https://nepalbuildcon.com.np/" target="_blank">tradeshows</a> market foreign-made construction materials that are detrimental to the natural environment.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250609110632_3627251b22f99a5a265585a6ba786a26a6b1cbaa66c10677af32a35327895802.png" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250609110632_3627251b22f99a5a265585a6ba786a26a6b1cbaa66c10677af32a35327895802" data-rendition-name="original" width="550" height="550" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism NT"> <figcaption>Bhat-Bhateni superstore in Kathmandu. Photo: GOOGLE MAPS IMAGES</figcaption> </figure>  Tourism infrastructure not only plays a large role in defining a tourist’s experience and defining Nepal’s identity to the world, but also contributes to rising emissions. Buildings account for <a href="https://worldgbc.org/climate-action/embodied-carbon/" target="_blank">39% of global carbon emissions</a>, 8% of this is due to cement production. <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters" target="_blank">Nepal is far from the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses</a> responsible for the climate crisis. Yet the reality of the country’s &nbsp;geographic location puts it at disproportionate risk of suffering the consequences of rising global temperatures and has more immediate impacts on everyday human experiences— the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/a-pre-monsoon-deja-vu">threat of glacial lake outburst </a>floods looms over mountain communities, while unpredictable rainfall lead to intense flooding that ravage villages and urban neighbourhoods every year. As it stands, the project’s focus on infrastructure presents an opportunity to align the preservation of cultural heritage and the natural environment with its tourism goals. Achieving national infrastructure goals and meeting tourism demands must align with rigorous and ambitious sustainability objectives. For instance, traditional mud houses in Nepal embody a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tourism-that-treads-lightly-on-the-land">balance between sustainability and cultural heritage</a>, as their design and construction are rooted in indigenous knowledge and constructed by hand from local resources. This wealth of building expertise is lost to modern construction practices, but there is some growing awareness that new construction must consider a community’s cultural identity and traditional context. More recently built <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/a-thamel-within-thamel">luxury hotels </a>display an understanding of a tourist’s desire to experience traditional culture, and thus have integrated indigenous aesthetics into their design. Dwarika’s Hotel in Kathmandu integrates Newari woodwork, and Tiger Tops in Chitwan and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/shrinking-tourism-s-ecological-footprint">Bardia eco-tourism commitments </a>are reflected in the resort’s use of local materials such as thatch and bamboo.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250609110632_df1f46638e5e23fdbf88899a3f90ac0bc759d43ddea4d874b95d5c4d69232e90.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="20250609110632_df1f46638e5e23fdbf88899a3f90ac0bc759d43ddea4d874b95d5c4d69232e90" data-rendition-name="original" width="1237" height="900" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism NT"> <figcaption>Dwarika’s Hotel incorporating Newari woodwork into the outer facades of the hotel. Photo: BOOKING.COM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250609110632_01b08685dc4e6fc826233ceb25dd1358b0622c37fbf39a90bdd6e7c0173f4f88.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="20250609110632_01b08685dc4e6fc826233ceb25dd1358b0622c37fbf39a90bdd6e7c0173f4f88" data-rendition-name="original" width="640" height="480" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism NT"> <figcaption>Tiger Tops Chitwan embracing wattle-and-daub wall building and thatch roofing in guest rooms. Photo: WILD FRONTIERS TRAVEL</figcaption> </figure>  Still, sustainability cannot be positioned as an end product, but rather a continuous process and practice. Reaching our STP goals thus must be process-based, inclusive of local communities, and culturally responsive. If done correctly, the project can rely on the built environment to achieve its carbon-neutral goals by ensuring tourism goes hand-in-hand with longevity of local communities, and the promotion and preservation of indigenous culture. Combined, these efforts create an example for the world of a tourism sector that bolsters not only the Nepali economy, but its people and the environment. But challenges persist. The wide-spread implementation of sustainable construction in Nepal faces significant hurdles despite efforts by institutions to promote regional materials and traditional methods. Small-scale organisations such as <a href="https://buildingbureau.org/" target="_blank">Building Bureau</a> are facing an uphill battle in promoting the use of regional material and integrating traditional building methods into contemporary construction practices. Individual clients interested in sustainable building may turn to an architect or contractor, like Building Bureau, to enhance the comfort and appeal of their space, but such innovative approaches are a fraction of buildings being churned out at unprecedented rates across Nepal’s cities. One project currently under construction is Tiger Track in Bardia, an eco-tourism lodge built in partnership with <a href="https://www.sustainablefuturenepal.com/" target="_blank">Sustainable Future Nepal.</a> Utilising rammed earth, recycled stone, and reclaimed wood, the lodge combines traditional Tharu architecture and building processes with modern technology to offer tourists an experience on par with global standards and to provide visitors a more culturally connected experience.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250609110632_64684e15af389bb494b9c4757d608fceb1f733d544a2cd60419d83d4f4ffd191.jpg" data-media-id="editor_25" data-image-id="20250609110632_64684e15af389bb494b9c4757d608fceb1f733d544a2cd60419d83d4f4ffd191" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1199" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism NT"> <figcaption>The Tiger Track lodge under construction, with a view of four guest rooms. The rammed-earth walls are finished with linseed oil, which hardens and protects the earth while remaining vapor permeable. It is all-natural and comes from flax, a “rabi crop” grown over the winter in the temperate hill regions.</figcaption> </figure>  The lodge has been designed and constructed in close collaboration with the client and surrounding community. Building materials were carefully selected based on seasonal and local availability and feasibility, and in consultation with residents. Tiger Track will also employ local experts like Hemanta Acharya— who leads the local community-based anti-poaching unit— to manage the lodge and ensure conservation-based educational programming. Additionally, the project’s construction has provided employment for dozens of members of the community and equipped them with knowledge on building practices that can be applied to other projects in the area. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/weaving-dreams-for-women">Local entrepreneurs</a> and hoteliers have also been inspired by the lodge’s innovative approach during showcases and presentations.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250609110632_f75fa786655848d93a8b3911f5b136e97c56e3af9eda19672af2114fc5c7edff.jpg" data-media-id="editor_27" data-image-id="20250609110632_f75fa786655848d93a8b3911f5b136e97c56e3af9eda19672af2114fc5c7edff" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="Greening Nepal’s tourism NT"> <figcaption>Hemanta Acharya teaches a class visiting from Taiwan about eco-tourism and the community-based anti-poaching unit efforts, and the importance of sustainable building practices.</figcaption> </figure>  Tourism is among Nepal’s burgeoning economic sectors, and the STP initiative is a promising step in the growth of this industry. However, as Nepal continues to invest in the infrastructure and systems surrounding tourism, it must look to existing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology">sustainable practices </a>with Nepal’s tourism sectors and do more to incorporate environmentally responsible methods for the plan’s successful implementation. We must keep careful watch on the STP as it develops process plans, and demand that it adopt a truly innovative approach towards the implementation of its multi-pronged goals. The initiative’s success will depend on the implementation of clear regulations and standards that promote <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/foundations-for-sustainable-buildings-in-nepal">sustainable building practices</a>. And by involving <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local communities </a>and embracing culturally responsive methods, the project can create lasting benefits for Nepal's tourism, economy and environment. The road to sustainability is a continuous journey, and with a committed and innovative approach, &nbsp;the STP is an opportunity for Nepal to lead in eco-tourism and set a precedent for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-sustainable-tourism-means-in-practice">sustainable tourism development</a> worldwide.

Greening Nepal’s tourism

Throughout its 260-year history, Nepal has tried to keep an equilibrium between its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/political-geography-of-india-nepal-china-ties">two giant neighbours</a>. Past rulers have tried to ensure friendly relations with India and China even if the two are not exactly friendly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/chindia?%2F">with each other</a>.&nbsp;
But just how delicate this balancing act can be was thrown into sharp relief last week in two events.&nbsp;
A Nepali was among 25 killed in an attack in Kashmir <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nukes-in-the-neighbourhood">last month</a>, and at a seminar on regional terrorism this week in Kathmandu foreign policy wonks felt Nepal needlessly irritated India by not being more forthcoming in its condemnation of Pakistan.
Then, at the annual Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/festival-of-mountain-films">Kimff</a>) Chinese documentaries on Tibet were screened under a China-funded ‘Xizang Panorama’ showcase.
There was an immediate backlash against Kimff for accepting Chinese sponsorship and the use of ‘Xizang’, the Chinese name for Tibet. The films were said to be 'colonial propaganda', and Beijing’s attempt to erase Tibetan identity, independence, and self-determination.&nbsp;
'The term "Xizang" is not merely a geographic designation—it represents China's calculated campaign to replace "Tibet" in international discourse, seeking to erase a distinct and vibrant artistic, literary and spiritual identity,' a collective &nbsp;of Tibetan filmmakers and writers wrote to Nepali Times last week as Kimff was ongoing.&nbsp;
The Nepal government in its diplomatic language has started using ‘Xizang’ to refer to Tibet, and there was speculation that the Chinese lobbied with the government to pressure Kimff to show the films on Tibet. Kimff did not respond to our request for comment.&nbsp;
“While we can advocate for the rights and identity of the Tibetan community in activism and media, the reference to Tibet in our diplomacy will remain in line with our foreign policy with regards to China,” says international relations specialist Indra Adhikari.
The terrorism seminar and the film festival controversy were just the latest examples of how Nepal’s government and civil society are being increasingly squeezed by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/no-man-s-land">rival neighbours</a>.&nbsp;
The rollback of Pax Americana <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/trump-s-first-month">under Trump </a>means that emerging powers China and India are filling the gap. The result: a politically-weakened Nepali state is now more subservient than ever before.&nbsp;
Nepal’s strategy of equidistance is fraying at the edges as Kathmandu is buffeted by countervailing pressure from north and south.
“<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">Nepal’s political leadership</a> in recent times has changed the definition of ‘national interest’ to suit its own circumstance,” explains former SAARC General-Secretary Arjun Bahadur Thapa. “This means our <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/at-home-and-abroad">foreign policy</a> tilts towards one neighbour or the other depending on which party is in power.”&nbsp;
To be sure, Nepal has asserted itself from time to time, eliciting Indian ire over the Limpiyadhura dispute, and Kathmandu’s refusal to directly condemn Pakistan on the Pahalgam attack even when one of its nationals was killed.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/balochistan-to-kashmir">Balochistan to Kashmir</a>, Shyam Tekwani
New Delhi has never liked the term ‘equidistance’, and there are also some in Nepal who want it redefined, taking into account proximity, &nbsp;cultural affinity, trade and economic <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/how-to-reboot-nepal-india-relations">relations with India</a>.&nbsp;
“Perhaps it is time that we move beyond equidistance to a more pragmatic approach,” says Adhikari. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-love-triangle-with-china-and-india-impacts-investment">Nepal’s relations with India and China</a> are different in nature, and our policy could reflect that difference.”
Meanwhile, Thapa is not so sure that growing American and Western disinterest in the region is making India and China more assertive towards smaller nations. &nbsp;
He says: “It is true there is declining Western interest in this region, but the US and Europe never really had more influence in Nepal than India and China.”
Speculation is also rife about how Nepal’s two neighbours regard the clamour on the streets and cyberspace for a restoration of a Hindu monarchy. The pro-monarchy RPP and RPP-N joined forces, but amidst shrinking turnout at their rallies decided to ‘decentralise’ protests to other parts of the country.
The Indian media has given wall-to-wall coverage to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">the royal rallies in Kathmandu</a>, almost at the level of its reporting on the cricket IPL. China has not said much, and seems more interested in trying to unite Nepal’s disparate Communist parties.
India’s ruling BJP and China’s CCP have their preferences for how and who governs Nepal, but that may not mean they are working at cross purposes. Both New Delhi and Beijing would prefer the buffer state between them to be politically stable.
Indra Adhikari says that sections of the BJP could want Nepal to become a Hindu state.&nbsp;
She adds: “Some in the BJP even want the reestablishment of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-party-reincarnating-hindu-monarchy">Hindu monarchy</a>. But China wants a stable and amenable government, preferably led by a leftist alliance.”

National insecurity

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

Everest summiteers find new life in the US

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

That winter day in January 1664 marked an exceptional event in the reign of King Pratap Malla of Kathmandu. It was 15 Paush 784 of the Nepal Sambat and for the first time, a historical event was being immortalised on canvas for generations to come.&nbsp; The occasion was the grand Tuladaan ceremony of the King’s youngest son Chakrabartendra Malla from his wife Anantapriya, an Indian princess from Cooch Behar in present-day Assam.&nbsp; During the ritual, the prince was weighed against gold, silver, pearls, and other precious stones, which were then offered to Goddess Taleju Bhavani, the guardian deity of the Malla dynasty.&nbsp; The 170 x120cm painting captures the time of King Pratap Malla in all its splendour and is more than a personal tribute to his son: it is a significant visual historical document. It was evidently completed five years later in 1669, and could be considered a photographic record, with retrospective recreation of the event by the unknown artist. A Tuladaan ceremony is performed to purify one’s karma, quell impending bad luck, or as an act of charity and devotion. Chakrabartendra Malla was not well, and the ritual was performed in hopes of restoring his health. King Pratap Malla had arranged for each of his sons to take turns ruling Kathmandu so they got administrative experience. But Chakrabartendra died just two days after assuming power in 1670 (790 NS). This painting is considered the earliest known example in which the composition is dominated by an architectural landscape: the Taleju Temple. Given the stylistic features such as side-profile facial depictions and the rendering of human forms, it is believed that the Nepali artist was trained by a Rajput master.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250615040624_ddad3bc27a327e3f9926c8473287e4f14b53081296c295049009f327a4d97051.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250615040624_ddad3bc27a327e3f9926c8473287e4f14b53081296c295049009f327a4d97051" data-rendition-name="original" width="3248" height="4395" loading="lazy" alt="Tuladaan NT"> </figure>  During that era, there were regular exchanges of artists between Northern India and Kathmandu Valley. The painting is also a melding of Nepali, Tibetan, Mughal, and Rajput art styles of the time. Pratap Malla could have been inspired by a painting of Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s Tuladaan ceremony for his son Khurram in 1607. The Mallas and Mughals shared cordial relations, which is reflected in the cultural influences seen in the art and attire of the period.&nbsp; The clothing of the Malla ruling class, in particular, features colourful tunics, turbans, and jewelry that display strong Rajput and Mughal stylistic elements. The musicians in the upper tier are also dressed in Indian-style clothing, while the ensemble on the lower steps wear local attire, notably without turbans. Their hairstyles also differ, with the lower group wearing their hair tied in a bun at the front. This national treasure is currently in storage at the Collège de France in Paris, and has never been publicly displayed. Nepal’s art scholars like Gautam Vajracharya, Pratap Aditya Pal and Anne Vergati have written about this iconic paubha in the past, but the only detailed study is from the perspective of music history by researcher Richard Widdess who had access to high resolution copies of the original.&nbsp; Widdess from the Department of Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London describes the paubha as the most significant and richly detailed documentation of music in Nepali art. He identifies distinct musical ensembles on the terraces of the temple, and remarkably most of them are actively used today. One of them reflects the Mughal naqqārakhāna model — a loud outdoor ensemble typically composed of kettledrums, trumpets, and cymbals, traditionally performed from the gateway of the emperor’s palace to announce his entrances and exits. The depiction of such an ensemble in the tulādāna painting is likely the earliest known representation of a complete naqqārakhāna in Nepal — considered the forerunner of the panche baja, the traditional Nepali ensemble. On the stepped pyramid base of the temple are two groups of musicians playing local instruments: dhimey, bhushya, and dha. They are unmistakably Newar musicians, wearing short skirts and short-sleeved tops, with bare heads and legs—clearly distinguished as local performers.&nbsp; Higher still on the temple pyramid are musicians of apparently higher status, positioned close to the king, and his courtiers, possibly professional court musicians from India, well-versed in rāga and tāla. A dāphā group is also clearly depicted, identifiable by their characteristic instruments.&nbsp; Dāphā bhajan is likely the oldest surviving tradition of Newar devotional singing, and this paubha is the oldest visual record of it. Pratap Malla himself is believed to have composed songs that continue to be performed by dāphā groups throughout Kathmandu till today.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061211064_d67636730cdc0ec778c02494817aca0b99654f2950d0fae4b95499a61faf7ef3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025061211064_d67636730cdc0ec778c02494817aca0b99654f2950d0fae4b95499a61faf7ef3" data-rendition-name="original" width="596" height="768" loading="lazy" alt="Priceless paubha in Paris NT"> </figure>  The artist’s thorough attention to musical detail may be attributed to King Pratap Malla’s own deep interest in music. His inscriptions on this painting and elsewhere proclaim his mastery of all branches of knowledge, including music. He is also known as the author of dance dramas and poems, penning his name as Kavindra (king of poets). Some noteworthy elements of new art techniques stand out: for example, the roof of the temple is filled with realistically rendered white doves, pigeons, and crows. This is a rare feature in paubha, where animals and birds are stylised, mythological forms. This remarkably talented unknown artist has managed to also render an orthographic projection: the front and side view of Nepal’s first architectural paubha. The Taleju Temple, with its staggering multi-tiered structure and numerous steps and platforms, is masterfully translated into layers within the painting. This represents a significant artistic achievement of the time, especially considering that dimensional perspectives had not started in deity-based paubha.&nbsp; The artist has also made a meticulous effort to capture architectural details such as the toran (ornamental arch) and temple struts with impressive precision. There are flickering lamps along the steps and some people carrying what appear to be oil pots.&nbsp; It is a full moon night and the dark sky is adorned with all the gods and goddesses, who are depicted as blessing the ceremony while seated on stylised thangka clouds. There is a lot happening in this painting, with people engaged in various activities. The artist has also rendered a forest backdrop behind the temple, complete with deer, trees, and flowers. Could there have once been a royal garden behind the Taleju Temple?&nbsp; More details and clarity can only be achieved if we are able to view the original or a high-resolution scanned version of the artwork. Many countries proudly display art depicting historical events in their national museums with great reverence. France, for example, has The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon and Empress Joséphine by Jacques-Louis David (1808–1822), along with numerous paintings of the Napoleonic Wars. Many were commissioned by Napoleon himself for future generations to remember.&nbsp; For Nepal, the equivalent is the Tuladaan paubha which is a visual record capturing a historic moment involving one of Kathmandu’s greatest kings, on the very day the event took place. Sadly, we await the day when this masterpiece is displayed, shared in high resolution for detailed study, or more rightfully — repatriated to its homeland, where it truly belongs. &nbsp; Shaguni Singh Sakya is the Director of the Museum of Nepali Arts (MoNA) at Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel. <h2>Gods homeward bound</h2> The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and Nepal’s Department of Archaeology are convening the first international conference on the Recovery of Cultural Heritage from 16-18 June in Patan. The conference will address urgent issues of theft, illicit trafficking, the campaign to repatriate looted cultural artifacts, and explore how the return of sacred antiquities contributes to justice, healing, and reconciliation for communities and nations affected by cultural loss. American art crime professor Erin L Thompson and Saubhagya Pradhananga of the Department of Archaeology will deliver the keynote. Meanwhile, author and Nepali Times publisher Kunda Dixit will lead a conversation on Illicit Trafficking: Public Opinion and Role of Media with Erin Thompson, Amr Al Azm, associate professor of Middle East History and Anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio, as well as Bradley J Gordon, a lawyer based in Phnom Penh. There will be sessions looking at repatriation perspectives from Cambodia, India, Vietnam, China and Poland, international frameworks for repatriation, emerging digital technologies in the repatriation of cultural heritage, cultural property agreements, museums as well as trends in the art market, and heritage diplomacy and the role of media.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061211068_59cfccfa8f5d73bfe8b4c5811a7f53abc09ea04e8cb7c638933d62e5283efdf6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025061211068_59cfccfa8f5d73bfe8b4c5811a7f53abc09ea04e8cb7c638933d62e5283efdf6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="1350" loading="lazy" alt="Heritage recovery NT"> </figure>  <h2> </h2> Some of the other highlights include James K. Reap, a professor in the Master of Historic Preservation Program at the University of Georgia who has a session on the US response to illicit trafficking. Art historian Lea Saint-Raymond is taking on “Gods at Auction: The Market for Himalayan Artefacts”, while lecturer of criminology at the University of Glasgow Emiline Smith is delving into transformative approaches to heritage ownership and repatriation. Helena Arose of Antiquities Coalition and Melina Antoniadis of NOSTOS Strategies that specialise on the return home of cultural heritage as well as Hao Liu of International Cultural Heritage Law at the School of Law at Shandong University are some of the others attending. The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign was set up in 2020 to develop a coordinated movement to reclaim Nepal’s stolen gods and goddesses, with an aim to ensure that recovered items are returned to their original shrines, niches or sanctums. Ahead of the conference opening organisers have arranged for a film screening of Loot &amp; Return: 4 Documentaries at YalaMaya Kendra in Patan Dhoka between 14-15 June. Following the conference is a multimedia exhibition titled Absent Gods: Nepal’s Lost Heritage from 31 July to 4 August at Patan Museum.