Hibernating students of the Himalaya

Distance learning has a different meaning in Mustang, the arid and cold plateau on Nepal’s border with China. It means that every November, students, teachers, admin staff pack everything up and move down to Pokhara.

It is just too cold to study in the unheated classrooms when howling winter wind can send the mercury plummeting down to -20°C. Hundreds of students and teachers used to do the 10 day trek to Pokhara, but these days they can just pack everything in a pickup for the 12 hour journey down the Kali Gandaki River. 

In Chosar, Geeling, Lo Manthang, schools are already padlocked and sometimes the parents have moved down with their children as well for the winter hibernation.

Since 2004, the Nepal government has been supporting schools in high Himalayan regions to conduct ‘mobile schools’ so that students and teachers get funds to move entire classrooms to lower altitudes in winter.

The federal government now provides each school with Rs350,000 for their moves, and if that is not enough local rural municipalities also chip in.

Pemba Lhamo is a Grade 10 student of Dibya Deep Secondary School in Chosar in Upper Mustang and has just arrived in Pokhara. His mother has also accompanied him, and she is trying to earn some money on the side by starting a small souvenir shop for tourists by the Lakeside. 

“I’m enjoying the sun here and Pokhara is much more fun, and because my mom is here I don’t miss my village as much,” says Pemba, who wants to be a doctor when he grows up and is a scholarship student at his school. 

But his classmates Kusang Angmo, Yangji Dolka, Pema Sangmo, Nanki Lhamo, Yangden Sangmo all miss the clean air, clear blue sky and the mountains of home.

The annual school hibernation from Mustang takes place from November to March. When the temperature starts climbing again in spring, the students travel back to Mustang and continue their classes.  

Pokhara is less than 1,000m above sea level and has a sub-tropical climate with the daytime temperature staying in the mid-20s even in winter. This is a far cry from Upper Mustang where wind gusts and sub- zero temperatures make the wind chill factor unbearable.

There are now 611 students from 16 schools from Upper Mustang in Pokhara, and most have their own arrangements with local private schools, while some have constructed their own buildings in Pokhara.

Rahmat Dhuniya from Kapilvastu is the principal of Dibya Deep in Chosar. Like many of the teachers in government schools in Mustang, he is from the plains and this makes it doubly difficult for him to adjust to the  thin air, and winter in the mountains.

“I grew up in the Tarai so it was hard for me at first, but then it wasn’t any easier for the locals either in winter,” says Dhuniya. 

Dibya Deep is now constructing its own building in Pokhara. But until it is completed, it coordinates with Bhawani Kalika School in Bijaypur to run classes in two shifts: 5:30-9:30AM for Grades 1-7 and 10AM-4PM for Grades 8, 9 and 10.

Pal Ewam Namgyal Monastic School in Mustang, which has 126 students, is also running classes from nursery to high school in Pokhara’s Bhakunde. Students have enrolled here to become nuns and monks, and have classes on Buddhism in addition to core courses.

Because it is a monastic school, students enrolled here are from all over the country. Hira Khadka, 15, is from Rukum and studies in Grade 4. “I like Pokhara, it is much warmer than Mustang,” she says. “The view of Phewa Lake from my classroom window is great too.”

Chhayang Lhamo Gurung, 17, from Upper Mustang is a Grade 9 student. She says: “The school here in Pokhara has more facilities and is more convenient than the one in Upper Mustang. I like it better here.”

Deepa Gurung Thapa Magar who teaches Nepali at Pal Ewam Namgyal finds it difficult to adapt to the harsh environment of Upper Mustang when the school moves back up in the summer. 

“I'm from Pokhara so it is difficult for me up there in the cold weather. But I brave it anyway because it is an adventure on its own," adds Magar.

This temporary migration from the mountains to the Valley below and vice versa is not easy for the students and teachers alike but they are making the best of the circumstances to try and continue their education amidst many challenges in Nepal’s education system.