Jagan Nath Timilsina has summited <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm">Mt Everest</a>, won <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/hurtling-through-the-himalaya">the Great Himalayan Race</a>, climbed rock faces. He now runs multiple tourism businesses and spends his summers teaching in Alaska.&nbsp;
Born and raised in Sarangkot, surrounded by the spectacular panorama of the Annapurnas, Timilsina would hike for hours to school every day.&nbsp;
Timilsina wanted to start working as early as possible. At age 13, he went to India to look for a job but was too young to work security. So he came back to Nepal and became a trekking porter at age 14.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/too-many-mules-on-the-everest-trail">Too many mules on the Everest trail</a>, Alton C. Byers
Ambitious and resourceful, he took advantage of the government’s English language and training programs for trekking guides. Timilsina started out as a guide at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/british-pioneers-of-tourism-in-nepal">Himalayan Encounters</a> in 2004, and covered more than 100 trails in Nepal and Tibet over the next 11 years.
“Many porters become guides and stop,” notes Timilsina. “But I always want to take the next step. So I set my sights on mountaineering and climbing.”
He completed courses offered by the Nepal Mountaineering Association and the Khumbu Climbing Center (KCC), learning about avalanche safety, ice climbing and rescue training. Soon after, Timilsina summited Mt Everest. Since then he has scaled 25 other peaks, often leading expeditions.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/trail-running-trail-blazer">Trail-running trail blazer</a>, Sanghamitra Subba
Timilsina wanted to take his education further, so on the recommendation of teachers he met at the KCC, applied to the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), a non-profit outdoor education school founded in Wyoming. On his second attempt, he got into a 15-person course for instructors. &nbsp;&nbsp;
Timilsina's acceptance into the program was conditional: NOLS were stricter with candidates from Nepal, given the country's poor reputation regarding safety. He was surprised with a test about Wilderness First Aid, which Timilsina had passed in Nepal. This time, he failed. &nbsp;
According to protocol, Timilsina should have been sent home, but the instructors decided to give him a second chance: he could go on with the course, but would be retested after. “The course kept me busy from 6AM to PM, so I would study at night by headlamp, getting by on three hours of sleep,” recalls Timilsina.&nbsp;
The second the course finished, Timilsina was whisked away to give his retake. He needed at least a 75 to pass - he got a 99.&nbsp;
The deal was that the best-performing student in the course was offered employment at the institute. Timilsina had a job starting the very next day, and he has kept it, teaching in Alaska every summer.&nbsp;
He uses his experience to run outdoor education courses in Nepal too, including teaching wilderness skills to children with disabilities.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/run-sunmaya-run">Run, Sunmaya, run</a>, Vishad Raj Onta
“Once, the children were caught in a heavy downpour and I was worried,” recalls Timilsina, “but they assured me that it was nothing compared to what they deal with on the daily basis.”
In 2017, Timilsina won the first edition of the Great Himalayan Race, covering 1,600km in 46 days.&nbsp;
“Much of the race was very easy for me. I would get done with the day’s racing early, and spent the rest of the day taking in the beauty of the untouched valleys and cultures along the route.”
Timilsina now splits his time between Pokhara and Kathmandu, running his travel company Freedom Adventures, his non-profit Freedom Social Foundation, and organising races and training through Himalayan Trail Running.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-trail-running-champions">Nepali trail running champions</a>, Preeti Khattri
Harder than juggling all these ventures is navigating Nepal’s labyrinthine bureaucracy. Timilsina says: “It is frustrating to work in Nepal. To trek to Manang, for example, you need permits from four different entities.”&nbsp;
Outdated laws and arbitrary regulations have made things worse. Adding to the challenge is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/brain-gain-into-brain-drain">phenomenon of outmigration of the young Nepalis</a>, who are often only holding jobs as they wait for visas to be approved.&nbsp;
Despite all this, Timilsina is still optimistic about the future of Nepal’s tourism. He says: “There is endless potential here, but our attitudes around discipline and hard work need to match our ambitions.”

Vishad Raj Onta

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Juggernaut Timilsina

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218b89c7e80680e0baa5ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1032" height="720"/><figcaption>Photos: Pedro Queirós</figcaption></figure>On 8 May 2022, <a href="https://pedroqueiros.com/en/homepage-english/">Pedro Queirós</a> gazed up from the South Summit of Mt Everest and spotted the top of the world, a short distance along a wind-swept ridge.For the past 12 days, he had been in Camps 2 and 3, at 6,500-7,500m elevation, to avoid summit traffic and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/">deadly, fragile Khumbu Icefall</a> they would have to cross on their return.Queirós and Mingma Sherpa of 14summit set out with ropes to the top after calculating an optimal 48-hour window. At 9:39AM on 9 May, Queirós became the first non-Nepali climber this season and the sixth Portuguese overall to summit the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-building-a-highway-to-everest/">world’s highest peak</a>.Queirós, 40, grew up near the sea, playing football with his friends and exploring forests. Unlike many climbers, he was not exposed to the mountains, but wanted to explore the world, which ultimately brought him to faraway Nepal.The climb was brutal. Queirós had set out with an unshakable iron will, but the hunger, numbness in hands and legs, the 100mph winds, -40°C, loneliness up in the mountains, and the dead bodies on the slopes took their toll. It made him question his decision to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/um-hong-gils-project-impossible/">climb Everest</a>, and fear for his life.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218ba9c7e80680e0baa5bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="932" height="1344"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218bd9c7e80680e0baa5cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="842" height="720"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“Everything stayed the same, and yet, everything changed,” reflects Queirós. “I was reborn with Everest. There, you find out who you really are.”It took them about ten hours from the South Col to reach the Hillary Step. But each new struggle pushed him to continue, recounts Queirós, as the peak ahead was juxtaposed against the harrowing frozen body of an Indian climber who had died there last year. Queirós wanted to live, and he would.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218bf9c7e80680e0baa5djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1216"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Everest was not just to satisfy Queirós’s passion for adventure, but also to fundraise for the education of 25 children in Nepal that he supports.He had previously come to Nepal in 2015 to trek to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1/">Everest Base Camp</a>, after backpacking through Vietnam, only to experience the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lessons-not-learned-from-2015/">7.8M earthquake</a>. He then spent a year providing food, building houses and running Camp Hope, a refugee camp, for more than 350 people.“It was a life-changing event for me,” he says. “After living through the earthquake, seeing all the destruction, my life was never the same. Since then, I have been helping Nepal, my second home. It has given a lot to me, and I want to give back.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218c29c7e80680e0baa5ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="631" height="489"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This was the beginning of <a href="https://dreamsofkathmandu.blogspot.com/">Dreams of Kathmandu</a> to help children and those in need of education, housing, nutrition and health. Under his <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/">#nohunger</a> initiative, Queirós has also helped provide food to 100 families in Sindhupalchok and continues to feed 200 meals a day to children and adults in the slum areas of Mulpani.Through Dreams of Kathmandu, Queirós raises funds for building homes, providing meals or scholarships through adventures such as climbing, running and walking.On 10 January 2017, he walked from <a href="https://pedroqueiros.com/en/old-adventures/">Taj Mahal to Kathmandu</a> to raise €17,000 for earthquake victims and in April 2018 climbed Island Peak to raise funds to build the Sharadas orphanage in Kathmandu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218c49c7e80680e0baa5fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="853"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Further, with the Dwarika’s Foundation, he has built 96 houses in Sindhupalchok and 25 in Chapagaun, provided 100 scholarships, sponsored more than 50,000 meals after the earthquake, and fed over 3,000 families across Nepal.The climber has also been able to raise funds for dental appointments, financially assisted surgeries, ophthalmology appointments, and clothing and blankets for families.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218c69c7e80680e0baa60jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="478"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The 2022 Everest expedition was part of <a href="https://pedroqueiros.com/en/project-x/">Project X</a>, a humanitarian adventure initiative. With them Queirós has climbed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/what-is-it-about-ama-dablam/">Ama Dablam</a> and run a marathon to build a house for the family of a young Nepali boy. The team has also raise €10,000 to support the education of 25 children.All of the proceeds go directly to charity. “Every cent,” adds Queirós. “The travelling costs, hotel costs and food expenses come from my own pocket.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/637218c89c7e80680e0baa61jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1136" height="1052">Now, after the expedition, Queirós looks forward to some rest to recover from his injuries and spend time with family. “But in the future, perhaps I will swim the English Channel from France to England,” he says “or go to Antarctica to summit Vinson Massif.”It is nevertheless difficult to raise funds these days, he laments, and to convince foreigners to donate for people of another country.“A lot has to be done to get resources,” he says. “But the first time I saw Everest, I thought it would be impossible to climb it. Like every dream, if you believe it, you can do it. I want to continue helping, and I am not stopping.”Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/um-hong-gils-project-impossible/">Um Hong-Gil’s Project Impossible</a>, Sonia Awale

Aria Shree Parasai

Scaling the mountain of humanity

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe5a9c7e80680e0a0c34jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="784" height="286"/><figcaption>The famous view at Gokyo Ri draws tourists from around the world. It was abandoned in May 2021.</figcaption></figure>On the morning of 20 May this year, we dragged ourselves up to Gokyo Ri, the famous viewpoint in the Khumbu. Four of the world’s six highest mountains sliced the crystal-clear air in a spellbinding scene that had inspired us to visit Nepal.The only problem was that we were alone. In normal times, a May morning with perfect weather would have meant throngs of trekkers on the trails. The solitude was lucky for us, but a telltale sign of the grave risk that Nepal’s tourism-dependent regions now face.My girlfriend Mallika, our guide Kedar, and I were among the last trekkers in the Khumbu in Spring 2021. For 16 days, we had the trails, hotels, and even whole villages to ourselves. We spoke with many locals whose livelihoods rely on trekking, including guides, hotel owners, cooks, and shopkeepers.They painted a complex picture of great personal resilience, seriously depleted finances, and increasing worry about the impacts of Covid-19.The Nepal government should make clear policy decisions to support the Khumbu and other regions that focus on tourism. Policies can succeed by balancing income generation with Covid-19 risk. Speed is key: the trekking season begins in mid-September, and foreign tourists need to book their travel plans soon.The problem is that there have been three missed seasons of trekking income, with a fourth looming. Trekking drives Nepal’s tourism economy, especially in the Khumbu. It provides two distinct seasons of cash flow annually: March-May, and September-November. The lack of substantial off-season tourism makes each season a crucial financial opportunity.The COVID-19 pandemic has now blocked this opportunity for three straight seasons. The impacts were serious for everyone we met this year in Nepal’s tourism sector. Trekking guides normally work 10 treks per year, but many have not worked since 2019. We were Kedar’s first clients since February 2020. One French-speaking guide in Kathmandu, who usually gets reliable business from French trekkers, is now running a small grocery. Porters and lower-paid support staff were even worse off, with many leaving Kathmandu to avoid rents.Business owners are facing the risk of massive debts. They had envisioned recouping 2020’s losses in the Spring of 2021, but had no real chance to do so. The owner of a new hotel told us he had raced to finish construction for the season, but had few guests.Since he had to finance porters, mules and helicopters to bring the construction materials into roadless Khumbu, he was now far behind financially. In Lukla, a shopkeeper said she had moved from Kathmandu in late 2020 with her family to open her business. She had invested in having all her goods ready by March, but almost no one showed up to buy them.Despite these challenges, we saw the deep resilience of Khumbu locals. In the high mountains, people had shifted their focus from tourists to yaks. We managed lodging in shut-down villages with people who stayed to care for their animals. In the lower valleys, age-old agricultural rhythms were kicking into gear again.Mixed feelings about tourism during the pandemic were also evident. While we were vaccinated and wore masks around others, most people were wary of foreigners spreading Cvodi-19. The owner of our Namche hotel even gave us a bag of masks to hand out along the trail.It was clear overall that a lack of trekkers next season would be a big problem, further pushing an already stressed economy.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe5c9c7e80680e0a0c35jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>A proposed solution can be to open trekking in September, but require vaccine proof. The Nepal government can support the mountain tourist regions, while also protecting their health and honouring their fortitude by implementing a balanced policy that allows trekking for fully vaccinated tourists.September is the right time to open up. The low trekking season during the monsoon was a natural  buffer for the Covid-19 situation to improve both in Nepal and abroad. Now, with the lockdown having stabilised the case load somewhat, the improving conditions can also enable economic recovery.In the meantime, potential trekkers have been getting vaccinated. In 2019 trekkers mainly came to Nepal from the UK, USA, China, Australia, Germany, France, India, and several other European countries. Global Covid-19 vaccination data shows that European countries and the United States have vaccinated a large proportion of their populations. India and Australia lag behind, but have active vaccination drives.Clear communication from the government would be essential for this to work. Foreigners need to know the exact rules about vaccine proof, tests and quarantines before they decide to travel, and locals need to know that trekkers will not be allowed to come in and spread disease.Implementing vaccine proof travel may be easier than we might think. Vaccine passports may be difficult to require for Nepal tourist visas, as previously discussed in Nepali Times. Countries have been slow to roll out formal passports, and barring entry to Nepal for all unvaccinated people could exclude individuals with medical conditions from necessary visits.Enforcing vaccine proof when granting trekking permits would be much simpler. Vaccine cards already issued by every country, rather than formal vaccine passports, would be good enough for this purpose. The requirement would not exclude anyone from necessary travel since trekking is purely a pleasure activity.Furthermore, Nepal’s trekking regions already require special permits and there are many checkpoints along the way to verify them. The policy could be as simple as requiring the vaccine proof when giving the trekking permit. The Government would not need to invest in new infrastructure.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe5e9c7e80680e0a0c36jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="810" height="379"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nor would a vaccine passport requirement stop trekkers from coming to Nepal. Trekkers tend to be wealthy, health-conscious people with both the means and the motivation to get vaccinated. Ultimately, Nepal’s mountainous landscapes and outstanding people are an irresistible draw for foreigners. They will surely come, and will not endanger the people of Nepal, if the government lets them.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe609c7e80680e0a0c37jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="384"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Michael Henry is a Canadian who has worked in the social sector in Zambia, Senegal, Nigeria, and India, and has written about trekking, mountains, and livelihoods for Red Bull, India Development Review, Mountain Life Media, and others.

Livelihoods matter, restart trekking in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5ea9c7e80680e096739jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Kyanjin, at 4,100 metres, is the highest settlement in the Langtang Valley. All Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5ed9c7e80680e09673ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="358"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f09c7e80680e09673bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="412"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>After attending a night-long vigil for a dead relative, Karma Tamang was taking a nap in a room in his Panorama Guest House in Kyanjin, when he was woken up by violent shaking.He staggered out into the balcony, down the stairs and outside. All around him, stone houses were crumbling in clouds of dust. Then there was another more ominous roar from the cloud-covered slopes of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/five-years-after-avalanche-langtang-is-locked-down/">Langtang</a> Lirung directly above the town.“I knew it was an avalanche, but what we did not expect was a blast of wind so strong that it swept people and yaks off their feet and blew them away,” Tamang, 55, recalls.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R419Ei6SiEHe ran back to the farthest room in his lodge while the dirty snow blew all around like a blizzard.“There were people with broken limbs, faces bleeding, we rescued whom we could find, and sheltered them in the lodge,” he says.Tamang then remembered that his family was in his other guest house in<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-courage-and-endurance-of-the-langtangpa/"> Langtang village</a>, and ran down the valley. He met hundreds of locals and tourists, some with grievous wounds, fleeing in the opposite direction.When he reached the Army base overlooking the village, there was no village, just blocks of black ice the size of houses that looked like giant rocks. There was no sign of his home, where he had left his wife, sister, son and two nephews that morning.“I had tried to wake up my son to bring him back with me to Kyanjin, but he wanted to sleep, so I had left him there,” recalls Tamang  his face contorted by grief even six years later. They found the bodies four days later, half-buried in ice and boulders, on the other side of the valley.No one knows for sure<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/langtang-destroyed-in-earthquake,2205"> how many people died</a> in Langtang’s co-seismic disaster just before noon on 25 April 2015, but its physical and emotional scars are still visible everywhere.There used to be up to 150 trekkers every day passing through Langtang village before the earthquake, the numbers had started picking up again and lodge owners were so optimistic that they were adding floors, and expanding restaurant space.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f39c7e80680e09673cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="305"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>That construction spree is still going on as families who survived the disaster rebuild lodges near where the village once was, and in Kyanjin. Every day, there are dozens of helicopter flights ferrying iron rods, cement and plywood in slings up the valley from Syabru.“We had thought we had seen the worst of it after the earthquake, and took loans to rebuild our lodge, improve the facilities, but there have been no trekkers for a year now,” says Sumjo Tamang, 29, as she prepares tea in the immaculate, but deserted, dining area of her Snow Leopard Guest House.Sumjo’s husband was in Langtang village ploughing his potato field with two yaks when the avalanche came down. His body was found 200m away. Up in Kyanjin, Sumjo picked up her baby daughter, and ran out when the house started shaking--only to be blown away by the shock wave.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f69c7e80680e09673djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1125" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f99c7e80680e09673ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1125" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>She was knocked unconscious, and neighbours found her baby in a nearby field, unhurt. When she came to, Sumjo could not move her leg which was broken in three places. Her two other daughters also survived miraculously, and the family spent four days in a cave waiting for a helicopter rescue to Kathmandu. It took a year for her leg to heal so she could return to the ruins of her lodge in Kyanjin.“It has been difficult without my husband and with small children, but everyone helped and we were just starting to recover. Now, they say this Covid will go on for another few years, I don’t know how to carry on,” she says.Even if trekking revives, lodge owners here worry that there will be too much competition and rates will go down as lodge owners try to undercut each other. There are 40 tourist lodges in Kyanjin alone, in what used to be a tiny monastery village. Most are padlocked and their owners are away in Kathmandu, but others are using the pandemic to rebuild in anticipation that tourism will pick up again.Alone in his empty Panorama Guest House, Karma Tamang sits by a shrine in his dining area with photographs of his wife, son and nephews who perished in the disaster.“The earthquake was such a shocking tragedy that for a time, people here became spiritual and believed that it was divine retribution for being selfish, and for leaving the path of the dharma,” he says. “But six years later, everyone is now back to building bigger houses, they are heavily indebted, and Covid has killed tourism. There is a lot of anxiety in the people.”Here in Kyanjin, it was mostly the stone structures that came down in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015. And, as elsewhere in Central Nepal, everyone is rebuilding using reinforced concrete columns, presuming they are stronger. The steel and cement is all flown in by helicopter.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5fc9c7e80680e09673fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="278">On a ridge overlooking Kyanjin, the town’s Ward Chair Supa Tamang is supervising the installation of a Nepal Telecom mobile tower for which he lobbied two years in Kathmandu. As a Nepal Communist Party candidate, he was elected in the 2017 election, but is far away from the political intrigue and infighting of his party in Kathmandu.“We survived the earthquake, and we will survive Covid as well,” says Supa Tamang confidently. “The new lodges, better facilities and mobile connectivity prove that the people of Langtang are hoping for a better tomorrow.”Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese/">The Story of Langtang Cheese</a>, Gyalbu Tamang.

Kunda Dixit

Langtang copes with quake and Covid

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42099c7e80680e04a6adjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3986" height="2947"/><figcaption>Karma Tenzing on the Summit of Mount Everest 8848 meters above sea level. Photo: Jangbu Sherpa</figcaption></figure>Even as a photograph of the traffic jam on Mt Everest went viral on the internet and was featured on the front page of The New York Times on Wednesday with a damning story on overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain, other Nepali climbers have posted photographs that show just the opposite.Among the climbers is Karma Tenzing, a teacher educated in New York who has returned to Nepal to set up his own school and educate young Nepalis, who summited Mt Everest on 15 May.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-season-of-summits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Because we are there</a>, Damien Francois<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/crowd-funding-from-mt-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crowd-funding from Mt Everest</a>, Ivān G Somlai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/expeditions-brings-down-11-tons-of-mt-everest-trash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Expedition brings down 11 tons of Mt Everest trash</a>, Bharat Bandhu Thapa<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a420d9c7e80680e04a6aejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480">“The photograph of traffic jam went viral, with every media in the world using it, and I felt it misrepresented and exaggerated what was going on in the mountain,” Tenzing told Nepali Times after returning to Kathmandu this week.  “It is a once or twice a year phenomenon that has been portrayed around the world as an everyday event at the summit.”He said he was prompted to post his own photographs showing a relatively deserted Hillary Step on the Southeast Ridge of Mt Everest. “I had the mountain to myself and spent an hour on top,” he added.Karma Tenzing posted this on Twitter on 24 May:Weird seeing non-mountaineers voice opinions about the rush to summit of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Everest?src=hash">#Everest</a>. No, don’t cap the number of climbers! These are “real” climbers who’ve paid their dues &amp; are qualified &amp; remain. With only 3-4 clear window days to summit, this will happen every darn year. I feel you should voice yourself only if you’ve been in the mountains and climbed the deadly Khumbu Icefall trying to avoid any killer falling ice, climbed to Camp 3 with brute jumar strength pulling yourself up for hours and hours and then to Camp 4 where the iar has hardly any oxygen. Finally making it to the summit dead tired after 12 hours of intense climbing (with 3 days of no sleep &amp; non stop walking) only chocolate bars for nutrition. After that , making it down to Base Camp walking for 2 days calculating every step in case you slip &amp; fall. Only then, I’ll hear your opinion. PS: Even with very little climbers on the 15th and 16th , folks perished in Camp 4 and above. In the end, the climb to the summit ain’t a catwalk or easy as in photos. #Stupidity<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42109c7e80680e04a6afjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="641" height="470">Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-last-of-the-first/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The last of the first</a>, Shard Ojha<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-season-of-summits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The season of summits</a>, Lisa ChoegyalTenzing admits that with 300 plus climbers and their guides on the mountain and only a three day weather window this spring, it was inevitable that there would a crowd on top. But he stressed this is not a regular happening. He said it would be a bad idea to cap climbing permits, and suggests other methods to regulate climbing so it is more orderly.After the news of overcrowding continued to go viral and the mainstream media started picking it up, Tenzing could not bear it any longer and tweeted this again on 28 May:<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Everest?src=hash">#Everest</a> unfairly trashed via viral image of “traffic jam” on May 22 2019. Below are REAL photos of my climb to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Summit?src=hash">#Summit</a> on May 15. Devoid of jams &amp; I spent an HOUR at summit. With only a 3-4 day weather window &amp; ~300 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EverestSummiteer?src=hash">#EverestSummiteer</a> annually, jams will exist. Spread the truth!<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42129c7e80680e04a6b0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="182" height="242"><figcaption>Climbing up the Balcony 8,400 m on 15 May. You can see the South Summit of Everest high above on the right. Photo: Karma Tenzing</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42159c7e80680e04a6b1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="814"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42179c7e80680e04a6b2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3024" height="4032"><figcaption>Past the South Summit of Everest and climbing the Cornice Traverse with the Hillary Step in the background. Photo Karma Tenzing</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a421b9c7e80680e04a6b3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024"><figcaption>Khumbu icefall. Photo: Karma Tenzing</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a421f9c7e80680e04a6b4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="1024"><figcaption>South Col. Photo: Jangbu Sherpa</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121148/636a42229c7e80680e04a6b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500"><figcaption>Karma Tenzing a few metres’ climb away from the South Summit of Mount Everest 8749 metres above sea level. Photo: Jangbu Sherpa</figcaption></figure>Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/expeditions-brings-down-11-tons-of-mt-everest-trash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Expedition brings down 11 tons of Mt Everest trash, </a>Bharat Bandhu Thapa

Most days, it’s not so crowded on Mt Everest

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902969c7e80680e037c71jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Photo: Mark Aiston</figcaption></figure>The New Zealand government is working with the Nepal government to find out if Mt Everest shrank after the 2015 earthquake, and if so by how much. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is supporting Dr Chris Pearson, a New Zealand geodesist who is spending four weeks working with the Survey Department of Nepal to assist them in planning the project and processing data from its early phases.Geologists say the April 2015 quake may have shrunk the mountain by about 3 centimetres. The current officially recognised height of Mount Everest is 8,848 metres.The project involves the use of both conventional surveying techniques similar to those used by George Everest (who surveyed Mount Everest in the 19th century) and a modern global positioning system receiver that will be taken to the top of the mountain to measure its height. The final verdict about the height will come in mid-2019.This year marks the 65th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s successful ascent of Mount Everest.“The legacy of this historic achievement on 29 May 1953 continues to underpin New Zealand’s close and warm relationship with Nepal, as well as support its further growth. It is therefore a proud moment for us at the New Zealand Embassy to support this important initiative that will help us ascertain the correct height of this renowned geological landmark,” says Joanna Kempkers, the New Zealand Ambassador to Nepal.“It is an honour for New Zealand to be assisting the Department of Survey and the Government of Nepal with this important and high profile task of re-measuring Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world and an iconic tourism attraction for Nepal. We are also pleased to have been able to provide targeted technical support to Nepal following the earthquakes.” said Lisa Choegyal, New Zealand Honorary Consul to Nepal.Niraj Manandhar, Deputy Director General of Nepal's Geodetic Survey Division Department of Survey, said Nepal was pleased to have New Zealand’s help and Pearson’s expertise.Trimble NZ, a US-based firm that manufactures advanced positioning solutions, has donated a complimentary licence of their GPS processing software for use in analysing the data collected during the project. They also plan to lend two state of the art GPS receivers for use during the summit measurement.Pearson led a successful post-earthquake survey mapping project along with Nepal's Survey Department in 2015 to help the country rebuild after the two massive earthquakes earlier that year.The earthquakes caused the ground to move by about 2 metres, sending co-ordinates in geographic information system and geodetic databases "well off'' their actual locations. He worked with the Survey Department to develop mathematical models to correct co-ordinates and survey measurements for the quake-induced ground movement. This work was also supported by the New Zealand government.

Re-measuring Mt Everest

<h2>Art of Freedom is a brilliant portrait of one of the purest alpinists of our time</h2> <figure><img width="768" height="432" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d6699c7e80680e031482jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Pic: Mateusz Skwarczek Agencja Gazeta</figcaption></figure>There was the rattle of pans and the hiss of a kerosene stove from the kitchen tent. Poking my head out of the sleeping bag, I saw the huge hulk of Makalu silhouetted against the dawn sky. It had snowed all night, the moon and some of the stars were still out. There in the semi-darkness, Voytek Kurtyka was hanging by one hand from a truck-sized boulder.It was the spring climbing season in 1981, and we were camped out on a moraine by the Barun during the march-in to Base Camp. Kurtyka was planning an alpine style ascent of Makalu’s unclimbed west face with his climbing partner Alex MacIntyre. The weather was bad and the face was impossible. The two returned in autumn, but they were defeated by a 500m rock overhang near the summit. Another Polish climber Jurek Kukucka made it to the top solo a few days later.Bernadette McDonald, the Canadian author of ten mountaineering books, chronicles the Makalu expeditions and other climbs by one of the greatest alpinists of all time, Poland’s Voytek Kurtyka, in her new book, Art of Freedom. Even though they were mountaineers of the same generation from the same country, Kukucka and Kurtyka’s approaches to climbing could not be more different.McDonald writes about how Makalu presaged the difference: ‘Jurek was focused on summits, and Voytek was obsessed with style.’ <img width="640" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d66c9c7e80680e031483jpeg.jpg" alt="">Kurtyka was a driven man, completely consumed by his climbing and an ardent opponent of militaristic expedition-style climbing of Himalayan peaks. Attaining the summit was not so important for the reclusive Kurtyka, what was important was how a climber got there.A year after Makalu, Reinhold Messner invited Kurtyka to join him on Cho Oyu. But when he got to Base Camp, Kurtyka found out the climb was ‘not going to be alpine style, but siege style’ with high altitude porters, ropes and fixed camps. Kurtyka tells McDonald he likes to climb ‘unleashed’. We read about the climber’s dislike for mountaineers who write in a ‘pretentious or self-aggrandizing style’. He adds: ‘I now see clearly that climbing is an Art. I also see that advertising is a poison, while self-advertising is the oldest disease in the human soul.’Read also<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/the-nepali-chronicles,2195" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Nepal Chronicles</a>, Kunda DixitIn the week when the assembly line jumar mass-conquests of Mt Everest is reaching its annual climax, these lines have special relevance. Art of Freedom takes us back to the purity of climbing that Kurtyka believed in like a religion – a style in which humans meet mountains one-on-one.Kurtyka’s approach to climbing is low-key, humble and almost Buddhist, a complete antithesis to the chest-thumbing, record-breaking race that it has become, especially on Everest. Naturally, Kurtyka is vehement about over-regulation by governments intent on turning climbing into an industrial enterprise. He is proud of his many illegal climbs.He tells McDonald: ‘Being illegal is part of a creative life. Restrictions are mostly imposed by the brutes of the world and they turn our lives into slavery. They ruin the sense of freedom. I am not a natural born hater, but sometimes I find it is my duty, I hate every kind of rule.’Read Also<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19191#.WvvqCLh-jjE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountains in Large Format,</a> Kanak Mani DixitAfter returning to Kathmandu from Makalu in 1981, Voytek and Alex would go bar-hopping in Thamel and come home after curfew. Because they did not want to wake up my parents, the two would climb up the drain pipes to the second floor ‘apline style’ with the dogs howling at the intruders.Kurtyka would have taken a dim view of the outrageous reaction by Nepal’s tourism ‘authorities’ to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/outside-in/shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Willie Begenas and Matt Moniz skiing from Camp 3 to Camp 2 last week</a>. Or the new ‘rule’ decreed by the governors of mountaineering in Kathmandu to ban double amputees from climbing (since rescinded).The danger is always there, and Kurtyka is one of the few who lived to tell the tale of alpine style climbing of the big peaks. Kukucka died on Lhotse South Face, and MacIntyre on Annapurna South Face. In the book, Kurtyka tells McDonald why he thinks he survived: a combination of luck, an instinctive alertness to danger signals, or even ‘some idealistic notion of a reciprocal love between the mountain and him’.Bernadette Mcdonald’s book takes us into the soul of a spiritual climber who sees in mountaineering a manifestation of nature in its purest form, a creative drive he calls ‘Crea’. Art of Freedom is a brilliant portrait of one of the cleanest climbers of our time.Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka  by Bernadette McDonald Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 326 pages Hardcover $32

Voytek Kurtyka unleashed

<h2>NITFest 2019</h2>The Nepal International Theatre Festival is a celebration of art, culture and traditions through theatre performances, and brings 30 diverse plays from 9 countries to Kathmandu. The plays are spread across 4 theatres across the valley. Rs300 for each show.6pm at Mandala Theatre, Anamnagar, (01)5705761:1. Roop Aroop, India, 1 March2. Jokhana, Nepal, 2 March3. Ek Mulaqat Manto Se, India, 3 March4. Desaparaecidos 43, Italy, 4 March3pm at Kausi Theater, Teku, 98412269591. In Transit, India, 1 March2. Paanch, Nepal, 2 March3. Head 2 Head, India, 3 March4. Nidravathwam, India, 4 March4:30pm, Gothale Theater, Battisputali, (01)44696211. Hip Hop Coppelia, Nepal, 1 March2. Ta Rehaye, Afghanistan, 2 March3. Mattbring, Bangladesh, 3 March4. Mokshada, Nepal, 4 March1pm at Kirtipur Theatre, Kirtipur, 98039495801. Gaida Times, Nepal, 1 March2. Aaran, Nepal, 2 March3. Helen, India, 3 March4. Garbha Chhita, Nepal, 4 March<h2>The Big Quiz</h2>The quiz has 10 rounds with five questions each. With a broad range of topics, you are bound to find your forte. Each team can have up to 6 people. Bring your own team or join a table. Rs200 per person will be collected, and awarded to the winning team.6 March, 7-8:30pm, Rs200, (01)5536051, Base camp Outdoor Lifestyle, Jhamsikhel<h2>KathaFest</h2>An international photo and film festival with movie screenings and photo exhibitions to unleash the power of storytelling. An ideal platform for young photographers and filmmakers to share stories, and open to all for attendance. <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.kathafest.org/buy-tickets?fbclid=IwAR3FaFOQZD5OpgEVaFf7C6UUUqMx9B1-zQNTahB9b_F_eBv2TSXo6V0i2AM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here for tickets.</a>1-2 March, 12pm, Rs200, Baber Mahal Revisited, 9813776692<h2>Mahashivaratri</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221104141140/636516a39c7e80680e02c227jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="414"/>Thousands of devotees assemble at the Pashupatinath temple, pray and fast for spiritual cleansing in this Hindu Festival honouring Lord Shiva. Sadhus from Nepal and neighbouring India travel to the temple.4 March, Pashupatinath temple <h2>Gyalpo Losar</h2>Tibetan and Sherpa communities celebrate their new year with special delicacies, dancesand festivities.7 March, Tundikhel<h2>Stories</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221104141140/636516a59c7e80680e02c228jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="851">An exhibition of etchings by Saurganga Darshandhari, recipient of Shakti Art by Women Award.1-23 March, 11am-5pm and 12-5pm (Saturdays), Siddartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited, (01) 4218048, 4433930 <h2>Karnali Art Exhibition</h2>15 Nepali artists have captured the lifestyle of Karnali region through their paintings which were created in Mugu as part of the Karnali Art Workshop.4 March, 11:30am, Theatre Mall, Kirtipur, 9861463752<h2>Kids yoga</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221104141140/636516a89c7e80680e02c229jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480">Consider sharing the breathing and mindfulness practice with your children and see how it transforms them. Spoilers: they are likely to cultivate coordination and awareness of others, while developing techniques to relax the mind and body.Every Sunday, 4:30-5:30pm, Sooriya Wellness and Yoga Centre, Lazimpat, Rs500 (per class), (01) 4001714, 9818481972<h2>Patan on foot</h2>Walk through narrow streets and wide courtyards in the old town of Patan and explore its intangible heritage to understand the relevance of traditions in everyday life today. Examine the scope of Newar Buddhism and evolution of Patan as an urban hub. Every Monday and Thursday, 9-11am, $5 per person, 9801002974, sherpashah@gmail.com

NITFest 2019

The daily 10-hour curfew at Tribhuvan International Airport from 8 November that will last five months has affected tourism during Nepal’s peak season, with some hotels and trekking agencies here reporting cancellations into spring next year. The reduced hours at Nepal’s main aviation gateway till 31 March means that a third of all flights have been cut. This has also caused ticket prices to surge by up to eight times of normal fares. For example a Kathmandu-Delhi ticket that used to cost Rs12,000 is now listed at Rs50,000, and even then seats are not available.&nbsp; “Especially if they are here to trek, change in flight dates can cause tourists to miss their connections,” says Jagan Timilsina, who runs a trail running and outdoor education business. &nbsp; Pokhara is feeling the brunt as hotels report last-minute cancellations for November because of flight disorders. Some hoteliers also say although there have been some cancelled trips, most itineraries have been rescheduled.&nbsp; Hari Prasad Sharma Gaire of the local chapter of the Hotel Association of Nepal says the Kathmandu airport closure should have been timed for the off-season. He told us: “Starting construction during the peak tourist season was a mistake and will cause the tourism industry to lose a lot of business. The upgrade could have been spread out over a longer time but closed for fewer hours at night so that disruption was minimal.”&nbsp; Nearly a third of the 1.2 million tourists who visit Nepal annually come to Pokhara, which is also the gateway to Mustang, the Annapurna treks and pilgrimage tourism to Muktinath. Located by scenic lakes with a range of adventure sports like hot air ballooning, paragliding, canyoning, bungee and ziplines, Pokhara is also popular among diaspora Nepalis. “Besides its own attractions, Pokhara is really the hub for central Nepal, and we have been trying to get visitors to extend their stay here,” says Timilsina, who started out as a trekking porter and rose up the ranks to be an expedition guide and entrepreneur. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60" data-rendition-name="original" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara's tourism woes NT"> <figcaption>Tourist arrivals in Pokhara have slumped since the disruptions at Kathmandu airport due to upgrading work. Photo: KRISHNA MANI BARAL/NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  Even without the Kathmandu airport closure affecting tourist arrivals, Pokhara was already suffering from a decline due to many factors like the poor state of the Prithvi Highway, the shortage of luxury accommodation for high-end tourists, and the reluctance of international airlines to start direct flights to Pokhara despite an expensive new airport that was inaugurated two years ago.&nbsp; “There was a lot of initial excitement on the construction of the international airport,” says Timilsina, “but it hasn’t delivered as expected due to politics. People have invested in nearby businesses, and have faced losses.” India has blocked direct flights from its cities to Pokhara because the facility was built by a Chinese company. Although tourists and pilgrims from India hit record levels this year, the poor state of the highways and the Indian bus accident on the highway to Kathmandu in July that killed 27 pilgrims from Maharashtra state dampened arrival figures. Gaire says, “While tourist arrivals to Pokhara are now approaching pre-Covid levels, we haven’t seen the improvement we were expecting. We need a better marketing strategy. What are our embassies abroad doing?”&nbsp; Indeed, Pokhara used to be a favourite destination for Chinese tourists. There was a boom in arrivals from China before Covid, especially after a popular Chinese tv serial was shot on location here. But arrivals from China have not really recovered since the pandemic because of the economic slowdown there. Promoting Pokhara airport to handle direct flights from Chengdu or Kunming could revive Chinese arrivals.&nbsp; Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) has used the Kathmandu airport closure as an excuse to arm-twist international airlines to start flying to Bhairawa, which has barely been in operation for two years since it was inaugurated. So far, Fly Dubai, Thai AirAsia, Jazeera and Qatar are flying to Bhairawa, but most use it as a hop before flying on to Kathmandu, which does not reduce congestion at Kathmandu.&nbsp; An ideal situation could have been to get Pokhara to run to full capacity while Kathmandu is partially out of action. Pokhara entrepreneurs are puzzled why the CAAN and the national government have not taken more interest in promoting Pokhara as an alternative to reduce the congestion in Kathmandu. Nepal’s football team that was flying to Dushanbe this week couldn’t get tickets via Delhi, and took a domestic flight to Bhadrapur, crossed over to Bagdogra and flew on to Delhi to catch their flight to Tajikistan.

Pokhara’s tourism woes

An excerpt of a conversation between an anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin, PhD and Lava Deo Awasthi, PhD, the first Chairperson of the Language Commission of Nepal. Nepali Times: What is the role of Nepal’s Language Commission and when was it formed? Lava Deo Awasthi: The Constitution of Nepal (2015) created a Language Commission (LC) with the following four core mandates: (a) to develop eligibility criteria for gaining status as an official language and offer recommendations to the Government of Nepal about the official language(s) in each province; (b) to offer recommendations to the Government about measures to be taken for the conservation, promotion, and development of languages; (c) to suggest possible ways of using mother tongues in education by assessing their stage of development; and, (d) to conduct studies, carry out research and perform monitoring functions about the response to the constitutional provisions for the federalisation of languages in Nepal. The Commission was founded in 2016 and I was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission in September of the same year by the Cabinet of Ministers. What in your own professional and educational background helped to prepare you for the role? I have worked with the Government of Nepal for about 30 years, alongside holding teaching appointments at universities in Nepal. Prior to assuming the role of the Chairperson of the Commission, I served as permanent Secretary to the Government of Nepal and worked as the Chief Administrator of the Central Development Region. I was appointed as Director General of the Department of Education and completed my assignments as Joint Secretary at the Planning, Monitoring and Educational Administration Divisions of the Ministry of Education.&nbsp; In addition, I have taught courses as a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University for more than three decades. Later, I also started supervising MPhil and PhD students at the Far Western University in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur. My PhD project from the Danish University of Education was dedicated to making sense of Nepal’s social construct and commitment to multilingualism, exploring the persistence of monolingual school practices in the face of constitutional promises and state commitments to multilingualism. I conducted a survey of Nepal’s languages and carried out a qualitative study of the Tharu language in the district of Bardia. I analysed language policy statements and explored classroom pedagogies in schools. I documented how teachers showed a tendency to resist change and maintain the status quo because they were not consulted when new educational language policies were introduced. Teachers also exhibited a deeply-held adherence to the Gurukul education system which appears to have been harnessed as a way to resist newer pedagogical ideologies imported from the West. Recognising how engrained these rich traditions of knowledge transmission are, I wanted to know how students’ engagement in the learning process appeared to have dwindled, creating a gap between children’s home languages and the language(s) of the school. Whilst statutory provisions for education in the mother tongue were oriented towards promotion, classroom pedagogies remained resolutely monolingual and exclusionary. The result was that multilingual education policies that had been introduced in Nepal did not result in meaningful changes in classroom practices. My research was also a reflection of childhood traumas I had experienced at the earliest stage of formal education. My home language, Baitadeli, has a strong oral tradition and no written literature. English is my fifth language in terms of exposure and competence, and my home district of Baitadi is well-known for its loyalty to the local language. I had to drop out of school after completing my sixth grade. Staying at home, I received much attention from my family and had much greater exposure to my native language, culture and environment. My overall impression is that dropping out of school had a surprisingly positive impact on my life. The opportunity offered a surprising dividend for me as I gained mastery in my mother tongue and received extensive exposure to folk literature and Indigenous knowledge and survival skills, cultivating my interest in language, culture, literature and local cosmologies.&nbsp; Now that I reflect on it, I appreciate how language has always played a key role in my life. I grew up in a multilingual environment: brought up with Baitadeli, Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali and English. Language played a major part in my decision to leave school and my later success is closely linked to my competence in several languages. It was rewarding to be at home with my family as I deepened my understanding of native language and culture, which in turn helped me to harness and refine my art of living. Languages matter so much to me because they are both software and hardware. Later, when I was in secondary school, I realised that my command of my home language contributed significantly to enhancing my Nepali and English. I used my mother tongue as a form of linguistic capital to strengthen my competence in both English and Nepali.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi"> </figure>  In your term as the Commission’s first Chairperson, what were your strategic goals and objectives? My first strategic goal was to create an environment conducive to implementing the provisions of the Constitution of Nepal in relation to language. My priority was to prepare a detailed action plan for my six-year tenure in consultation with language stakeholders, including language experts, professionals, activists, Indigenous community members and representatives of relevant national and local-level institutions. The Commission formed a body of high-level advisors to ensure that the Chairperson’s work was well-informed and credible. The advisors to the committee had highly visible professional and social reputations in Nepal and had much experience in the field of language conservation, promotion, research and development. Another strategy we adopted was to establish close institutional linkages with federal, provincial, and local level governments for collecting opinions and disseminating information widely.&nbsp; What critical issues did you have to consider while discharging your duty? When Nepal’s new Constitution was drafted, a number of concerns could not be adequately addressed. These related to the conservation of languages, the recognition of official languages at the provincial level, and the use of mother tongues at federal, provincial, and local levels. These unresolved issues and matters pertaining to the federalizsation of Nepal’s languages were passed on to the Language Commission to address and resolve.&nbsp; Regarding the recommendations for official languages, a five-year timeline had been set by the Constitution. With great effort, we succeeded in having all provinces agree to recognise their official languages as per the recommendations of the Commission.&nbsp; What were your greatest achievements during your term? One of the greatest achievements was that we succeeded in setting a language agenda at all levels. Nepal’s language communities and other stakeholders expressed the view that this was the first time their languages were recognised and their voices heard by the state. People participated in debates and discussed issues relating to language that in all likelihood had never before happened in their lifetimes, at least not in ways that were supported by the state. We encouraged people to speak in their own language(s) and provided translators during plenary sessions and group discussions. Another major achievement was developing criteria for the status planning of languages at federal, provincial, and local levels, and to recommend 11 province-level official languages, in addition to the Nepali language. Similarly, a notable achievement was recognising Indigenous languages spoken by smaller communities, all of whom faced ongoing marginalisation and high levels of endangerment. The Commission identified 9 new languages that had not been reported in the 2011 census, and provided a framework for recognising official languages within a municipality. The commission emphasised the need for documentation and digitisation of languages for developing corpora and archives at national and sub-national levels.&nbsp; Languages of historical importance as well as classical languages were given recognition for their protection, growth, and development. Recommendations were made for the conservation, promotion and development of Nepal’s marginalised languages that are threatened by majority languages and for those languages that hold particular power at local and global levels. Recommendations were also made for how best to safeguard Nepal’s languages from the ever-growing spread of English and other powerful, globalising languages.&nbsp; A further important aspect of the Commission’s work was to emphasise mother tongue medium instruction in schools across the nation. Recognising the role of language in children’s cognitive, socio-emotional and academic development, the Commission suggested strategies for linking schools with ward-level language clusters for use in the classroom. The importance of nurturing and respecting a child’s first language was reiterated in the Commission’s recommendations for children’s learning and all-round development. By the end of my term, a remarkable change could be observed in terms of building trust within and across Nepal’s diverse language communities. A network of language groups and stakeholders across the country proved to be a powerful way of bringing all language communities under one roof for a collective review of and response to the process of federalising language policy. The many language stakeholders across Nepal appreciated the opportunity to work within a coordinated framework, and—feeling empowered by this—seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the initiatives taken by the Commission.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi NT"> </figure>  What were the most significant challenges for you as Chairperson? One of the major challenges was winning people’s trust in advocating for the mission of the Language Commission. I faced considerable resistance as I sought to emphasise the use of native languages in families and communities. While the Commission advocated for multilingualism and promoted linguistic diversity, the prevailing policy circles and central level institutions had been deeply influenced by a one-language discourse and ideology of Nepali only. The spread of English also poses a huge threat to Nepal’s languages. However, people in power do not seem to see this as a problem. They tend to abandon their own languages in preference for English. The way that Nepal’s municipalities are increasingly introducing English as a medium of instruction at the earliest stage of a child’s school-based education has proven to be detrimental to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and academic success. Most of Nepal’s elites have been heavily influenced by the spread of English and remain unaware about its impact on their home languages as well as on the inter-generational transmission of Indigenous languages in the country. I wish that we could have produced more compelling evidence to show the consequences of making poor policy choices for our children’s education. Demystification calls for a collective response. To make change happen across this entire, complex and federalising country was daunting work and left like a race against time. I feel that I could have done more to offer concrete examples in favour of using the mother tongue as a medium of children’s education at the earliest stages of a child’s education. What do you see the Language Commission achieving in the next 5-10 years? The Language Commission will have to ensure that all of its key recommendations are implemented at all levels of government. In 10 years’ time, all seven of Nepal’s provinces will have their official languages in place. These languages will also be recognised as languages of federal business, alongside Nepali. I anticipate that all official languages in the federal and provincial systems will have a national portal for inter-language corpora using machine translation to fulfil their federal, provincial and local level language functions, and that all languages spoken in Nepal will be represented through a digital database in the national archive. The Office of Statistics will monitor the status of Nepal’s languages over time. By the end of the next decade, each municipality in the country will have recognised one or two official languages at the local level, based on speech populations. Other local languages will have received community-level legal recognition and official status to fulfil their functional roles. Languages that are highly endangered or at risk will be entitled to receive state grants for enhancing local level capabilities to encourage families and young learners to speak the language. Incentive schemes will be introduced in municipalities that promote language within the family and at home. Inter-generational transmission of languages will have received welcome and timely attention across Nepal. It is my hope that all schools—public and private—will have introduced mother tongue medium instruction at the earliest stage of school education, at least up to class five. Nepali, English and other national as well as classical and foreign languages will be taught as subjects. The existing policy of English medium education at the early stage of education will be abolished. The Government of Nepal will be held accountable if the number of speakers of any language decreases or if local communities face language loss and greater endangerment. Under the aegis of the Language Commission, a Centre for Language Research and Innovation will be created with world-class facilities for language documentation and archiving in collaboration with Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Linguistics and other relevant institutions. Harnessing the vastness of Nepal’s linguistic diversity, the Language Commission will morph into a centre of excellence for national and international communities to engage in collaborative language research, to share experiences and document best practices at in service of global linguistic diversity and Nepal’s many Indigenous languages.

Languages are both software and hardware

Earlier this month, Nepal received Rs1.6 billion from the World Bank as part of its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees">Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)</a>, rewarding the country for increasing its carbon sink capacity. Nepal is the first in South Asia to benefit from this facility, and it is specifically to recompense the country for increasing forest cover in 13 Tarai districts between 2018-2024. “We are also trying to get another Rs13 billion from the facility while also preparing for free market-based carbon trading in the international market,” says Nabaraj Pudasaini of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) Implementation Centre. Big emitters of greenhouse gases are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and many have signed agreements to do so by investing in decarbonisation projects in developing countries. Countries that emit more than a specified amount of carbon would be able to buy emission rights from countries that emit less. Nepal is internationally known for its community forestry program which has been largely credited for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous">increasing tree cover to over 45%</a> in less than three decades. But this achievement had not been adequately recognised or rewarded internationally before. Forests, especially in the tropics, absorb and store large amounts of carbon while releasing oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">Preventing deforestation</a> and increasing canopy cover is considered a much more achievable goal than reducing emission in the scale necessary to limit global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP11 in Montreal in 2005 first proposed reducing carbon emissions by improving forest quality by halting degradation. By 2015, a new mechanism of financial assistance was created to help less developed countries with sustainable management of forests <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/">(called REDD+)</a>. Under this new mechanism, countries receive aid based on their efforts to prevent forest degradation and increase carbon sink, and in 2021 the World Bank was entrusted with implementing it. Nepal’s FCPF receipt this month was calculated on the basis of 2.4 million tons of carbon stored at a rate of $5 per ton. In the second phase, Nepal will receive more than Rs4 billion within the next year for storing an additional 7 million tons of carbon. Eighty per cent of this amount obtained from carbon trading needs to be spent on local beneficiaries and indigenous communities.&nbsp; But carbon trading is not easy, Nepal needs to prove that protected forests will not be destroyed in future.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="Greenbacks for greenery NT "> <figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Explains carbon trading expert Yugan Manandhar. “Forests should be handed over to the community and shown that they are managed sustainably. Proving this will be particularly challenging; forest encroachment and degradation is rife in the Tarai.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke">Deliberate forest fires</a> have also added to the challenge because they increase carbon emissions and reduce the sink capacity of forests. The basis for the amount that Nepal received was set five years ago by calculating the carbon reserves of forests in the 13 Tarai districts. In the meantime, sustainable forest management, tree plantation, forest destruction and erosion control were prioritised to increase carbon reserves in those forests. Nepal is signing another carbon trading agreement during the ongoing Baku climate conference. The <a href="https://www.leafcoalition.org/">Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF Coalition) </a>proposes to sell the carbon stored in the forests of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. For this, Nepal signed the letter of intent three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow. The target is to store 70 million tons of carbon in 32 million hectares of forest in the three provinces per which Nepal will receive Rs13 billion in four years at $10 per ton with provisions to increase the rate if various conditions are met. However, the agreement in itself doesn’t guarantee the amount. According to the targets set by Nepal, forest degradation should be stopped and carbon reserves increased by protecting tree cover. Preparations are also underway for clean air carbon trade because it has offset fossil fuel use by introducing 30,000 electric vehicles. Nepal has been selected for the first round to receive $40 million within one and a half years through the Clean Air System of the World Bank. Given that most of Nepal’s energy mix is from biomass, replacing them with electric stoves can significantly improve health by reducing indoor pollution as well as strengthen the country’s capacity for carbon trade. “Nepal's goal now is to sell carbon in the free market where carbon credits are bought and sold based on supply and demand in an open and transparent manner,” adds Pudasaini of the REDD Implementation Centre. “Nepal can now set its own price and bargain with interested buyer countries and organisations.” Lately, India has been discussing setting up a carbon market. Nepal has exported Rs12.72 billion worth of electricity to India so far this fiscal year, which can be traded under Nepal’s carbon market. “Carbon trading can create significant economic benefits for Nepal, which will help reinvest in development and environmental protection projects,” says Manandhar. “But we must prioritise sustainable management of forests, cutting older trees and allowing regrowth as well as promoting electric stoves and electric vehicles.”

Greenbacks for greenery

Nearly 750,000 Nepalis went abroad for employment in the past year, and more than 100,000 left on student visas. Most of them were young Nepali men and women, and the number has been increasing every year. As with other sections of society, Nepal’s security agencies also face a recruitment crisis. Nepal Police opened recruitment for 64 inspectors in September, and received 2,239 applications, compared to 2,718 candidates last year. Police also invited candidates for 256 assistant sub-inspectors this year for which it received 17,756 applications – down from 19,932 last year. It is the same story in the Nepal Army, the number of applicants for the post of Officer Cadet (Second Lieutenant) went down from 6,144 for 400 open seats in 2019 to 4,390 in 2020. Meanwhile, applicants in the paramilitary Armed Police Force went down from 857 applications for 75 posts in 2021 to 536 applicants for 99 posts last year. While the number of applicants appears higher than the demand, the data shows a significant decrease in applications for vacancies in Nepal’s law enforcement agencies. Security personnel are recruited on the basis of rank and age in Nepal, and the age cutoff for entry into Nepal’s security agencies is typically 25 years. Sociologist and migration expert Ganesh Gurung says that the demographic of young, physically fit Nepalis emigrating abroad in search of better opportunities has impacted recruitment into law enforcement and the military here at home. “The returns from working in Nepal’s police and army are minimal, whereas overseas job opportunities are more attractive,” Gurung says. “The work may be physically demanding abroad, but the pay is a lot higher.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="534" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Police"><figcaption>Nepal Police</figcaption></figure>  Nepal Police spokesperson DIG Dan Bahadur Karki agrees that the physical and mental demands of a law enforcement job is incomparable to the income that security personnel earn. “A young Nepali who works in Dubai earns enough to build a home in the village within four years, while a Nepali with the same qualifications and physical ability in a security agency here barely makes enough to survive,” says Karki. “Obviously the youth prefer foreign employment.” Security agencies are now worried about the quality of inducted manpower. “There is a difference in work ethic between an applicant chosen from a competitive pool of 50 candidates versus one chosen from a pool of three candidates,” explains Gurung. “Unmotivated employees hamper the overall performance of the state apparatus.” Nepal Army spokesperson Brigadier General Gaurab Kumar KC says recruitment has not been hampered by outmigration: “We have still been getting more than three times the applicants than there are open posts, so we are not yet worried.” Even so, the passing rates of aspirants have gone down for security forces after the Public Service Commission began examinations for military recruitment in 2015. In fact, the Nepal Army complained about the Commission’s involvement in recruitment. Still, the number of vacant military posts tends to exceed the number of passing candidates. Nepal Army’s KC says that the military will not compromise on intake criteria even if there are fewer passing applicants. “Unqualified persons will not be admitted even if there are less-than-required passing candidates. We will re-advertise if that is the case.” But Nepal’s security forces now also have to worry about retention of existing personnel. About 900 Nepal Army, 600 Nepal Police, and 300 Armed police personnel resign every year before the completion of their tenure.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="750" height="378" loading="lazy" alt="Armed police forces"><figcaption>Armed Police Force</figcaption></figure>  In 2020, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa recalled almost 1,000 police personnel who had been deployed for the security of VIPs after long-standing criticism that security forces were being misused to cater to political and bureaucratic leadership. However, security personnel have continued to be assigned to high-ranking officials as glorified housekeepers. In December 2022, Rabi Lamichhane’s Home Ministry had instructed its offices to recall unauthorised security personnel assigned to high-ranking officials, following which 500 officers from Nepal Police and Armed Police Force were withdrawn from their details. But the Nepal Army does not have to follow such rules, and the practice of army personnel serving high-ranking active-duty and retired military personnel remains. Conditions here are dire enough that many active duty officers in Nepal’s military and police forces have chosen to leave their jobs to serve in the Russian Army to fight in the Ukraine war. The hierarchical culture and chain of command of politics, bureaucracy, law enforcement and military has also meant that abuse and mistreatment of subordinates is rife in Nepal’s security forces. “Feudalism is alive and well within our security institutions,” says Gurung. “When soldiers and security forces who swore to protect and serve the nation are made to be at the beck and call of politicians and bureaucrats, it is easy to understand why they are disillusioned with their jobs and why they choose to quit and find jobs abroad.”

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