A year-and-half after the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-to-conduct-census-amidst-covid-19-surge">Nepal’s 2021 National Population and Housing Census</a> was conducted, the final results were finally published on 24 March. Nepal’s population has crossed 29.1 million but annual growth has slowed to 0.92% from 1.35% ten years ago. The gender ratio is even more skewed, with only 95.6 males per 100 females. There are now 6.6 million households across the country, an increase of 23% over the decade, which means more nuclear families. The population pyramid now shows fewer children, a youth bulge, and greater numbers of elderly. Ten years ago, 35% of the population was below 14, that proportion had gone down to 28%. &nbsp;Meanwhile, the number of people older than 60 has climbed to 10% from 8%.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230330200332_04700ada170ba5cbd7ffb2c7c985faa219b104269fe83418387ee9864a007a73.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230330200332_04700ada170ba5cbd7ffb2c7c985faa219b104269fe83418387ee9864a007a73" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal demography NT 1"> </figure>  “The decrease in the population growth rate is characteristic of the state’s efforts to drive socio-economic development, and is similar to global population trends,” says Keshab Prasad Adhikari at the Central Department of Population Studies at Tribhuvan University. “What the government and related agencies need to do now is formulate programs and policies so that the annual population growth rate does not go down any further. And if it does, not less than 0.5%.” Prof Adhikari finds it alarming that the number of female births and the female population under 14 is lower than males. Which shows a cultural preference for boys, even though women tend to live longer.&nbsp; More than 66% of Nepalis now live in urban areas, but that is only because of the new demarcation of municipalities. Even so, there is a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-moving-from-mountains-to-plains">mass migration</a> of the mountain population from the mountains to city hubs in the plains. Nearly 54% of Nepalis now live in the Tarai, while only 6% remain in the high mountain districts. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/counting-on-nepal">Counting on Nepal</a>, Editorial <div class="embed-block"> <iframe title="Population by age group" aria-label="Split Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-3L11U" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3L11U/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="600" height="595" data-external="1"></iframe></div> “Transmigration to urbanised spaces and to the plains has been haphazard. And in many cases, areas that do not need to be have been unnecessarily assigned as urban,” adds Adhikari. The 2011 census had shown that 64% of total households used biomass for cooking, and this has gone down to 51%, mainly because 44% of homes use LPG. Access to piped drinking water has gone up to 57% in 2021 from 48% a decade ago. &nbsp; Almost 73% of Nepali households have smartphones while 37% have access to internet services, and nearly half of households own a television. Meanwhile, 27% of the households own a motorcycle, with only 3% having a four-wheeler.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everybody-counts-in-nepal">Everybody counts in Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230330200340_4687f9ad170b396d5e9da7eb4976ba0ca32548e8975370a3e464cc0b79ff8e7b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20230330200340_4687f9ad170b396d5e9da7eb4976ba0ca32548e8975370a3e464cc0b79ff8e7b" data-rendition-name="original" width="830" height="619" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal census breakdown NT 2"> </figure>  Nepal’s literacy rate has gone up to 76%, up from 66% in 2011, with female literacy increasing from 57% to 70%. However, only 19% of young Nepalis opt for higher studies after completing school. &nbsp; The census was conducted using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) techniques with tablets to collect data in Kathmandu Valley, using cartographic GIS maps to better reach enumeration areas, and allocating a separate data processing centre within the CBS premises. Chief Statistician Ram Prasad Thapaliya at the National Statistics Office writes in the final report: ‘There is enormous demand for a high granularity dataset in Nepal’s new context of decentralisation in social and economic planning, provision of social services and resource allocation. The census process and results were designed and managed to generate comprehensive demographic social and economic data in consultation with stakeholders.’ However, there are questions about the precision of the census <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics">data</a>. For instance, Nepal’s absentee population is recorded as crossing 2.1 million, but this appears to be a gross under-estimate considering that there are about 2 million Nepalis in the Gulf states alone, and it does not include Nepalis in India and students in Australia, Japan or Canada. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-holding-census-despite-covid-and-boycott">Nepal holding census despite Covid and boycott</a>, Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230330200340_0ef7f50be80c824d9d6dfcac7c0703097f4f66c891b59a60c7f82d5f02528be6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20230330200340_0ef7f50be80c824d9d6dfcac7c0703097f4f66c891b59a60c7f82d5f02528be6" data-rendition-name="original" width="648" height="706" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Census breakdown NT 1"> </figure>  The results also have not disaggregated the data by ethnicity and religion even though those questions were included in the census. The government could have considered those to be too sensitive in Nepal’s present context.&nbsp; Hem Raj Regmi of the National Statistics Office (NSO) says, “There was confusion about some respondents declaring unlisted religion and ethnic affiliations which is why we have kept back those figures.” But the RPP-N’s Kamal Thapa has accused the government of deliberately hiding figures that would have shown a growing Christian population due to proselytisation. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), now the <a href="https://cbs.gov.np">National Statistics Office</a>, established 7 provincial, 87 district and 349 Local Census Offices to conduct the census, deploying 8,545 supervisors and 35,657 enumerators with local knowledge to collect data across Nepal. The census was conducted over a fortnight from 11-25 November 2021. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/remembering-the-1961-census/" target="_blank">Remembering the 1961 census</a>, Bhairab Risal

Shristi Karki

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Nepal’s demographic dividend

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b838f9c7e80680e067743jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Nepal’s government decided on Monday to postpone the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everybody-counts-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">12th National Population and Household Census</a> scheduled for 8-22 June this year until further notice, as the country confronts a massive surge of coronavirus cases.The cabinet decision came as Nepal recorded the highest-ever daily case counts for Covid-19 over the weekend, with 7,211 people testing positive on Sunday from 16,770 PCR and antigen tests, representing a 43% positivity rate.When the decision came on Monday, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) was on the last leg of its training sessions, having been on the 5th day of a week-long local-level training of 8,000 census supervisors across the country. The only step left was to select 39,000 enumerators and train them in late May on how to approach, interact with, and interview people and fill out the questionnaire. “Training sessions were ongoing in parts of the country where infection rates are relatively low, with safety protocols,” says Tirtha Raj Chaulagain of CBS.CBS had devised three phases of training at the central, provincial and local levels ahead of the census. Three program sessions were completed as part of the central-level training in early March, during which 200 officials were brought up to speed to operate as provincial and district officers to be deployed in 87 census offices across the country. In early April, CBS officials scattered across the country for the provincial-level briefings to train census instructors.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618706386602000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGs5AKAqBxWcsFpWndSFaItFSLfSg">Lies, damned lies, and statistics</a>, Ramesh KumarEven as Chaulagain was speaking with Nepali Times, Nepal’s National Statistical Council was meeting to discuss recent developments. “There is some confusion about the state of affairs right now,” Chaulagain explained. “We have not yet received an official written notice regarding the postponement yet, but we will make any decision public as soon as the meeting of the National Statistical Council concludes.”In its 110-year history, Nepal’s census has been conducted out-of-schedule once in the 1950s, owing to the 1950 revolution that led to the fall of the Rana autocracy. All work related to the census was abandoned in the wake of the revolution, and the census resumed after a gap of more than 10 years in 1952 and ended in 1954, amid a newly democratic political climate. Incidentally, the 1952-54 count also marked the first modern census in Nepal’s history.The 12th census, first under a federal system, will comprise three separate questionnaires: House and Household Listing, the main questionnaire, and the Community Questionnaire, which are expected to provide more comprehensive and accurate data. The main questionnaire with 55 questions will be the longest questionnaire out of any other country that conducts a census, while the Community Questionnaire will be the first of its kind used in a national census.CBS has changed the methods of data collection, making an open call for applications for enumerators and census supervisors from their local communities instead of assigning government school teachers like in the past. Meanwhile, CBS has also planned to make more prominent use of technology in the data collection process with enumerators deployed within Kathmandu Valley to use electronic tablets to record information.As ambitious as the census was set to be, Chaulagain estimates that postponement will add at least Rs9million more to operational costs.The 12th census is expected to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-to-conduct-census-amidst-covid-19-surge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reflect the country’s changing socio-political and demographic landscape more accurately</a> and add to the country’s linguistic, cultural, and ethnic richness.When Nepali Times spoke to him in mid-April, Chaulagain had maintained that CBS remained optimistic over conducting the census on time as the cases were low, saying that provided all training sessions were completed, the census could be conducted as planned with proper distancing and safety protocols.“We are looking at the daily rates and projections and there is no point in taking unnecessary risks right now,” Chaulagain told us on Monday. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/remembering-the-1961-census/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/remembering-the-1961-census/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618706386602000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFNnRId5olOIWaMI35aM8tnwor0xA">Remembering the 1961 census</a>, Bhairab Risal

Nepal postpones census amid Covid-19 surge

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cebb29c7e80680e09ad20jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Nepal’s government decided on Monday to postpone the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everybody-counts-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">12th National Population and Household Census</a> scheduled for 8-22 June this year until further notice, as the country confronts a massive surge of coronavirus cases.The cabinet decision came as Nepal recorded the highest-ever daily case counts for Covid-19 over the weekend, with 7,211 people testing positive on Sunday from 16,770 PCR and antigen tests, representing a 43% positivity rate.When the decision came on Monday, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) was on the last leg of its training sessions, having been on the 5th day of a week-long local-level training of 8,000 census supervisors across the country. The only step left was to select 39,000 enumerators and train them in late May on how to approach, interact with, and interview people and fill out the questionnaire. “Training sessions were ongoing in parts of the country where infection rates are relatively low, with safety protocols,” says Tirtha Raj Chaulagain of CBS.CBS had devised three phases of training at the central, provincial and local levels ahead of the census. Three program sessions were completed as part of the central-level training in early March, during which 200 officials were brought up to speed to operate as provincial and district officers to be deployed in 87 census offices across the country. In early April, CBS officials scattered across the country for the provincial-level briefings to train census instructors.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618706386602000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGs5AKAqBxWcsFpWndSFaItFSLfSg">Lies, damned lies, and statistics</a>, Ramesh KumarEven as Chaulagain was speaking with Nepali Times, Nepal’s National Statistical Council was meeting to discuss recent developments. “There is some confusion about the state of affairs right now,” Chaulagain explained. “We have not yet received an official written notice regarding the postponement yet, but we will make any decision public as soon as the meeting of the National Statistical Council concludes.”In its 110-year history, Nepal’s census has been conducted out-of-schedule once in the 1950s, owing to the 1950 revolution that led to the fall of the Rana autocracy. All work related to the census was abandoned in the wake of the revolution, and the census resumed after a gap of more than 10 years in 1952 and ended in 1954, amid a newly democratic political climate. Incidentally, the 1952-54 count also marked the first modern census in Nepal’s history.The 12th census, first under a federal system, will comprise three separate questionnaires: House and Household Listing, the main questionnaire, and the Community Questionnaire, which are expected to provide more comprehensive and accurate data. The main questionnaire with 55 questions will be the longest questionnaire out of any other country that conducts a census, while the Community Questionnaire will be the first of its kind used in a national census.CBS has changed the methods of data collection, making an open call for applications for enumerators and census supervisors from their local communities instead of assigning government school teachers like in the past. Meanwhile, CBS has also planned to make more prominent use of technology in the data collection process with enumerators deployed within Kathmandu Valley to use electronic tablets to record information.As ambitious as the census was set to be, Chaulagain estimates that postponement will add at least Rs9million more to operational costs.The 12th census is expected to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-to-conduct-census-amidst-covid-19-surge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reflect the country’s changing socio-political and demographic landscape more accurately</a> and add to the country’s linguistic, cultural, and ethnic richness.When Nepali Times spoke to him in mid-April, Chaulagain had maintained that CBS remained optimistic over conducting the census on time as the cases were low, saying that provided all training sessions were completed, the census could be conducted as planned with proper distancing and safety protocols.“We are looking at the daily rates and projections and there is no point in taking unnecessary risks right now,” Chaulagain told us on Monday. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/remembering-the-1961-census/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/remembering-the-1961-census/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618706386602000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFNnRId5olOIWaMI35aM8tnwor0xA">Remembering the 1961 census</a>, Bhairab Risal

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

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

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The Last Days of the Khampa

Turkish to Seville

Digital protection for Nepal’s art