After the devastating earthquake in 2015, the Nepali classical musical band Sukarma travelled to Switzerland to perform concerts to raise money for reconstruction back home. This time, the folk-classical musical trio went back to southern Switzerland to raise money for relief and reconstruction for the damage caused by massive storms and floods there in June — possibly the first time Nepalis have reciprocated for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/60-years-of-helvetas-in-nepal" target="_blank">Swiss assistance </a>over the past six decades. “It was truly an honour, and a proud moment for us as Nepalis that we could give back to the Swiss people in their own time of need,” said Dhrubesh Chandra Regmi, the renowned Nepali sitarist and founder of Sukarma, on return to Kathmandu after his concert tour.&nbsp; As the name of the band itself implies, it is all about earning good karma points, and proof that help does not always have to be one-sided. Sukarmal's renowned tabla maestro <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1424" target="_blank">Atul Gautam died in 2005</a> of brain hemorrhage. Flutist and Grammy award nominee <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/king-of-music-for-kindness" target="_blank">Manose Newa</a> was also a part of Sukarma at one time. Sukarma was founded in 1997, has <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18354" target="_blank">performed often in Europe</a> and several times in the southern part of Switzerland on behalf of <a href="https://kamforsud.org/en/" target="_blank">Kam For Sud</a>, the Swiss non-profit working on education, health and ecology projects in Nepal, especially after the 2015 earthquake.&nbsp; This time, Sukarma’s Europe tour included two concerts on 6-7 September in Maggia and Mesocco in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland that was devastated by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/switzerland-storms-flooding-landslide-bridge-c439ed5a966f94775082b8c70369666c" target="_blank">storms and landslides in late June</a>. Four people were killed when rivers burst their banks on the southern side of the Alps.&nbsp; The concerts were held at the church of S. Maria delle Grazie in Maggia and S. Maria del Castello in Mesocco, and Sukarma performed together with the four-member choir Vocalia known for its &nbsp;Romanesque diphonic singing.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024092214098_1f209513a175f60311c200d0d6186f7ebf7c3af210b6baabc555627ec5be1542.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2024092214098_1f209513a175f60311c200d0d6186f7ebf7c3af210b6baabc555627ec5be1542" data-rendition-name="original" width="1174" height="1514" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali classical musical band Sukarma NT 2"> </figure>  “Sukarma has always stood for using music as a source of harmony, compassion and togetherness,” Regmi told Nepali Times. “So it was natural for us to return the generosity the Swiss people showed Nepal after the earthquake. The concerts were a symbol of solidarity and mutual help.” The concerts were organized by Kam For Sud, which had invited Sukarma several times to Switzerland to raise money for its activities in Nepal. But after hearing about the storms that ravaged Ticino, Regmi expressed the desire to perform for Switzerland in return. “All three of us in the band felt a strong urge to share our music in solidarity with the Swiss people who had in the past shown tremendous support for Nepal during our disaster,” Regmi noted. Sukarma is made up of Regmi on sitar, Yati Raj Adhikari on violin and Jagannath Dhaugoda on tabla and madal (pictured). The band has performed in Nepal and around the world to spread its message of harmony and peace through music.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922140912_9dd1452e995f682953007bb720e044f3d4421cfe1ed23def3b04d83b439dda12.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20240922140912_9dd1452e995f682953007bb720e044f3d4421cfe1ed23def3b04d83b439dda12" data-rendition-name="original" width="4320" height="3596" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali classical musical band Sukarma NT 3"> </figure>  Both concerts at the Swiss churches served as a moving demonstration of the deep ties between Nepal and Switzerland, with Sukarma’s music symbolising unity and support across borders. The Alps and the Himalayan are both at risk from the impacts of climate breakdown and the extreme weather events as a result. Glaciers are shrinking and receding in both mountain ranges, affecting water supply in the two countries as well as downstream. There have been unseasonal heat waves melting the ice cap on the Alps and unleashing severe storms like the one in June, while the Himalaya have suffered successive winter droughts and record-breaking rainfall. Says Regmi: “Our music is also a call for humanity to live in harmony with nature, so that the ecological balance of Mother Earth can be restored.”

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Nepali band raises money for Swiss charity

<img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111156/636cd98a9c7e80680e092ea8jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>After surviving a deadly road accident 10 years ago, Ram Bahadur Tamang-Gole is still on the road – this time in a wheelchair.On Wednesday he set a new Nepal record for the longest wheelchair ride, from the eastern end of Nepal to the west, a journey of 1,028km in 26 days. He braved rough patches of highway, fumes from trucks, but for him the scariest part was traversing Bardia National Park where a man-eating tiger was on the loose.“We got a lot of help and generosity along the way, I am really happy to have completed it and hope to make even longer journeys in future,” Gole told Nepali Times at Dhangadi airport before flying back to Kathmandu.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/making-nepal-accessible-to-all/">Making Nepal accessible to all</a>, Nepali TimesEarlier, 39-year-old Gole had done warm-ups by making trips on his wheelchair from Namo Baudha to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/the-wheel-of-life,4157">Lumbini and from there to Bodh Gaya in India</a>. He was accompanied by his relative, Man Bahadur Tamang.After setting off from the Mechi Bridge on the Indian border on 27 February, Gole crossed towns and cities and the Kosi, Kamala, Bagmati, Narayani, Tinau, Rapti, Baba, and Karnali rivers to finally reach the Mahakali Bridge on Nepal’s western border with India.  He broke his spine in 2011 when his bus fell into the Bhote Kosi in Sindhupalchok while on his way back from the Chinese border at Kodari. Rescuers had left him for dead, but he survived. Gole has been paralysed from the waist down ever since, and was treated at the <a href="http://www.sirc.org.np/">Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre</a> in Sanga.  <img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111156/636cd98c9c7e80680e092ea9jpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="360" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111156/636cd98e9c7e80680e092eaajpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="359" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111156/636cd9909c7e80680e092eabjpeg.jpg" alt="">He now works at the Centre as a counselor for other patients like him, where his message is never to lose hope and to always aim higher. In that spirit, he now hopes to complete a journey across the Subcontinent to the southern tip of India.“The bad road in Daunne was difficult, but we were really afraid when we heard that a man-eater tiger was loose in the jungles of the Bardia National Park. Luckily, we got an army escort up to the Karnali Bridge,” Gole recounts.His message to others with similar injuries is: “Never give up. It doesn’t matter if I cannot walk, I can still travel, and carry on with my life.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/changing-disability-to-this-ability/"> Changing disability to this-ability</a>, Sravasti Ghosh Dastidar

East to west Nepal in a wheelchair

<img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca959c7e80680e08bb75jpeg.jpg" alt="Atlantic charity rowing race"/>Four members of a boat that took part in the world’s most challenging competition to raise money for schools in Nepal have come third in a grueling trans-Atlantic rowing race.  Calum Barclay, Ashley Jones, Nick Kempster and Jack Carter took part in the <a href="https://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1612604576130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFLdwPB7eR_WHzv86BQ9UJxNaGdlQ">Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge</a> to row 5,000 km from the Canary Islands to the West Indies in 37 days.“Being a Gurkha officer in the British Army, I had knowledge and love for Nepal, and we have so far raised enough money to build two schools in Nepal and hopefully we will raise more,” says Ashley Jones. The <a href="https://www.humanpractice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Durga_Secondary_School.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.humanpractice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Durga_Secondary_School.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1612604576130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGuo1QMhRTXlEiOxWPyuIZ8119zow">two schools are in Taplejung</a> in eastern Nepal.The crew has a target of raising $300,000 for <a href="https://hpfatlantic.co.uk/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hpfatlantic.co.uk/index.php&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1612604576130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFc5coNpy7LGA-BWYcEnPpbUYIZ0g">The Human Practice Foundation (HPF)</a> to help build schools to educate 1,300 children every year. HPF, set up in 2014, has built 59 schools in Nepal and Kenya, helping educate 27,000 children. It also supports a <a href="https://www.humanpractice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Case_Coffee-Practice.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.humanpractice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Case_Coffee-Practice.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1612604576130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEOd3fi8ox8__DhOqsGfx1djnzQ9g">Coffee Impact Program</a> in Nepal. <img width="1024" height="768" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca989c7e80680e08bb76jpeg.jpg" alt="Atlantic charity rowing race">The team rowed for two hours at a time and had two hours off, doing this for 24 hours a day for the 37 days it took to make the crossing. They ate freeze-dried high calories foods, and consumed 5 litres of water each per day from a water maker device on board. They navigated using an electronic chart plotter and had information on weather so they could avoid bad weather and take advantage of winds.  “We never slept for more than 1.5 hours at any one stretch, and once a day could link to the internet for 5 minutes,” Jones said.The team <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rowing-across-the-atlantic-to-help-nepal-school/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rowing-across-the-atlantic-to-help-nepal-school/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1612604576130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGalx7E2PEx65RiGV2p3uHG9CgMcg">left the UK at the height of Covid-19</a> and reached La Gomera in the Canaries. But for the worst part of the pandemic the team was out at sea. The team took a more northerly route because of the weather, but it lost its lead. Then northerly winds battered the boat with waves over the beam.“During the last third of the trip, it was really quite hot and no escape. The cabins were hot to touch and the inside was like an oven,” Jones recalls.The crew did some fishing more for distraction than for food, catching mahi-mahi and tuna. They saw minke whales, dolphins, turtles, tuna, and swordfish. Of the 20 boats that left the Canary Islands, four were attacked by marlin, and their hulls speared.Members of the crew have served in war zones, rowed the North Pacific, climbed mountains, and ran marathons. Some members of the group now want to row across the Indian Ocean, but the others will go back to their day jobs in the UK. “We will have to wait and see how the recovery goes, but I imagine it will take some time to forget the hardship, but who knows,” Jones says.   More people have climbed Mt Everest than rowed the ocean, and the team members spent two years planning for the race with over 100 hours of training. They battled 10m waves, and used buckets for toilets, losing 12kg of body weight during the crossing.

Rowing to educate Nepal children

<figure><img width="1800" height="1472" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110912118/636b8afd9c7e80680e06b273jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>At <a href="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&amp;cx=011870630917993763279:opm7uqsat-4&amp;q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/home-health-care-during-a-lockdown/&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwid6dLzsd3oAhUQ8HMBHRP-BbUQFjAAegQIABAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw2O5915jE54QrAp88TUQt17" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health at Home</a>  the phone lines open at 7am ever day. Within minutes the calls start coming in. Five volunteer doctors are online to take the average 500 calls a day from people all over the country concerned about coronavirus symptoms.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://dalle.com.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dalle Momo</a>, the dumpling company, prepares 250 meals a day at its central kitchen at Ratopul and distributes them to security personnel <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/confusion-persists-about-lockdown-rules/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enforcing the lockdown</a> at intersections across Kathmandu, to frontline health workers at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku, and homeless people in the Valley.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.zonta.org/Local-Action/Local-Service-Advocacy/Detail/zonta-club-of-kathmandu-hosts-event-to-honor-local-women-on-rose-day-2018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zonta Club of Kathmandu</a> also prepares food packages and has partnered with several NGOs to distribute daily 1,000 meals to daily-wage earners who are out of jobs. Each packet includes basic food items like rice, lentil, salt, sugar, tea, and oil.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/back-to-the-future-of-farming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Back to the future of farming</a>, Editorial<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/work-for-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Work for food</a>, Anil ChitrakarThe private sector and non-profit organisations have all been stepping up their activities to help security forces, health workers and daily-wage workers since the nation-wide lockdown began on 24 March.Bishal Dhakal, founder of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/business/caring-for-those-who-cared/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health at Home</a>,  says he started the call-in service since people across the country -- especially those in rural areas with no direct access to doctors, decided to set up a telephone triage service so that people can get a free counseling from medical professionals about their symptoms. Health at Home partnered with Ncell so that the incoming calls can be free.At a time when <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/awareness-high-among-nepalis-about-virus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public concern about the pandemic is high</a>  the service has not only been a way for people to talk to doctors about their symptoms, but also a source of reassurance.“It has become like a counselling platform,” Dhakal says of the telephone triage. “This has been a support network for people in that it has helped with people dealing with the anxiety and stress that they might be feeling during this time.”<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/awareness-high-among-nepalis-about-virus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Awareness high among Nepalis about virus</a>The call-in service helps screen <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/returnees-may-be-taking-coronavirus-to-rural-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">potential COVID-19 patients</a> for testing and take the pressure off of hospitals as they tend to get overcrowded with patients suspecting they have the coronavirus, which in turn increases the risk of infections spreading more widely. <figure><img width="640" height="489" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b009c7e80680e06b274jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="486" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b039c7e80680e06b275jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Subhash Gauchan, co-founder of Dalle Momo, says his company began providing meals with the intention of using its remaining stock of raw material to feed whomever they could instead of letting it go to waste. But then it evolved into something bigger.“A lot of people have come forward and asked how they could help,” Gauchan told Nepali Times over the phone. “They have been stepping up to provide fresh vegetables, which is what we need the most. So, we decided that we would continue doing this for as long as we are able.”Although Nepal seems to have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/could-an-anti-tb-vaccine-be-protecting-nepalis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spared from a more aggressive spread of the coronavirus so far</a>,  Nepalis are set to be significantly affected financially by the pandemic, with daily-wage workers bearing the brunt of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-covid-19-relief-package/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the economic fallout</a>. Non-profits like the Zonta Club of Kathmandu have been reaching out to daily wage workers affected by the lockdown.Zonta’s Kamal Kesari Tuladhar says people have constantly been reaching out to offer help and that they were able to raise Rs1.5 million in 2 days. “My initial target was 300 food packages, but the response has been so overwhelming that we are distributing 1,000. As long as the help keeps coming, we will continue this, because people need it.” <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/common-sense-is-uncommon-in-fighting-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Common sense is uncommon in fighting COVID-19</a>, Anil Chitrakar <figure><img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b069c7e80680e06b276jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Siddhant Pandey, CEO of the private equity company <a href="https://bo2.com.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Business Oxygen</a>,  says private sector philanthropy is more important than ever in these unprecedented times. But some companies that have tried to gain widespread publicity from their ‘corporate social responsibility’ have been trolled in social media for seeking promotion mileage rather than genuinely helping.But Pandey says that while some companies might be stepping up their philanthropic efforts  for publicity, it does encourage others to come forward and to provide help as well.“At this point, we need to think rationally,” says Pandey. “Providing urgent food, services, information, and medical equipment is the need of the hour right now.”

Shristi Karki

Philanthropy in the time of pandemic

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21b69c7e80680e041753jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photos: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>Amrita Acharia arrived at the children’s shelter in Godavari on Friday morning wearing a pastel shawl with intricate woven patterns. When complimented, she replied with a smile: “This is Palpali Dhaka, we went all the way to Tansen to get it.”Daughter of a Nepali father and Ukrainian mother, the Game of Thrones actress is in Nepal after 16 years on a journey to reconnect with her roots, and a long-awaited to visit the <a href="https://www.chorachori.org.uk/">ChoraChori</a> children’s charity <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/amrita-acharia-in-charity-drive/">she is involved with</a>.ChoraChori rescues <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/runaway-boys-brought-home-to-%20Nepal,2950">trafficked Nepali children</a> from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2478#.XC9w9S0Q0Wq">circuses</a> as well as victims of rape and abuse in India, giving them skills-training, rehabilitating them, and reuniting them with families when possible. Acharia helps the UK-based charity with fundraising dinners and other promotional activities.After leaving Nepal at the age of seven, Acharia grew up in different parts of Europe and turned to acting. The HBO series Game of Thrones made her a household name seven years ago. She acted in the role of Irri, maid to the heroine Daenerys, in the show reputed to be the world’s most watched.“People get killed so easily in that show, I was lucky to have survived for two seasons,” she laughs.  “That was so long ago, but it was a good start for me. It opened the door for me to work in other shows.”Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/amrita-acharia-in-charity-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amrita Acharia in a charity drive</a>After that, Acharia appeared in many British and Norwegian productions, and is currently busy as a doctor in Good Karma Hospital. She doesn’t know whether her father, a real-life doctor, finds her take on the medical profession convincing. “He enjoys it as a show, but he is also aware of the artistic liberties we take,” she says.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21b99c7e80680e041754jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1148" height="1500">Good Karma Hospital is set in Kerala, but filmed in Sri Lanka. It was while on location there that she was reminded a visit to Nepal was long overdue both to see the land she grew up in, and also to visit ChoraChori.“I like how ChoraChori hosts children in a safe environment, provides them with education and skills, and makes them independent, and that is what drew me to help them,” she says. “A lot of people know me, and I want to use that fame to shed some light on the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nepali-children-rescued-from-India,3618">issues of Nepal’s children</a> and the efforts by charities like ChoraChori to address them.”On this trip, Acharia also trekked to Ghandruk, visited Butwal, Bhairawa, and Arghakhanchi to meet her father’s side of the family. She does not remember the Nepal of her childhood much, and her impression of this trip is that Nepal is a little busier, but otherwise the same.Does it feel like home? “I have lived in so many places that I adapt easily,” she answers. “So I am always partly at home, and partly an outsider everywhere. In Nepal, I found there are still people who think of me as family. And that feels good.”Raised in Britain and Norway, Acharia calls herself multilingual and multicultural, but has not been typecast as someone from a minority community in films. She says: “I don’t look like a typical Asian. I could be cast as anything, from Caucasian to Latina to Asian. So being of mixed race is actually an advantage for me.”Acharia’s parents spoke to each other in Ukranian and Russian, so she lost touch with Nepali. But she says she enjoyed being immersed in Nepali everywhere on this trip. In Godavari, Acharia asked in halting, accented Nepali what the girls learnt in tailoring class.She has never watched a Nepali movie, but says she is open to acting in one if she likes the project. “But I do not like my voice to be dubbed, so I must first learn Nepali,” she adds in English. “Maybe next time I can answer your questions in Nepali.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21bd9c7e80680e041755jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4000" height="3000">

Amrita Acharia comes home

<img width="1131" height="1700" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/6369349d9c7e80680e03e006jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Game of Thrones actress Amrita Acharia has joined the online appeal for funds for the charity <a href="http://www.chorachori.org.uk/">ChoraChori</a> that has rescued 147 trafficked and displaced Nepali children from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/runaway-boys-brought-home-to-%20Nepal,2950">slavery and abuse</a> in India.The 31-year-old Nepali-Ukrainian actress is based in Norway and acted in HBO’s Game of Thrones, UK tv series The Good Karma Hospital, the Norwegian tv series Acquitted and in the forthcoming animation The Missing Link.Says Acharia: “My father was educated, and he made sure we were educated and taught self-respect. When we moved away from Nepal, it was that education that gave us stability and the chance to follow our dreams. I love it that ChoraChori works on empowering young girls after these experiences, and gives them tools rather than just rescuing and dumping them in an orphanage”.Acharia was born in Kathmandu but her family moved to England when she was seven and after spending some years in the Ukraine, attended High School in Norway where her father is an obstetrician. She is now looking forward to going back to Nepal after 16 years to visit ChoraChori’s facilities in Thaukel. <img width="750" height="744" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/6369349f9c7e80680e03e007jpeg.jpg" alt="">Most of the rescued children are boys whom ChoraChori has reunited with their families who hadn’t heard from the boys in years and had come to believe them to be dead. Most of the children had left home in search of work before being trafficked, were apprehended by the Indian authorities and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2478#.W_yxTy2ZMWp">later rescued</a> and brought back to Nepal.Some of the children were runaways from domestic abuse whom ChoraChori funds through vocational training and into good employment. ChoraChori last year <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nepali-children-rescued-from-India,3618">rescued Nepali girls</a> from a notorious children’s home in Muzaffarpur where at least 34 residents were gang raped by care home officials and outsiders. These girls are currently supported at ChoraChori’s child trauma management centre alongside a growing number of domestic child rape victims.“We’ve only just begun” says ChoraChori Founder Lt Col (retd.) <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17939#.W_yxeS2ZMWp">Philip Holmes</a>. “We know that there are still scores of Nepali children trapped in Indian institutions and the Muzaffarpur case has brought into sharp focus just how dangerous these centres are for children.”With Brexit, ChoraChori is feeling the effects of a financial squeeze in the UK charitable sector. Which is why it is launching ‘The Big Give’ online Christmas appeal. For one week only from noon GMT on Tuesday 27 November, all online donations are automatically being doubled in value in the charity’s main annual fundraising drive.Says Holmes: “The truth is that some of the rescued children are so young that they even lack the vocabulary to describe what has been done to them. That is heart-breaking, but I have been encouraged and inspired by how ChoraChori-Nepal has risen to the challenge.”To see Amrita’s video appeal and donate to ChoraChori through The Big Give visit <a href="http://www.chorachori.org/">www.chorachori.org</a>

Amrita Acharia in charity drive

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

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

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

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/prabalgurung/" target="_blank">Prabal Gurung</a> left Nepal for New York in 1999 to escape years of bullying, sexism and homophobia, and to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqN0VaoAI5w" target="_blank">realised his dream</a>, but did not escape discrimination and racism in the new world. Propelled by passion for fashion, Gurung overcame everything America threw at him. He has attained <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prabal-gurung-recalls-his-first-met-gala-when-zoe-saldana-was-at-his-side?srsltid=AfmBOooy-H0oGgxMit864FnW_Pmw8mUnV8rYrh-co-f6OyYK6m2ip5hP" target="_blank">fame and recognition</a> for his haute couture dress designs while remaining true to his Nepali roots, and is even more resolute in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmNauyzACk" target="_blank">fighting prejudice</a> in all its forms. Prabal Gurung’s newly-released memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Walk-Like-Girl-Memoir/dp/B0DG11HCDQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawKZfpxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuZcIJO2OXyXcRm1oq1iG6wzeoF7VJFrQ7GXOFI0YxuZZ4id_CNvSZSZZIna_aem_pG_mOKG73RTnYvN8JaC4fA">Walk Like a Girl</a> is a saga of harrowing abuse in boarding schools in Nepal and India, only finding himself facing a different kind of bullying in the US. He prevails over it all to be where he is today: an award-winning American fashion designer with his own label. Walk Like a Girl was launched last week in New York at a time when everything Gurung fought for — tolerance, inclusion and diversity — are in retreat in his adopted country because of a president who has espoused a culture of bullying. The book is a searing, raw exposé of how cruel and abusive people can be even at a young age in school. On the other hand, it also shows that there are generous, compassionate and open-minded souls out there. In his book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4le_uWX7YE">Prabal Gurung</a> calls out those who tormented and tried to hold him back (some of their names have been altered). The moral of his story is: resist, never stop believing in yourself, do not let others define you, never lose sight of your dream, and help those who have been kept out. “Walk like a girl” was a slur used by bullies back in school in Nepal and India for Gurung’s effeminate ways. He fought back then, and he is still resisting by turning those words into something to be proud of.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1253" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung NT"> <figcaption>Prabal Gurung at home in Kathmandu in the 1990s.</figcaption> </figure>  “Living through it all was one thing, but writing about it is one of the hardest things I have done in my life,” admitted Gurung during the launch. “I broke down constantly during the six-year writing process.” He continues: “I did not want this to be a victim’s book. I did not want to burden my readers with my emotions. I wanted my struggle to be an inspiration for others facing what I faced. I am grateful to those who bullied me in school, they made me a stronger person ready to face the world.” Indeed, this book is a departure from his earlier one titled simply, Prabal Gurung (Abrams, 2019), which was a lush pictorial autobiography of his career in fashion. Walk Like a Girl is not a typical fashion book, it is an intimate tale of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16997">Gurung’s travails and triumphs</a>, and how he willed himself to succeed. Prabal pays a lavish tribute to his mother Durga Rana. We find out she is a descendant of the first wife of the eldest son of Jang Bahadur Rana who was banished to Palpa in the late 19th century. Prabal’s father served in the Singapore Police and that is where he was born before the family returned to Nepal when he was four. Gurung relates with brutal honesty about the violence his mother endured from his father. Durga raises three children as a single mother in Nepal, and Prabal credits her for his fierce determination to resist patriarchy and injustice, which in time manifests itself in his hyper-feminine and subversive dress designs. Writing the book has been a cathartic experience for Gurung, who says he is now relieved of the burdens of his past. It no longer haunts him, and he does not have to prove anything to anyone anymore. Walk Like a Girl has life lessons not just for the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmOcSgxdWz/" target="_blank">fashion industry</a>, but for every other profession. How can my job serve a greater cause? Gurung tells us his work is <a href="https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-designer-prabal-gurung-doesnt-want-just-stick-fashion" target="_blank">bigger than just making clothes</a>, it is about making the world a better place because it could do with a lot of improvement.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1516" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung"> </figure>  This story of chasing the American dream may sound familiar to many immigrants: knocking on doors for jobs, rejections, trying to survive from day to day on expensive rent, and dealing with subtle racism in white America. Gurung finds racism is rife, and he is often mockingly called ‘gaysian’. He writes: ‘There was a strong hypocrisy — this idea of independence felt like a marketting ruse … and for all the talk of feminism in America, these high society women were trapped by the patriarchy just like in Nepal and India.’ After a trek to the Khumbu region in 2013, Gurung is inspired to use the colours, palette and textures of Nepal for his collection exhibited on Manhattan’s 8th Avenue. A major buyer tells him bluntly: “Stick to making pretty dresses … if I need to see a collection like this, I could buy a copy of National Geographic.” The New York Times was equally dismissive: ‘The designer tries to draw connections between blistered techo-fabric used to construct it and the topography of his homeland, Nepal. But, at the moment, he has lost his map.’ One potential investor tells Gurung he cannot design for Americana because “you do not look American”. Gurung wants to use expletives, but restrains himself. After a fundraiser in New York for the Nepal earthquake in 2015, some belittled his effort, saying: “Here comes the saviour."&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/prabal-gurung-by-prabal-gurung">Prabal Gurung by Prabal Gurung</a>, Kunda Dixit The Gurkha DNA must be dominant in Prabal Gurung’s genes because he does not take such mistreatment lying down. When asked by a fashion publicist why he was designing clothes for fat people, he snaps back: “Because of people like you.” He joins the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, launches the Shikshya Foundation charity in Nepal, and has powerful allies among celebrities who wear clothes he designed: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Jessica Parker, Kamala Harris, Deepika Padukone … it is a long list.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="1534" loading="lazy" alt="Being Prabal Gurung by design"> <figcaption>Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wearing Atelier Prabal Gurung’s design for Met Gala 2025 in which the theme was ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’. </figcaption> </figure>  “I don’t dress women to look beautiful, they already are,” Gurung says. “I try to bring out their innate strength and grace.” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17908766880140171/" target="_blank">Admirers</a> tell Gurung he makes it all look so easy, but he used to put up a strong facade to not show his own vulnerabilities in public. “I was closed because of my childhood experiences,” he says. “I was always on guard to defend myself because I never knew where the next punch would come from.” But in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVepzPA210" target="_blank">Walk Like a Girl,</a> Gurung comes to terms with his vulnerability, and bares his soul. It has not been easy, it took sustained will power and support from his mother, sister Kumudini and a circle of close friends. “I made unbelonging my power,” he says. “Nepal is where I still have my heart and soul. Nepal grounds you. It is where people go to find themselves. But I escaped.” Recently appointed vice-chair of the <a href="https://cfda.com/about-cfda" target="_blank">Council of American Fashion Designers</a>, Gurung says: “I can’t believe I am here, it feels like it is happening to someone else. Writing this book, the healing has finally begun.” <h2>‘Everything is better in color’</h2> The Met Gala was two weeks later, and my table was an example of everything I’d been fighting for all these years as my guests represented everything I believed in: dynamic, powerful, influential women who were unapologetically original and unabashedly graceful. I was grateful to Anna for inviting me to host and dress a table that reflected my ethos—and for her guidance in doing so. I was also aware of the privilege as one of the first-­ever Asian fashion designers—not just from Nepal, but from the entire continent— to get the opportunity to do so. That fact was not lost on me. I reached out beyond the expected Hollywood celebrities and well-­known socialites to curate a table of exceptional women who inspired me. I invited Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt for their first-­ever Met Galas, as well as Michelle Yeoh, Mindy Kaling, Camila Cabello, Ashley Park, Denée Benton, KiKi Layne, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Grace Elizabeth. Together we checked many boxes: Asian, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous, each woman undeniably chic and powerful, a dazzling array of skin tones and experiences that proved my decades‑in‑the-­making hypothesis: everything is better in color. Excerpt from Walk Like a Girl Viking © 2025 by Prabal Gurung  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;

Being Prabal Gurung by design

India and Pakistan are twins separated at birth. Tensions between them have been at a hair trigger ever since independence and has erupted into full scale conflict at least four times in the past 80 years.
The 22 April terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 25 Indian tourists and a Nepali citizen, threatens to escalate tension between the two nuclear-armed nations. India has squarely blamed Pakistan for the attacks, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his military “operational freedom” to respond. Pakistan has said it has credible intelligence of an Indian military strike and its officials have promised a “full spectrum” response — a code for a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/thinking-the-thinkable">nuclear retaliation</a>.
For Nepal, the killing of its national in the Pahalgam attack comes as another stark reminder that in conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq, from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-to-agree-an-armistice-in-ukraine">Ukraine</a> to Israel, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/10-nepalis-from-one-town-fighting-in-ukraine">Nepalis are getting caught in the crossfire</a>. The last time full-scale fighting broke out between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/peacemongers-at-india-pakistan-border">India and Pakistan</a> on Kargil in 1999, at least 22<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/india-s-trial-by-fire-for-soldiers-from-nepal?%27%5C%22="> Nepalis fighting for the Indian Army</a> were killed in action.
Three of Nepal’s immediate neighbours (China, India, Pakistan) have nuclear weapons, and they do not have good relations. With China supplying weapons, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/war-and-warming">missile technology</a> and other support to Pakistan, this triangular friction could set off a regional conflagration.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0" target="_blank">Research at Rutgers University</a> has calculated that even a week-long tactical nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would throw up so much smoke and debris into the atmosphere that it would block out the sun for years, and lead to a collapse of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/grow-nourish-sustain-together-world-food-day">global food system</a>. This does not take into account the radioactive fallout that prevailing winds would blow up to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">the Himalaya</a>, contaminating glaciers that are the sources of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-what-is-left-of-himalayan-rivers">Asia’s main rivers</a>.
The impact of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown </a>on High Asia was already ringing alarm bells about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/himalayan-icecap-melting-faster-than-thought">shrinking ice cap</a> reducing the dry season flow of water downstream. Water was going to be the next strategic commodity, geopolitical experts warned, and the next wars in Asia would be over water.
That water war is already happening. India retaliated to the Kashmir attack by suspending the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/world/asia/india-pakistan-indus-waters-treaty.html" target="_blank">Indus Waters Treaty</a> of 1960 mediated by the World Bank that has withstood at least three wars between India and Pakistan. The treaty gives India control over the three eastern tributaries of the Indus (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beas_River" target="_blank">Beas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_River" target="_blank">Ravi</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutlej" target="_blank">Sutlej</a>), while Pakistan got water from the Indus and two of its western tributaries (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River" target="_blank">Indus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenab_River" target="_blank">Chenab</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhelum_River" target="_blank">Jhelum</a>.
Pakistan was assured of 70% of the annual flow, and India could use a reasonable amount of water for<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15231"> irrigation and hydropower</a>. &nbsp;Within days of its threat, India stopped water flowing down to Pakistan from the Chenab river and is reportedly preparing to do the same on the Jhelum.
The sabre-rattling has reached a crescendo. Besides threats and counter-threats there are also symbolic drills, with the Indian Air Force practicing landing on an expressway in Uttar Pradesh by its Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar fighter jets to demonstrate ‘operational readiness’. In response Pakistan test-fired its Abdali ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and has a range of 450km.&nbsp;
The danger is that with ultra-nationalist rhetoric and the beating the war drums by both sides, India’s government and Pakistan’s military may have to ‘do something’ to appease domestic public opinion. But any tactical strike, an artillery exchange, or territorial incursion could quickly escalate out of control.
Expecting an Indian retaliation for the Pahalgam killings, Pakistan is using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/interfaith-collaboration-for-nuclear-disarmament"> nuclear deterrence </a>and warning of “catastrophic consequences”. The two neighbours came close to a nuclear exchange in 2019 after an attack on the Indian military in Kashmir, and prompt international intervention led by the United States cooled tensions.&nbsp;
This time, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trump-shock-wave-hits-nepal">Trump administration</a> is too distracted and not as engaged. Pakistan has denied it was responsible for the terrorist attack and called on Washington to stop a possible Indian retaliation. India and Pakistan have stopped overflights by each other’s airlines, and some international carriers have even stopped flying over Pakistan fearing an air war.
Washington, Beijing, the UN and the EU have all urged restraint. Iran, which has good relations with both India and Pakistan has sent its foreign minister to urge both countries not to go into a tit-for-tat war. Iran has its own nuclear flashpoint to worry about with tensions in Israel, &nbsp;Yemen and Syria.
India and Pakistan both share similar problems of joblessness, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-nepal-s-poverty-rate-is-stuck">poverty </a>and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepal-s-rhinos">environmental threats</a>. Neither side needs the threat of a senseless war, and we in the neighbourhood do not need it either.&nbsp;
Kunda Dixit
This Editorial is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

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