<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a17c9c7e80680e0d7084jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Photos: BISWASH CHEPANG</figcaption></figure>Chepangs are a highly marginalised indigenous group in Nepal with an estimated 70,000 individuals spread across Chitwan, Makawanpur, Dhading and Gorkha districts. King Mahendra during Panchyat renamed Chepangs “Praja”, literally meaning ‘subjects’, which became a preferred last name within the community.<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/chepang-and-their-chiuri/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Chepangs</a> have long lived close to their forest homes, and practiced hunting, fishing, and foraging. But limited opportunities, subsistence farming and a donor-dependent livelihood have meant the people continue to live on the margins. Around 90% of the Chepang people live below the poverty line, earning just $50 per person a year, restricting their ability to seek education, healthcare and other basic necessities.One way to empower this community is through their participation and representation in politics. The good news is there have been constitutional reforms to support, empower and uplift the disadvantaged and excluded segments of Nepali society.Article 18 of the Constitution has a provision related to the right to equality while Article 42 speaks about the right in relation to social inclusion. Article 56 of the Constitution of Nepal 2015 has provisioned federal, provincial and local levels as key power structures of the country, and these three tiers of government can play a significant role in bringing the problems of Chepangs to the fore.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140220/63e3a1809c7e80680e0d7085jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But despite major political changes in recent decades, there has been little improvement in the lives of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/chitwans-bote-people-in-a-changing-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">indigenous people</a> like the Chepang. The existing extractive national political eocnomy of Nepal has, in fact, become a mechanism for further marginalisation and exclusion for Chepangs, where members of the community are only considered vote banks while decision-making is exercised by socially and economically powerful actors.On the other hand, a lack of critical awareness among larger section of Chepang members specially looking for short term benefit such as cash amounts, foods, relief materials in the lead up the polls will be advantageous to politicians in getting them elected to the office.Political <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/including-the-excluded-in-the-bureaucracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">representation of an indigenous group</a> is one of the pillars of our Constitution, yet the Chepang have not been able to use its provisions for their good. Even during the Panchayat, Jhyapuram Praja was a member of the district assembly in Chitwan for an extended period of time, but was unable to represent Chepang concerns. In the 2017 general polls, two Chepang lawmakers were elected, Gobinda Ram Chepang and Maya Chepang, but they too failed to bring the wider community issues to the rostrum.Similarly, Santa Bahadur Praja served as Minister of State for Physical Infrastructure Development in Bagmati Province. But his responsibilities were constricted as the provinces were yet to formulate their sector laws under the Local Government operations Act 2017. In addition to this, clear functional demarcation among all government tiers for sector operations are not fully established, leading to confusion on executive powers granted to the provincial units by the constitution..In the 2022 elections, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-chiuri-boys-of-makwanpur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chepangs</a> failed to secure even a single seat in Parliament. They are not even the chair or deputy in any of the municipalities in their home districts. Their political representation is limited to the ward level. Even then, only Chepangs nominated are those elected under the women's reservation quota.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140220/63e3a1869c7e80680e0d7086jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="898" height="592"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>There are currently 12 locally elected Chepangs but most do not know sufficiently about their roles, responsibilities and rights. Govinda Ram Chepang, a former member of the Constituent Assembly who is now a chair of the Nepal Chepang Association even requested job orientation training since most representatives had little or no prior job experience.As such, none of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/First-Chepang-nurse,3143" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chepang</a> representatives are working to solve the larger issues of the community such as funding an undergraduate institution for youths to enroll. All existing colleges are away from their hometown and most are unable to afford a room in the city as well as increased expenses.Similarly, access to easy health care especially for easily curable diseases and pregnancy complications should be the topmost priority as should be market-based employment opportunities for young people. Allowance for senior citizens, people with disabilities and others eligible for government support have to be facilitated.Government apathy has reached such heights that the Chepangs do not have any expectations from the state. They do not know what to ask for, either. It is up to educated people to use various platforms including social media to demand actions from their leaders and in turn, make them accountable.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140220/63e3a1899c7e80680e0d7087jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ward leaders should make sure that the voices from the grassroots are heard in the municipality’s planning process. They should be as involved in decision-making, they are agents of change, after all. They cannot be mollified with the tokenistic model of representation which will only serve to strengthen persisting inequalities.Brazilian educator Paulo Freire said inequality is sustained when the people most affected by it are unable to decode their social condition. It is high time to raise critical consciousness among larger Chepang members such that they are able to recognise all forms of injustice and take action against these systems.Only then we can break the vicious cycle of inequality and social injustice.Biswash Chepang is an MPhil Candidate at Kathmandu University. Bhawana Lamgade is a graduate of law

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Chepang in Nepal’s politics

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131120/637232c29c7e80680e0c48aejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4000" height="3000"/><figcaption>All photos: BHADRA SHARMA</figcaption></figure>The cultures of Indigenous peoples across the world have traditionally depended on native plants and animals. It is when these culturally significant species start disappearing that the ways of life of those communities are also threatened — as is happening with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Chepang-living-edge,3136" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s semi-nomadic Chepang people</a>.The Chepang live along the Mahabharat sub-Himalayan belt, and their slash-and-burn lifestyle has always been inextricably linked to the versatile चिउरी Indian Butter Tree. But the accelerated destruction of the chiuri has imperilled Chepang traditions, culture and way of life.Known by its scientific name Diploknema butyracea, the Indian Butter Tree is the source of food, fuel, pesticide, fertiliser, cosmetic lotions, and is even given as dowry.Here in the rolling hills of Makwanpur district south of Kathmandu, Ramesh Praja remembers fondly the festive chiuri flowering season in winter, when the entire forest used to hum with bees to the blossoms.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/bee-population-in-decline,3613" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Honey from hives</a> of chiuri bees are especially delicious, and is said to have medicinal properties. Once they had the taste of chiuri honey, Praja remembers townspeople hiking up to Chepang villages to buy more.By evening, it would be the bats that would fly in to sip the nectar, and pollinate the chiuri flowers. The Chepang also hunted the bats, and it is a tradition in winter for relatives to gather around in the village and feast on tasty barbecued bats, inviting honoured guests.The trees fruit in spring, and it is another important food item in the Chepang diet. The seeds are ground and turned into butter that used to be taken down to the market in Chitwan, where <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/First-Chepang-nurse,3143" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Chepang</a> bartered it for salt and clothing.The hull from seeds are also used as organic pesticides and fertilisers on crops. Powered chiuri husk was also useful to sprinkle on water to drug fish and make them easier to catch.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131120/637232c69c7e80680e0c48afjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="4000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131120/637232ca9c7e80680e0c48b0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The chiuri butter had antiseptic properties, and the Chepang rubbed it like a lotion on their chafed hands.“We grew up with chiuri and in the company of bats,” Praja recalls. “The trees are now disappearing, and the bats too are gone.”Ramesh Praja has given up his people’s traditional forest life, and now runs a small shop by a new dirt road that has snaked up to the village. His family now cooks in oil bought at the market, and not anymore in chiuri butter.There are many factors that are depleting the trees: the climate crisis has dried up perennial springs and lowered the water table, chiuri saplings do not take root in the forest as they used to, road construction and expansion of settlements have led to landslides that destroyed the trees that were left. The Chepang themselves have felt that summers are unbearably hot even up in the mountains, and winters are milder. In <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/meanwhile-a-measles-outbreak-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Chepang settlement</a> of Silinge in Makwanpur, villagers say they now have never-before-seen mosquitos.“Our village is almost as hot as Chitwan now,” says Ramesh Praja.There has been an effort to re-introduce beekeeping, and some Chepang families are in the honey business. But in the absence of the chiuri trees, the bees do not have the special chiuri flowers that gave the honey from here its special taste.“If we could revive the chiuri forest, the honey would be like gold here,” says Motiram Chepang of Silinge.With the trees mostly gone, the Chepang of this area pack their hives into pickups and take them down to Chitwan or Hetauda to graze on flowers there. Besides the transport cost, they also have to pay a hefty rent per hive to let their bees out.Ramesh Praja himself lost about 80 bee hives during the pandemic lockdown when he could not protect his hives that he had taken down to Chitwan from floods. He says, “I lost about Rs800,000. If there had been chiuri trees at home I would not have lost all those hives.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131120/637232cd9c7e80680e0c48b1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="4000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>There was ample potential for the Chepang to promote <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/homestay-brings-locals-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">homestay tourism</a>, but with the trees gone the culture is not as vibrant and there is nothing to attract visitors.Former ward chair of Raksirang of Makwanpur Singha Lal Chepang says his entire focus now is on protecting the chiuri that are left and to revive the former forests. He recalls that back in the Panchayat-era 50 years ago, the tree was registered as belonging to the Chepang, and people here even had certificates to prove their ownership.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s community forestry</a> laws also protect the Chepang’s right to the trees, but the chiuri is still disappearing from the forests of Makwanpur, Gorkha, Chitwan and Dhading, where about 50,000 Chepang people live.The changing lifestyle of the Chepang has also damaged the chiuri stands. As villagers take to livestock rearing, their goats now graze in the forest and eat up the undergrowth so there are no new trees to replace the old ones when they die.“There used to be a time when each household could harvest up to 1,800kg of chiuri fruit and sell the butter in bulk,” remembers Sancharaj Praja. “Now the trees are gone, there is no more demand for the butter, and people have stopped even picking the fruits anymore.”Some development organisations have tried to help revive the chiuri plant, tens of thousands of seedlings were planted to try to conserve Chepang culture, but the attempts have failed so far mainly because the goats have eaten them up.The trees are not even given as dowry anymore. Says Motiram Chepang: “First off, there are no saplings to give away. But then the children also do not understand the value of their people’s attachment to this tree anymore.”

Chepang and their Chiuri

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a35479c7e80680e0482a0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Photo: CAROL INSKIPP</figcaption></figure>The ruined 250-year-old Gorkhali fortress of Upardang Gadi is located on the northern rim of Chitwan Valley. But that is not the only reason these forested mountains are special: this is also home to the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4568#.XKX3EVUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spiny Babbler</a>, the rare bird found only in Nepal (pictured below).Bird Life International and Bird Conservation Nepal have concluded that the Gadi-Siraichuli Forest is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) of international value. There are only 37 other IBAs in Nepal, and this is one of the few not located within a protected area.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=24328&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In conservation, Nepal is not our of the woods yet</a>, Sonia Awale<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a354b9c7e80680e0482a1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1200"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But now the forest is threatened by the construction of a new road that will be a short cut from Mathillo Kaule to Gadi (map). The alignment is along the steep forested slope, and locals are worried that it will destroy trees, disrupt water sources and threaten landslides. They have been protesting at Ichyakamana Rural Municipality to stop the road being built on this route.Located at 1,150m, the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Chepang-living-edge,3136" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chepang village</a> of Gadi lies at the foot of this forested slope that features a wide variety of shrubs, subtropical mixed broadleaf trees and wildlife. In fact, this is the largest and richest forest of this type remaining in Nepal, with 15 species of mammals, including the endangered Black Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor).The Spiny Babbler (Turdoides nipalensis) lives on terraces built by the Chepang people at the edge of the forest. The Gadi-Siraichuli Forest has one of the highest populations of this rare endemic <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/decline-in-birds-of-migration-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bird in the country</a>.“The road will destroy the forest on the slope that is the main source of  spring water for our villages. How can we live here without water?” asks Ganesh Thapa Magar, a farmer.Another Gadi villager, Suk Bahadur Chepang, agrees: “My home is just below the forested hill where the new road is planned. Landslides in the monsoon will make it too dangerous to live there anymore.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a354e9c7e80680e0482a2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="684" height="843">Besides these threats, the road will also put the 320 <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/birds-of-passage-Nepal,2921" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bird</a> and 56 butterfly species found here at risk. Members of the Sauraha-based Bird Education Society have been visiting the area since the 1990s, and say it is a treasure trove for nature.Bird species also include the Red-faced Liocichla (Liocichla phoenicea) a beautiful scarlet and brown bird that was thought to have become extinct in Nepal until it was re-sighted in 2016 after 178 years, by watchers from the Bird Education Society and the Nepalese Ornithological Union.Eight of these birds were found at 1,600m on Chisapanitar, close to the planned route of the road. The Red-faced Liocichla has not been found elsewhere in the country, and is listed as critically endangered in the national red list of the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5151#.XKX4ElUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">birds of Nepal</a>.Twenty other threatened <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2341#.XKX4EVUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bird species</a> have been sighted regularly in the forest, including the Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) which is dependent on wild bananas, and the Red-headed Trogon (Harpactesery throcepalus) a beautiful red bird that needs a habitat of trees with a thick growth of climbers and creepers.Until recently, the indigenous Chepang people followed a nomadic lifestyle, living off the rich forests as hunter gatherers. As other ethnic groups migrated here, the Chepang started to take up a more settled life based on subsistence agriculture. But their terraces on the steep slopes do not produce enough food, and the Chepang still depend on wild food from the forest.The new road will run through the prime forest area for wildlife and destroy their homes, as well as disturb the terrace farms.There is an alternative route for the road from Mathillo Kaule to Gadi via Mayatar.  It is a bit longer but would protect the forest and the village water supply.The subtropical broadleaf forests of the Gadhi-Siraichuli IBA are of high quality and are now a rare and declining habitat in Nepal. They support great biodiversity and are an invaluable resource to local Chepang communities. The forest lies at the northern end of the Barandabhar Corridor that links Chitwan National Park to the Mahabharat forests, and is important for the north-south movement of animals in the Chitwan-Annapurna Linkage (CHAL) and Terai Arc Landscape (TAL).Says conservationist Hem Sagar Baral: “Peoples’ livelihoods, including those of the Chepang, depend on the watershed and forests of this area. Development impacting wildlife here should not be tolerated as we have no other places like this one. What is left must be preserved in its full integrity.”Carol Inskipp is a UK conservationist who has been coming to Nepal since 1977. Rupendra Karmacharya runs a lodge in Gadi village and works to preserve the local culture and biodiversity of the area.

Protecting the last home of the Spiny Babbler

<figure><img width="1400" height="934" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111144/6368e25f9c7e80680e033323jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Stuck: Children are eager to learn as they begin schooling, but soon feel stuck because the nearest school with grade 6 is 4 hours away. </figcaption></figure>Binita Dahal in BBC Nepali, 28 MayIt takes the whole day to reach Syamrang from the highway in Chitwan: four hours by jeep and five hours walk across rugged mountains. Approaching the village, there are people and children in ragged clothes. The elderly look listless, and there are young children carrying baby siblings.These Chepang villages do not have roads, electricity, education or health. On the next ridge is the village of Kanda, where eight villagers died eating poisonous mushrooms ten years ago. Houses destroyed by the earthquake have been roughly patched up with metal sheets.Syamrang’s only school has two small classrooms crammed with students – one room has children from Grade 1-3, and other has students from Grades 4 and 5. The damaged classrooms are being repaired, but it may take years.Most students drop out after Grade 5 because higher classes are four hours walk away across jungled mountains. Some keep repeating Grade 5 because there is nowhere else to study.Dilmaya Chepang repeated Grade 5 for three years, reading the same textbooks over and over so she would not forget how to read, and got married soon after. Today, at age 35, she already has three children who go to the school she went to.“Grade 6 was too far away, it is a difficult walk up and down mountains and through forests, so I just kept going to the same class and left school,” says Dilmaya, who is still so passionate about education that she teaches younger children in the light of a feeble solar lamp.After a day of working in the fields and collecting fodder in the forest, young women gather at the school to be taught how to read and write by Dilmaya. “I myself can barely recognise the Nepali alphabets, but this gives me a chance to keep studying myself,” says Dilmaya.She says the village and the school have not changed since she was a child. Dilmaya’s eldest daughter Ujeli is repeating Grade 5 just like her mother. There are women who went to the same school who have become grandmothers at 39.Almost all villages in this area bordering Chitwan and Dhading have the same problem that stems from remoteness and neglect.Nothing has changed here in 50 years, the school is older but its quality has not improved,” says Jhyapu Bahadur Chepang of Syamrang’s school management committee. Child marriage has not gone down, even though there are more girls than boys enrolled. Twenty-one students are enrolled in Dungbang Primary School here, of which 16 are repeating Grade 5. Atibal Praja is the principle of the very school he himself attended. He worked hard, completed his SLC and now is an exception as the only villager with higher education.“We have tried to talk to the government many times to send more teachers for higher classes, but no one listens,” he says. <figure><img width="1400" height="934" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e2639c7e80680e033324jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Bimala Gurung has been a teacher at the school for the past 12 years, and says she hasn’t seen much change in living standard in the village in that time. “When I first came, the village was dirty, there was illiteracy, no health post, there was child marriage,” she says, “the village is still dirty, there is still illiteracy, no health post, and child marriage.”The only big change is that the young men now leave the village to work abroad. With the money they send home, some families now have mobile phones.The main reason nothing has changed is because the school stops at Grade 5, and many girls get married off soon after, thinks Jhyapu Bahadur Chepang. “The problem is lack of awareness because of lack of education,” he says.

Stuck in Grade 5

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

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

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

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

Priceless paubha in Paris

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