<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c449c7e80680e06b2ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>It is the fifth anniversary of the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-rattles-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-rattles-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460883000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFDg91oBtAFbB4wJmaL6S1ymRNwzQ">big earthquake that shook us all on 25 April 2015</a>. The rebuilding process has been slow, but contrary to public perception it has been steady.Many first-time visitors to Kathmandu are quite <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/rebuilding-five-years-after-2015-quake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/rebuilding-five-years-after-2015-quake/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460883000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQaBIWkaWS4LrrCnRk8skOwWQS-g">impressed with the recovery</a>, and often ask me where all the damage is. It is also noteworthy that in the last five years since the disaster, we promulgated a new Constitution, survived a Blockade, held <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/10/23/november-polls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/10/23/november-polls/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460883000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEoWQIb2TWUCsXrINwycwVJHH9tgg">elections to all three levels of government</a>, and we hoped that with political stability there would be development.Infrastructure, energy, health, tourism and education sectors were finally getting the attention they needed. World class school buildings and health facilities come up across the earthquake affected areas. Women have been trained in masonry and carpentry, information technology applications have spread across Nepal’s remote locations.Traditional artistans have done us all proud by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/learning-from-nepals-past-to-rebuild-its-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/learning-from-nepals-past-to-rebuild-its-future/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460884000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHjGoVpvnYAijcTp6hINygyenUjKQ">reviving the craft and skills</a> to restore our monuments. The restoration of Boudhanath set the pace and the rest followed. The flow of resources assured us that Nepal still has many friends all over the world.But just as we were getting over the aftermath of the upheavals of the past five year, we have been hit by an unforeseen and unprecedented disaster. Once again, we are confronting some of the challenges we overcame after the earthquake.The pandemic has exposed societal inequities, state inaction, lack of transparency. We still do not know who the poor are in this country.  We tout poverty numbers and percentages all the time, but is that true picture? Who are the most vulnerable, and how do we help them?We are bombarded by heart-wrenching videos of families who have run out of cash and food on the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/long-road-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/long-road-home/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460884000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFqxkzi3t3uHcAiah8-OD59DOLZeQ">long march home from Kathmandu</a>. These are the underserved: they were in Kathmandu because of state’s inability to provide rural jobs, and they are victims of state apathy after the lockdown. The meagre belongings on their backs, and being forced to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/walking-3-days-to-get-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/walking-3-days-to-get-home/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460884000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGNeH47elS6hZ4rWfkBOWIsgVr_Pw">walk hundreds of kilometeres in flipflops</a> are symbolic of the state of governance.When the earthquake hit Nepal, we did not have elected local governments and identifying the poor and vulnerable took time. We started to define them, but now we may have to redefine vulnerability. This time it is frontline health workers, food and medicine store keepers, taxi and bus drivers,  are most vulnerable. Even a month after they returned, there is stigmatisation against migrant workers who have returned from abroad.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c469c7e80680e06b2ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="128">Then there is the catch-all phrase: capacity building. In the 1980s, the Hetauda cloth factory did well in Nepal and the neighborhood with high quality textile products. Then, like in other spheres of national life, a combination of political interference, mismanagement, low productivity and inability to compete, the factory closed.In the post-earthquake and post-COVID economy, why not revive the Hetauda factory to produce cloth for the army and police and design it to produce masks and PPE? In an earthquake, it makes tents, and soon in the monsoon it can produce rafts and rain gear.The new normal is where a textile factory needs to quickly become a PPE and mask maker. How do we train the staff, and what kind of skills will workers need? In the next cold wave this winter, we will need sleeping bags and jackets.Pharmaceutical companies in Nepal have to gear up to acquire the license to produce a vaccine or drugs for COVID-19. Which companies have the capability? Capacity building has a whole new meaning in the post-pandemic, post-earthquake, and during the climate induced disaster-prone Nepal.Another aspect of capacity is related to leadership at the centre, the provinces and local governments. Leadership, we have seen, is about who can keep millions of people to stay the course, lay out clear plans and communicate clear instructions at times of crisis.It is about trust, transparency and accountability. The next election is less than three years away, that would be the perfect time to reward the do-ers. The earthquake was a great teacher, and COVID-19 is an exam for those who want to rule over us. Can they pass the test?Anil Chitrakar writes this fortnightly column ½ Full in Nepali Times, and is President of <a href="http://www.siddharthinc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.siddharthinc.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587528460884000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHjwi6pFkZf10UOhHSJVl2Z0Z-QXA">Siddharthinc</a>

Anil Chitrakar

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Will politicians pass the COVID-19 test?

<figure><img width="900" height="561" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110912114/636b89b49c7e80680e06b1fdjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>A Nepal Airlines plane brought 6 tons of medical equipment from Guangzhou on 29 March, some of them were COVID-19 test kits that the Health Ministry now says should not be used until their reliability is assessed. </figcaption></figure>Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population has instructed that the Covid-19 Rapid Diagnostic Kit imported from China by a private contractor not be used after doubts emerged about their reliability.The ministry has also stopped the use of other kits brought by individuals and private organisations from other sources, until their quality can be assured.At its daily briefing on Tuesday, the Health Ministry had said testing for COVID-19 would be ramped up to augment measures taken to stop the spread of the virus with the two-week national lockdown.However, the kits imported from China represent up to 90% of all rapid diagnostic kits available in Nepal, and this would push back efforts to increase testing.It was the Ministry of Health itself that had signed the agreement with Nepal’s Omni Buisness Corporate International (OBCI) on 25 March to purchase 75,000 Rapid Diagnostic Kits from China worth $600,000.The Healthy Ministry’s expert consultant Khem Karki said hospitals were being told not to use the tests because they suspected that the kits did not meet World Health Organization (WHO) and the government’s own standards."We have instructed hospitals because we are unsure of the quality after receiving information that the COVID-19 test kits imported from abroad by private companies may give wrong results,” Karki told Nepali Times.Last week, several European countries including Spain had reported false negatives when Chinese-made kits were used for testing suspected coronavirus cases. An investigation there showed that the companies making the kits were not even officially registered in China.“We are trying to prevent a similar situation to Spain in Nepal,” Karki said.But why is the Ministry itself is now doubting the quality of the kits brought by a company it had contracted for their purchase?Karki said Omni had ordered the kits even before the contract was given, and when this was discovered the first consignment was stopped en route via Tibet.“The quality of some of the kits were not up to mark, and we stopped them while they were in Tibet, but the rest came to Nepal by air,” said Karki, adding that none of these kits had so far been used in government hospitals.  UPDATE: The director General of the Department of Health announced on Wednesday that it had cancelled the contract with Omni Buisness Corporate International (OBCI), and confiscated its Rs50 million deposit.

Nepal to test COVID-19 test kits from China

<figure></figure> <img width="640" height="297" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a819c7e80680e064765jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Nepali workers stranded on the Indian side of the border after Nepali authorities in Darchual denied them entry. Efforts are being made to bring them home on condition they quarantine themselves. </figcaption> With thousands of Nepalis stuck on the Indian side of the border, legal and human rights experts say the government of Nepal cannot legally deny entry to its citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Indian nationals working in various parts of Nepal <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/112713" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/112713&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585724891390000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGXbshLpSxusAgEc6BhwzHdk1vfYQ">have also been prevented from entering India</a>, and Sastra Seema Bal (SSB) border police fired into the air at the Raxaul checkpoint on Monday to stop them. They had arrived in Birganj from various parts of Nepal, and were trying to walk across the Friendship Bridge at the Nepal-India border.Nepali workers in India headed home on foot and by bus after India declared a three-week lockdown on 27 March, only to find their own country was not allowing them in. A handful who swam across the Mahakali River in Darchula district have reportedly been arrested by Nepal Police.  “The government of Nepal should respect the Constitution and its international obligations,” says advocate Madhav Kumar Basnet. His writ petition, filed with advocate Meena Khadka, calls for authorities to allow the return of citizens who have been denied entry since before the country went into lockdown one week ago.   <figure></figure> <img width="640" height="422" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a839c7e80680e064766jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Indian workers in Nepal being prevented from entering India by Indian border police on Monday at the Raxaul checkpoint. Photo: Arohan Shah</figcaption> On 25 March the Supreme Court refused the petition’s call to order the government to open the doors to Nepalis abroad who wish to return. A second hearing has been scheduled for 6 April.In an interview, Basnet points out that Article 45 of the Constitution guarantees that citizens will not be exiled and argues that the current situation is “exile-like treatment”. On 20 March the government imposed a partial lockdown, halting long-distance transportation services, international flights and non-essential services. Two days later it sealed international borders to the movement of people, then imposed the nationwide lockdown from 24 March.Article 12 (4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the bedrock human rights laws, to which Nepal is a party, states: ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.’ According to Niranjan Thapaliya, director of Amnesty International Nepal: “The government has a duty and responsibility under international law to ensure the rights of its citizens, wherever they are.”“It should let these people in, put them under quarantine to ensure they are healthy, and afterwards they should safely and in a dignified manner be allowed to go home,” Thapaliya told Nepali Times. Quarantine must also adhere to a human rights approach, ensuring that the sick, elderly, women and children receive any different treatment they require, he notes.  Thapaliya says that freedom of movement can be curtailed in certain situations but those exceptions must be of short duration, notified in advance, and communicated clearly. Nepal’s border closure was “too sudden, too quick”.  <img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a859c7e80680e064767jpeg.jpg" alt=""> According to Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, “The need right now is for people to be safe where they are to contain the spread … Nepal should strengthen its healthcare systems, including quarantine wards, on an urgent basis, and ensure that stranded citizens are able to return.”Basnet points out that the writ petition does not demand that every Nepali citizen overseas be repatriated. “But if a Nepali is going to be removed from another country, or if a citizen arrives at the border on her or his own, they must not be turned away. That is not allowed.”The government’s argument has been that it cannot risk the health of its population from people bringing the virus from outside, and that it does not have enough facilities for quarantines and testing. Foreign Minister<a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/112703" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/112703&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585724891390000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQr7tFFLmRDdpUwRb8_awBrTf0Tg">Pradeep Gyawali said in an interview with RSS</a> on Monday: “We have not made any plans to repatriate any students or workers from abroad. It is not the right away, and it is not safe for them to travel at the present time.”Indeed, Basnet was asked at the Supreme Court hearing if it was a good idea to repatriate Nepalis when the country has so few resources to handle the virus. “I answered, ‘which country has the medicine and all the resources needed to deal with Covid-19? None of them is prepared’,” he said.

Nepal and India stop citizens from returning

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a7e9c7e80680e064764jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="567"/><figcaption>Pic: IRIN</figcaption></figure>At time of writing at noon on 21 March there were 785,855 confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, and 37,826 fatalities in just three months.The speed of spread and the size of population and geography affected is unprecedented in human history, after it spread from Wuhan in December.Nepal was actually only the fifth country to report its first case of COVID-19 in a student who came from Wuhan. Even though only five positive cases have been found in Nepal so far with one of them recovered, Nepal was the first country in South Asia to declare a lockdown on 17 March.There are surely more infected people out there, but for some reason there has not been a major outbreak with large numbers of elderly and vulnerable people crowding our hospitals, as has happened elsewhere.However, for us working in a community hospital here in remote Accham district the COVID-19 pandemic and need to break its transmission chain comes on top of pre-existing public health crises. For Nepal, there are multiple competing priorities – the foremost of which is <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/Nepal-%20Multidimensional-Poverty-Index,4115" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/Nepal-%2520Multidimensional-Poverty-Index,4115&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHM5h3YUBoz4XSN7_uHJ3E6Fr6WUQ">poverty</a>.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/returnees-may-be-taking-coronavirus-to-rural-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Returnees maybe taking coronavirus to rural Nepal</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel and Sonia AwaleAlthough the percentage of Nepalis in absolute poverty has decreased <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/schooling-and-nutrition-poverty-in-nepal,1098" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/schooling-and-nutrition-poverty-in-nepal,1098&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE5Rfegg0JNVXKpiotepEHWK3ctxQ">from 59.3% in 2006 to about 20% </a>today, there are large parts of the country with such grinding poverty that it forces families to ignore serious ailments because they cannot afford travelling to a hospital.At Bayalpata, we treat <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/aim-for-fewer-patients-in-achham-possible-hospital,2022" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/aim-for-fewer-patients-in-achham-possible-hospital,2022&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4N287SaVbb8sNES0Lwkx4OhGavg">patients who have walked or have been carried for days</a> because they either do not have access to medical care, or cannot afford it. Having a sick person drives even some better off families into poverty, and men have to migrate to earn enough to pay off loans they took for treatment. For Nepal, the real pandemic is poverty.A 42-year-old woman was admitted to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHxwuUmg6vrBxCxISbf1HiE37jNoA">Bayalpata Hospital</a> last week after fracturing both bones on her left leg after a fall while travelling to a school where her daughter was about to give her secondary school examination. The tests were postponed at the last moment because of COVID-19.A 14-year-old boy was admitted with a fractured femur after falling from a tree. Despite the lockdown fodder and firewood must still be collected, the maize needs to be planted, livestock have to be tended.Bayalpata Hospital has set up an emergency department and fever clinic as per government directives. We have trained healthcare workers to deal with coronavirus patients. But all we are encountering so far are the chronic poverty-related diseases that have always been endemic in western Nepal.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/enlisting-female-health-volunteers-to-fight-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enlisting female health volunteers to fight COVID-19</a>, Ramu Sapkota and Mukesh PokhrelThe <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2214-109X%2818%2930386-3" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii%3DS2214-109X%252818%252930386-3&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHN3iLt2G4_SkTyvig6g1vEBfPv5g">Lancet Global Health Commission</a> says 8 million people every year die around the world  from treatable conditions in low and middle income countries. Yet, that does not qualify as a global pandemic.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-will-save-nepals-poor-new-mothers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-will-save-nepals-poor-new-mothers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFDYqLJvteBaRIZP72Pq6sigwjSkg">More than 1,200 women die</a> in childbirth every year in Nepal, that is three fatalities evry single day. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHYW7_isIE72BQ49VZGoyQMHD2gSw">Tuberculosis</a> kills 6,000 people in Nepal every year. There were 2,736 fatalities in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFBa59bECywSEyR8IEj4-iHamayEA">road traffic accidents</a> in Nepal last year. All of these deaths were in one way other linked to deprivation and inequities.Every day at Bayalpata Hospital we manage cases of children who are <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/schooling-and-nutrition-poverty-in-nepal,1098" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/schooling-and-nutrition-poverty-in-nepal,1098&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNENzTMpW5lgmR02wVhfwM6ibW_H_w">stunted or wasted due to malnutrition</a>, exposing them to opportunisitic infections. Some of their families are too poor to provide enough food. There are also cases of fractures, neglected infections like abcess and bone infections every day – mainly among children because parents are forced to be busy at work in the farm, or had gone abroad to earn.COVID-19 is a dangerous, easily spread viral infection. Yet, when the pandemic does  spread to western Nepal it will just be another disease burden on top of the pyramid of poverty we have to deal with here every day.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/environmental-destruction-is-a-medical-emergency/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/environmental-destruction-is-a-medical-emergency/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHCbDoFCPznSW29oc0wSkBzQEDm4w">Bikash Gauchan</a> is the Healthcare Director for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/cathay-pacific-2016/a-new-way-to-care-for-nepals-poorest/894/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/cathay-pacific-2016/a-new-way-to-care-for-nepals-poorest/894/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1585722723480000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGT68-k6h4a6jXvhDF3yPCKSdhXyA">Nyaya Health Nepal</a> in Achham based at Bayalpata Hospital.

Poverty – the real pandemic

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

The Last Days of the Khampa

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

Turkish to Seville

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

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

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.

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