<figure><img width="1582" height="1556" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe6f9c7e80680e0a0c3bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Dawa Sherpa (extreme right) on the summit of Kilimanjaro (5,895m) on 22 August after blazing a new trail to the top. All photos: courtesy Dawa Sherpa</figcaption></figure>Three-time Everest summiteer and climate activist <a href="https://asian-trekking.com/about-us/dawa-steven-sherpa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://asian-trekking.com/about-us/dawa-steven-sherpa/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630392078246000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHB_QWtd_oqSDj5iq8n-qnGYEZckQ">Dawa Steven Sherpa</a> has forged a new route up Africa’s highest mountain to help Tanzania with an innovative eco-tourism project.Sherpa helped explore the new Kidia Route and reached the summit of Uhuru Peak (5,895m) on 22 August along with rangers from the Kilimanjaro National Park. The Tanzanians want to promote it as a ‘<a href="https://www.ippmedia.com/en/news/vip-route-mt-kilimanjaro-visitors-offing-govt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ippmedia.com/en/news/vip-route-mt-kilimanjaro-visitors-offing-govt&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630392078246000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyFACgOM23ZtPsopiaH7rRP_QUlw">VIP Route</a>’ by pricing it higher for those who want to avoid the crowds on the Mweka or Machame routes.“The summit is at about the height of Everest Base Camp, so it was not particularly difficult,” Sherpa said on return to Kathmandu this week. “But we had to explore a new route and see if it was feasible and safe for a low-volume, high-value trail that can help raise local incomes and make tourism itself more sustainable.”Before Covid-19, there used to be 50,000 visitors a year to Kilimanjaro National Park with up to 200 climbers a day on the busier trails which had been nicknamed ‘Coca Cola Route’ or the ‘Fanta Route’ and where tourism income does not really trickle down to local communities. With the pandemic the numbers are down to 30%, affecting the park’s revenue for conservation.The plan now is to limit trekkers on the Kidia route to only 20 a day, employ more porters, depend more on local produce, and charge tourists higher fees — a bit like an ‘executive class’ on Kilimanjaro, and similar to the Nepal government’s practice in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630392078246000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE_aw9D7nxvsAteaLwtdZQQ5Lgx9w">Mustang</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/nepali-times-search/?q=dolpo+kunda" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/nepali-times-search/?q%3Ddolpo%2Bkunda&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630392078246000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFUuwDgzBvfBnqgd1w4sXlrC5QfdQ">Dolpo</a>. Besides being the highest in Africa, the dormant volcano is also one of the tallest free-standing mountains in the world, rising 4,000m from its base. Uhuru is the highest point, and situated on the Kibo cone. <figure><img width="1582" height="1568" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe729c7e80680e0a0c3cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>En route to the summit of Kilimajaro along the Kidia trail earlier this month.</figcaption></figure>Even though the <a href="https://www.himalayanglacier.com/everest-base-camp-vs-mount-kilimanjaro-which-one-to-choose/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanglacier.com/everest-base-camp-vs-mount-kilimanjaro-which-one-to-choose/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630392078246000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG2ueYEsfIOJAoR9BJAGIilwD4jVQ">Kilimanjaro climb ends at an elevation where the ascent of Everest begins</a>, Dawa Sherpa found a lot of similarities between the two mountains — the terrain on the higher reaches, friendly people, porters singing as they carry loads, and the Tanzanian camp staff preparing chapati and samosa for breakfast. When posing for group photos in Nepal, porters often ask trekkers and climbers to smile and say “Yak Cheese”. On reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro, their porter instructed Sherpa’s team: “Say Chapati.” “Africa gets a lot of bad press, but what I found were super friendly people, and like Nepalis they are very relaxed and polite,” says Sherpa. “Tanzanians are very conscious about the environment, there is very little garbage.” The new 7-day route starts in Kidia village on the southern side of the mountain, the 25km trail first passing through pastoral land, thick forests of the national park, then the moors higher up leading to an alpine desert terrain similar to Mustang.  Back home, besides running his family's tourism and climbing business, Dawa Steven Sherpa supports the clean up the garbage from the base camps of eight of the world’s highest mountains in Nepal. <figure><img width="1582" height="1572" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe759c7e80680e0a0c3djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Dawa Sherpa with his Tanazanian team members before heading out from the base of Kilimanjaro to explore the new Kidia trail.</figcaption></figure>The Tanzania National Parks Authority has included the Kidia route project into its strategic plans not just as a new marketing tool but also to use tourism income to directly help local communities at the base of the mountains. “Both in Nepal, Tanzania and in other fragile parts of the world, you have to look after the people so they will look after the natural areas they live in,” explains Sherpa. “Eco-tourism can make local communities the custodians of the ecosystem, so they are an integral part of conservation.”Sherpa’s team had to break a new trail around dangerous scree slopes on Kilimanjaro, and avoid cliffs, recording the path with GPS devices. After they reached Stella Point on the crater rim, Sherpa let the Tanzanian rangers go ahead to Uhuru so they could be the first to climb the new route to the summit.Sherpa has been involved in raising awareness about the impact of climate change in the Himalaya, and what he saw on the summit of Kilimanjaro shocked him. “In fact, climbing Kilimanjaro is possible mainly because the glaciers and snow slopes are gone,” he says. “Every year, more snow is melting, and this year there were huge wildfires at the base of the volcano due to a drought, just like we had in Nepal.” <figure><img width="1284" height="894" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe799c7e80680e0a0c3ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Kilimanjaro in 1935, when it was still snow covered. Africa’s highest peak is located at the equator and has lost 90% of its ice cover in the last century due to climate change.</figcaption></figure>Indeed, Kilimanjaro, which is situated at the equator, has lost 90% of its ice in the past century, and at the present rate experts say all the ice will have vanished by 2040.Back in Nepal, Sherpa is getting ready to continue where he left off before the monsoon to clean up the garbage at the base camps of Manaslu, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. <figure><img width="1580" height="1538" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe7c9c7e80680e0a0c3fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Sun rising from behind the summit of Mawenzi peak (5,149m) from Uhuru peak.</figcaption></figure>Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/spring-returns-to-nepals-mountaineering/">Spring returns to Nepal's mountaineering</a>, Tulsi Rauniyar

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Nepali pioneers new route on Kilimanjaro

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b74319c7e80680e06237ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1404" height="936"/><figcaption>Apa Sherpa making way to a high pass in the higher sections of the Great Himalayan Trail. Photo: HIMALAYAN CLIMATE INITIATIVE</figcaption></figure>A broad smile lit his bearded face as Dawa Steven Sherpa strode towards us down the mountain path. The afternoon sun glinted off grey stone walls and wheeling crows croaked overhead on his approach, a dark coloured dog trotting cheerfully at his heels.Behind <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16260#.Xj-4JNIza70">Dawa</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/03/27/in-pursuit-of-stories/">Apa Sherpa</a> grinned broadly, a diminutive figure brimming with taut energy, followed by <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19291#.Xj-32tIza70">Samir</a>, the tall shy photographer hung with cameras, and an entourage of assorted small children and curious hangers-on. After a month walking the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16399#.Xj-2L9Iza70">Great Himalaya Trail</a> the team were bronzed and hardened, their leg muscles solid under the dusty grime, and shoulders rippling beneath sweaty tee-shirts and big packs.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b74359c7e80680e06237fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="401"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“Great to see you guys. We are almost halfway!” called Dawa Steven optimistically, hugging his girlfriend who had travelled with us to Gorkha from Kathmandu that morning. “<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19216#.Xj-3JNIza70">The dog has been with us since Thame!</a>” After our early start, we were happy to sit with the party exchanging news over cups of milky tea in a village shop, prior to the official municipal welcome felicitations within the lofty precincts of the Gorkha palace.The Great Himalaya Trail <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2012/01/13/the-great-himalayan-trek-begins/">Climate Smart Celebrity Trek</a> was the brainchild of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19015#.Xj-4i9Iza70">Prashant Singh</a>, traversing the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2010/09/25/the-great-himalayan-trail/">1,700km length of the Nepal Himalaya</a> through 22 districts <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/nepals-grand-trek-road/">from Ghunsa in the shadow of Mt Kangchenjunga in the east to Darchula in Humla</a> on Nepal’s far western border. Its high-profile purpose was to draw attention to the effects of climate change on mountain ecosystems, and spread the word to the local communities through which they passed.The historic town of Gorkha was a convenient meeting point, although closer to one third the total length. Prashant and I had brought a bus-load of Kathmandu-based media to further publicise the initiative. And to check how they were getting on in those days before widespread cell coverage connected the hills.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b74369c7e80680e062380jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Apa, the first ‘Super Sherpa’ to summit Everest 21 times, came from his Utah home for the awareness-raising event, and Dawa Steven took a break from mountaineering and climate ambassador advocacy activities. Prashant’s <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2012/01/13/the-great-himalayan-trek-begins/">Himalayan Climate Initiative</a> was just newly formed in 2012, and keen to make its mark on the government, local NGOs and foreign donors concerned with environmental issues whom he had persuaded to fund this novel expedition.The effort was lauded by the President and Prime Minister, and several intrepid ambassadors and Kathmandu development workers accompanied sections of their hike. Messages of goodwill and “god speed” were received from international supporters such as Al Gore, Reinhold Messner and Joanna Lumley. At a roadhead in Sindhupalchok, Apa was presented with a certificate from the boss of the Guinness Book of Records in a makeshift ceremony.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b74399c7e80680e062381jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1459" height="1094"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Films and photos taken along the route are still being used today, showcasing some of the most rugged and breath-taking mountain landscapes on earth, and passing beneath eight of the world’s highest peaks. Both VNY2020 and Nepal Tourism Board are dedicated to promoting the Great Himalaya Trail as a long distance multi-day walk, conveniently divided into bite sized sections to encourage repeat visits. <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/rebranding-tourism-with-remodelled-plane-">Tara Airlines have painted the GHT logo</a> onto its STOL aircraft and boarding passes.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b743d9c7e80680e062382jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Himalayan Climate Initiative has since become one of Nepal’s most innovative organisations, dedicated to finding sustainable solutions and practical business responses to the rapidly escalating environmental concerns that are engulfing Nepal. Recycling plastic bottles, producing re-useable shopping bags and collecting rainwater are just some of the ideas they have turned into thriving social enterprises. Based in an expansive Budhanilkantha site, I recently listened to exciting experiments from college kids that included vertical vegetable farming, natural water purification, plastic waste for road building, and reuse of household grey water.The celebrity trek was cleverly created as part of the overall Great Himalayan Trail Development Programme, a government project supported by the British and Dutch, and designed by a TRC team of Nepali consultants of which I was team leader. Our objective was to spread tourism benefits and stimulate local livelihoods by promoting trekking beyond Sagarmatha, Langtang and Annapurna. In 2010 an estimated 95% of all trekkers to Nepal were concentrated in those popular protected areas with only 6,000 tourists venturing further afield. Today, that figure has grown to nearly 30,000, and more when Nepali trekkers are included.I certainly did not conceive this ‘iconic and globally significant new tourism product’ for Nepal, but I was the first to weave it into government plans -- the National Ecotourism Strategy and Marketing Plan first featured the Great Himalaya Trail in 2001, a long time ago.Two people had stumbled upon the GHT concept concurrently from their different perspectives – marketing and rural development. Jamie McGuinness, a Kiwi climber and trek organiser, one evening in 2000 on my pink sofaed sitting room, explained his inspired idea to film a multi-country trek along the length of the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya. Shortly afterwards, Malcolm ‘Mac’ Odell of The Mountain Institute, over lunch in his Baluwatar home, shared his brainwave to harness tourism to bring benefits and business opportunities for remote communities between and beyond the three established trek areas.We were following in the footsteps of early pioneers. Mountaineer Peter Hillary led the first high altitude traverse in 1980, Americans Arlene Blum and Hugh Swift first walked the full length from East Bhutan through Nepal and India in 1982, and the British Crane brothers first ran the Nepal Himalaya in 1983. Many adventurers have ensued including commercial trips, boosted by Robin Boustead’s 2011 book, several websites and a series of published maps.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b74409c7e80680e062383jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>We modified the route to maximise benefits for mountain residents, using a cobweb of lower trails winding east west through the middle hills, ensuring the widest appeal for hikers and even bikers. Like the historic Silk Road, the precise path moves with the time of year and aspiration of the trekker.Waving goodbye in the sunshine outside the glowing brick walls of the Gorkha palace, Apa, Dawa Steven, Samir and their team still had a very long way to walk. Speeding along the trails as their fitness levels increased, and despite daily stoppages to explain their mission to ever-growing crowds of interested villagers and local authorities as word spread ahead of them, they completed the traverse in just 99 days.And when they returned to Kathmandu, tired and triumphant, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19057#.Xj-3ptIza70">Setuk the dog ‘with yellow eyebrows’</a> was still with them.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-lovelier-spot-than-kakani/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No lovelier spot than Kakani</a>, Lisa Choegyal

Lisa Choegyal

The Climate Smart Great Himalayan Trek

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

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

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

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

dawa-sherpa

Nepali pioneers new route on Kilimanjaro

The Climate Smart Great Himalayan Trek

The Last Days of the Khampa

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

Turkish to Seville

Being Prabal Gurung by design