<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-picking-berries-in-scotland">Manoj</a> was an agricultural seasonal worker in the UK. He is back in Nepal, having saved £8,000 in just five months picking berries (pictured above). An estimated <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-worker-visa-review/review-of-the-seasonal-worker-visa-accessible">3,365 Nepalis</a> worked under seasonal work visas in Britain in 2021-22, but last year that number dropped to zero. UK-based farm operators <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-worker-visa-review/review-of-the-seasonal-worker-visa-accessible">stopped hiring from Nepal</a> after media exposed<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c3f5da9f-ca77-4f78-b37c-16bcbcfd9da6"> Nepali workers being charged exorbitant recruitment fees</a>. It is critical to expose stories about fraudulent recruitment and employment conditions that often trap workers. However, employers pulling out from the Nepal labour market in response is not a desired outcome -- especially not for migrant workers and their families. It deprives them of income, since seasonal jobs offer wages that are many times higher than what Nepalis can earn in Nepal, or in the Gulf and Malaysia where workers also have to pay recruitment costs. Such decisions also overlook the good actors in Nepal’s labour mobility industry. As elsewhere, good and bad entities coexist in Nepal's recruitment sector, a distinction that needs to be made before the whole labour market is tarred with the same brush. Nepal’s recruitment industry actually has innovative <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/fee-free-migration-is-possible">home-grown</a> responsible practices that offer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAOkqHoa7A">practical insights</a> relevant for the industry globally. But why should employers care? Closing the door to Nepali workers does not save scheme operators from similar reputation risks and penalties like getting their <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/07/agency-that-brought-heavily-indebted-indonesian-workers-to-uk-loses-licence">&nbsp;licenses revoked</a>, because workers elsewhere are also vulnerable to abuses including high recruitment fees.&nbsp; Media exposés showed similar abuses of workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh. <a href="https://labourexploitation.org/app/uploads/2024/04/Flex-Report-Final.pdf">Research</a> by Focus on Labor Exploitation (FLEX), showed 72% of the 396 workers interviewed including from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Uzbekistan also had to borrow money to pay for the costs of coming to the UK. A better solution for hiring companies would be to instead be more selective about the recruiters they partner with regardless of the migrant origin country. Nepal has examples of good recruitment actors and innovative practices which have not got global attention, and which are worth showcasing. &nbsp; Ensuring <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/fee-free-migration-is-possible">responsible recruitment</a> in practice requires <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAOkqHoa7A">innovations</a> that go above and beyond those prescribed in documents, but are products of trial-and-error and multiple iterations to win the confidence of aspirants. Recruiters travel to villages to bypass fraudulent <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular/nation/60">middlemen</a>. They conduct one-on-one counseling and investigation at various stages of the recruitment process to ensure that workers have, in fact, not paid any fees. The goal of these safeguards is to collectively help workers understand that refusing to pay for jobs will not cost them their job. It is not surprising that seasonal workers in the UK from Nepal, Indonesia or Bangladesh paid high <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a2317711-29a7-463c-be18-bdce1e453a29">fees</a> for jobs in an attractive destination &nbsp;which makes it easier for unauthorised <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/labour-mobility/brokers-going-for-broke">intermediaries</a> to manipulate and cheat them. Employers also play a critical role in influencing the behaviour of recruiters. Due diligence and monitoring before and during the recruitment process, and a credible threat to recruiters of losing future business in case of non-compliance are part of a responsible recruitment arrangement. Then there are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-worker-visa-review/review-of-the-seasonal-worker-visa-accessible">concerns</a> about employment conditions in some of the farms, including worker safety, accommodation, pay and unrealistic daily targets.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241226091228_cf9f1f1b6cdb2df143006ff4edd3310c92cf86506c65babf4aca791142f16fb6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20241226091228_cf9f1f1b6cdb2df143006ff4edd3310c92cf86506c65babf4aca791142f16fb6" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Low-hanging fruit in UK farms NT"> </figure>  Good migration can be transformational when it is transparent and responsible with the right players involved. <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.25.3.83">Research</a> has shown the potential gains of reducing migration barriers are in the trillions of dollars. <a href="https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/archive/doc/events/RSEImpactPaperv5.pdf">Evaluation</a> of New Zealand’s Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) has shown how migrants from the Pacific Islands benefited from higher incomes, asset accumulation, and improved children’s school attendance after working in New Zealand’s horticulture and viticulture industries.&nbsp; We have witnessed the remarkable journeys of returnee migrant workers now running factories, bakeries or restaurants who attribute their success to foreign employment. The Nepali Times <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uR6pzwfR91KAezRODgDIz2FWI6m2xjPL/view?usp=sharing">series</a> ‘Diaspora Diaries’ showcase many of these stories. Of course, not everyone becomes a successful entrepreneur, but the more common stories are that of incremental progress including better investment in children’s education, concrete houses, healthcare, and repaid loans. The larger the wage differentials, such as between the UK and Nepal, without hefty recruitment costs or other contractual violations to dampen it, the higher the benefits. &nbsp; Conducting ethical recruitment <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAOkqHoa7A">drives</a> is a Nepali story. Being intentional about using good migration to help families <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/migration-is-development">move out</a> of poverty, discrimination or to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/quake-survivors-migrate-for-work">recover</a> from disaster are Nepali stories. Well managed bilateral migration programs such as to Korea under the <a href="https://www.korea.net/Government/Briefing-Room/Press-Releases/view?articleId=123&amp;type=O">EPS</a> is a Nepali story. <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2023/01/26/cut-from-a-different-cloth-former-nepali-migrant-worker-is-now-an-entrepreneur/">Cases</a> of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrant-worker-teaches-others-the-ropes">positive</a> <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/money-is-not-everything-but-you-need-money-for-everything">transformations</a> owed to migration are all Nepali stories. These, too, are stories that need to be told, lessons of which can inform the UK seasonal worker scheme. To be sure, malpractices in the recruitment and employment of migrant workers should be exposed and often are the impetus for concrete actions against the perpetrators. But when there are good actors in the Nepali labour mobility ecosystem that could conduct the same recruitment drives responsibly and transparently it is a pity to lose opportunities. This alternative as opposed to doors getting closed for our workers would be a win-win for all including the workers who are hired without false promises, for employers who get better matched workers and be spared of damaging reputational risks and for good recruiters who will get to compete fairly. The UK returnee <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-picking-berries-in-scotland">Manoj</a> says, “The seasonal agriculture experience I got could be even more transformational for the poorest farmers of rural Nepal if there was a farm-to-farm transfer mechanism. They would be even more physically and mentally suited for the job. Furthermore, they would return with experience and exposure to new ideas they could apply back home.” Economically, geographically or socially marginalised Nepali farmers can gain even more from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/migration-is-development">access</a> to ethical recruitment drives. Such a strategic design of labour mobility is possible to achieve larger developmental goals for which there is a role for donor organisations like UKAid, and social enterprises, including those engaged in inclusive finance.&nbsp; If the onus is only on UK-based employers hiring workers, they may look to hire from closer destinations that are cheaper or from countries where the visa process is less onerous. &nbsp;A 2022 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-workers-pilot-review/seasonal-workers-survey-results-2022">survey</a> of seasonal workers in the UK, shows a greater proportion of Indonesians and Nepalis compared to other nationalities had paid higher recruitment and job finding fees before arrival. A <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-worker-visa-review/review-of-the-seasonal-worker-visa-accessible#:~:text=Give%20consideration%20to%20the%20Employer,the%20risk%20of%20debt%20bondage.">Review</a> of the Seasonal Worker Visa has recommended among others has called for ‘consideration of the employer pays principle’ and ‘investigations into how these costs might be more equitably shared along supply chains’. There is resistance to it from businesses including how it would drive up consumer prices. It is a topic currently under review in the UK. In 2023 and 2024, another 3,500 plus Nepalis could have benefited as previously from the UK seasonal program had we not lost access to this corridor, and if the right players had been involved from the onset. We would be remiss not to see this as a wasted opportunity with tractable solutions. Upasana Khadka heads<a href="https://www.migration-lab.com/"> Migration Lab</a>, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better for workers and their families. Labour Mobility is a fortnightly column in Nepali Times. &nbsp;

Upasana Khadka

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Low-hanging fruit in UK farms

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

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

The Last Days of the Khampa

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

Turkish to Seville

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

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