<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/6372396a9c7e80680e0c73ddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Wind-swept Mount Everest. Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVES</figcaption></figure>Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest begins in Spring 2019. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/peak-climbing-season-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s mountaineering</a> has just rebounded from the deadly avalanches on Everest in 2014 and 2015, and a year before the pandemic hits.High on Mt Everest, internationally certified mountain guide Tendi Sherpa and his 60-year-old American client leave their tent in Camp 4 and climb into the ‘death zone’.Only 800m remain, but for a guide, the worry is not so much about the summit as it is about returning to Camp 4 safely. Tendi’s story is but one among the many that are woven together in Sherpa, a new book by authors Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep Bashyal.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/6372396d9c7e80680e0c73dejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1536"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>At the moment Tendi is among 800 climbers on Manaslu, and took the video of a massive serac collapse near Base Camp on Sunday. Another avalanche near Camp 4 on the mountains killed one Nepali and wounded 10 others, and another American skier is missing near the summit – underscoring just how dangerous mountain climbing can be.For the Sherpa, it is doubly dangerous since they have to put themselves in harm’s way (on the Khumbu Icefall, in the death zone) for longer periods than their clients.The book attempts to go behind the climbs to portray the lives, dreams and destinies of the people who have made their surname and ethnicity a word for ‘support crew’ in the English language dictionary.Even as climbing in recent years has been over-commercialised, adding to the environmental impact and danger, climate crisis is changing the very nature of climbing.The two Nepali journalist authors of the book ask at one point: “Can climbing Everest ever be ‘a picnic’ for anyone?”Every year, hundreds of Sherpa guides accompany their Patagonia-clad clients to the base of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/journey-to-the-mountain-of-the-spirit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mountains in Nepal</a>, Pakistan, India and even the Alps and North America. They fix ropes to summits, put ladders across crevasses, guide them up ice faces, pitch tents and even cook – all with a smile.It is often easy to end up exoticising and giving a sense of otherness to the Sherpa climbers, painting them as superhuman sidekicks, relegating them to the footnotes of another’s attempts. Paired with the spectacular description of landscapes, the meditative, riveting or tragic first-hand accounts of the many Sherpa climbers and their families ensure that the book avoids this pitfall.Sherpas now increasingly climb not just because it is a job but because they enjoy the adventure. And they are financing their climbs by taking clients along. Increasingly, the portering work is now increasingly done by Nepal’s other ethnic groups. The guide who died on <a href="https://explorersweb.com/manaslus-can-of-worms-did-anyone-at-all-reach-the-true-summit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manaslu</a> on Monday was a Rai.Rather than asking the vague ‘why people climb’ questions, the authors cast their nets relatively wide over the history of mountaineering in the Himalaya, covering also a larger geographical area, from Khumbu to Darjeeling to the United States.They trace their aspiration and motivation alongside the changing attitudes towards the mountains, trade and tourism. An entire chapter is dedicated to  women climbers. Legends and superstitions mix with the tales of ambition and endurance. The Sherpa's ‘romance with the mountains and the act of climbing,’ the authors realise, ‘is attached to their love stories back home.’Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everestby Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep BashyalCassell, 2022321 pages    Rs699<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/637239709c7e80680e0c73dfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="2113">

Ashish Dhakal

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Stories of Nepal’s summiteers

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203229c7e80680e0b27f0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1944" height="1098"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>In the heart of Edinburgh near the Church of St John the Evangelist is <a href="https://www.oneworldshop.co.uk/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.oneworldshop.co.uk/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1641433168882000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DlDyvp0funtWsI3daY8Bf">One World Shop</a>, a modest-looking store that sells goods from all over the world.Among the products are ‘<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/made-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Made in Nepal</a>’ sweaters, mufflers, felted slippers, and beanies which are flying off the shelves this winter. There are also Nepali handicraft items, lokta paper products, herbal bath soaps and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/clothed-in-cannabis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hemp products</a> for sale.But the items are not as much for profit as they are for the international promotion of fair trade handmade goods made by women in poorer communities to improve their livelihood with added income. The store, a fair trade organisation set up in 1983, sources most of its Nepali products from the Association for Craft Producers and Get Paper Industry in Kathmandu."Our goal is to empower women and alleviate poverty through diversification of livelihood options," explains Rachel Farey, business manager of the One World Shop which also sponsors Nepali women to be trained at institutes in the UK. “We buy goods only when we confirm that they were made by women in need, or if they are somehow involved in manufacturing.”Farey comes from a family with a long-standing connection with Nepal. Her uncle was former Gurkha officer <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9296#.YdRS8C8RqLd" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D9296%23.YdRS8C8RqLd&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1641433168882000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2zTu5ZxUmpVaWi0pbRP35h">Mike Cheney</a>, a pioneer figure in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/trekking-in-Nepal-turns-50,2658" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s trekking</a> and mountaineering scene during the 1970s, who set up Sherpa Cooperative to ensure that porters had proper working conditions.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203259c7e80680e0b27f1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="971"><figcaption>Mike Cheney</figcaption></figure>Cheney had served in the British Army from 1946 to 1957 in the Royal Armoured Corps and the 10th Gurkha Rifles. After retiring from active service, he became a tea-estate manager in Darjeeling, and came to Kathmandu in 1965 for the first time and continued working in a tea estate in Ilam.He then turned to Nepal’s fledgling trekking industry, and in 1966 joined forces with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hiking-with-jimmy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jimmy Roberts</a> who had set up <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-himalayan-odyssey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Travel Nepal</a>, the first registered trekking company in the world. In his later years, Cheney concentrated his efforts on promoting the country as a household name in the climbing and mountaineering industry.“Mike Cheney showed Nepal the way ahead, connecting the country to the rest of the world at a time when it was not easy to market a new destination, while at the same time making sure that porters got a good deal,” says tourism entrepreneur Karma Sherpa Lama in Kathmandu.Cheney was vocal about <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4747#.YdT8di2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">low-paid porters</a> carrying heavy leads during mountaineering and trekking expeditions and worked to raise living standards by setting an example with his Sherpa Cooperative. He made sure that porters were paid higher wages, had proper gear for high altitudes, and were taken care of if they fell sick.Cheney’s other major contribution was in scouting new trekking routes across Nepal, away from already <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/managing-everests-waste-problem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">crowded Everest</a> and Annapurna areas, and improving the trails. Cheney was also a correspondent for several alpine journals and mountaineering magazines in Europe and the United States.Cheney was an active member of the Himalayan Rescue Association with its clinic in Pheriche, and the Trekking Agents’ Association of Nepal. He was the Local Hon Secretary of the Bombay-based Himalayan Club, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Alpine Club.Now, his niece Farey is following in his footsteps and is committed to helping Nepali women and children through her store One World Shop in Edinburgh which sells a wide range of handmade crafts, jewelry, textiles, interior furnishings, furniture, toys, clothing, ceramics, handmade paper products, cards, books and foods.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203289c7e80680e0b27f2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1700" height="802"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>“Our mission is to reduce poverty by sourcing and selling fair trade goods from all around the world,” says Farey. “It is not just the individual artisans who make the goods that benefit from our work, but also their families and the communities in which they live.”Like her uncle, Farey is also a passionate trekker herself and has visited Nepal often. She says that in a way she is carrying on Mike Cheney’s mission: to uplift Nepali families by removing middlemen and guaranteeing them a just income.For Farey ‘fair trade’ is not just a concept, she is actually practicing it in her business through One World Shop which sources and sells sustainably produced products from around the world by ensuring a decent price which is ploughed back into their communities.During the pandemic, One World Shop was selling its products online even though supplies from Nepal were disrupted because of flight cancellations.

Edinburgh store comes full circle to Nepal

<figure><img width="4032" height="3024" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c1f9c7e80680e06b2e0jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>2020 is not our year. It isn’t anyone’s year.The spread of the novel coronavirus has brought the world to a standstill. Airlines have grounded their entire fleets. Like other countries whose economies depend in large measure on tourism, Nepal has been badly hit.Ironically, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lets-call-off-visit-nepal-year-2020/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lets-call-off-visit-nepal-year-2020/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNESbw5ZpaYmwCyQRlIQIzA7iIfoIw">2020 was supposed to be Visit Nepal Year</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-nepal-brand/?preview_nonce=76ffe3ead4" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-nepal-brand/?preview_nonce%3D76ffe3ead4&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFuZkFOKEwAPJbtiudgoWiPpaIe7Q">Nepal Tourism Board</a> had spent millions of dollars on promotion to attract <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrfaugQB-f0fayOLjI_XVFwo3BUw">2 million tourists this year</a>. But trekking and mountaineering expeditions were called off in mid-March at the height of the spring climbing season, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/all-nepal-flights-cancelled-22-31-march/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/all-nepal-flights-cancelled-22-31-march/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE8B-x7rIS2f4xF-jE19aiYS1qLLA">domestic and international flights have been stopped</a> at least till 27 April and that is likely to be extended till end-May.“2020 is a write-off,” says <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rajtamang66" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/rajtamang66&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4BRRzMVw49m8JA60NLriudRl49Q">Raj Tamang</a> of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/satisfying-trekker-appetite-for-adventure/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/satisfying-trekker-appetite-for-adventure/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHXrDV4fjc7Tc-h2COeFpY3nXTICg">Responsible Adventures</a> who was promoting his business in Europe when the epidemic hit Italy, got back on one of the last flights, and has been in self-quarantine since. “It will take at least one year for Nepal to recover.”Some airlines are hoping to restart flights over the summer by not selling middle seats to maintain physical distancing, but prices will be much higher than usual. Nepali travel groups expect high-end trekkers to trickle back in the autumn because they already see Nepal as an adventure destination, and they are more used to risks.“We will also have to reorient our promotion to regional markets like India and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/chinese-tourist-influx-to-nepal-in-2020/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/chinese-tourist-influx-to-nepal-in-2020/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013535000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGH1Q_uh8MAcXRbv9kbBCiyVAK2Dw">China</a> as well as encourage Nepalis to travel more within Nepal,” says Tamang.As with all other countries, the government has had to find a balance between protecting public health and keeping the economy afloat. The collapse of tourism and remittances from Nepali migrant workers overseas has wrecked the economy, with the World Bank lowering Nepal’s economic growth forecast from 7.1% to 1.5-2.8% this fiscal year.There are at least 1 million Nepalis that depend on tourism, and the sector makes up nearly 8% of the GDP. The hardest hit are porters and guides who depend on seasonal income during the spring and autumn seasons, employees in the service industry, as well as Nepal’s hotels and restaurant owners who have invested with bank loans. <img width="640" height="373" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c229c7e80680e06b2e1jpeg.jpg" alt="">“We were just gearing up to a healthy spring season, but everything looks dim and empty now,” says a despondent Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summits, that handles expeditions to Mt Everest.The former CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Selling-Nepal-on-the-Net-tourism-of-Nepal,3979" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Selling-Nepal-on-the-Net-tourism-of-Nepal,3979&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013536000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHCRdZ_LxsWmFks3c3nvhAU44pU6Q">Deepak Raj Joshi</a> predicts that Nepal’s civil aviation, trekking and hospitality industry could lose overall  Rs160 billion this year, of which hotels and resorts stand to lose Rs85 billion, trekking, mountaineering and adventure tourism losses will top Rs55 billion. Domestic airlines will lose Rs5 billion, restaurants and bars up to Rs5 billion.At this time of year, big hotels in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan would have occupancies of 80% or more, and it would be difficult to get seats on flights. Now, the business owners have to bear the cost of paying salaries and keeping their companies running. <img width="640" height="432" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c249c7e80680e06b2e2jpeg.jpg" alt="">“The entire hospitality industry is in deep depression,” says Shreejana Rana, president of the Hotel Association of Nepal and executive director of Hotel Annapurna, adding that many new hotels have huge loan exposure as well as having to pay operating costs of empty businesses.The HAN is currently working on four areas: survival and revival of the industry, helping citizens, ensuring food supply,  and looking for revenue to address employee issues. “In terms of supplies, I think the government has done a fair job so far, but we have to pay employees on humanitarian grounds at a time when there is no revenue. April is going to be problematic in terms of salary payments and we are looking for a solution,” Rana added. The HAN proposed to pay employees 50% of their monthly salary on 20 April.Domestic airlines have also been hit by the grounding of all aircraft, and they have also lost the dollar tariff on foreigners that used to partly subsidise domestic passengers. Buddha Air is set to announce a calibrated pay cut for employees depending on seniority, and Yeti Airlines is still discussing financial issues in the board.   <figure><img width="640" height="427" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c279c7e80680e06b2e3jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>“COVID-19 is the crisis of the century, the global tourism and aviation industries will have a hard time,” <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14200" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D14200&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587446013536000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6b7KumEgr1WEo8_5wuseJytjX4A">Buddha Air’s Birendra Basnet</a> told Nepali Times. “But we have been around for 20 years and the underlying philosophy of our company is to provide a platform for employee benefits. We understand the crisis, and are trying to take it as a challenge to prepare for new opportunities into the future, and rely on increasing the volume of domestic travel.”Evoke restaurant in Jhamsikhel has a deserted look, and its Pokhara outlet is also empty. Many events at the venue have been cancelled, and owner Sushant Thapa says there is no option but to ride out the crisis, and everyone is in the same boat. Plans to open a third outlet in Lazimpat are shelved.For Deepak Raj Joshi formerly of the Nepal Tourism Board, the only option is to hunker down, consolidate, cut costs and plan for the future. The government can help ease the pain by waiving customs and income tax, and also announce a rebate on bank loans.“Sooner or later, the pandemic will be controlled, and we have to plan so that in 2020 we survive, in 2021 we revive, and in 2022 we thrive.”With additional reporting by Raju BanskotaRead also:  <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-prepares-for-economic-fallout-of-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal prepares for economic fallout of pandemic</a>, Kaustubh Dhital

“Survive 2020, revive in 2021 and thrive in 2022”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMi4Zs-KrEAt 7,193m <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/gurja-himal-tragedy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gurja Himal</a> is not high by Himalayan standards, and is dwarfed by the rock and ice pyramid of Mt Dhaulagiri to the east. The mountain is nonetheless impressive because of its imposing south face, rising nearly 4km vertically above the valley below. One of the last villages near the mountain is Gurja Khani, a fascinating settlement tucked away in splendid isolation in the Dhaula Valley. This area of Nepal is still untouched by roads, and much of the traditional architecture and way of life remains. Steep canyons make the valley impenetrable from below, and the only access is on foot over a 3,300m pass.  <figure><img width="2736" height="2446" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171144/636936be9c7e80680e03fdf9jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The imposing and unclimbed South Face of Gurja Himal rises nearly 4000m vertically from the valley below. Photos: JOY STEPHENS</figcaption></figure>Near the wind-swept pass is a tea shop, and it is the last place you would expect to find a family of five, including a baby. Siddhi Man Biswakarma and his wife own the teashop, and because it is the only resting place between Lulang and Gurja Khani, they do brisk business.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/setis-gorgeous-gorges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seti's gorgeous gorges</a>, Hermann WarthThe Biswakarmas set up shop five years ago to serve the mule trains, but as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/gurja-himal-tragedy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trekkers </a>to Nepal try to find new and untraveled areas, there are now tourists who also stop by.“Nowadays we get foreigners as well. And during last year’s election, some politicians spent the night here while campaigning,” recalls Biswakarma, who makes about Rs500 a day and plans to add rooms. He has also invested in two horses which he will rent out to those who want to reach Gurja Khani.  <figure><img width="1500" height="2000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636936c29c7e80680e03fdfajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Since it has not been exposed to commercial <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tourism</a>, the Gurja Himal trek is a place where the Fair-Tread trekking model is being tried out over the past five years. It is based on the same principles as the fair-trade label on foodstuff, and urges trekkers to think about the impact they leave on the local people and economy.Fair-Tread takes into account who benefits from tourism expenditure, and tries to maximise its impact on poverty-reduction and social justice. More of the expenditure is designed to benefit those who need it most, without undermining their self-sufficiency and dignity.Commercial trekking mostly involves booking online with a trekking wholesaler in Europe or elsewhere, who sub-contracts to a Kathmandu company. This means that up to half the expedition expenditure never makes it to Nepal. Of the other half, much of it stays in Kathmandu and does not trickle down to places like Gurja Khani. <figure><img width="1500" height="979" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636936c59c7e80680e03fdfbjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>On the popular <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Everest </a>and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Annapurna </a>areas, trekkers either camp or stay in purpose-built lodges established by companies in Kathmandu. Camping treks may be environmentally friendly, but their contribution to the rural economy is minimal, since the fees are paid to the trekking agency, and most of the food is sourced from outside. In contrast, even a poor family can invest in and profit from a homestay. In Gurja Khani, Belmoti Pariyar started her aptly-named Jivan Ko Bato (Road of Life) homestay with one tiny room and a single bed. Now she has enlarged that room and added another so that she can accommodate four paying guests. Her guest book shows visitors from Brazil, Switzerland, Canada, the UK, and Nepal. ‘The best momo ever,” one trekker, a retired British Army colonel who stayed here a month, wrote. He taught Pariyar some English words, and she is happy that her homestay provides supplementary income to pay for her daughter’s school. Lulang, on the south slope of the pass, is an unusually large village of Dalits and has three homestays. “People respect me more because they see that I have a steady income from my rooms, they even chose me to be the Chair of our Tourism Committee,” says Rati Maya Biswakarma proudly.Most visitors here are blissfully unaware of caste discrimination in Nepal, and the ignorance means that they could be indirectly supporting it. Dalits have not been able to benefit from tourism as much because they have not become guides in numbers proportionate to their population. The only tourism-related occupation easily accessible for them is low-paid portering.  <figure><img width="1936" height="2592" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636936c89c7e80680e03fdfcjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Porters are usually not salaried employees of trekking agencies but hired on a daily-wage basis. They often lack accident insurance and adequate clothing for high altitudes. Lal Chhantyal, a licensed guide from Gurja Khani, says uncertainty of income is the biggest problem.The trekking season is short, and the cost of renting a room in Pokhara in the hope of getting work is exorbitant. Fair-tread trekking aims to ensure that porters and guides are recruited locally, properly equipped, and paid a fair wage. Fair-Tread also emphasises respect for the environment, local culture, and traditional skills. Tourism has often brought modern materials and architecture because trekkers demand rooms with attached bathrooms and modern plumbing. Villagers then perceive these facilities as superior to the traditional architecture, artisanal skills and artifacts they have. Jhak Bahadur is the elected chair of the Gurja Khani council, and his main emphasis is on health, especially to reduce the high maternal mortality rate. Because of its remoteness, women with childbirth complications die because they cannot reach the nearest health post in Lulang in time. Jhak Bahadur says building a road would impact on trekking, a ropeway would make transportation easier, but the cost is too high. Nobody owns the views of the Himalaya, but surely the people who live in their shadow deserve to benefit from our visit. www.offthebeatentreks.orgJoy Stephens has worked in Nepal for 20 years as a researcher in education and trafficking. She is the author of Window onto Annapurna (1988, Victor Gollancz). <h2>Gurja Himal tragedy</h2> <img width="640" height="951" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636936cc9c7e80680e03fdfdjpeg.jpg" alt="">The disaster which struck the Korean expedition on 10 October brought Gurja Himal (7,193m) and this inaccessible region of Nepal to world attention. Two months after the disaster, there is still uncertainty about what caused the Base Camp at 3,500m to be blown away, killing five Korean and four Nepali climbers. Gurja Himal is one of the westernmost peaks in the Dhaulagiri massif and has an unclimbed south face that soars nearly 4,000m above the valley. The Korean expedition was led by veteran mountaineer Kim Chang-ho who is famous for being the first Korean to summit all 14 eight-thousanders without bottle oxygen. Disaster struck even before the climbing began, and since no one survived. It was probably an avalanche like the one pictured below coming down the face. Locals who helped retrieve the bodies said there was no ice or snow at Base Camp, and the bodies had been blown across the river to the opposite slope. Tall trees in the narrow valley had snapped in half, and videos taken by the rescuers show scars from what look like an air blast preceding an avalanche that roared down the face.  <figure><img width="1057" height="506" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636936cf9c7e80680e03fdfejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Villagers say they told the expedition to establish Base Camp lower at 3,000m to avoid angering the mountain’s guardian deity which they say does not tolerate people defecating nearby. Over the years, they report that several locals have died near the same spot. Sita Chhantyal, sister of one of the local guides who died in the disaster, said the expedition did everything to propitiate the deity, sacrificing a chicken and a goat. She added: “But they made the mistake of locating the camp too close to the mountain. It made the god angry.”Rescuers talk of the bodies flung off the mountain, yet in the camp site, they found crates of eggs unbroken. Chhantyal said in amazement: “Not even one egg was cracked,” Joy Stephens in Gurja Khani

Trails less travelled

Many of us former Nepal Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) would agree that our time in Nepal changed in significant but very different ways our perspectives on life if not the future paths we chose to follow. Of no one was this truer than Dorothy Mierow. Dorothy was born in 1920, in Colorado Springs. Her father Charles C Mierow was a classics scholar and Latin professor, who served for ten years as president of Colorado College.&nbsp; Dorothy developed an interest in animals as a child, graduated with a BA degree in natural history from Carlton College in 1942, a Master’s in biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and another Master’s in geography from the University of Minnesota.&nbsp; As a young woman, Dorothy traveled with her father throughout Europe, including a visit to ancient Greek ruins, and took a Magellan Tour by cruise ship around the world in 1958.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262" data-rendition-name="original" width="903" height="1178" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Dorothy Mierow as a college student in her native Colorado.</figcaption> </figure>  She was a college teacher during much of the 1940s, also teaching at a girls’ school in Hawaii. Then back to her native Colorado in 1953, where she became a curator and later director of the Colorado College Natural History Museum. She taught geography classes, and in her free time, Dorothy climbed 22 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. Traveling in India in 1960, Dorothy decided to spend two weeks in Nepal. In late 1961, she filled out an application to join the Peace Corps and specified that she wanted to go to Nepal, ‘because I admired the people so much when my father and I were there on our trip’.&nbsp; Dorothy reached Kathmandu in September 1962 as the first group of American Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal. She stood out from the others: one of the few women in that group, surely the oldest at age 41, a world traveler, and a woman who already had established a professional career.&nbsp; One doubts if Dorothy had had a husband and children whether she would ever have gone to work and spend much of the rest of her life in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515" data-rendition-name="original" width="1259" height="910" loading="lazy" alt="How th Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life NT"> <figcaption>Pokhara Bazar in 1962.</figcaption> </figure>  The Peace Corps assigned Dorothy to teach geography at Tri-Chandra College. After the school closed in the winter due to lack of heating, USAID and the College of Education asked Dorothy to help train general science teachers.&nbsp; She taught for two months and became involved in a textbook-writing project, commenting: ‘I would like the children to know something about public health, conservation (the trees are going fast and so is the soil), and learn the names of some of their common birds, trees, and flowers. They are more impressed with electricity, airplanes, and cell structure.’ When a new college opened in Pokhara in 1963, Dorothy was transferred there and lived with a Nepali family. The college boasted 30 students and no permanent buildings.&nbsp; In October 1963, Dorothy wrote: ‘Pokhara is a town of almost 5,000 people … We are in a fertile valley surrounded by foothills … There is a small Mission Hospital … a Leper Hospital and Tibetan Refugee Camp started by the Red Cross and now run by the Swiss. With winter approaching, more Tibetans are appearing in town, often with pack horses or donkeys. Some have been carrying large boxes of powdered milk,donated (by USAID) to the camp from the airport … There is no electricity, and the transportation problems make many items scarce and expensive. I am really a sort of a museum. The landlord brings all kinds of people in to see how I live and count my shoes and dresses. They express amazement at my books, pictures, tin oven, Nepali dolls from Kathmandu, screened food shelves and curtained closet.’ The standard term for Peace Corps volunteers was two years, but Dorothy extended her term and was still at Prithvi Narayan College at the end of 1965, when she wrote that she had 20 Geography students in the first-year class and 6 in the second year preparing for the IA Examination. The college enrollment was 125 students, and the foundation for a new science building was being excavated.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29" data-rendition-name="original" width="902" height="605" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow and friends at Phewa Lake.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy noted that she ate one meal a day at the (Shining Mission) Hospital but otherwise lived on dal-bhat, momo, and potato curry at local shops. However, she had developed a new passion: to build what she initially called the Pokhara Museum of the Himalaya. In commendable Peace Corps fashion, Dorothy always worked with Nepalis and respected the culture. ‘The greatest joy and satisfaction I have had has been from the building of a Museum-Library in memory of my parents … It has been possible to feel like a wealthy benefactor with the money saved by father for the family’s education and now available for the education of others… (Father) would have loved to be in on the founding of a new college and be able to plan a library. Several hundred of the books to be in the museum-library came from his collection and were carefully selected to be of use for students in Nepal…’&nbsp; ‘The museum part is to satisfy my own inclinations and was thought of when I found how little diversion there was for the people of Pokhara… It is part of the University requirements for the college that it should have a geography and biology museum. The museum building is small but adequate.&nbsp; I have tried to design it in harmony with Nepalese architecture and decorate it with some of the art of the best artists or woodcarvers… Posts holding up the porch roof are carved by Cottage Industries to represent different peoples of Nepal in typical costumes. The door was carved by a local wood carver and has typical birds of Nepal around it. Inside are 10 roof-support carvings designed by the retired Director of the National Museum in Kathmandu, Mr. C.M. Maskey.&nbsp; They were carved by the best wood carvers in Patan very skilfully. The building has three rooms: the library, the exhibition room, and a smaller workroom which can be used by our newly formed Woman’s Club as well as other groups or classes.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8" data-rendition-name="original" width="629" height="599" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow with local women in Pokhara in 1969.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy promoted her project to influential Nepalis connected with organisations whose support she solicited: The Department of Archaeology, the Department of Agriculture, the Godavari Botanical Gardens; Tribhuvan University’s Science and Education Department, Nature Conservation Society.&nbsp; The museum was opened officially in early 1967. The Annapurna Natural History Museum, the building Dorothy designed and had constructed, is still open and features some exhibits which she created many years ago.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26" data-rendition-name="original" width="1333" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>The Annapurna Natural History Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy returned to America in 1967, but she longed for Nepal. In the spring of 1969, she again tried to enroll as a Peace Corps volunteer but was told that as she had spent more than four years, she would not be eligible for another assignment. Undeterred, she persuaded the college in Pokhara to invite her to return as a teacher.&nbsp; UNICEF and the Forestry Department sponsored Dorothy to prepare charts on trees, birds, animals and flowers in colour for distribution to the schools of Nepal. Dorothy, back in the Peace Corps, returned to Pokhara and the Museum in 1972. She formed a friendship with her former geography student from Sikles, Chandra Prasad Gurung, and in 1974, she brought Chandra to America, where he enrolled in Colorado College and studied cultural anthropology.&nbsp; Chandra subsequently earned his PhD in geography from the University of Hawaii and returned to Pokhara to become director of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Gurung actively promoted ecotourism, landscape conservation, and biodiversity conservation in Nepal. His life was cut short along with those of 23 other Nepalis and foreigners who perished in a helicopter crash near Taplejung in September 2006.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow's four books on Nepal and its biodiversity. </figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy worked with several well-known Nepalis to publish her paintings and photos in beautifully illustrated books. She and Hemanta Mishra of the National Parks and Wildlife Service wrote Wild Animals of Nepal (Ratna Pustak Bhandar, 1976). More than 400 photos Dorothy took on treks to the Everest region, Gosaikunda, Muktinath, Jumla and Rara Lake, as well as travels in the Tarai, appeared in Himalayan Flowers and Trees (Sahayogi Prakashan, 1978).&nbsp; The botanist Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha identified the species. Dorothy and Kesar Lall published This Beautiful Nepal (Sahayogi Press, 1981). Birds of the Central Himalayas (1988) contained Dorothy’s paintings of 250 species of birds found along the areas of the Kali Gandaki River, Pokhara, Chitwan and the central Tarai. Dorothy summed up her life and work in Nepal in Thirty Years in Pokhara (Pilgrims Book House, 1997). Dorothy returned to Pokhara and her adopted Gurung family several times during the 1980s and 1990s to celebrate festivals and meet old friends. Her final years were spent at her mountain cottage in Green Mountain Falls north of Colorado Springs. She died at the age of 79 in August, 2000. Nepal gave new meaning and purpose to Dorothy Mierow’s life. Daniel W Edwards was a Peace Corps volunteer in 1966 and is the author of several books on Nepal. The author thanks Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College.

How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer’s life

· On the night of 15 May, two glacial lakes burst in Tharka in Humla and the debris flow washed away homes and bridges.&nbsp; · Last week, a slurry surge on the Kali Gandaki in Upper Mustang caused at least Rs15 million in damage, and was traced to a melting glacier. · Dozens are feared dead after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rasuwa-flood-likely-a-glof">an expanding glacial lake in Tibet overflowed</a>, sweeping down into Nepal and damaging four hydropower plants generating 230MW, nearly 8% of the country’s total grid supply.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2667" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Rasuwa flood"> <figcaption>Miteri friendship bridge connecting Nepal and China was swept away in the Rasuwa flood. Photo: PRAKASH CHANDRA TIMILSENA / NPL</figcaption> </figure>  And those are just in the past month. Climate scientists say Himalayan glacial lake outbursts are becoming more frequent and destructive, and a warning for Nepal not to put all its eggs in the hydropower basket.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">Record precipitation last September</a> unleashed floods that killed 200 people, and temporarily slashed Nepal’s total generation capacity of 3,000MW by nearly half. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster">Melamchi flood of 2021</a> caused by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-not-so-permanent-frost">permafrost melting</a> on a glacier upstream nearly destroyed a $800 million water supply scheme, Nepal’s largest infrastructure project which four years later still has not resumed full operation. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">glacial lake overflow in Sikkim</a> caused by record rainfall in September 2023 that destroyed the $1.2 billion Chungthung Dam and caused catastrophic damage to infrastructure on the Teesta River. This was a warning to the cascade of hydropower plants on the Arun and Marsyangdi river basins.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152" data-rendition-name="original" width="919" height="549" loading="lazy" alt="hydro disasters and hydropower plants"> </figure>  Nepal has set a target of generating an additional 28,500MW by 2035 -- out of the feasible 48,000MW -- but how viable is an energy strategy that is exposed to heightened risk due to climate breakdown? &nbsp; “As extreme weather events increase, we must design and build infrastructures respecting river flow and topography,” says former Energy Secretary Dwarika Nath Dhungel. “We must make the best use of our water resources, but not by letting excavators loose everywhere mining riverbeds and building haphazardly where we shouldn’t.”&nbsp; Although no project can be disaster-proof, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure">climate smart design</a> can minimise damage from flash floods and landslides. Recent disasters have driven up insurance premiums for energy projects in Nepal, and smaller ones cannot even afford them. The 456MW Upper Tamakosi hydroelectric project which is still not fully functional after the September floods has claimed insurance worth Rs1.8 billion. The alternative to high risk high investment hydropower projects is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">energy diversification</a> to other renewables such as solar, wind or biogas. Nepal gets annual sunlight of 300 days with 6-7 hours on average to total 50,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="solar power"> <figcaption>Farmers in Tarai using solar powered water pump. Photo: GHAMPOWER</figcaption> </figure>  The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) calculates that Nepal could source 3,000MW from wind energy alone, considering 10% of the area with more than 300W/m2 wind power density. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/decentralising-power-in-nepal">Solar energy</a> stations are cheaper and quicker to build, and would be an ideal alternative to reliance on hydropower.&nbsp; “There has been some investment in solar power, especially from the state sector,” says water expert Madhukar Upadhyay. “But there is an issue of land acquisition since the arrays need a lot of space. It is comparatively easier to get a permit to put up a hydropower plant on a river.” As for biogas, there is simply no incentive to build on past success with household level plants to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-bullshit">promote industrial-scale production</a>. Scaling up biogas by integrating it with urban biodegradable waste would still be a viable alternative to LPG.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684" data-rendition-name="original" width="1419" height="954" loading="lazy" alt="windmill"> <figcaption>A wind mill in Hapsikot in Nawalpur. Photo: WINPOWER NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s public sphere is buzzing with excitement over the discovery of potentially 430 billion cubic metres of methane gas beneath Dailekh district that, if properly harnessed, would meet the country’s energy demand for the next 50 years. Even though a feasibility study is awaited, politicians from the prime minister down see this as a petro bonanza that will make Nepal rich. But drilling, storage and distribution of CNG in the country’s current kleptocratic state make that unlikely. If Nepal was to get rich solely on its hydro-energy potential, it could have done so in the past 50 years. Says Dhungel: “This is not exactly a new discovery, but it is premature to celebrate until its extraction is proven to be cost effective. And let us hope it does not get <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">tangled in geopolitics</a>, since China is involved in the prospecting and drilling, which could make India uneasy.”&nbsp; The country suffers from the Dutch Disease curse even before its resource is fully exploited. And the same cronyism, corruption and rent-seeking structure cannot deliver the riches we expect from Dailekh’s methane discovery. Now, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/right-climate-for-nepal-s-energy-transition">with hydropower in jeopardy</a>, Nepal’s planners will have to evolve a new strategy for energy security into the future. But first, governance needs to be cleaned up with long-term strategic planning that takes climate risk into account. For example, do we need to mine fossil gas when there are renewable options? Will Dailekh take Nepal away from its climate commitments? Says Madhukar Upadhyay: “Nepal has always been resource rich and management poor. And the larger the resource, the bigger our management incapacity. It is a societal malaise.”&nbsp;

Nepal’s Resource Curse

Nepalis are living longer than ever. By 2028, the country is set to join the ranks of other <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">ageing societies</a> around the world, and by 2054, 1 out of every 7 people in Nepal will be over 65. Life expectancy at birth has risen dramatically from just 55 in 1990 to 71 today, &nbsp;thanks to improvements in public health and access. But as more people live longer, the country must also prepare for a parallel rise in age-related illnesses and the complex social and medical needs that come with an <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/need-to-prepare-for-ageing-society,3624">ageing population</a>. Extended families have always acted as a safety net for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/home-sweet-home-for-older-nepalis">the elderly</a>, with children and grandchildren shouldering most caregiving duties. But with more than 1,600 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-not-a-wish-but-necessity-for-nepalis">Nepalis migrating </a>every day, older parents are left behind with no one to care for them. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-new-equaliser">Remittances</a> from migrating youth, which account for nearly a third of Nepal’s GDP, have kept the economy afloat. But money sent home cannot make up for the chronic departure of kin and caregivers, who are often the first to catch the signs and symptoms of disease in elders. In rural areas where over 85% of Nepal’s elderly live, the absence of this daily vigilance means early signs of illness often go unnoticed until they become debilitating. As a result, chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and depression are left unmanaged.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250720130748_213f2c65f2638872e9ac0550a7ac251e4960c3726dc5c76215962a23ba71dff1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250720130748_213f2c65f2638872e9ac0550a7ac251e4960c3726dc5c76215962a23ba71dff1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1064" height="701" loading="lazy" alt="Smart ageing is Nepal’s next frontier"> </figure>  Geriatric medicine is largely absent from medical curricula and there is no national plan in place to manage cognitive decline, memory loss and confusion. These are often mistaken for signs of normal ageing, instead of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dementia-brings-new-problem-that-families-have-little%20knowledge-of,2151">dementia</a>, delaying care until it is too late. The same pattern plays out with strokes, osteoarthritis, and vision problems — conditions that could be managed early but are instead allowed to spiral into <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/changing-disability-to-this-ability-h68f6sq2">disability</a>. Nepal is not ready for an older future. It needs a strategy for ‘smart ageing’ where the focus is not adding years to life, but enhancing years lived through the intelligent application of policy, infrastructure, and crucially, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/tech-and-transition-in-nepal">technology</a>. Many models of smart ageing, however, are sculpted around modern societies where independent living in later life is the norm. Furthermore, eroding traditional family care and an underdeveloped formal care system means there is a large gap that can’t simply be filled by copy-pasting from foreign models. Nepal must shape its own version of smart ageing. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/healthcare-moving-from-hospitals-to-homes?%2F">tech boom</a> has led to homegrown digital healthcare apps such as Hamro Doctor, Cura Health, Jeevee and Health Yaad Ayo which offer teleconsultations, online appointments, and at-home test bookings. As <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/nepal-s-new-digital-landscape">smartphones and internet access</a> extend to the most rural fringes of the Nepali countryside, geography is no longer a barrier to the use of these digital tools. What limits their use is the lack of digital proficiency among the older generation. Others find the idea of turning to a device instead of a familiar, reassuring face unfathomable. That is why <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/addressing-nepals-digital-divide?ref=blog.togglecorp.com">digital literacy</a> efforts must be paired with guided human support to build trust alongside technical skill. Such a model of community-led digital mediation is already gaining traction elsewhere. In the UK, ‘digital health ambassadors’—often young people or even schoolchildren—are trained to co-design and advocate for online platforms that resonate with peers who might otherwise feel excluded from automated health services. A Nepali version could engage cohorts of nursing students, tech-savvy youngsters and returnee migrants to assist elders in navigating digital health platforms and troubleshooting problems, and most of all, normalising the idea of health apps being a reliable recourse.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250720130748_fcb94ab76e76b5574189757e88d76fccad4e115e78dd9eae92a3bd4c882c3431.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250720130748_fcb94ab76e76b5574189757e88d76fccad4e115e78dd9eae92a3bd4c882c3431" data-rendition-name="original" width="2246" height="1590" loading="lazy" alt="Smart ageing is Nepal’s next frontier"> </figure>  Nepal’s own network of Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs), whose credibility is rooted in long-standing relationships across rural communities, could be similarly upskilled, their roles in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/target-2030-for-maternal-and-newborn-health">maternal and child health </a>expanded and repurposed to also include geriatric tech support. However, there is a limit to how much older adults can adapt to new technologies. So, Nepal should simultaneously invest in passive technologies—tools that monitor and act for the elderly, instead of demanding active use. That is where wearables and in-home smart health devices collectively known as 'gerontechnology' come in. Picture an 82-year-old in far-flung Rolpa, away from the facilities of an urban hospital. Installed in her home are low-cost motion sensors that monitor prolonged inactivity or signs of a fall, instantly triggering alerts to the nearest health post when necessary. On her wrist, a wearable bracelet continuously tracks her sleep, vital signs, oxygen saturation, and glucose levels. This data is encrypted and synced to a digital dashboard accessible by health staff at the local post. If the system flags an acute risk—such as a potential stroke or hypoglycemia—a nearby health worker is dispatched immediately to her home. If her readings over time indicate a trend toward a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-do-so-many-nepalis-have-high-blood-pressure">chronic condition</a> like diabetes, community health volunteers step in. They help schedule a virtual consultation with an endocrinologist in Butwal. Based on the advice received, she gets a prescription and picks up her medication from the local community pharmacy, along with a smart dispenser to ensure she sticks to her treatment plan without missing doses. This is not as far-fetched as it may sound. Many of the individual devices forming this connected medical system called an Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) already exist in Nepal as imported commercial products. What is missing is a stronger framework for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/public-health-partnership">public-private collaboration</a>: one where health tech companies continue developing locally adapted tools, and the government actively integrates these innovations into public health delivery. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/nepal-as-an-ai-power-bank">Nepal’s tech ecosystem</a> is maturing, but policymaking must evolve in tandem, especially when it affects an older generation largely resistant to change. The backlash against the recent mandate requiring National Identity Cards for accessing social security benefits revealed the pitfalls of imposing top-down reforms without adequate preparation or support for seniors. For Nepalis to age well, community caregivers, doctors, innovators, and above all, the state, must step in where families have stepped away. The goal is not to replicate traditional care, but to build a coordinated system of support that connects everyone through technology. The future is older for Nepal, let us be wiser too. The writers are pursuing their undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Smart ageing is Nepal’s next frontier

चौतारा rest stops have long been an integral part of scenic touristic town of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-six-decades-ago">Pokhara </a>but are now rarely seen as the city bursts at the seams. They say inhabitants of Pokhara saw a plane before they saw cars. Indeed, the grass airfield was built in the 1950s, while the Kathmandu highway 20 years later. Before roads, people walked to get around, pausing to rest or even nap under the shade of banyan-pipal trees. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-desperation-and-hope">Pokhara airport’</a>s ‘terminal’ in those days was a shady chautara where passengers waited for their flights. The chautara bore silent witness to daily life, whether it was travellers seeking a brief respite from the summer heat or villagers gathering for a chat in the mornings and evenings. But with the roads came vehicles, and then houses started filling up spaces, even farmlands. Pokhara began transforming from a serene village to a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-comes-alive-at-night">bustling city</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250719010724_d101fa482441ce67afdf5bc4e4547b334e7662c1cf0a20e9d31a0e8dff66f04b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250719010724_d101fa482441ce67afdf5bc4e4547b334e7662c1cf0a20e9d31a0e8dff66f04b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2147" height="1581" loading="lazy" alt="Trees of life and living NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>  The banyan-pipal trees were chopped down to make way for wider intersections and buildings. The once-iconic rest stops that carried Pokhara’s identity had all but vanished. “Building chautara was once considered a religious duty, which is why so many of them were constructed across Pokhara,” says archivist Sunil Ulak. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10927">Ekai Kawaguchi</a>, a Japanese Buddhist monk, who visited Nepal 120 years ago en route to Tibet, documented <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-visitors-in-pokhara-to-admire-view">the landscape of Pokhara</a> and its surroundings. In his book, Three Years in Tibet, he reflects on the natural beauty of the town and its shady trees. A chautara used to be surrounded by ponds, where shepherds would bring their cattle to drink from while they took a nap under the shade. The gentle rustling of leaves in the cool breeze lent a soothing melody as did the chirping of birds, while the insects took refuge in the branches and leaves. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-800-years-ago">Pokhara 800 years ago</a>, Kunda Dixit This ‘nature’s breeze’, as botanist Kalyan Panta puts it, is now history due to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">haphazard urbanisation</a>. “When the wind strikes against one leaf, it creates a domino effect and other leaves start waving as well,” he explains. There were 632 chautara in the city until 1977, and by 2000 the number had fallen to 278. But in some wards the number of trees fell from 55 in 1984 to only five now.&nbsp; The gradual loss of these resting places has meant habitat <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">destruction of birds and insects</a>, it has also damaged the environment and natural beauty of the city.&nbsp; Researcher Jagannath Adhikari’s study showed that infrastructure projects ignored the environment, and concluded that that urbanisation in Pokhara was unsustainable.&nbsp; The destruction continues to this day. Recently, old chaurata in wards 6, 13 and 14 were cleared to make way for a sacrificial ritual. In fact, ward 6 got a permit from the local government to clear its remaining trees.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250719010724_cee1d4faf8376e7ba18b9c7012ea4215b7c3fbf7e0983b0c97005df5567d6de0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250719010724_cee1d4faf8376e7ba18b9c7012ea4215b7c3fbf7e0983b0c97005df5567d6de0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Trees of life and living NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>  But in wards 13 and 14, the Human Service Foundation cut down some 33 trees for which it is in a dispute with the metropolitan city as there is no unclear jurisdiction regarding who gives the permit. The Kaski Division Forest Office is currently investigating the matter. Elsewhere in ward 19, the ward office had launched ‘मेरो रूख, म काट्छु’ campaign due to an alleged chaos caused by monkeys in the area. The decision was rescinded after an all-around opposition.&nbsp; To be sure, there are policies in place to protect trees such as the Gandaki Province Forestry Act, 2080, and the Regulations, 2081. The province government also introduced an act in 2019 per which no tree, including pipal, silk cotton and other <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/trees-trees?%2F">trees of natural and historical importance</a> shall be damaged, eroded or removed. But the local government, responsible for implementing the Act, is doing the opposite. “If this rapid rate of tree felling continues, neither trees nor chautara will survive for the future generation,” conservationist Ram Bahadur Poudel tells us, adding that old trees are being cleared under the pretext of pruning branches. Interestingly, Ulak notes that Pokhara-8 was called सिमलचौर in the past because there were so many majestic silk cotton trees, but there are very few left, if any, and hence altering the identity of a place. With modernisation, people have questioned the significance of chautara in this day and age. But they still have relevance. Urban centres in Pokhara and Kathmandu are much hotter than the outskirts because of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/in-the-heat-of-the-moment-5xcycyot">urban heat island effect</a>. Says archivist Ulak: “While their original purpose was to provide rest, today they continue to play a crucial role in regulating temperature, beautifying the city, and preserving our environment.”