<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372339f9c7e80680e0c48efjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photos: PRASHANT SHRESTHA and MANGAL LAMA</figcaption></figure>The Great Himalayan Trail (GHT) is the most epic hiking route in the world. It is challenging enough to trek the 1,700km from Kanchenjunga to Humla, but an intrepid Nepali has done it on a mountain bicycle.Mangal Lama started out on 1 April, and took 88 days to solo cycle <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16399#.YvcPrZZBxpQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Nepal section of the GHT</a>, a part of the larger trans-Himalayan arc extending right across China, Bhutan, Nepal, India to Pakistan.Ten years after famous Everesteer Apa Sherpa and his team did the Climate Smart Celebrity Trek, Lama wanted to show that it could also be done by mountain bike. “I wanted to test myself physically and mentally,” says Lama. “The GHT is in itself very challenging, but I wanted an extra element of excitement.”The main hurdles were sections that were not suitable for bicycles. For example in eastern Nepal, Lama carried his bike for up to seven hours at a time. He got sick and had fever in the Everest region, had to change his route because <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/monsoon-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the monsoon</a> caught up with him, and he lost his way in the wilderness several times.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233a29c7e80680e0c48f0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233a59c7e80680e0c48f1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The biggest challenge was crossing the 6,190m West Col in<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-mountains-are-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> the Makalu-Barun National Park</a> where Lama had to carry the wheels on his back and the frame on his shoulders. “That was really hard, because I also had full climbing gear, crampons, harness, rope, everything,” Lama says.While crossing the Tashi Labtsa pass into Rolwaling, a porter slipped. He was uninjured, but a bag with his tent, sleeping bag, food, gas, shoes, and spare parts fell into a crevasse. “I lost everything and I still had a long way to go,” recalls Lama. “I had some thoughts about why am I doing all this hard work if people will not even appreciate it.”Lama’s venture, titled <a href="https://ghtonwheels.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GHT on Wheels</a>, came with a larger aim — to improve education and showcase under-appreciated areas of Nepal for domestic and foreign tourists both for trekking and mountain biking to raise local incomes. “I want to promote trails other than Everest,” Lama says. “Nepal has so many little known places, cultures, and so many of them spiritual.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233a89c7e80680e0c48f2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233ab9c7e80680e0c48f3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233af9c7e80680e0c48f4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Lama was born to a farming family in Kakani and as a child, did not know how to cycle. But having worked for 17 years in a cycle repair shop in Kathmandu he got interested in mountain biking. He took part in several races, and now works as an expert guide on Nepal’s plentiful singletracks in Manang, Mustang, Jumla, and Dolpo. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepals-tourism-now-has-to-re-start-from-zero/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tourism collapse due to the pandemic</a> got Lama thinking about the GHT adventure.The Trail passes through some of the remotest and most under-served districts in Nepal, and Lama believes that promoting the route for mountain bikers will increase their income and improve livelihoods. Lama’s venture, titled GHT on Wheels, partnered with Vision Dolpo to raise funds for Early Childhood Development Centres. He organised all the logistics, including food and supplies, himself. He relied on GoFundMe crowdsourcing, support from friends, and equipment company sponsors.Even as he encourages more mountain biking tourism in Nepal, however, he warns international travellers to find well-recommended guides. Unlike trekking, mountain biking requires more logistical planning, safety considerations, gear, and understanding of appropriate singletrack trails.“For the GHT, you have to have a combination of time, money, and passion. If you have the time, but don’t have the money, you can’t. You need all three,” Lama explains.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233b49c7e80680e0c48f5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637233b79c7e80680e0c48f6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500">Many people in Nepal and around the world followed Mangal Lama’s adventures on social media with thousands tracking his progress on the GHT on Wheels website and Instagram.Lama is also working on a book and documentary film about his groundbreaking journey that includes spiritual lessons he learnt as he rode past some of the most tranquil and scenic places in the world. On his trip, Lama also discovered that Nepal is neither small, nor poor as he had been led to believe. After three months traversing the country, he says Nepal is vast. And except for some materially poor regions, living standards are improving and the people are rich in hospitality.“Nepalis themselves say Nepal is a poor country, and it is true that our people are not rich in the conventional sense, but they offered me food even when they had little for themselves,” he says. “Spiritually and culturally Nepalis are very rich. Go to the mountains, feel free, and come back with new ways of looking at life and the world.”Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pedalling-for-life/">Pedalling for life</a>, Sarah Watson

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Peddling the Great Himalayan Trail

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d0c9c7e80680e0bd4c7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1593" height="1000"/><figcaption>As the monsoon clouds dissipate, a view from Laurebina of (left to right) Himalchuli, Ngadi Peak and Manaslu in the morning sun. All photos: PETER HINZE</figcaption></figure>German journalist Peter Hinze always had a fascination for the Himalaya, and later for trail-running.  On one of his trips to Nepal, at Pilgrim’s Bookstore in Thamel, he came across Robin Boustead’s Nepal Trekking and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/nepals-grand-trek-road/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Great Himalayan Trail</a>. On his flight back to Munich, he decided to one day do the trek himself.‘My goal was not to break records. No, speed was not my motivation,’ Hinze writes in the prologue to his own book titled The Great Himalaya Trail and self-published in English in 2021. The German original won the International Tourismus Böurse Book Award in Berlin in 2019.The reason he made the three-month journey in 2017 was that he felt the Himalaya was at a great risk from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-is-a-disaster-in-the-nepal-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>, ‘civilisation’, road construction and out-migration. It was to draw attention to this ‘existential danger’ to Nepal’s mountains that he wrote a book that does not just record his adventure, but highlight haphazard road-building, the erosion of culture, impact of climate damage, and also the hardiness and adaptability of the high Himalayans.With its superb photography, the book is a guide to those who want to be among the less than 150 people who have completed the entire trail, or even just do a part of this epic traverse of the Nepal Himalaya.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-other-abc-trek/">The Other ABC Trek</a>, Bimal Kadel<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d0f9c7e80680e0bd4c8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1194" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d129c7e80680e0bd4c9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">There are two Great Himalaya Trails (GHT): one is the High Route that traverses the upper passes and uninhabited valleys, and the other is the Cultural Route which moves through villages and settlements. One has only mountains, and the other has mountains and people. Hinze’s book is as much about people as it is about terrain.It is almost an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">anthropological documentation</a> of the rapidly-changing landscape and culture of Nepal. As we flip through the pages, we know that many of these places will never be the same again.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d159c7e80680e0bd4cajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Hinze’s team of porters and guides starts in Lhonak below Kangchenjunga and already the first signs of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/forests-replace-glaciers-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shrinking glaciers</a> and retreating snowline are visible. Trying to cross from Khumbu into Rolwaling, the team is forced to turn back from Tashi Laptsa Pass because of heavy snow and avalanche danger.He does make it to Mt Everest Base Camp to recount the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/on-everest-4-years-after-the-nepal-earthquake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">series of disasters </a>that have hit it in 2014 and 2015. We can see with the pandemic how over-dependence on tourism can be <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/nepali-times-search/?q=everest+avalanche" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disruptive to livelhihoods</a>.Being a journalist, Hinze’s book is like a magazine longread. Instead of chapter breaks, we have sidebar interviews with people he meets along the way: the climate scientist Fidel Devkota, tourism entrepreneur Yankila Sherpa, Raju Bista, the nephew of the King of Mustang, and Robin Boustead himself.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-andes-and-himalaya-join-hands/">The Andes and Himalaya join hands</a>, Lorena Gómez Ramírez and Bibek Raj Shrestha<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d189c7e80680e0bd4cbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Hinze avoids polemics, trying to understand the need of Nepali villagers for better roads. He quotes Raju Bista: “Mustang is not a zoo for foreigners to come and ogle at us like we’re some sort of attraction. We are also entitled to progress, wealth and a better life, the road will bring us all of this.”But Hinze is deeply worried about scars that the roads are leaving on Nepal’s nature and culture. The country’s bio- and human diversity is being erased by this accelerated rush to connect. Along the way, Hinze develops a special bond with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bon-voyage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dolpo</a> and its people. It is Nepal’s largest district still largely untouched, but the world is encroaching from its north and south.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d1b9c7e80680e0bd4ccjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ten years after the first GHT traverse, Hinze gives us a glimpse through text and images of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/saving-gokyo-from-itself/">change on a Himalayan scale</a>. We just hope that the book finds an international publisher so it is circulated widely. It has a useful appendix with the stages of the Trail and tips for those who want to do all 1,864 horizontal kilometres, 95,551 vertical metres, crossing 12 passes above 5,000m and 22 above 4,000m.The highest point on the trail is 5,758m, and the lowest 303m. This book is vivid proof that there are six directions in Nepal: north, south, east, west, up and down.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/australias-writing-diplomat/">Australia's writing diplomat</a>, Nepali Times<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d1e9c7e80680e0bd4cdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="254" height="237">The Great Himalayan Trailby Peter Hinze, 2021English translation: Sylvia Goulding, Emily PlankISBN: 978-3-9801939-1-7286 pagesinfo@greathimalayantrailrun.com<h2>Chat with Peter Hinze</h2> Nepali Times caught up with the author of The Great Himalayan Trail during his recent visit to Kathmandu. Excerpts of the conversation: Nepali Times: This book explores not just the Great Himalayan Trail, but also the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayans-on-the-frontlines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">changes that are sweeping the land</a>. Is that what inspired yoiu to write this book? Peter Hinze: Although the book was only published a short time ago, some parts of are already in the past. That is how rapid the changes are. There is hardly any part of Nepal or the Himalayan region that are spared from these transformations. Valleys and mountains, which until recently were considered ‘inaccessible’, also for political reasons, are being ‘civilised’ and ‘developed’ at breakneck speed. The transformation is in full swing, and it will not be stopped.It is important for people to connect to a more dignified life. For Westerners, the term Himalaya still has a romantic image: prayer flags, yak butter lamps, candles, no electricity. But of course the Himalayan inhabitants also want to participate in the development towards modernity.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/a-ray-of-hope-for-nepal/"> A ray of hope for Nepal</a>, Kunda Dixit<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d1f9c7e80680e0bd4cejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">But there has been a lot of hype about this modernisation of the mountains. The danger that traditions and social structures will be lost is real. The book attempts to visually document at least some of the traditions.One fact, however, has left me with mixed feelings: it's China's massive influence in the region. People are drawing hope from possible Chinese aid, which Nepal's government has denied for decades. But only short-term help is received, nobody wants to know anything about possible dependencies in the future, nobody wants to talk about it. But that dependency will come.The book seems to mix your role as a journalist with that of a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/trail-running-trail-blazer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trail-running adventurer</a>. How did you combine those two roles?As a journalist, I encounter people and situations. I'm a guest for a short time. I meet people, some of whom haven't seen a stranger for years. So I have to adapt to this situation. I'm not allowed to disturb, but I still want to learn something about the people, about their lives and their problems. What could be more useful for a reporter than people opening up to them. I had the help of two Sherpa friends but for them too we were in a different place. For many people in the Himalaya, the unfamiliar begins in the next valley. “Here is my home, here is my family and my country. Why should I go to the next valley or even further?” This I've often heard this as an astonished question. In the west, the term ‘homeland’ has acquired a somewhat questionable (because it is too traditional) connotation. In the Himalaya, home is still an affair of the heart, even for young people.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/the-women-left-behind/">The women left behind</a>, Sonia Awale<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d239c7e80680e0bd4cfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1593" height="1000">Your book is as much about the place as the people. What stuck you most about the inhabitants of the high Himalaya?Between Kanchenjunga and Api-Saipal the inhabitants of the Himalaya master a life of the most extreme challenges. Deprivation, extreme weather, isolation, lack of health care, difficult access to education and increasingly the consequences of climate change. Nevertheless, there is confidence and hope for better days. Religion is the leitmotif of their will to survive. Modesty, hope, faith and confidence: these are the cornerstones of existence in the mountains. I live in Bavaria, close to the Alps. The mountain dwellers there lived the same way decades ago. It is the mountains that shape the people. No matter where, no matter what elevation. It doesn't matter what language is spoken.Young Nepalis moved down into the valleys to Kathmandu or Pokhara. They went to good schools and found a job. But more and more of them are now returning to their home villages because they see opportunities there. This is a good trend, although not very strong yet.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d269c7e80680e0bd4d0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1593" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721d299c7e80680e0bd4d1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Of all the places you walked through, you seem to have been really taken by Dolpo. Why Dolpo?I often ask taxi drivers in Kathmandu if they have heard of Dolpo. Many have not.They are a people that have been ignored for decades by Kathmandu. It is a place where the most original form of Tibetan Buddhism is still practiced, as is the Bon faith – one of the oldest in the world.In the two years of the pandemic a lot has been said and written about in Europe about a return to the simple life, of basics. If we listen to the people, and especially the religious leaders in Dolpo region they can teach us a lot about frugality, happiness and living lightly.Karma Tsering, is a yak farmer I met in Bhijer, located at 3,900m on the border with Tibet. He told me: “We have enough to eat. We have enough to wear. Why shouldn't we be happy?" He need to have said more. And that is why the Dolpopa deserve hope and help, and that is why the place is so close to my heart.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-salt-of-the-earth/">The salt of the earth</a>, Jag Bahadur Budha

Kunda Dixit

Change on a Himalayan scale

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd8329c7e80680e092e2djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="666"/>Many of us have fond childhood memories of the जुनकिरी firefly, chasing these fascinating flashing bugs through fields and forests. Across the world and in Nepal, poets and singers have waxed eloquent about the blinking light of these nocturnal insects.But for a creature so adored, there has not been much of an effort to study the science and chemistry behind their luminescence, their distribution, or why they have declined sharply in number.Indeed, the bugs that were once ubiquitous in gardens, jungles, riverbanks, streets and playgrounds in Nepal have all but disappeared. Where did they all go?Fireflies belong to a family of beetles called Lampyridae and existed alongside dinosaurs 100 million years ago. But habitat destruction, rampant pesticide use, light pollution and climate change now threaten to put the lights out on all 2,200 species of fireflies so far identified.Fireflies are also ecologically important species as their decline indicate the degrading quality of wetlands. And yet, there is no detailed study about the status of the species in Nepal, their scope and habitat."Thousands of firefly species are found globally but the number of species and their diversity are unknown in Nepal. This is sad and researchers have not given any priority to these insects," says Hum Gurung, Regional Project Manager with Birdlife International Asia who is promoting firefly tourism in Malaysia.In the recent years, these charismatic beetles have turned into a major attraction for nature and wildlife tourists. In fact, their bioluminescent courtship displays draw over one million tourists annually to sites located in at least 12 countries, mostly in the Southeast Asia and North America.A new study published on the journal Conservation Science and Practice provides the first comprehensive review of the geographic scope, magnitude, focal species, and other attributes of the major firefly tourism sites worldwide.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd8349c7e80680e092e2ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="893" height="796"><figcaption>Tourism threatens many stages in the firefly life cycle.</figcaption></figure>Gurung, who is a co-author of the study, says that the rapid proliferation of firefly tourism provides a timely opportunity to examine how such activities may impact local firefly populations, and to highlight the biological factors that make certain species especially vulnerable to tourism-associated threats.Here in Nepal, fireflies can promote a unique, insect-based night tourism that also promote the sky at night. These can bring economic, social, and psychological benefits to local communities and tourists alike.Fireflies can also be a ‘gateway bug’ to get tourists and locals alike interested in conserving many other insects, often ignored in favor of large and small charismatic mammals.But first, proper conservation mechanism must be put in place so that spreading firefly tourism does not end up destroying the very insect it is trying to promote and save.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd8379c7e80680e092e2fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2456" height="1632">“In Mexico, the rapid growth of firefly tourism over the past decade is thrilling but also alarming,” says co-author Tania López-Palafox. “We’re glad people can experience one of the world’s greatest natural wonders. But we also want to make sure the fireflies are still around for future generations to enjoy.”Lead author Sara M Lewis (co-chair of the IUCN SSC Firefly Specialist Group formed in 2018) of the Tufts University has spent three decades studying fireflies and highlights the need to recognise ecological requirements across all firefly life stages.The report further recommends minimising light pollution (bright lights from buildings, vehicles, flashlights, and even cell phones can disrupt firefly courtship rituals) to promote breeding success of firefly adults and protecting nearby habitat as the bugs spend most of their life cycle in a larval stage and require several months or even years to develop into adult form.In some sites, firefly populations have been threatened by tourists inadvertently trampling females and degrading larval habitats during their visits. A well-managed tour with trained guides is a prerequisite for sustainable firefly tourism. So is local communities educated about and motivated to protect firefly populations.Says co-author Wan F A Jusoh: “Local communities are the guardians of fireflies, and their stories and local knowledge carry the power to help protect them.”

The fading light of Nepal’s fireflies

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

Lisa Choegyal

The Climate Smart Great Himalayan Trek

<figure><img width="1500" height="994" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95cc9c7e80680e05dc2bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: PETER DEAN</figcaption></figure>If there is one book you must set aside, either for new year holiday reading or as a Christmas gift to a fellow traveller, it would be <a href="https://www.talesfromthehimalaya.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tales from the Himalaya</a> by the British climber-turned-trekker Henry Edmundson, which has just been published by Vajra Books.Edmundson was a boy when news came to his home in England that Hillary and Tenzing had climbed Mt Everest. His father, an outdoorsy type, immediately took the family out on a celebratory hike over the hills. Soon, Edmundson was devouring books on mountaineering and exploration. Read Also:  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=35947&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Lumba Sumba Passage,</a> Henry Edmundson“It became a sort of obsession,” Edmundson said in Kathmandu this month after a trek to Lumba Sumba. His wife, and lifelong trekking partner Connie, piped in: “Not just ‘sort of’.”By age 19, Edmundson was climbing in Kashmir and in Balistan in Pakistan, and in the past nearly 50 years he has trekked almost the entire Himalayan arc, from Afghanistan to Bhutan. The Kangchenjunga Base Camp-Lumba Sumba was one of the last missing bits before he did it this year.The view from Lumba Sumba pass towards Kangchenjunga is the cover image of Tales from the Himalaya. The title may sound a bit prosaic for a personal encyclopaedia of the Himalaya spanning everything from the politics, geopolitics, geo-tectonics, geography, geology, cartography, history, adventure, culture and religion of these mountains. Vast in scope, and leaving out no details however slight, it is clear this is Edmundson’s life’s work.Graduating in mathematical logic, he worked for an oil prospecting company to bring out a technical journal, and kept a meticulous diary of all his treks, fully intending to write a book about the experiences one day. “I wanted the book to be holistic because I believe in a non-specialist approach to make the subject interesting to non-experts,” Edmundson explains. “I try to make complicated things simple and not make simple things complicated.”The book is divided into thematic chapters that are interwoven with his own personal travels across the Himalaya: Religion, Geology, Politics and Society — the last chapter dealing exclusively with Nepal’s political transition from war to peace, and up to the 2015 earthquake and Indian Blockade and their aftermath.When he first arrived in Kathmandu in 1971 as a young lad, Edmundson had three letters of introduction from John Tyson, who was part of an unsuccessful attempt on Mt Api in 1953: one to the British Ambassador, another to trekking pioneer <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hiking-with-jimmy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Col Jimmy Roberts</a> and one to Swiss pilot <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9306#.XczeotIza70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hardy Furer</a>. That gave him all the access he needed to set off to the deep hinterland, with the help of legendary porter activist <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9296#.Xczez9Iza70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Cheney</a>.For his first trek, the author’s team chose one of the most difficult ones they could find: to Kanjiroba and Dhorpatan. In that respect, Edmundson was doing the Great Himalayan Trail even before the concept was invented, confining himself not just to the Nepal Himalaya but to the entire 3,000km mountain arc. Along the way, he encountered more than just adventures in the wild: he found himself in the middle of a skirmish in Kashmir, in an earthquake in Nepal and witnessing the changes to trekking brought by new mountains roads and the climate crisis.One useful thing about this book is that you do not need to read it cover to cover. Curled up on a cosy sofa by the fire, you can open up any section and start reading. There is a lucid account of Toni Hagen and his early geological exploration of Nepal, which leads directly into seismicity and the orogenesis of the 1934 and 2015 earthquakes. Backgrounds to more political upheavals in mountains are also all here, starting from the British Afghan campaign of 1847, the Chinese annexation of Tibet and the Sino-India War of 1962, right up to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2013/05/26/remember-what-happened/">Nepal’s Maoist conflict</a>.Edmundson has put a huge amount of work into this book, in terms of research, gathering illustrations and maps, and the sheer exertion of undertaking trips across some of the most arduous terrain on Earth.Maybe you do not need a more exciting title when the content is so stimulating. And, finally, we have a Western writer who does not pluralise the word ‘Himalaya’.  <img width="300" height="346" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95cf9c7e80680e05dc2cjpeg.jpg" alt="">   <a href="https://vajrabookshop.com/categories/vajra-publications/products/tales-from-the-himalaya" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tales from the Himalaya: Religion, Science, Politics, Society</a> by Henry Edmundson <a href="https://vajrabookshop.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vajra Books</a>, Kathmandu, 2019 424 pages, Rs4,800 ISBN 978-9937-9330-3-2

A personal encyclopaedia of the Himalaya

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

The Last Days of the Khampa

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

Turkish to Seville

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

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

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