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Race against time

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b73dd9c7e80680e062361jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1095"/>If you like Nepali folk songs, you must have come across a hirsute man on Youtube, singing old, familiar songs with an unusual accent and lilt. The backdrops to the music videos are always mountains wrapped in clouds and B rolls of smiling Nepali children. The singer strums his ukulele gently, and through melancholy spreads calmness and positivity.This is Arko Mukhaerjee, a Bengali who grew up around Darjeeling, walking the mountains and dales on the other side of the border from Ilam and Sandakphu. The hills were alive with Nepali folk music, and he grew up steeped in its melody and beat.“As a boy, I hiked along the border with Nepal and have done the Singalila trek, walking up to the base of Kangchenjunga many times,” recalls Mukhaerjee, who has fond memories of tongba and sukuti sessions with Nepali-speaking friends who remain his best friends. He came to understand the difference between dai (brother) and daju (respected brother). It helped that his name ‘Arko’ (‘sun’ in Bengali) means ‘next’ or ‘another’ in Nepali, an icebreaker that is still the subject of endless jokes.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=40220&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moving songs from the boys next door</a>, Sewa Bhattaraihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK0jZL0SlXcMukhaerjee was 11 when he heard his first Nepali folk song, Resham Firiri, from his trekking guide Arjun Sherpa. The whole village of Mane Bhanjyang, where the India-Nepal border runs through a house, would shut down for evenings of song and merriment, and people would dance to Mohani Lagla Hai and Tulsi Aagan ma Ropaunla. Because of Mukhaerjee’s background in Bengali music, it was easy for him to learn the songs from Sherpa.“My family came over to West Bengal from East Bengal, and as refugees we did not have much,” he relates. “Families like ours hold on to the intangible heritage, which is all they bring with them. In my family that heritage was classical music.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0bJkyoGHd8But Mukhaerjee rebelled against the regimented nature of the classical tradition and turned to exploring and experimenting with melodies that touched his soul. He gave up formal training and learnt music by jamming and practicing. Today, he performs folk music in more than 20 languages and plays five different folk instruments, but he keeps coming back to Nepali music.Mukhaerjee’s connection to Nepal was forged in the Darjeeling mountains, through his friendship with Nepali-speaking Indians who sang songs of migration and their motherland. “Nepali music contains traces of the places Nepalis have been – Burma, Malaya, fighting world wars,” says Mukhaerjee. “Some Nepali musical instruments are similar to those found in Mongolia or Afghanistan, and there are also some harmonic aspects from British influence on Rana music.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b73e19c7e80680e062362jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="974">And then there are the characteristics of Nepali music that are typical of mountain music around the world: the use of more major notes and fewer minor notes, as with Irish, Mongolian, South American, and bluegrass music.Among Nepali singers, Mukhaerjee is fond of Jhalakman Gandharva, the pioneering minstrel. He first heard a Gandharva song on a taxi ride from Tribuvan International Airport to Thamel. “Jhalakman’s voice is unique not just in Nepal but in the whole world,” he says. “When you sing to the accompaniment of a single instrument for many years, your voice automatically follows the instrument. Jhalakman sang with the sarangi, and his voice had acquired some micro tonal aspects of the sarangi which are impossible to replicate.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/eastern-melodies-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eastern melodies in Kathmandu</a>, Sewa BhattaraiWhile in Pokhara to perform in January, Mukhaerjee visited Batule Chaur, the historical home of the Gandharvas, and says it was an emotional moment. “It gave me goose bumps,” he says.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6bDmdNl_kMukhaerjee has sung many of Jhalakman’s songs, including Timro nai Maya, Allare Nani Kesi, and Bala Joban. He understands some of the lyrics, but gets a native speaker to transcribe the correct pronunciation. Ultimately, though, what matters to him is the feeling that the music inspires. Mukhaerjee recently discovered Mitrasen Thapa, and has started to upload videos of his renditions of the master’s songs.“When I sing to the Nepali communities in India, everyone sings along. That is so rare. You just forget all intellectual abstractions and enjoy the emotion the songs bring out,” says Mukhaerjee. “My objective in performing Nepali music is to spread love and connect people.”

Arko, the Nepali minstrel from Bengal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141148/636a5ef69c7e80680e056df9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="948"/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHHETRI</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141148/636a5ef99c7e80680e056dfajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="377">S pecial Nepali Times Holiday Edition celebrates Nepal’s culinary heritage. Our reporters fan out across the country to sample well-known and obscure delicacies that are the ingredients of a rich and diverse food culture.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/exploring-nepals-culinary-diversity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exploring Nepal's culinary diversity</a>, Kedar Sharma and Kiran Sharma<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/tharu-escargots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tharu escargots</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/food-of-the-royals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Food of the royals</a>, Nepali Times<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-superfoods-of-the-andes-and-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The superfoods of the Andes and the Himalaya</a>, Sonia Awale<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/satisfying-trekker-appetite-for-adventure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Satisfying trekker appetite for adventure</a>, Sanghamitra Subba<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/dasain-once-more/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dasain once more</a>, Editorial

TASTE OF NEPAL

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f519c7e80680e056e20jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="924"/><figcaption>Photo: KEDAR SHARMA</figcaption></figure>It is said that food is eaten first with the eyes. But on our two-month food tour across Nepal recently, we felt that food may be first eaten with the ears. Delicious descriptions drew us to dishes even before we saw them.We heard of many exotic dishes: milk buried underground for six months in Jumla until it fermented into yoghurt, meat marinated for a week before it is eaten in Kalikot, meat belonging to the entire community cooked in a single dish in Gulmi. Cake-like dishes made of rice, millet and other flour that are not known outside the districts they are eaten in.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/tharu-escargots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tharu escargots,</a> Sewa Bhattarai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/food-of-the-royals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Food of the royals</a><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f549c7e80680e056e21jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="377">We have always been told that Nepalis don't have names that correspond to breakfast, lunch and dinner, but have only meals and snacks (khana and khaja). However, the Tharu have names for five different meals, according to the time of the day they are served in. Communities that migrated most, especially Brahmins and Chhetris, had lost most of their culinary heritage. Yet in Baitadi, we saw that those who had stayed behind retained their original foods.All of this led us to ask ‘What exactly is Nepal food?’ Is dal bhat tarkari the national dish? Are foods in Nepal original, and is there a commonality between the country’s varied cuisines?Bhat (steamed rice) cannot solely define Nepali food in a country where indigenous grains like wheat, corn, buckwheat, millet, barley and others are grown abundantly, and roasted and steamed into bread, boiled into porridge, or ground for storage. Any one of these can be taken as a staple food. Beyond that, lentils form an essential part of our diet, though their cooking varies according to geography and ethnicity.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=33917&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The superfoods of the Andes and the </a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=33917&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Himalaya,</a> Sonia Awale<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=33901&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Much more than dal bhat,</a> Anil Chitrakar<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/vegetables-and-famous-veggie-dishes-this-Dasain,3951" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vegetables are eaten Nepalwide</a>, mostly fried, and sometimes boiled. Oil to fry them in, and turmeric for its colour and medicinal property, are essential to Nepali cuisine. Green leafy vegetables saag differentiate the Nepali thali from North Indian ones. Gundruk, sinki, tama, kinema, and other foods made by fermenting leaves, bamboo shoots, or beans are common across Nepali kitchens. So are dairy products like milk, yoghurt and buttermilk, and it is a tradition to flavour rice with a bit of ghiu.As for meat, there is no uniformity. Some like pork and others buffalo, both forbidden by other communities. Nepali cuisine is lacking when it comes to dessert, and many communities do not even have the tradition of eating sweets.Nepal’s most exotic dishes are not found in restaurants but eaten only at home. While this preserves their taste, it also limits the dish to a small family group.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/could-nepali-cuisine-go-global/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Could Nepali cuisine go global</a>, Thomas HeatonIn this age of easily available packaged food, we are losing slow-cooked foods that once used to enhance the taste, smell and nutritional value of foods. Not just our recipes and cooking techniques, but our entire agriculture system has fallen prey to commercial agriculture, and many indigenous foods are not grown any more.After our culinary journey across Nepal, our conclusion is that there is no standard ‘Nepali food’. It is our duty to define, and refine, our ethnic dishes and preserve their originality. We need to get these dishes to restaurant tables around the world by cooking, eating and propagating them ourselves. Nepali food deserves to go worldwide.<h2>Tharu</h2>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h10eHDoRt4Tharus who live in the plains make use of all the ingredients around them, including aquatic animals like fish, snails, clams, shrimp and crabs. You name it and Tharus make a delicious dish out of it. They are also famous for eating healthy, with their staple grains and vegetables steamed or boiled.It used to be that Tharu food was only available during the Maghi festival at Tundikhel. But Tharu restaurants in Kathmandu now provide the food all the year round. Barghar Restaurant in Kirtipur provides all the traditional Tharu delights, even crabs and clams.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f569c7e80680e056e22jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><h2>Thakali</h2>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SL3kYsqWqsThough Thakalis live in Mustang where rice does not grow, Thakali restaurants have become synonymous with the typical Nepali dal bhat tarkari. That might be because they were historically traders and were exposed to foreign foods. The Thakali thali  use Himalayan spices like jimbu and timur. They have also retained many indigenous dishes like kanchemba (pictured, left), fries made of buckwheat, which grows abundantly in Mustang. Thakali food needs to be branded and standardised so that it doesn't lose its originality, and the production of local ingredients can be promoted.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f599c7e80680e056e23jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Thakali food has come to mean tasty dal-bhat-tarkari, and spic and span Thakali restaurants can be found all over Nepal, and even abroad.<h2>Sherpa</h2>https://youtu.be/6Q_RbKoSQ2kSherpa cuisine is derived from Tibetan, and is designed for the cold harsh climate of the high mountains. Rigikur, a potato and buckwheat bread, is rich in butter and eaten with cheese sauce. Shyakpa, or meat soup, is consumed piping hot any time of the day. And su chiya, a unique salt and milk tea, is also had with dollops of butter. Tasmpa, a popular breakfast, is made by grinding grains like buckwheat, millet, wheat, or a combination of them, and is had with milk and honey.Though Sherpa food is rarely found  in most mainstream restaurants of Kathmandu, they are common in the Bouddha area. Newly opened Sherpa Cafe in Jhamsikhel caters to customers in Patan.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f5d9c7e80680e056e24jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="963"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><h2>Newa</h2><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/food-review-Krishnarpan-Dwarikas,2542" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newa cuisine</a> is rich and varied. Samye-baji is the standard mid-day snack and also a festive delight, where beaten rice is eaten with many vegetables and condiments. Spicy potato salad, bara (lentil flatbread), beans, soybeans and marinated buffalo meat are popular accompaniments.Almost every little alley in Kathmandu contains a Newari restaurant, serving samye-baji, bara, chatamari (rice bread), and other dishes. The choices range from low-end corner shops to high end outlets like Dwarika's Hotel in Battisputali.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f609c7e80680e056e25jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="446"><h2>Rai/Limbu</h2>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKKIEeGA3AQPork meat is a staple of the Rai and Limbu communities in eastern Nepal. Sargemba (pictured), or blood sausage, is made by stuffing blood and seasonings into pig intestines, and then cut and fried before it is eaten. The pork curry Yangben-Fakso (left) is also unique, flavoured with a lichen called yangben, soaked in warm water and mixed with pork blood. It goes well with chamre  (fried rice) and kinema  (fermented beans).<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f619c7e80680e056e26jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="342"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141152/636a5f639c7e80680e056e27jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="342"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Rai/Limbu cuisine is rarely found in Kathmandu, except for a couple of restaurants in Nakhipot and Baluwatar. Raithane Resturant in Lalitpur promotes Nepali dishes and local ingredients, and includes a couple of these dishes in its menu.

Exploring Nepal’s culinary diversity

https://youtu.be/dftVLbsLptIA long time ago in the beginningThere was no vast cosmos,And there was no beautiful earthLater the omnipotent Ningwaphuma arrivedAnd she created the earthIt is rare to hear folk songs in the Limbu language in Kathmandu, but this was Manu Nembang, Jhuma Limbu and Deepa Suhang (pictured) singing a traditional song from their community at Shilpee Theatre this week. The event was organised by Raithane Music to promote true folk melodies that people live by, and which are endangered by assimilation.This was Raithane Music’s first performance and started off with Hakpare, a melody popular among the Limbus from eastern Nepal. It is a kind of Mundhum, songs passed down orally from one generation of Limbus to another, with information about the community’s traditions, beliefs and worldview. Sung by priests, healers and shamans, the Mundhum is also called the ‘Veda’ of the Limbus, since they contain instructions for life. Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18795#.XDco3lUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Songs of our past</a>, Amar Gurung<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/fasting-feasting-and-festivities-of-gaura/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fasting, feasting and festivities of Gaura</a>, Sewa BhattaraiMundhums contain age-old lyrics that trace the history of the Limbu community. Hakpare is believed to be the oldest melody or style of Limbu music tradition sung during important occasions like weddings, births, and even deaths. “When one person starts singing a Hakpare, another person may contradict him, and yet another may add information to clarify it. And so Hakpare progresses as a form of dialogue,” says sociologist Chaitanya Subba who thinks that since Hakpare contained references to people living in caves, the songs could be from the period the Limbus first settled in what is now eastern Nepal 10,000 years ago.Hakpares can be sung during weddings and about what life was like before people started getting married, and how a young couple’s courtship proceeds. The ones sung during pregnancy wish for the baby’s safe birth, and the songs of death wish for the departed soul’s safe passage. And then there are the dense songs that sing of the history of the earth, and how human civilisation came about. “There is a saying we find in these Hakpares. When the wind blows too chilly, or the weather grows gloomy, a human heart becomes full of feelings. That is when we sing these songs, to console the heart,” said Lokman Wanem from Taplejung. Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7665#.XDcn5FUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Translating Bairagi Kainla</a>, Manjushree Thapa<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-a-high-note/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tibetan music in Nepal's sacred valley</a>, Sewa Bhattarai 		
										<img width="1400" height="1050" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22539c7e80680e041782jpeg.jpg" alt=""/> Senior poet and Mundhum expert Bairagi Kainla added: “Youngsters are holding hands and singing to each other. One would imagine their songs would be joyful. But no, Hakpares are sorrowful. That is because they are aware that we are mortal. No matter what we achieve, it is gone. This awareness of the core nature of human existence is what makes the songs melancholy. We need these sorrowful melodies,” says Kainla who has collected and documented Mundhums.These songs were orally passed down from one generation to the next, and were barely documented until modern times, but today, their usage is fading as people do not need these songs for entertainment or for social guidelines. “Our ancestors thought that if they sung and memorised the lessons from their lives, it would be easier for the following generations to live their lives. It is not just music but an entire community’s history and tradition,” said Kainla. The melody is popular in eastern Nepal and other communities sing their own lyrics, including in Nepali. There are even modern and pop songs based on the melody, but the thousands of years of knowledge and wisdom that Limbus collected can only be found in the original Limbu Hakpare. We the siblings of human genesis We the wisest animals on earth Let this Mundhum remain forever And let this continue even after lifeRead also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/making-the-sound-of-music-in-patan,3976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saving the sound of music</a>, Sebastian Wellingbat<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-have-nepalis,601" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Have Nepalis forgotten Dharmaraj Thapa?</a> Sunir Paney

Eastern melodies in Kathmandu

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Race against time

Arko, the Nepali minstrel from Bengal

TASTE OF NEPAL

Exploring Nepal’s culinary diversity

Eastern melodies in Kathmandu