While much of the discourse about &nbsp;<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/winds-of-change-sweep-mustang">Mustang district concern</a>s its people leaving for better opportunities overseas, what is less well known is that Nepalis from other parts of the country are moving in. Mustang's population is the second smallest among 77 districts, and it is falling due to out-migration. The resident population in the 2021 census was 14,452, with 5,882 people from other parts of Nepal. &nbsp;&nbsp; One of them is Nima Lama, 24. He was born and raised in Kathmandu, and migrated to Mustang to work in the service industry three years ago. He had been searching for a job in Kathmandu for months, but finally found an opening at a hotel in Mustang through a placement agency.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023062309060_4e4405cf10e6f127f90a1cd40feda0b9d8d69efd13093a2563530ca31489ba9f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2023062309060_4e4405cf10e6f127f90a1cd40feda0b9d8d69efd13093a2563530ca31489ba9f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="509" loading="lazy" alt="Upper Mustang"> <figcaption>Lo Manthang is located amidst rolling arid hills of the trans-Himalayan Plateau, Tilicho Peak and Nilgiri in the far distance on the southern horizon.</figcaption> </figure>  “I was skeptical at first, but the job felt appealing and unique, so I decided to come here,” says Lama, pointing that the region with its unique topography and weather offers good opportunities. &nbsp;&nbsp; Mustang is the part of Nepal that juts out into China and is geologically and culturally a part of the Tibetan Plateau. In the past five months, about 60,000 foreign tourists visited Mustang mainly for trekking and pilgrimage to Muktinath. There are many thousands more Nepali visitors.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623100648_dc336f11c6099d1642aeae6e6dc0027d86aabb5328367c8663b30f04187491a8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230623100648_dc336f11c6099d1642aeae6e6dc0027d86aabb5328367c8663b30f04187491a8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang 2"> <figcaption>Many of the shops in Lo Manthang are shuttered because locals moved out, and tourism collapsed for two years due to Covid.</figcaption> </figure>  Some 2,000 foreign tourists also travelled to the restricted region of Upper Mustang by buying a special permit that costs $500 per person for 15 days. Mustang has a range of hotels that cater to high-end and budget tourists, and everything in between. Most homeowners have migrated, and have rented their lodges and hotels to new migrants from other parts of Nepal. Bikram BK, 27, who is from Baglung has been a horse guide for Muktinath pilgrims for the last six years. Local Mustang residents own the horses, but employ people from &nbsp;outside to tend to their horses.&nbsp; “It was difficult finding a job in Baglung, and this was a good offer,” BK says. “The work is easy and I like taking care of horses.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623100648_7a69c06dc99e4793716ada2308efa73157b7276fdd165e0dcbad77de93b97ce9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20230623100648_7a69c06dc99e4793716ada2308efa73157b7276fdd165e0dcbad77de93b97ce9" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang 3"> </figure>  At Paradise Trekker’s Home in Kagbeni another worker from Kathmandu says he likes working here because it “is a unique experience”. His colleague is from Udaypur and does everything from cooking to ploughing the apple fields with a tractor. “Locals own the majority of land and hotels but they do not work here,” explains Karma Namguyal Gurung, a 28-year-old local who has been running his family-owned hotel for the past four years, and is one of few who have remained behind. (See profile below)&nbsp; "Few Mustang people remain. Most of my friends are overseas, and lease out their hotels to people from other districts,” he adds.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623090612_7229ee7ca69667507696c943ff521daf570fd1312b1467a97d7f2e6df3c228e9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230623090612_7229ee7ca69667507696c943ff521daf570fd1312b1467a97d7f2e6df3c228e9" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="750" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang 4"> </figure>  Mustang's Crown Prince Jigme Bista is also worried about the brain drain from his kingdom, and says this is the reason he opened his up-market Royal Mustang Resort in Lo Manthang.&nbsp; "Since our young are rapidly leaving Mustang, I wanted to create opportunities here,” explains Bista, who aims to retain them by giving them jobs, equipping them with skills in hotel management, and training them to be baristas and chefs. &nbsp; <h2>Return of a native</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023062309068_603f8d4d5d089496a1e1bbaf40fff565b22dda8c8cce402e45685e86b31f1ad4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2023062309068_603f8d4d5d089496a1e1bbaf40fff565b22dda8c8cce402e45685e86b31f1ad4" data-rendition-name="original" width="5184" height="3456" loading="lazy" alt="Karma Namguyal Gurung"> <figcaption>PHOTO: SHRIJAN PANDEY</figcaption> </figure>  Karma Namguyal Gurung exemplifies the resilient spirit of a young Mustang entrepreneur committed to preserving his family’s legacy and contributing to the development of tourism in his home district.&nbsp; But Gurung is unique because unlike most local youth, he has not migrated overseas. He moved to Kathmandu as a boy to go to school at a time when he had to walk for a week to get to Pokhara. After getting a hotel management degree, he interned in Dubai for eight months and in Malaysia for three months. Gurung got job offers to stay abroad, but decided to return not just to Nepal, but to go back to Mustang. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang">Mixed blessings in Mustang</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel “I felt homesick during that whole time abroad,” recalls Gurung, who missed the cool mountain breeze of Mustang while sweating in the tropical heat of Malaysia and the Gulf. &nbsp; Gurung’s family has been running the Four Seasons Hotel in Muktinath Valley for the past 25 years. But they moved to Kathmandu, and it was getting difficult to run the hotel remotely. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623100648_c29d8feb51716a08ae31ef051a5fa5c1ab13fb54034bed9bd9809b9625d84bea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230623100648_c29d8feb51716a08ae31ef051a5fa5c1ab13fb54034bed9bd9809b9625d84bea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang 4"> </figure>  So, he came back four years ago and now manages the family hotel, providing food and lodging especially for pilgrims to Muktinath.&nbsp; “The natives don't run things here, they have mostly left,” Gurung says, admitting that he has also thought of going to a bigger place to earn more. What encourages him to stay is feedback from visitors about his hospitality. “It is really encouraging when guests acknowledge our effort,” he says. ",Mustang is no longer a village, as it was during my childhood. It is becoming cosmopolitan. &nbsp;This place will never be the same again.”&nbsp; The pace of change is evident even in Lo Manthang, where Mustang's Crown Prince Jigme Bista runs the high-end Royal Mustang Resort which fuses traditional and modern architecture. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “We’ve seen tourists leave on the very first day of a seven-day program due to a lack of facilities,” Bista says. “Our goal is to give tourists who come here for our culture, traditions, and location a fascinating experience.” The hotel sees 4,000 international and local visitors every year, and Bista says the hotel can accommodate many more if the restricted area designation for Mustang is lifted.&nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mustang-forced-to-adapt-to-climate-crisis">Mustang forced to adapt to climate c</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mustang-forced-to-adapt-to-climate-crisis">risis</a>, Ronan Wallace and Yungdrung Tsewang Gurung <h2>Better connected</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023062309068_dfe1037005a750b92601a23297e6b7fe900a88858adcc892a2d4baf4ef3f5873.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2023062309068_dfe1037005a750b92601a23297e6b7fe900a88858adcc892a2d4baf4ef3f5873" data-rendition-name="original" width="1683" height="591" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang map"> </figure>  Once Nepal’s most isolated region, new road connectivity has made Mustang much more accessible. What used to be a 11-day trek from Pokhara is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/11-day-trek-is-now-a-day-s-drive-in-nepal">now an eight hour jeep ride</a>, and this may come down to five hours once the highway along the Kali Gandaki is upgraded. The river slices through the mountains between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri and is regarded as the deepest gorge in the world. Besides the unstable geology, it also gets heavy rainfall. &nbsp;&nbsp; “This is very difficult terrain to build and maintain roads,” explains Lokendra Adhikari of the Annapurna Conservation Area project. “The road from Ghasa to Lo Manthang is smooth and intact because there is less rain, and the terrain is gentler.” Despite the rough road, Mustang is changing rapidly, and accelerating out-migration of locals. But it has also brought people from Pokhara and Kathmandu to set up businesses here.&nbsp; There is a building spree, and fancy new hotels are coming up to cater to an expected tourism boom. The road has made it easier for children from Upper Mustang now to join boarding schools in Pokhara or Kathmandu.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623090624_f2997aa8458b1f3e5cdc7900c87ea7d474337b7a90a6bc5c0dfe0cf6d3f23251.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20230623090624_f2997aa8458b1f3e5cdc7900c87ea7d474337b7a90a6bc5c0dfe0cf6d3f23251" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang"> </figure>  Hoteliers in Jomsom say there would have been more tourists if the road condition was better and flights safer and more regular. Two crashes of flights from Pokhara in 2016 and 2022 deterred many trekkers and pilgrims. “The Tara Air crashes led to a sharp drop in foreign tourists, so if the road were better we would have seen a rebound,” says Tripple P Gurung, owner of Redhouse in Kagbeni. He adds that most of his guests prefer to brave the road.&nbsp; The monsoon is the lean tourist season in most of Nepal, but it is peak period here in trans-Himalayan districts like Mustang and Dolpo because the weather is milder and drier during June-September. Mustang is becoming especially popular with Nepali tourists who come here to explore the scenic trails on mountain bikes or motorcycles. Now that there is a motorable road right up to the Chinese border at Korala, many hoteliers say it does not make sense to keep Mustang restricted. The hefty fees and the bureaucratic hassles in Kathmandu to get permits are keeping many potential tourists away.&nbsp; “The policy about the restricted area and fees was made 30 years ago taking into account Mustang’s fragile ecology and culture to keep visitor numbers low, but that is not an issue anymore with better connectivity,” says Gurung.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230623090624_edcc2a5a02ca63bb8681fd2eaa404a924cf8fdfeb3d8fb78878ac59151cac6d8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20230623090624_edcc2a5a02ca63bb8681fd2eaa404a924cf8fdfeb3d8fb78878ac59151cac6d8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Mustang"> </figure>  Getting there Now an eight-hour drive from Kathmandu to Pokhara because of highway widening and traffic. Overland: Pokhara to Jomsom 6 hours Jomsom to Lo Manthang &nbsp;6 hours Flight: Kathmandu-Pokhara (overnight)-Jomsom Upper Mustang beyond Kagbeni is still restricted, and foreign tourists have to pay $500 per person for the first 10 days and an additional $50 each day of their visit to the region. Of the nearly 60,000 foreign tourists so far in Mustang, only 2,000 or so continued to Upper Mustang. The fee was reduced in 2005 when Mustang became more accessible, and the restriction on the number of visitors has also been lifted.&nbsp;

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Comings and goings in Mustang

<figure><img width="1500" height="900" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bee9d4b0ad905ca02ef59jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Lo Khyi now lives in Haymarket, Virginia in the US (right) with the DeLisi family, on the other side of the Planet from his birthplace in a remote village of Mustang in Nepal (left).</figcaption></figure>The story begins with a tiny <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-dog-with-altitude/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-dog-with-altitude/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH9CEZG4bpq66y4XoTU_SIampvcGg">Tibetan Mastiff</a> pup, cold, hungry and alone as an icy wind blows across a mountain trail in Tsarang of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHUmrOgNZKbL4fGYxruaeWemr63aw">Upper Mustang</a> beyond the Himalaya.A boy named Karchung scoops up the shivering ball of fluff. “Little brother, this won’t do,” says the boy, tucking him inside his fleece jacket and taking him home.The puppy slurps up the tsampa, and as the days go by the little pup gets stronger and dreams of a warm home and family by night, an innocent wish that the high Himalayan winds carry across the land.When he wasn’t chasing after chicken and prancing around the goats, he was restlessly roaming the village, exploring every corner of Saukre. Villagers recognise pretty early that this handsome blue-eyed Tibetan Mastiff pup has a wandering spirit. But Karchung, his family and most of the village had never left the mountains.So, the story goes, the pup waits for his true family, perched on his rock overlooking the trail until one day a man with a white-beard and white shirt comes puffing up the trail.This is not just any other trekker, it is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18512#.X9Mx3lUzaUk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18512%23.X9Mx3lUzaUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6VHgrM1MfgVEkc8QcCpaHyedqWA">Scott DeLisi, at the time the American Ambassador to Nepal</a>. He and his team were heading up to the fabled walled town of Lo Manthang. <figure><img width="330" height="381" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636beea14b0ad905ca02ef5ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The piercing blue eyes and dignified self-confident air immediately drew him to the pup. If it was not for the eyes, His Excellency may have walked on by since the dog’s blue-grey coat was the colour of the land itself, and perfectly camouflaged him in Mustang’s arid terrain.Then, their eyes met, and, for the first time, the puppy spoke… and Scott heard him, and that day, the world changed for them both.The Ambassador’s Dog is a tale of Lo Khyi (Lo for Mustang, and khyi, which fortuitously means both ‘dog’ and ‘happiness’ in Tibetan), a pup that dared to dream big and who went on to become the source of happiness for Scott, who took the dog to America after his tenure in Nepal.‘Scott’ in the book is Scott H. DeLisi himself, who <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18847" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18847&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHwNbBtI9s4hrNMwwqTlYyVqbvZlQ">served as ambassador</a> in Kathmandu from 2010-12. Now retired, DeLisi is a career diplomat who spent 35 years from one embassy to the next roaming the world with multiple postings in Asia and Africa. But it was Nepal and Nepalis that touched his heart like no other place. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19388" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19388&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFeyBVhxB3sPk81x1ya0vxrPz9CcQ">DeLisi is an avid birder</a>, and made a rare sighting of Spiny Babbler during his tenure in Nepal.DeLisi worked on <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17850" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D17850&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG2yKUAA_XLWay95dcTe2tW0f17pQ">preparing Nepal for disaster risk reduction</a> as ambassador, and after retiring had just established <a href="http://www.soarway.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.soarway.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH8QFf7_rRLWN7JlSZwIDj_WhRhRA">Soarway Foundation</a> in April 2015, when a major earthquake rocked Nepal.  As an Executive Director of the Foundation and <a href="https://www.engagenepal.org/team" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.engagenepal.org/team&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEdLY3uo_YYXlzooQSTlPVtOuyixA">Engage Nepal,</a> he continues his effort to help Nepal with child nutrition and education, public health, employment generation and rebuilding. Part of the proceeds from this book will go to his charitable organisation.The Ambassador’s Dog has a dream-like quality to it, but at its heart is a story of optimism and positivity. Lo Khyi is a canine medium for an important message: set goals for yourselves and believe in them. And somehow (stars will align, or you will find avenues) your dreams will come true.Every word in this short tale reveals DeLisi’s attachment to his bhote kukur, a harbinger of hope and happiness. This book will surely grip many young readers and inspire them, and they will be particularly drawn by Jane Lillian Vance’s exquisite illustrations.Vance is an acclaimed American artist, her thangka painting of amchi healer in west Nepal resulted in the award-winning 2010 documentary A Gift for the Village. She has worked as an art therapist for children with special needs for 20 years and is a vice-president at the non-profit Help Save the Next Girl.The illustrations on every page are symbolic, but detailed works of art that are intimate portrayals of the Land of Lo, its Buddhist faith, and its people, animals and birds.Lo Khyi now lives in Haymarket, Virginia with DeLisi’s loving family, on the other side of the Planet from his birthplace in the remote wind-blown village of Tsarang in Nepal.Lo Khyi is the true hero of the The Ambassador’s Dog, a short, uplifting ageless read for this dreary Covid winter, and a perfect magical gift of hope for the upcoming holiday season -- especially for families with children and dogs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llARsJ8R1DYThe Ambassador’s Dog Scott H. DeLisi Vajra Publications 2020 Pages 40 Rs1,600 Available at Vajra Books, Patan dhoka Bookshop and Architect's Books in Patan. Vajra is offering Christmas discount at Rs1,400 and home delivery. Can also order online through Laibary.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636beea34b0ad905ca02ef5bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="791" height="995">

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A Tibetan Mastiff pup who dares to dream

<figure><img width="1500" height="900" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be79b9c7e80680e087810jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Lo Khyi now lives in Haymarket, Virginia in the US (right) with the DeLisi family, on the other side of the Planet from his birthplace in a remote village of Mustang in Nepal (left).</figcaption></figure>The story begins with a tiny <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-dog-with-altitude/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-dog-with-altitude/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH9CEZG4bpq66y4XoTU_SIampvcGg">Tibetan Mastiff</a> pup, cold, hungry and alone as an icy wind blows across a mountain trail in Tsarang of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHUmrOgNZKbL4fGYxruaeWemr63aw">Upper Mustang</a> beyond the Himalaya.A boy named Karchung scoops up the shivering ball of fluff. “Little brother, this won’t do,” says the boy, tucking him inside his fleece jacket and taking him home.The puppy slurps up the tsampa, and as the days go by the little pup gets stronger and dreams of a warm home and family by night, an innocent wish that the high Himalayan winds carry across the land.When he wasn’t chasing after chicken and prancing around the goats, he was restlessly roaming the village, exploring every corner of Saukre. Villagers recognise pretty early that this handsome blue-eyed Tibetan Mastiff pup has a wandering spirit. But Karchung, his family and most of the village had never left the mountains.So, the story goes, the pup waits for his true family, perched on his rock overlooking the trail until one day a man with a white-beard and white shirt comes puffing up the trail.This is not just any other trekker, it is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18512#.X9Mx3lUzaUk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18512%23.X9Mx3lUzaUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6VHgrM1MfgVEkc8QcCpaHyedqWA">Scott DeLisi, at the time the American Ambassador to Nepal</a>. He and his team were heading up to the fabled walled town of Lo Manthang. <figure><img width="330" height="381" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be79e9c7e80680e087811jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The piercing blue eyes and dignified self-confident air immediately drew him to the pup. If it was not for the eyes, His Excellency may have walked on by since the dog’s blue-grey coat was the colour of the land itself, and perfectly camouflaged him in Mustang’s arid terrain.Then, their eyes met, and, for the first time, the puppy spoke… and Scott heard him, and that day, the world changed for them both.The Ambassador’s Dog is a tale of Lo Khyi (Lo for Mustang, and khyi, which fortuitously means both ‘dog’ and ‘happiness’ in Tibetan), a pup that dared to dream big and who went on to become the source of happiness for Scott, who took the dog to America after his tenure in Nepal.‘Scott’ in the book is Scott H. DeLisi himself, who <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18847" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18847&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHwNbBtI9s4hrNMwwqTlYyVqbvZlQ">served as ambassador</a> in Kathmandu from 2010-12. Now retired, DeLisi is a career diplomat who spent 35 years from one embassy to the next roaming the world with multiple postings in Asia and Africa. But it was Nepal and Nepalis that touched his heart like no other place. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19388" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19388&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFeyBVhxB3sPk81x1ya0vxrPz9CcQ">DeLisi is an avid birder</a>, and made a rare sighting of Spiny Babbler during his tenure in Nepal.DeLisi worked on <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17850" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D17850&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG2yKUAA_XLWay95dcTe2tW0f17pQ">preparing Nepal for disaster risk reduction</a> as ambassador, and after retiring had just established <a href="http://www.soarway.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.soarway.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH8QFf7_rRLWN7JlSZwIDj_WhRhRA">Soarway Foundation</a> in April 2015, when a major earthquake rocked Nepal.  As an Executive Director of the Foundation and <a href="https://www.engagenepal.org/team" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.engagenepal.org/team&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607763910021000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEdLY3uo_YYXlzooQSTlPVtOuyixA">Engage Nepal,</a> he continues his effort to help Nepal with child nutrition and education, public health, employment generation and rebuilding. Part of the proceeds from this book will go to his charitable organisation.The Ambassador’s Dog has a dream-like quality to it, but at its heart is a story of optimism and positivity. Lo Khyi is a canine medium for an important message: set goals for yourselves and believe in them. And somehow (stars will align, or you will find avenues) your dreams will come true.Every word in this short tale reveals DeLisi’s attachment to his bhote kukur, a harbinger of hope and happiness. This book will surely grip many young readers and inspire them, and they will be particularly drawn by Jane Lillian Vance’s exquisite illustrations.Vance is an acclaimed American artist, her thangka painting of amchi healer in west Nepal resulted in the award-winning 2010 documentary A Gift for the Village. She has worked as an art therapist for children with special needs for 20 years and is a vice-president at the non-profit Help Save the Next Girl.The illustrations on every page are symbolic, but detailed works of art that are intimate portrayals of the Land of Lo, its Buddhist faith, and its people, animals and birds.Lo Khyi now lives in Haymarket, Virginia with DeLisi’s loving family, on the other side of the Planet from his birthplace in the remote wind-blown village of Tsarang in Nepal.Lo Khyi is the true hero of the The Ambassador’s Dog, a short, uplifting ageless read for this dreary Covid winter, and a perfect magical gift of hope for the upcoming holiday season -- especially for families with children and dogs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llARsJ8R1DYThe Ambassador’s Dog Scott H. DeLisi Vajra Publications 2020 Pages 40 Rs1,600 Available at Vajra Books, Patan dhoka Bookshop and Architect's Books in Patan. Vajra is offering Christmas discount at Rs1,400 and home delivery. Can also order online through Laibary.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be79f9c7e80680e087812jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="791" height="995">

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd49c7e80680e060045jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>From Korala Pass on the Nepal-China border facing south. Annapurna and Nilgiri in the distance.</figcaption></figure>As the road meanders uphill towards my village of Dhee in <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a>, I recall my childhood amidst these mountains. Life was hard then, things people take for granted now were privileges only few could afford.I walked 11 days to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pokhara-nepals-new-aviation-gateway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pokhara</a> for my SLC exams. Seeing cars was magical. We were more likely to see helicopters in Mustang than vehicles.There was only one primary school in whole Kingdom of Lo then. It was a six hour walk away, and the only secondary school was in Jomsom, three days away.Thanks to the secretary of the late King of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7328#.XgyEd1UzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>, Chandra Bahadur Thakali, I stayed with his family in Jomsom paying his family a rent of Rs310 a month in 1976. That was a what a full-grown sheep cost then.Mustang was a restricted area, outsiders were rare. Today, there are western trekkers, Nepalis on motorcycles all on the motorable road that joins <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6251#.XgyDLlUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lo Manthang</a> to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/going-to-jomsom-in-the-off-season,3878" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jomsom</a>. In fact ‘domestic tourists’ are more visible than non-Nepali visitors.And that is the biggest change in Mustang today: The Road. Accessibility has accelerated change in this kingdom within a republic. The 11-day trek from Pokhara can be done in one day – the highway may be precarious but it is a new lifeline.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd79c7e80680e060046jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="522"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd99c7e80680e060047jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Subsistence agriculture and pastoralism have been replaced with trade, and now with outmigration and tourism. The road connects <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bon-voyage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang’s pristine culture</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stark beauty</a> and fragile ecosystem to the outside world.Accessibility has also helped upgrade health facilities, improve education and brought modern everyday necessities which were nearly non-existent in the past. With no knowledge or access to primary health care, locals mostly depended on traditional amchis healers. With modern medicine and better nutrition, most health indicators have improved.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fdd9c7e80680e060048jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Food was always a scarce during my Mustang childhood. Mules, horses, yaks, people and sometimes even goats had to travel for a week days to transport grain to the villages, making it expensive.Although we ate nutritious local produce like buckwheat, beans, wheat, potatoes and barley, the road has brought processed and packaged food. However, the road has also contributed to food security by bringing down the cost of grain and other essentials.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe09c7e80680e060049jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>One big change now is that the few local primary schools that did exist are now all closed. With increased income, locals prefer to send their children to Jomsom, Pokhara or even Kathmandu. Even so, education and exposure to the wider world has given Mustang’s youngsters a deeper understanding of the value of their cultural and natural heritage.Also adding to the exposure is the interaction with tourists, who come to Mustang to admire its unique cultural heritage and stunning scenery. This has allowed locals to realise that they are worth preserving, and has contributed to restoring pride in their way of life.However, development comes at a cost. With the road, there is now pressure on the region’s fragile ecology. Haphazard road construction has triggered landslides, and added sediment to the rivers. Drainage has been disrupted, creating water shortages as springs go dry. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-must-prepare-for-climate-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate breakdown</a> has exacerbated this crisis.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe49c7e80680e06004ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2500" height="554"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Traffic will increase once the Kali Gandaki Corridor is upgraded to connect to the China border at Korala. It is essential to urgently carry out an assessment of its impact on the environment and plan for sustainable and green infrastructure.<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate change</a> has changed rain and snowfall patterns, but on the flipside, it has also had positive impact: cucumbers, tomatoes and  vegetables never used to grow here because of the cold are now plentiful. Mustang apples <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can now grow in areas which were not suitable for the orchards</a>.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe69c7e80680e06004bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fea9c7e80680e06004cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>On balance, road connectivity has provided a strong boost to the economy through tourism. It has connected produce to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools, and patients to hospitals.The once forbidden kingdom is now connected to the world, and is now at the crossroads, it is vital that decisions to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/new-high-way-to-dolpo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">balance development with conservation of nature and cultural heritage</a> be taken now so Mustang’s fragile beauty is preserved for the next generation.Ghana S Gurung is the Country Representative of WWF in Nepal and Snow Leopard Champion for the global WWF network. The views expressed here are personal.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fed9c7e80680e06004djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="310">

11-day trek is now a day’s drive in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a95439c7e80680e05dbf9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3500" height="2625"/><figcaption>Franz Frei at his exhibition in Taragaon Museum. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>For decades, Franz Frei’s drawings used for adult literacy classes in Dolakha sat in his late mother’s attic in Switzerland. Now 43 years later, the former Swiss Development Cooperation employee has brought the drawings back to Nepal.As students, Ulrich Burtscher, Thomas Türtscher and Raimund Wulz made meticulous colour-coded architectural drawings of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4988#.Xb-8z9Iza70">Ghyaru village in Manang</a>, detailing their elevation, water supply, building use and shop density. After 30 years, the trio has returned to Nepal the sectional drawings of the slope and scale of the buildings and their relationships to each other, along with sketches and photographs.After decades of being scattered across Europe, such archival material that provide valuable insight into Nepal’s culture is being brought back by former researchers and students. This return of knowledge is an initiative of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/towers-in-stone-niels-gutschow,1762">Niels Gutschow</a>, an architectural historian and adviser at the Saraf Foundation, who himself worked at the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19496#.Xb-8k9Iza70">Bhaktapur Development Project</a> in the 1980s.It was Gutschow who convinced Frei to dust off the metal canister he had custom-made in Patan to carry his original drawings when he left Nepal in 1977. The zinc cylinder, which resembles a time capsule, is now in the Taragaon Museum with its decades-old baggage tag of Swissair and the drawings still intact. The canister is spot-lit at the centre of Frei’s exhibited works, surrounded by the artefacts it held in safekeeping for over 40 years.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a95479c7e80680e05dbfajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="569" height="657">“How many chickens do you see?” When asked this in 1976, villagers responded, “One”. Frei then realised that the ovoid blob on the far right of the chart was not a chicken but an abstraction of a 3D reality into a perspective -- a concept introduced to Europe in the 15th century. Frei learnt from these mistakes and took pains to avoid repeating such miscommunication. The Saraf Foundation is working to procure, exhibit, archive and digitise such research material of foreign artists, photographers, architects and anthropologists who worked in Nepal in the second half of the 20th century.Frei came to Nepal in 1976 as staff of the Swiss-funded <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=496#.Xb-9ONIza70">Integrated Hill Development Project</a> in Dandapakhar village of Dolakha, to conduct adult literacy classes for Tamangs in the area. He made black ink sketches to illustrate Devnagari words, but soon realised the villagers did not ‘see’ images in a way Western experts took for granted. Lines in the pictures and perspective reduction were not understood, and Frei’s sketches were utterly confusing to his grown-up students, some of whom looked at them upside-down.This reminds Frei of the story of how pygmies from dense Congolese rainforest, when brought to the open savanna in Kenya mistook a distant herd of buffaloes for insects. Having never looked that far  before, the vast depth of field that people in the plains took for granted was magic to the pygmy – as they approached the buffalo, the ‘insects’ grew bigger and bigger.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a95499c7e80680e05dbfbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2232" height="2556"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Similarly, a malaria prevention initiative projected images of mosquitoes on the wall to illustrate to villagers how the disease is transmitted. After the slideshow, the people were glad they would never be afflicted with malaria because “we don’t have such big mosquitoes here”.Frei uses the anecdotes to critique his own work in Nepal, and how he found out how pictorial literacy is learnt. Later, he started using stylised depictions of everyday objects using the drawing techniques of local thangka painters as reference.In Manang, architecture students Burtscher, Türtscher and Wulz had no common language to communicate with the Manang-pa with only a compass and tape measure drew the physical environment. Nearly 30 years later, they are valuable records of the ‘anonymous architecture’ of a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Manang-will-prosper-from-its-new-road,2749">Manang village before tourists and the road arrived. </a>Gutschow had to use all his powers of persuasion to get Burtscher to part with his drawings and bring them back to Nepal. Eventually, recognising how their work has developed a cultural significance, the trio agreed to surrender their drawings for safekeeping – admittedly keeping their favourites.Klaus Kette worked on several survey missions in Mustang as an artist and his work is striking, allowing visitors to grasp the feeling of a place, recognition of a face, even if the lines that make the impressions are imprecise, gnarly whirls of movement. We journey through city streets, stop at landmarks, experience unknown interiors, survey remote landscapes, and come face to face with strangers.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a954c9c7e80680e05dbfcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="843" height="603"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a954f9c7e80680e05dbfdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1031" height="730"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181140/636a95529c7e80680e05dbfejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1009" height="725"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In Kette’s swirling hand, in the Austrian trio’s maps, or in Frei’s Dolakha drawings we see what we know. Beyond that, when our eyes open there is magic and wonder. These young scholars depicted a hidden world – and whether we see it as magic depends on the rules and lines of perception behind our own ways of seeing.At the very least, the works have come home.The Taragaon Museum Lecture Series-7 Exhibition Till 14 November at <a href="http://taragaonmuseum.com/">Taragaon Museum</a><a href="http://taragaonmuseum.com/">http://taragaonmuseum.com/  </a><a href="http://thesaraffoundation.org/">The Saraf Foundation</a>

Early Nepal drawings come full circle

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46959c7e80680e04d3e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>ALL PHOTOS: KAMZANG JOURNEYS</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46989c7e80680e04d3e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">Another harsh winter this year in the part of the Tibetan Plateau that is located in Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a> region has resulted in a massive loss of livestock.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>’s nomads have been particularly hard hit, losing hundreds of yaks, sheep and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ode-to-goat,3321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goats</a>. Blizzards in February killed many of the goats and sheep in their pens, and yaks in the upper regions also died. The nomads have a close bond with their sheep and goats, giving each of the baby animals to the correct mother every evening after grazing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469b9c7e80680e04d3e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="935"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469e9c7e80680e04d3e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="801">The nomads who live on the Nepal side of the border with China are resilient, and know how to survive in the bitter cold winters of the high plateau. But nothing prepared them for the ferocity of this year’s storms. A series of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/annapurnas-avalanche-and-blizzard-early-weather-warning-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blizzards</a> in February and March left up to 1m of snow, and before it had a chance to melt, more started falling.This is the third winter in the last seven years with unusually heavy snowfall, and the nomads have suffered the loss of a large percentage of their livestock.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a19c7e80680e04d3eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a49c7e80680e04d3ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">News of the blizzards did reach faraway Kathmandu and the provincial capital in Pokhara, but no help came. The nomads, many of whom are Tibetan refugees without Nepali citizenship, do not have monetary savings and survive on barter, so they had no way to recover their losses.Local communities and trekking groups have been helping the nomads living near <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3802#.XQtcRRYzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lo Manthang</a> recover. One of them is <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamzang Journeys</a>, which specialises in taking trekking teams to camp and travel with the nomads.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a89c7e80680e04d3ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1279" height="854"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46ab9c7e80680e04d3edjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="853">It has set up <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/the-nomad-fund-adopt-a-goat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nomad Fund</a>, and says the money collected from its Adopt a Goat program is delivered directly to nomad families. Despite its name, the $150 per goat collected can be used by the nomads as they need, whether for food and supplies, medical care or to purchase replacement livestock.“The Adopt a Goat project is very close to our hearts as we have been trekking with these resilient, warm, generous and tough nomads for nearly two decades,” says Kim Bannister of Kamzang Journeys. “We provide families with financial help when they lose their animals during winters, and help with sales of their hand-woven textiles.”To contribute to Adopt a Goat and The Nomad Fund go to: <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.kamzangjourneys.com</a>/

Gift a goat to Tibet nomads in Nepal

Typhoid is just another part of Nepal’s adventure tourism package<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221104141144/6365176d9c7e80680e02c277jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1203"/>There is never a good moment to contract typhoid, and I’ve had it three times in Nepal. With a two-week incubation period, many different strains, and highly contagious through shit and spit, I never did work out where I picked it up each time.The first was on a 1985 recce, a trek that turned out to be the nascence of the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/annapurna-base-camp,3697">Annapurna</a> Conservation Area Project (ACAP). It is humbling to find that you cannot put one foot in front of another, especially when hiking with super-scientists Roger Payne (whales), Iain Douglas Hamilton (elephants) and Bruce Bunting (WWFUS).We had been despatched on our mission by Nepali conservationist Hemanta Mishra who went on with others to push through the ground-breaking ACAP idea. Nepal’s conservation areas and especially Annapurna are still cited as a world model of how a nationally protected park managed by local communities can become self-supporting through tourism.Iain and I were climbing the Landrung hill through sunny terraced fields when the fever hit. One minute I was fine, and the next I was shuddering with sweat and dazed with weakness. Every step was an effort and the afternoon sun sheered into my eyes.“If this was Kenya I would suspect bilharzia or yellow fever,” Iain declared unhelpfully. He supported me safely home, peering with puzzled concern through heavy horn-rimmed glasses. Despite a variety of antibiotics the fever lasted 16 days, debilitating limbs, sapping the soul, the mind teetering on the edge of delirium. It took me weeks to find the strength to walk across my tiny garden, and many months before I recovered normal energy levels.Nearly ten years later I caught a lighter bout in Kathmandu and lay shivering in our Maharajganj house trying to get better quicker by enforced rest, gripped by the first Poldark video series about glamorous smugglers along the Cornish coast. It was 1994 and I needed to regain my strength fast as I was due in Kyrgyzstan -- tourism colleague Oliver Bennett of Deloittes was relying on me for a government tourism marketing strategy.Oliver was an old school consultant, always dressing as though in his native city of London -- to my certain knowledge wearing pinstriped suits on every mountain, lake and beach assignments.The shortage of fuel in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan meant the Bishkek airport was closed. Instead, battling weakness, I flew to Tashkent and was driven 12 hours through breathtakingly remote country by a couple of nuclear physicists who needed to make a buck – the economy was a shambles and I never met a single Kyrgyz who did not long to be back in the USSR.Nurturing my strength and thanks to Oliver’s protection, I managed to struggle through. Part of our brief was ecotourism training sessions with the budding Kyrgyz private sector. Emerging from the Soviet system, they had trouble with the concept of capitalism, enquiring with all seriousness whether their companies were permitted to make a profit.Exploring the historic Silk Route attractions of Kyrgyzstan, the hooves of Genghis Khan’s invaders could be readily imagined hammering across the open grasslands. We sampled Issikul Lake mineral treatments, formerly reserved for the communist elite, pummelled by fierce ladies in white coats with strong fingers.In woodland dachas, as guests of friendly mountaineers trying to start adventure travel businesses, we drank vodka in fragrant saunas.We marvelled at ancient engraved marker stones and discussed snow leopard viewing with Elburz mountain smugglers. I galloped knee to knee down a verdant valley with the gallant EBRD client Khalid after milking mares with yurt-dwelling nomads. At the evening feast Oliver, squatting in his crumpled suit, had to cope with the prized sheep’s eyes. I was disdained having asked one brightly clad nomad lady how long her child had been riding horses -- since birth, of course.By the third attack I thought I was getting used to typhoid. This time was in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Mustang-in-march,2108">Mustang</a> with a group of down-under friends on a 2008 circuit of the trans-Himalayan high spots around Lo Manthang. We had hoped to circumambulate Mount Kailash so it was a compromise, defeated by the fluctuating vagaries of Tibetan visa policy.They were an experienced bunch, and loved the rugged walking and splashed ochres of Mustang’s grandiose scenery (photo, left). We had happily negotiated sheer drops to view prehistoric paintings, explored ancient stupas within a cliff-face cave, avoided charging thar on a steep hillside, and even glimpsed a pair of snow leopards on a distant ridge – or so the excited horsemen assured us.I was zigzagging up the dusty trail to Tsarang, having linked arms to cross the flooded river in our boots, and couldn’t understand why my unwilling feet suddenly had no energy. Highland Doctor Jamie was waiting for me at the top. “I’m all right,” I protested.“No you’re not.” Jamie’s Scottish lilt was emphatic. “Looks like typhoid to me and we can’t risk waiting for a helicopter.” For the next three days back to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/going-to-jomsom-in-the-off-season,3878">Jomosom</a> he followed my pony closely as I swayed precariously in the saddle, helping me stagger into my tent at night. Haggard, dusty and sweat stained I remember little of the flight to Kathmandu, and this time was hospitalised on a drip, and instructed to stay in bed for days. I did not demur, and can confirm first hand that compulsory rest is the best road to recovery.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/annapurna-base-camp,3697">Fully booked in the sanctuary</a> ,  Shreejana Shrestha<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Mustang-in-march,2108">Mustang in March</a>,  Cynthia Choo and Kenji Kwok

Lisa Choegyal

Infectious enthusiasm for travel

On Tuesday, leader of the monarchist RPP once again gathered on Kathmandu’s streets to deliver fiery speeches, but this time there was no arson and looting and no need for riot police to fire live rounds or tear gas.
RPP leaders demanded the release of their members including vice-president Rabindra Mishra and MP Dhawal Shamsher Rana were arrested during the violent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">28 March protests at Tinkune </a>which left two dead. 
They denounced the current leadership of the main parties, demanding the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-party-reincarnating-hindu-monarchy">restitution of Nepal as a Hindu kingdom</a>. They also said the government was responsible for the fatalities on 28 March because it provoked its rally with a tear gas attack even before it started.
It has now been revealed that the police fired at least 100 live rounds from high powered assault rifles at the crowd. Twenty-one of the 120 injured received bullet wounds, and most of them were bystanders and people trying to reach home. 
Tuesday protest on the Ring Road in Balkhu was much more subdued, and comparatively fewer RPP supporters showed up. The arson and vandalism in the previous protest appears to have cost some support for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal">former king Gyanendra </a>especially for the anointment of medical tycoon and bank defaulter <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/street-politics">Durga Prasai </a>as ‘commander’ of the Tinkune rally.
Some monarchists acknowledge Gyanendra’s mistakes when was king 2001-2008, but say he has had a lot of time to reflect on his shortcomings and seems more disciplined and committed. His supporters have tried to build on nostalgia among some Nepalis for<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal"> domestic stability </a>and international respect that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">the monarchy</a> commanded. 
“Nepalis were promised better service delivery, opportunities for the underserved, as well as better, more honest use of state resources, but the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16992">people in leadership </a>have not been able to deliver on their commitments,” says RPP leader Prakash Chandra Lohani. “The gap between their rhetoric and reality has widened, the people feel betrayed, and the respect Nepali people had previously had for them has changed to revulsion.” 
Indeed, many commentators have warned the three main parties and their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/politics-as-usual">serial prime ministers</a> who have ruled Nepal for much of the past 30 years should address rising public anger with them, and see the writing on the wall.
‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">The UML, NC and Maoists</a> must introspect about their conduct,” warns Gunaraj Luitel, editor of Nagarik, in an op-ed this week. ‘These leaders for life may save themselves from simmering public anger, but they will not be able to save the system. The monarchist wave can only be dispelled when citizens are assured of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-local-election-gives-power-back-to-people">better governance</a> through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/real-world-training-for-youth-leaders">younger leaders</a>, and reforms.’ 
Rifts between radical royals who are gunning for a return to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">Panchayat-style absolutism </a>and moderate monarchists who favour a constitutional king have also weakened the movement somewhat. The split between the RPP and RPP-Nepal cost the royalists numbers in Parliament in 2022, and both parties denounced the violence last month, albeit shifting the blame on the government.
The irony is that the same royalists who want to scrap the republican Constitution had formed electoral alliances with the UML during the 2022 elections. RPP-Nepal chair Kamal Thapa contested the 2022 election with the UML. Thapa has not taken part in the last two rallies, saying he will only be a part of a movement under a national flag, and not a RPP party banner.
For his part, the RPP’s Rajendra Lingden is said to be hesitant to censure some of his party’s more radical royalists for fear of fissure within his ranks, despite his aversion to Durga Prasai’s role. 
Analysts have questioned why <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/old-is-still-gold-in-nepali-politics">supporters of the monarchy </a>have decided to reestablish an institution that would not ultimately have executive decision-making power. There are doubts about whether authoritarian-minded Gyanendra will be satisfied being a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13957">ceremonial king</a>. 
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-deja-vu-on-black-friday">Nepal’s déjà vu on Black Friday</a>, Sonia Awale
"The Nepali people will not accept <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-woman-who-sheltered-communist-activists">an absolute monarchy </a>at this point of time, and both the public as well as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">king Gyanendra</a> are fully aware that there is no other possibility beyond a constitutional monarchy," asserts the RPP’s Lohani. “The traditional monarchy’s institutional capacity might have been enough to meet the needs of feudal Nepal, but an absolute monarchy is impossible both in concept and practice in the context of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Economic-Class/waiting-for-an-industrial-revolution,784">modern day Nepal</a>.”

New year revolutions

Besides multiple <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">street demonstrations </a>that gridlocked Kathmandu’s traffic for the past weeks, public discourse in Nepal has also been dominated by dangerously <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking">high air pollution levels</a>. Caused mostly by hundreds of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">forest fires </a>raging across the country, the smoke contains suspended soot particles that harms <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/playing-with-poison">human health</a>. Thursday’s rain have cleared the air somewhat, and many people will soon forget how bad the air quality was. But the time to address the roots of next summer’s fire season is now.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524" data-rendition-name="original" width="502" height="540" loading="lazy" alt="Wildfires"> <figcaption>EXTINGUISHED: Forest fires raging all over Nepal in the week after 3 March (above) reduced air quality, creating a public health hazard in Kathmandu and across the country. Each red dot is a fire detected by infrared sensors on the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) satellite. But the rain on Thursday doused most of the fires (below) with more rain forecast over the weekend.</figcaption> </figure>  The reason everyone was talking about air pollution was because the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke"> smoke from wildfires</a> was visible. But much more toxic are the invisible and odourless <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-doubles-its-carbon-footprint">gases from vehicular and industrial emissions </a>which have always been there. The theme of World Health Day on 7 April this week was ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’ dedicated to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/saving-more-mothers-and-babies">preventing maternal and newborn deaths</a>. It is estimated that in Nepal, 30% of neonatal mortality can be blamed on air pollution. But that is only part of the story. Harmful as fine particulate matter is to human health, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and other gases in vehicular emissions are more hazardous to health. While the concentration of suspended particulate matter tinier than 1.5 microns (PM2.5) is closely monitored, these toxic gases are invisible, not measured much, and the public is not aware about the dangers they pose. Surface ozone is produced by the interaction of various gases found when <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/fossil-fuels-poison-air">burning fossil fuels</a>. Besides being poisonous, ground level ozone contributes up to 0.23°C to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">global warming</a> because it is also a greenhouse gas. A new policy brief by the Clean Air Fund titled The Case for Action on Tropospheric Ozone blames surface ozone for a half a million premature deaths every year, 54.8% of which are in South Asia. Ozone also stunts plant growth and reduces crop yields by 26% globally, and 11% loss in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology">forest productivity</a>, the report adds.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85" data-rendition-name="original" width="998" height="724" loading="lazy" alt="Gas Chambers"> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bad-air-and-polluted-politics">Bad air and polluted politics</a>, Sonia Awale Ground-level ozone is not emitted directly into the air like other gases, but is formed when oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from automobile tailpipes or industry smokestacks react chemically with each other in the presence of sunlight. The main source of carbon monoxide in Kathmandu Valley are its 1.2 million two-wheelers. “Usually the concentration of carbon monoxide is 200-500 parts per billion (ppb), this has increased up to 3,000 in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, ground-level ozone has gone from 70-80 ppb to 150 ppb,” says Ravi Sahu, regional air quality specialist with the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).&nbsp; Sahu says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-smoke-without-fire-p7vb9dcj">rampant forest fires of the past weeks</a> have also added to carbon monoxide and ozone in the air, not just the fine particles that make up the visible smoke. He adds, “There isn’t much awareness about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe">ground-level ozone and carbon monoxide</a>, we need to urgently look into it.” A distinction must be made between good and bad ozone. Stratospheric ozone protects living beings from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.&nbsp; Tropospheric ozone can again be separated into two types: ozone in the free atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide, and ground-level ozone which has adverse impacts on health and agriculture. ‘Cutting tropospheric ozone presents a unique challenge as it requires smart and fast action across multiple greenhouse gases and air pollutants, as well as multiple economic sectors,’ notes the Clean Air Fund's policy briefing. ‘It is a growing and neglected problem that needs an integrated approach on both a local and global level to tackle climate change and air pollution together.’ Dying young There was a time when Nepal made it to international news bulletins only if there were fatalities on Mt Everest. Now, Kathmandu’s bad air frequently makes headlines all over the world. This past week, the concentration of PM2.5 that harms human health was up to 40 times the WHO recommended guideline — adding to the poisonous gases already present from vehicle emissions. The Department of Environment says 40% of the pollution in the past weeks was from wildfires sparked by nearly 6 months without substantial rain over central Nepal. Most of the rest is from vehicular and industrial emissions from Kathmandu itself and across the southern border. NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS) which issues daily maps of fires, showed hundreds of blazes raging across Nepal on Wednesday, mainly in Chitwan, Parsa and along the East-West Highway.&nbsp; “If we look at the figures for the last few years, it is clear that wildfires have become the biggest source of air pollution, they are seasonal but have overtaken vehicular emissions,” says urban planner and environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar. “Forest fires, stubble burning, and open burning of garbage are the bigger problems now. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are at risk every year, we shouldn’t further delay in finding solutions,” warned air quality expert Bhupendra Das during an event on air pollution organised on 7 March by the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ).&nbsp; Indeed, studies have shown that in winter 60% of the air pollution over Kathmandu is transboundary from the south, and in November it is compounded by smoke from crop residue burning by farmers in India and Pakistan blown in by prevailing winds. Forest fires are a regular pre-monsoon occurrence in Nepal, often intentionally set by farmers and herders to stimulate new grass growth for livestock. Winter rains have failed for eight of the past ten years, and this means the fires often spread out of control. The other reason for the increase in wildfires is the doubling of forest fires to 46% of the country’s area in the past 25 years. But this has happened simultaneously with outmigration, with some mountain districts losing 30% of their population between 2011-2021. With less pressure on forests for fodder and firewood, the undergrowth of community forests is loaded with dry fuel just waiting for a spark. The bowl-shaped topography of Kathmandu, Pokhara and other valleys further concentrates pollutants as they are trapped by surrounding mountains. But a year with a high number of wildfires is usually followed by a year or two with fewer incidents. For example: there were 6,537 fires in 2021 but the following year the number was down to 1,528. There were 5,216 fires last year, this year the number has already reached 1,800, and the trend is likely to be broken. Heavy rains forecast for the coming days are expected to douse some of the fires and clean up the air. But the damage has been done: Kathmandu residents of all age groups this week crowded clinics and hospitals with burning eyes, itchy throats, difficulty breathing, headaches, and dizziness. But in the longer term, soot particles that are tiny enough to jump the blood-air divide in lung capillaries do not just cause Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, but also cancers, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects and other chronic diseases. The latest Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report by the University of Chicago shows that the annual concentration of PM2.5 in Kathmandu’s air rose from 17.87µg/m3 in 1998 to 31.33µg/m3 in 2022. Air pollution has got worse by 75% in Kathmandu in 25 years. During this time, air pollution has reduced the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents by 3.5 years. According to the Health Effects Institute in Boston, dirty air is among the biggest public health concerns in Nepal killing over 42,100 a year. The adverse impact of high levels of air pollution is not limited to public health, it is seriously affecting tourism. Operators in Pokhara this week said that there were many negative online posts by visitors unable to see the famous panorama of Machapuchre and the Annapurnas even from Sarangkot. Aviation is also affected, as planes have to circle sometimes for hours burning a lot of fuel because of runway visibility being below minima at Kathmandu airport. The higher fuel cost is just passed down to customers, making air tickets in and out of Kathmandu some of the highest in the world. Kathmandu, with a population of four million, has not implemented a concrete policy to curb toxic air despite having formulated various action plans and repeated commitments by the government to protect the environment and control air pollution. The Department of Environment’s 2017 Air Quality Management Action Plan for Kathmandu put forward a policy to reduce air pollution caused by vehicles which was approved by the Cabinet, but has yet to be put to practice. The action included the immediate implementation of the Euro 5 emission standard to reduce pollution emitted by vehicles. However, Nepal has not even been able to implement Euro 4 standards so far. India, meanwhile, has already moved forward with the implementation of the Euro 6 standards. Says Ravi Sahu: “Air pollution in Nepal is not just about air pollution, it has ties to tourism, aviation, the economy so we must be prepared for annual conditions like forest fires, and this requires urgent interdisciplinary collaboration.” &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742" data-rendition-name="original" width="839" height="784" loading="lazy" alt="Silent Killers"> </figure>  &nbsp;

What is invisible is more dangerous

82 in २०८२

Here in the mountains of far-western Nepal, the biggest threat to life and limb is gravity. Women collecting fodder fall from trees, boys grazing goats fall off cliffs, heavily loaded tractors plunge from dirt roads carved out of steep slopes. There is nothing to be done about those who die on the spot. But for the severely wounded there is only one hospital: Bayalpata. And it is there that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzWlnYd0ZM&amp;t=8s" target="_blank">orthopaedic surgeon Mandeep Pathak</a> is the last hope for many wounded people. Pathak, 42, is too modest to tell us how many lives he has saved over the past 10 years he has worked at Bayalpata. But hospital records show he has performed more than 4,000 operations in the past decade, many of them so patients did not suffer permanent physical disabilities. Pathak also did 800 major life-saving surgeries in that time. “I treat patients with injuries, but I wish I could also treat poverty,” Pathak says, emerging from Bayalpata’s surgical theatre one recent afternoon. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="700" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJzWlnYd0ZM?si=s_rkbU4YDaw87gqH" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> Sudurpaschim Province in Nepal’s far-west is far away from everything: from Kathmandu, from adequate medical care, from food security, and far from the reach of government services. It has suffered state neglect for centuries, its men mainly migrating to India for seasonal work to families who depend on subsistence agriculture. Pathak remembers the searing sadness he felt when a patient once told him, “Doctor, I sold the last of my rice to pay to come here, please give me a medicine that I can take on an empty stomach.” Pathak was born in Kathmandu, and after getting his MBBS from Kathmandu University, he got an MD from The Philippines. At a time when many Nepali doctors and staff nurses were emigrating, Pathak did not just return to Kathmandu but decided to go to one of the remotest districts in Nepal to serve those most in need. The hospital was established in 2009 in the village of Bayalpata, and has been managed by the non-profit <a href="https://www.nyayahealthnepal.org/" target="_blank">Nyaya Health Nepal (NHN)</a> as a public-private partnership treating 100,000 patients a year for no fees at all. NHN is now preparing to hand over the running of the hospital to the Sudurpaschim provincial government so its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health" target="_blank">model of hospital management</a> can be replicated.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250414130456_b59dabd4604a24426a55fe91c0e5866b5029858bdb4c4028c331557aeb5408ae.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250414130456_b59dabd4604a24426a55fe91c0e5866b5029858bdb4c4028c331557aeb5408ae" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Bayalpata hospital"> <figcaption>Bayalpata hospital in Achham.</figcaption> </figure>  People from not just Achham but surrounding districts, and from as far away as Humla, bring patients to Bayalpata, sometimes walking for days. Some with complicated pregnancies are brought in stretchers, young children with broken arms walk into the emergency, and sometimes there are mass casualties when a tractor or bus falls off a road. And Pathak is always there with his team performing triage, and doing orthopaedic surgeries that would be difficult even in Kathmandu. Recently, his team did a hip replacement at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-the-art-rural-hospital" target="_blank">Bayalpata Hospital</a>. Mild mannered, modest, soft-spoken, hard-working, professional are the words families of patients who have been treated at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-rural-lifeline" target="_blank">Bayalpata Hospital </a>use to describe Mandeep Pathak. But the surgeon is too busy to let all this get to this head.&nbsp; Asked why he does not emigrate like his peers or get a lucrative position at a private hospital in Kathmandu, Pathak answers simply, without a trace of self-importance, “I do not think I could get the satisfaction or sense of fulfilment anywhere else.” When travelling to attend medical congresses overseas or visit family in Kathmandu, Bayalpata has other doctors to take care of patients, but many wait patiently till Pathak returns for their consultation or surgery.&nbsp; When he returns from seminars abroad after learning the latest skills, Pathak’s suitcases are not full of clothes or presents, but titanium bone implants, external fixation rods, or intramedullary nails to be used in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/altruistic-healthcare-models-in-nepal" target="_blank">surgeries at Bayalpata</a>.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025041414040_5356278472c1eb2b9e4af1d593d6234cc8dc5e5161a8c614197c01abefadbd80.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2025041414040_5356278472c1eb2b9e4af1d593d6234cc8dc5e5161a8c614197c01abefadbd80" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1368" loading="lazy" alt="surgery"> </figure>  Before Bayalpata Hospital was established, most people suffering broken bones had to travel down to Dhangadi or Nepalganj for treatment. No more. Although Pathak’s specialisation is orthopaedic oncology, he is mostly treating fractures and rejoining broken bones.&nbsp; Now as Bayalpata’s Hospital Director, Pathak also has administrative and fundraising duties. He has to take the 10-hour ride down to Dhangadi often to meet various Sudurpaschim ministries to release the hospital’s budget — that is sometimes more difficult than the most complicated surgery. Recently, he had to cancel an appointment with the Chief Minister to rush back to Bayalpata because there was a patient who needed emergency surgery. “I told myself, let me save this patient first, then I will try to save the hospital,” he recalls.&nbsp; Once, when he had to be away for a month on emergency surgery training in the US, the family of a 90-year-old woman who had dislocated her hip after falling from a staircase was waiting for him to return. Her son told Pathak: “Doctor, either put her out of her suffering, or cure her.” Pathak told him it was too dangerous to operate at her age, but the son said his mother was in so much pain it was worth the risk. The operation was touch-and-go, but it was successful. The woman who had been brought in on a stretcher, walked out of the hospital three days after the operation.&nbsp; A few months later, a 27-year-old woman was brought into the ER bleeding profusely from an arm mangled by a thresher machine. Even in that state, she was breastfeeding her baby. Pathak welled up seeing this display of selfless motherhood, as he wheeled her into surgery. She needed three operations, but now has full use of her hand. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="700" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xJdxLD0hBqo?si=mOpM2R_DsYL88Lfg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> It is the sense of achievement from such recovery that keeps Mandeep Pathak here in this isolated village in the middle of nowhere. Bayalpata Hospital has not just saved lives, it also saves families from poverty because they do not have to take sick relatives to expensive city hospitals.&nbsp; In January, a woman was brought to Bayalpata with both hands broken. She said she had taken a fall, but Pathak did not believe her. When alone in the surgery, she finally admitted that her husband had beaten her.&nbsp; It was her husband who had brought her to hospital for treatment, but she refused to file a police report. Pathak quietly put both her arms in casts, thinking about the poverty, patriarchy and injustice in society that he is unable to treat.

lo-manthang

Comings and goings in Mustang

A Tibetan Mastiff pup who dares to dream

A Tibetan Mastiff pup who dares to dream

11-day trek is now a day’s drive in Nepal

Early Nepal drawings come full circle

Gift a goat to Tibet nomads in Nepal

Infectious enthusiasm for travel

New year revolutions

What is invisible is more dangerous

82 in २०८२

The healer of far-western Nepal