<figure><img width="1050" height="709" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc789c7e80680e080319jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>On Friday, residents of Rajbiraj near the Indian border could see clear across the breadth of Nepal to mountains like Cho Oyu and Makalu that form Nepal's northern frontier with China. All photos: Parmeshwar Jha</figcaption></figure>Because of poor visibility due to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/double-whammy-air-pollution-and-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pollution</a> or weather, rarely these days does one get to see Nepal's topographical diversity of the Tarai, Chure, Mid-mountains and the Himalaya all at once from one place.But with a shift in wind direction this week, and the smoke from north India's crop residue burning and vehicular pollution blown off to the south, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/when-the-air-is-clean/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Himalayan mountains have come out in their full glory</a> and are visible even from the plains of Province 2.These photographs were taken on Friday from Rajbiraj of Saptari district near the Indian border of icy peaks that form Nepal's northern frontier with China. It has indeed become rare to see 150km clear across the breadth of Nepal, as the terrain rise from the tropical plains barely 150m above sea level to nearly nine km in elevation.Usually, for the people of the Madhes the mountains are remote and distant, barely visible most days of the year. For people in the mountains, the Tarai is equally far away. However, not on Friday as nature framed Nepal in one image. <figure><img width="1050" height="668" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc7a9c7e80680e08031ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1050" height="715" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc7d9c7e80680e08031bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1050" height="714" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc809c7e80680e08031cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1050" height="746" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc839c7e80680e08031djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The photographs capture Nepal's topographical steps: golden fields of ripening paddy ready for harvest in the Tarai, the forested Chure Range, the Mahabharat Ridge in Udaypur and Sindhuli districts, and beyond them, the white snows of the high Himalaya -- all in one image.There were <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-shutdown-gives-nepals-nature-a-respite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similarly clear days just after the Covid-19 lockdowns</a> went into effect in India and Nepal, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-lockdown-proves-air-quality-can-be-improved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removing vehicular pollution from the air</a>  However, locals here say that was nothing compared to the crystal clear post-monsoon views this week.Some of the mountains can even be identified (from left to right): Numbur, Karyolung, Cho Oyu, Ghyachung Kang, Chamlang, Makalu. Of these Cho Oyu and Makalu are eight thousanders, but Mt Everest is blocked by the nearer peaks of the Hongu Basin in Khumbu.

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Crystal clear air makes the peaks of the eastern Himalaya visible from the Nepal Tarai

<figure><img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70be9c7e80680e060094jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>All Photos : MANISH PAUDEL</figcaption></figure>It is a truism in tourism of the Himalaya that the closer we get to the mountains, the less we see of them. This holds for the <a href="Annapurna%20Base%20Camp%20Trek" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Annapurna Base Camp Trek</a>, which follows the narrow <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/go-take-a-hike/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mardi Valley</a> where Machapuchre is hidden by towering cliffs. And it is true of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everest-fights-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Everest Trek</a>, where the highest mountain in the world is not visible after Tengboche, unless trekkers climb Kala Patthar.For the best panoramas of the mountains, therefore, one has to step back to mid-mountain peaks, like Pathibhara in Taplejung for a view of <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/the-kingdom-of-cardamom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mt Kangchenjunga</a> and Jannu, or Kalinchok for a grandstand view of Mt Gauri Shankar. Then there are peaks like Pulchoki on the southern rim of Kathmandu Valley, Bandipur for a tour d’horizon of the entire Central Nepal Himalaya, and the famous Poon Hill for the vista of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c19c7e80680e060095jpeg.jpg" alt="">But one of the best kept secrets of trekking in Nepal is Pikey Peak in Solu, which offers a view of eight of Nepal’s eighthousanders from one place, including Mt Everest. The 4,065m peak used to be a favourite of Sir <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/hillary-centenary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edmund Hillary</a> after he climbed it to take a look around during the walk-in on his 1953 expedition.For several decades after that Pikey was isolated because it was so difficult to get to, and most people doing the Everest Base Camp trek overflew Pikey en route to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lukla.</a> Indeed, there is a parade of planes overhead every morning doing the Kathmandu-Lukla ferry.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vDEMl1dCdg&amp;feature=youtu.beBut with new roads from Kathmandu to Jiri and the Solu Highway reaching Phaplu via Okhaldhunga, Pikey is suddenly accessible. After major snowfall last month, Pikey saw dozens of Nepali youngsters roughing it out on a camping trip. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c59c7e80680e060096jpeg.jpg" alt="">Winter is the not the best time for a Pikey hike, but the views can be stunning especially after snowfall blankets the mountains in white. The best time is actually early spring when rhododendron forests are abloom in pink, red and white and the mountains are dazzling against deep blue skies. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c99c7e80680e060097jpeg.jpg" alt="">Since few people know about Pikey, visitors will find the trails deserted and the tea shops basic, although new lodges are now coming up, and the local Sherpa community is trying to promote homestay tourism. Pikey is revered by the Sherpas as a deity and climbing it does seem more like a pilgrimage than a trek.The fortunate thing about Pikey is that you can make it a circuit so you do not have to come down the same way you went up. A recommended itinerary is to drive up the Jiri Road from Kathmandu, continue on to Shivalaya, following the old trek route <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to Khumbu</a> before Lukla airstrip was built in 1968. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70cb9c7e80680e060098jpeg.jpg" alt="">From Shivalaya it is a leisurely three-day trek to Bhandara, Namkheli and Pikey Danda with only some steep sections. The trail winds through thick oak and rhododendron forests, with pine giving way to grasslands in the higher reaches.What is astounding is that from Pikey on a clear day one can see more than 800km of horizon from Dhaulagiri to Kangchenjunga. All along during the walk-in, Annapurna, Manaslu, Mt Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Lhotse, Kangchenjunga and other eight-thousanders play hide and seek behind lesser but nearer peaks. But smack in front is the elegant summit of Mt Numbur, standing tall above Mt Karyolung. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70cf9c7e80680e060099jpeg.jpg" alt="">Sunrise from Pikey Peak is a ‘lifetime experience’ as the slogan for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/make-sure-you-visit-nepal-in-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Nepal 2020</a> puts it. The sun rises from behind Kangchenjunga, illuminating the peaks to the north one by one, even as the valleys below are shrouded in fog.For the return, the descent can be down to Junbesi, and on to Phaplu, from where you can either take a flight back to Kathmandu or make the trip by road. For those pressed for time, you can make a flight in and out from Phaplu with a circuit to Pikey via Lamjura and down through Dhap. (See map).  <img width="1000" height="1118" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70d29c7e80680e06009ajpeg.jpg" alt="">...

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Lifetime experience on Pikey Peak

https://youtu.be/IBCLqSG_HMMThe Everest Base Camp trek is arduous enough for fit people, but it can be even more difficult for someone over 70. And it is no mean feat if that person also wants to tee off at 5,100m in winter.Harry Tan, a 71-year-old Singaporean possibly became the first person to tee off from three points below Mt Everest above 5,000m earlier this month.A part-time physical education teacher at Nanyang Technical University and an avid golfer at the Seletar Golf Club in Singapore, Tan had come to Nepal in 2016 after the earthquake. His trekking partner, Raj Tamang, was himself raised in Singapore and is also a golfer.“We got really excited about teeing off from high points during the trek, but did not realise how difficult it would be,” Tan recalls. This was a winter trek with the Khumbu Galcier so windy that the wind chill factor made conditions difficult. The high thin air also meant that the golf balls behaved differently.After flying to Lukla and acclimatising in Namche and Ama Dablam Base Camp, the group proceeded up to Dingboche, where Tan decided to buy warmer feather mittens for the adventures ahead. “The gloves I brought from Singapore were not adequate for the job at hand,” he noted.They waited out a blizzard on 13 December and then walked on to Pheriche and Lobuje.The next day, they climbed to a ridge on the way to Gorakshep at 5,180m found a patch of flat ground and brought out a 3 Wood driver, rubber tee, and an ecobioball manufactured by Elbusgolf.It was a complete whiteout when Harry did the first-ever 5000-meter tee off by a foreigner in Nepal. (The previous record was by Tamang himself.) They continued on the lateral moraine towards Gorakshep, had a quick lunch and left for Everest Base Camp. Trekkers there who were talking about a Singaporean with a golf club and were wondering what he was going to do with it got to see the swings for themselves.

Teeing off below Everest

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141124/636a58cf9c7e80680e05485bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1400"/> T his time of year <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a> is a profusion of colour: lapis lazuli sky with dazzling clouds, purple fields of buckwheat, ripening golden barley terraces, Dhakmar’s towering red cliffs, yellow rocks, salmon sunsets.So why would <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nepali-times-buzz/profile-of-kevin-bubriski-photographer,1954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin Bubriski</a> and Sienna Craig publish a photo book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mustang-Black-White-Sienna-Craig/dp/9937623871" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang in Black and White</a>?As Tibetologist Charles Ramble explains in the preface, ‘Mustang: Black and White, But Never Gray’, the Kingdom of Lo was historically perceived as a ‘dark’ corner. Even early Bon Tibetans found the place forbidding and inhabited by demons.But Ramble gives <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>’s ‘darkness’ a positive attribute. ‘Sometimes, darkness is the best place in which to see the cosmos in its full radiance,’ he writes. Anyone who has gazed up at the Milky Way from the starlit landscape around the ancient monastery at Lo Gekar will know what he is talking about.Mustang is technically in Nepal, but is part of the trans-Himalayan plateau, situated on what used to be the shores of the Tethys Sea. Exposed boulders high on cliff faces were once strewn on the banks of the prehistoric Kali Gandaki, which cut through the mountains as they rose, lifting fossilised ammonites that once crawled the ocean floor.Bubriski writes that Mustang’s colours have always fascinated him, adding: ‘My choice to represent Mustang in black and white was motivated by the dramatic power of how the bright sunlight and deep shadows transform the physical earthen forms and shapes of chörten, gompa, mountains, ladders and doorways into visually powerful and compelling compositions.’<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1153" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bubriski first came to Nepal</a> in 1975, spending two years in Humla as a <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/untitled-project-rmc8q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peace Corps</a> volunteer. Most of his photographic life has been in darkrooms working with black and white prints, eschewing the digital camera. Finally giving in, he now uses a smartphone app for square black and white images with artificially frayed edges.Artists have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/mustang-on-canvas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inspired by Mustang to use various medium</a> to capture its richness. Robert Powell took to water colour to depict Mustang in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Door-Sky-Paintings-Mustang/dp/0906026539" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Earth Door Sky Door: Paintings of Mustang</a>. Bubriski explains his choice of black and white photography: ‘As the reality of the colour world was distilled by my eye… I found the visual transformation and abstraction intriguing with what it added, yet also with what it took away.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141124/636a58d29c7e80680e05485cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="700">Sienna Craig is an anthropologist who first travelled to Mustang in 1993, and has kept coming back for research. In stark, poetic prose in chapters that take us town-by-town up the trail, she describes how the place is changing with outmigration, the arrival of the road and mobile connectivity.Even the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate breakdown</a> is forcing villages to relocate and swollen glacial lakes' bursts regularly bringing down destructive torrents of grey mud paste and boulders.  There are now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vast apple plantations</a> where it was once too cold for orchards.Change is a constant in Mustang today. The trails at Tsarang have hoof marks next to tractor tyre tracks. Mule trains are being replaced by Boleros, young men in Adidas caps and Nike sneakers loiter by sidewalk shrines, waiting for travel documents that will take them to Korea or Iraq. With no men to work the fields, diesel threshers do the harvesting. The sound of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/k-pop-in-k-town/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">K-pop</a> wafts with the wind in the poplars in Choser.Yet even with change, the ruins of ancient forts blend back into the cliffs they were built on. Eroded by the wind, it is hard to tell what is monastery and what is mountain — they are embedded in each other.‘Has the wind carved this landscape to resemble the ruins of ancient buildings? Or are these manmade remnants of an ancient civilisation?’ asks Craig. Maybe both, as abandoned homes dissolve back into the landscape. In exquisite monochrome and lyrical text, Bubriski and Craig have captured Mustang in a photo frame of time ‘neither past nor future, just present’. Change has come to Mustang, but Mustang will keep its mystery and darkness.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141124/636a58d59c7e80680e05485djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="276"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141124/636a58d69c7e80680e05485ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="276"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Charles Ramble has himself co-authored a new book (also published by Vajra) on the abandoned settlement of Chuksang, where once stood a 17th-century nunnery. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blessing-Land-Architecture-History-Buddhist/dp/9937928826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Blessing for the Land</a> traces the history of the head lama of Künzang Chöling, who dedicated his monastery to the land, choosing the slope on the other side of the Kali Gandaki known as ‘Convent Ridge’. Although on the academic side, the book is part-archaeology, part-architecture, part-anthropology, but mostly it is deep history.Ramble and other authors work with archaeologist Nyima Drandul from Mustang, who is a descendant of the Künzang Chöling nobility. A Blessing for the Land and Mustang in Black and White are both available in Kathmandu book stores, and are fascinating journeys in time and space. Both books force us to rethink Nepal’s diverse cultural history, and to ponder how much more of our past we do not yet know as we plunge into an uncharted future.

Kunda Dixit

Mustang in shadows and light

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40ef9c7e80680e04a64cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1205"/>It is perfect that Everest: Reflections on the Solu Khumbu should come out this year, the centenary of Edmund Hillary’s birth. The book is a tribute to the contribution made by one of the first two people to climb Mt Everest to the Sherpa people who live in the sacred valleys below the world’s highest mountain.The large-format photo book has stunning images of the Solu Khumbu, by photographer and travel writer Sujoy Das, and chapters by Lisa Choegyal, who has lived and worked in Nepal since 1974, is New Zealand’s honorary consul to Nepal, and writes a fortnightly column in this paper.Both have a deep connection to the Sherpa people, and an admiration bordering on reverence of the mountains that they live amongst. Das has been visiting the Khumbu since 1978, trekking, writing and photographing. The book shows why he keeps coming back: the photographs reflect his mastery of the camera and a Tagorean ability to capture the beauty of nature in words and pictures.The portraits of mountains and people are simultaneously stark and sublime, their rugged beauty etched by the light of the Khumbu sky. Das peers beyond the usual touristy postcard images of the Khumbu to reveal faces and forests, rivers and ridges in strikingly memorable imagery.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40f29c7e80680e04a64djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1012">Afraid of being grounded in Lukla by weather last year, he decided to walk down to Phaplu as the monsoon broke over the Himalaya. The photographs of the less-travelled trail with mule trains, school children and porters carrying enormous loads of corrugated sheets along shiny rain-soaked stone paths take us back to a pre-tourism Solu Khumbu.Das’ photography is as lyrical as his writing: ‘Waves of mist funnelled up the valley, abruptly blanketing out the entire trail. The rain was as fine as spray can be, so soft and delicate it was hardly there. The trees were ghost-like apparitions, and round a bend an unexpected mule caravan materialised out of dense fog, revealed only by tinkling bells.’Lisa Choegyal retraces the life and times of the unassuming Edmund Hillary after Everest made him a celebrity — how he transformed a potato field in Lukla into an airfield in 1964, ‘short-circuiting’ trekking and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transforming the region</a>.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40f59c7e80680e04a64ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="507"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>'The people of Solu Khumbu are cited as the best example of remote communities who have not only prospered from tourism, but have grown wealthy from it. Without sacrificing their Buddhist ethos, they have been able to harness the benefits of tourism whilst modifying the worst of its influences and defending their traditional values,’ she writes, crediting Hillary’s selective and sensible approach to ensure quality health, education and infrastructure to his beloved land.The Sherpas are no strangers to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">change</a>, tragedy and disasters, but a strong sense of community has provided a robust coping mechanism. They adapted an agrarian, pastoral lifestyle seamlessly into <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/khumbu-then-and-now-global-warming-climate-change,4017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tourism</a>. When trading routes to Tibet closed in the 1950s, they made the mountain-guide profession synonymous with their surname. And when India and China went to war in the 1960s, Sherpas switched from mountaineering to trekking. Namche today has a per capita income five times Nepal’s national average.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40f89c7e80680e04a64fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="930">Even bigger changes are coming. Nepal’s road network has reached Phaplu and it is possible to drive to Kathmandu in 12 hours. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global warming is melting the mountains</a>, increasing the danger of glacial lake outburst floods. The Sherpas, and indeed the people of the rest of the Himalaya, will need their legendary resilience to deal with these changes.British climber Chris Bonington hints at this in his Foreword to the book: ‘This is not just one more book about Everest, but a special celebration of the haunting beauty of Solu Khumbu and its people. Civilisation depends on the health of our high places, and I wish my Sherpa friends all the best with successfully navigating their future course.’Everest: Reflections on the Solu KhumbuPhotographs by Sujoy DasText by Lisa ChoegyalVajra Books, Kathmandu 2019www.vajrabooks.com.np141 pages<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40fc9c7e80680e04a650jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="665">

Not just another book on Everest

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121136/636a40059c7e80680e04a5f9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1047"/><figcaption>The other-worldly beauty of Phoksundo Lake at 3,660m. All photos: BHARAT BANDHU THAPA</figcaption></figure>The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/mycity/2018/01/24/snowed-in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unprecedented blizzards</a> this year in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/Stairway-to-heaven-Dolpo-trek" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolpo</a> and other trans-Himalayan districts have affected spring-season trekking. Most high passes in Dolpo, and between Dolpo and Mustang, are still blocked by heavy snow, with many trekkers turning back or taking longer alternative routes.With better road and air access, Dolpo has seen a spike in trekkers, with <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/saving-shey-phoksundo-in-nepal,3596" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shey Phoksundo National Park</a> registering 514 visitors this past year. And with motorable roads opened on popular trekking routes, visitors are venturing further afield.“Most trails in Upper Dolpo are still closed because the high passes got heavy snow, and even local villagers have not returned to their villages in Saldang,” says trekking guide Norbu Lama, who says two Czech trekkers could not even cross Baga La (5,170m) recently because of snow. “I am taking one group this coming month, but worried about which route to take since almost of the passes are closed.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121136/636a40089c7e80680e04a5fajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="791" height="835">There is said to be avalanche danger, and melting snow has made rivers rise to levels usually seen only in July-August. Says Tashi Lama in Ringmo: “Right now all the passes are snowed in, but with the temperature going up, we expect them to reopen soon.” That will also coincide with the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/regulation-of-yarsa,1547" target="_blank" rel="noopener">yarsa</a> picking season.Trekking routes to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10912#.XNEjnOUza71" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Dolpo</a> all have to cross numerous passes above 5000m, like Shey La (5,010m), Kanga La (5,360m), Baga La (5,310m) Numa La (5,310m) or Ghami Pass (5,310m) (see map). Kanga La is the most trodden route, but this season has been blanketed by heavy snow.For those who do not want to cancel plans, there are alternative routes. Or it may also be worthwhile just trekking up to the stunningly beautiful Phoksundo Lake (right) and exploring the surrounding mountains.For adventurers who still want to trek up to Saldang and Bijer, there is also the route via Dho, Shiman, Tinge, and with rising temperatures in Choi La and Sagar passes are now open.The new road up to Triveni to the south and the upgraded airfield in Jufal means there are now more Nepali and foreign visitors here. Ringmo has eight new guest houses, and there is a lot of anticipation ahead of the Dolpo Festival in the Dho Tarap Valley, 10-14 September.“In these past months, the number of tourists was fewer than last year because of the weather, but the flights have resumed and they are full both ways, says Dilip Karki of Tara Air in Nepalganj, the takeoff point for trekkers to Dolpo.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121136/636a400b9c7e80680e04a5fbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="761"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121136/636a400d9c7e80680e04a5fcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40119c7e80680e04a5fdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="992"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40159c7e80680e04a5fejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="811"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40189c7e80680e04a5ffjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1124"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a401b9c7e80680e04a600jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="823"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a401e9c7e80680e04a601jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="874">Sonam Choekyi Lama in DolpoPhotographs by Bharat Bandhu Thapa

Dazzling Dolpo

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a260e9c7e80680e0439f7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1437"/><figcaption>This week's heavy snowfall has turned Nepal into a winter wonderland. This is Rara Lake from Murma Peak in northwestern Nepal on Thursday.</figcaption></figure>Rara Lake is the biggest lake in Nepal, and its remoteness protects its pristine beauty.Although almost as hard to get to as Phoksundo Lake in neighbouring Dolpo, Rara had remained blissfully untouched. Lack of proper lodgings kept foreign tourists away, and only 95 visited the Rara National Park in the past year. However, the Karnali Highway has now arrived nearly at the perimeter of the Park, and the airfield in Talcha that also serves Mugu district, has been upgraded.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/snowbound-rara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snow bound in Rara</a>, Achyutraj BhandariNepalis now make up most of the visitors to Rara National Park, and they thronged to the lake after the heavy snowfall of the past weeks turned the mountains surrounding the lake into a winter wonderland.Located at an altitude of 2,990m, the lake is surrounded by peaks up to 4,000m with a low forested ridge to the north keeping the water in. The thick pine, oak and rhododendron forests are home to rich biodiversity, with the lake itself harbouring an indigenous species of trout found nowhere else in the world and home to thousands of migrating water fowl.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/frozen-shivapuri/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frozen Shivapuri</a>, Min Ratna BajracharyaRara is not a stopover, but a destination, a place to linger and contemplate nature. The lake changes it colour every hour of the day, from pastel sunrise to fiery sunsets, the metallic silver of a rising moon and by ghostly starlight. There is no better place on Earth to let its healing power cleanse the soul.Photos by Bharat Bandhu Thapa<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26129c7e80680e0439f8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1141"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26169c7e80680e0439f9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1269"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26199c7e80680e0439fajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2999" height="1496"><figcaption>Sunrise over the snowbound lake.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a261c9c7e80680e0439fbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1200"><figcaption>With the arrival of the Karnali Highway and the upgraded airfield in Talcha, Rara is becoming increasingly popular with Nepali visitors.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26209c7e80680e0439fcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1430"><figcaption>Horses are available for hire for visitors.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26239c7e80680e0439fdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2999" height="1160"><figcaption>The lake with Murma Peak in the background.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26269c7e80680e0439fejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="836"><figcaption>Talcha Airfield in Mugu district is a three-hour walk from the lake.</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26299c7e80680e0439ffjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1704"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a262e9c7e80680e043a00jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2999" height="1723"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26319c7e80680e043a01jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1011"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26359c7e80680e043a02jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1347"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a26389c7e80680e043a03jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1196"><figcaption>The placid lake from the entrance of the Rara National Park.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a263c9c7e80680e043a04jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="637"><figcaption>A mother and baby waiting for the first flight in Talcha Airfield near Rara Lake after heavy snow closed the airport for five days.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a263f9c7e80680e043a05jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"><figcaption>A visitor flies the national flag on Murma Peak above the lake.</figcaption></figure>Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/snowbound-rara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snowbound Rara</a>, Achyutraj Bhandari

Rara’s rare beauty

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

The Last Days of the Khampa

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

Turkish to Seville

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

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

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

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