<figure><img width="2880" height="2048" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a679a9c7e80680e0599e7jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: SAKINA ABIDI</figcaption></figure>When asked how he balances writing about Kathmandu <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Kathmandu-wont-let-go-of-me-samrat-upadhyay,3649">while living abroad</a>, <a href=":/archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17243#.XgRLnpP7TOR">Samrat Upadhyay</a> asks: “What do we mean by authenticity? According to whom?”“I come here often enough,” he says. “I did spend my formative years here. I understand the ubiquitous Nepali character, if there is one. Authenticity is such a curious term that implies there is like this one Nepali culture.”Upadhyay arrives at Himalayan Java in Thamel for the interview nursing a cold, a day after an award ceremony for a <a href="https://lalitmag.com/writing-nepal-2019-a-short-story-contest/%5d">short story contest of La.Lit</a> magazine, where Upadhyay was the sole judge.Popularly known as the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12241#.XgRCZpP7TOR">first Nepali-born writer to be published in the United States</a>, Upadhyay is Nepal’s most accomplished English language novelist, with seven books and various accolades.When Upadhyay started out, there were few people in Nepal writing in English. “There was no sense of community. There was nothing like La.Lit or <a href="http://qcbookshop.com/">Quixote's Cove</a>.” Now, he says, there are not just more people writing, but more people serious about writing – going on retreats, winning fellowships and getting published both here and abroad.We circle back to his depiction of Nepal and if he is afraid of missing something when he is away. “I don’t mean to say I don’t need to keep up at all, as if Nepal has remained ossified,” he adds, “but I am also not walking around with some mental diary saying ‘Okay, let me figure out what has changed and what has not.’ I just absorb things.” <figure><img width="995" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a679d9c7e80680e0599e8jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Like many others who write about their home countries in English, Upadhyay is often criticised for <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4483#.XgRLnpP7TOR">catering to a western audience</a>. His writing has also been characterised as one that <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4393#.XgRCT5P7TOR">injects sex where it doesn’t belong</a>, with readers <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4321#.XgRNHpP7TOQ">falling on both sides of the critique</a>.For his part, Upadhyay seems more concerned about <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4924#.XgRLn5P7TOR">pushing past what is publicly shunned</a> in what he considers traditional culture. He says La.Lit’s Writing Nepal 2019 shortlist had two stories that explicitly explored sexual boundaries: “People are becoming braver and bolder, expanding the notion of what it means to be Nepali.”Transcending language is an issue too. Writers try to overcome the barrier in their own way, whether it’s by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/debut-novelist-lets-afghans-speak-for-themselves/">publishing an entire chapter in their native script</a> or by approximating their language’s syntax quite literally into English.“That’s the craft of writing for those of us who write in English about a landscape where the majority of the people are not speaking English constantly,” Upadhyay says. “It is kind of a judicious thing you do. I believe language is fairly malleable.”It may depend on your command over your language, but it also speaks to who your intended readership is. Upadhyay waves off pages of Nepali dialogue with footnotes (‘It’s so passé’) describing it as something that will not reach a wider audience. On the other hand, he does not have his work translated into Nepali – although he has received, and rejected, samples by other people, yet found his own attempt at translating to take too long.  “I thought, ‘Do I want to spend like two years translating my own work or do I want to spend two years writing a new novel? Which would be more pleasurable for me?’ The answer was obvious.”His latest novel? “It’s still a work in progress,” says Samrat Upadhyay, “I am working on, I guess you could call it some type of a dystopian novel set in Nepal … Not full fantasy. It has strange moments, which I have enjoyed writing.”

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Writing about Nepal from afar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-sFnHEoH5U&amp;t=63sAsk a person in China about Nepal, and the answer is mostly that it is a happy Himalayan country of Buddhism and mountains. Justin Zhao and Liang Ye have decided that is not enough for the 400,000 Chinese tourists that are expected during <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Nepal Year 2020</a>. When they first arrived in Nepal as tourists themselves, the duo decided that the country had a lot more to offer. Many more Chinese would visit if they knew about the culture, history, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/prithvis-earthy-art/">art</a>  and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-life-and-times-of-arniko/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">architecture of Nepal</a> . Zhao and Ye have set up <a href="https://www.facebook.com/himalayanlight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Himalaya Light Culture House</a> in Jhonche to exhibit and propagate Nepali art, modern paintings, historical books and local handicrafts. By deliberately locating in the former <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7121#.XCSzoVUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freak Street</a>, not Thamel, the two wanted to reboot Nepal’s tourism brand among mainlanders.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/chinese-ink-wash-paintings-in-Nepal,2622, Justin Zhao" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal in ink and brush</a> <figure><img width="1400" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171152/636937c59c7e80680e03fe5bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>NORTHERN LIGHT: Justin Zhao and Liang Ye (below) with their art gallery in Jhochhen and Boudha. They call themselves “volunteer envoys” working to improve people-to-people ties between China and Nepal. Photos: Ruixue Zhang </figcaption></figure>It is easy to miss the signboard for Himalaya Light Culture House amidst the thangka and scarf shops, the momo eateries and bars in this street off Darbar Square that used to be the haunt of <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/feeling-groovy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hippies</a>. Through a narrow passageway, after turning right on a sundeck, is the Culture House.“No wonder so few people visit our Culture House, even I sometimes get lost,” jokes Ye, who was at Darbar Square when the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Monumental-loss,2215" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2015 earthquake destroyed the monuments</a> here, and remembers weeping when he saw the devastation.For his part, Zhao has been to Nepal 18 times since 2013, and cannot seem to stop coming back. He was drawn by Kathmandu’s rich heritage, sculpture and handicraft, and decided to establish a new museum, guest house and restaurant here. Zhao says that after the earthquake, many Chinese gave up their businesses and went back, so he had to start from square one. But now he is one of the most influential persons for trans-Himalayan cultural exchanges.  <img width="1400" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171152/636937c89c7e80680e03fe5cjpeg.jpg" alt="">Ye, 36, used to be a doctor, first came to Kathmandu in 2014, became a travel writer. “At first, I chose Nepal because of its tourism potential, but now Nepal is like my lover,” he admits, smiling. After seeing the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2015/05/27/a-month-that-felt-like-a-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">devastation in 2015</a>, Ye started posting scenes of the damage on Chinese social media to explain that Nepalis revered Lord Shiva the creator and destroyer, and saw the earthquake as part of another divine cycle. The posts helped spread a huge response in China for relief aid. Zhao has always been fascinated by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-craft-of-art/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali modern art</a> and wants to bring it to the attention of Chinese collectors. “Nepali artists are deeply rooted in their society, and their work carry socio-cultural meanings,” explains Zhao, “but the average Chinese tourist only knows about <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thangkas </a>and wood c<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/a-craving-for-carving,3637" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arvings.</a>”Ye has been in Nepal long enough to understand geopolitical sensitivities. “Nowadays, the relationship between China and Nepal is like friends while Nepal and India are like brothers,” he says diplomatically, “brothers can fight but will always be brothers. China will always be a close friend.”Ye and Zhao say they want to go beyond government-to-government links to be China’s “volunteer envoys” to connect the peoples of China and Nepal. In the past three years, Zhao has taken young Nepali artists to China, held exhibitions and discussions about paintings and music. Zhao’s father Zhao <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/chinese-ink-wash-paintings-in-Nepal,2622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jianqiu</a> is a famous Chinese artist whose exquisitely detailed ink and brush paintings of Nepal’s mountains and Kathmandu’s temples have been exhibited in Beijing and Kathmandu.Tourism in Nepal has gone through many phases: the world jet-set ‘discovered’ Nepal in the early 1960s, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-gangster-of-love/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hippies </a>came in the 1970s, trekkers and budget travelers after that. Ye and Zhang perhaps represent a new breed of Asian tourists who are drawn by Nepal’s unique natural and cultural heritage, as well as its modern creativity.

The Chinese are coming

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171116/63692f929c7e80680e03c0b1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1070"/><figcaption>Photo: Kunda Dixit</figcaption></figure>Dasain is here again, a festival of shopping, family reunions, feasting – and controversies. Fierce debates again rage online and offline about whether <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dasain-goes-global,3950" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dasain </a>is indigenous or not, if there should be so many days off. But the loudest arguments in recent years are about the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ode-to-goat,3321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cult of animal sacrifice</a>.Going by previous trends, almost a million goats, sheep, buffalos and poultry will be killed during the fortnight of festivities. Not all are ritually sacrificed, some are slaughtered by butchers to meet the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/The-goat-rush,3320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased Dasain demand for meat</a>.Maya Thapa and her husband sell goats, sheep, chicken and ducks at the animal market in Kalanki. She says: “Dasain sees a peak in sales. During other times of year, we mostly supply animals to slaughterhouses, but in Dasain the animals are sold for household sacrifices.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=14800&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Octoberfest</a>, EditorialMost Hindu sacrifices do not involve animals at all, but <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/vegetables-and-famous-veggie-dishes-this-Dasain,3951" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vegetables </a>or dairy products. But in Nepal, the Kali cult manifests itself in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16522#.W782MXszaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">animal sacrifices</a> which are not just killing for the sake of killing, but hold a larger symbolism. By sacrificing goats and buffalos, devotees believe they are killing self-centredness and malice – humans are removing the animal instincts present in themselves.Cultural historian Madan Mohan Mishra explains that sacrifices are a sign of respect to the Goddess Durga (in her various forms such as Kali, Bhawani, Mai) to confront and defeat the Mahisasur buffalo demon. His killing is represented by sacrificing multiple buffalos in front of Durga temples around Nepal at Dasain.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ode-to-goat,3321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ode to goat</a>, Ketan DulalPriestess Mohan Maiya Jha of the Char Narayan and Bhai Dega temples in Patan adds: “Human sacrifice used to represent the ultimate sacrifice – there was nothing to hold one back from attaining true liberation (moksha). But human life is much too precious to be left to religious symbolism which is why the practice was replaced with animal sacrifice. As social consciousness evolves and the times change, the practice of animal sacrifice may also die out.”But she is opposed to the protests against sacrificing animals and the ruling of the Supreme Court to ban animal sacrifice at the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Overkill-in-Gadhimai,1794" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gadhimai festival</a>. “There should be no interference in religious traditions. Protests and the courts cannot start or end a custom. Such matters, good or bad, must be left to society.”However, the cult of animal sacrifice goes beyond religious customs. Webb Keane, Professor of Anthropology at University of Michigan, makes the case that sacrificing animals came about after humans evolved as natural hunters and possessed predatory instincts.Read also: <a style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.15px; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16522#.W782MXszaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Animal fights</a>, Rabi ThapaBut as societies evolved and institutionalised religions developed, such taking of life for food came to be regarded as morally wrong as humans were capable of producing food through agriculture without the need for violence. Early civilisations therefore developed ritualistic sacrifices to the Gods to justify the killing of animals for meat.The hunter instinct is deeply rooted in humans to this day, and most religions, tribal and mainstream, possess one form of sacrifice or the other – in Islam it is Qurbani, in Christianity the sacrificial lamb, and in Hinduism the Bali.“Animal sacrifices are not unique to any one religion – it is a universal theme driven by our innate animal instinct,” says Keane.Read also: <a style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: bold;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14100#.W782NnszaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scapegoats</a>, Tirtha B ShresthIn response to international activism against animal sacrifices, the Nepal government has outlawed the mass slaughter of animals in Gadhimai. Individual sacrifices at home in Dasain are also being gradually replaced by buying meat from supermarkets or the neighbourhood butcher.Says animal rights activist Sujan Shrestha: “Beheading animals at home makes children impervious to violence, they get used to the sight of blood-letting. You do not have to be a psychologist to know that this risks normalising violence in the minds of youngsters.”The usual justification for <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14100#.W782NnszaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">animal sacrifices</a> is that they appease the gods and replace human bloodshed. But given the massacres and wars in Nepal’s history, that argument does not seem to hold. More than 90 nobles were killed in the Bhandarkhal Massacre of 1806 that brought Bhimsen Thapa to power, 55 were killed by Jang Bahadur in the Kot in 1846, and the 2001 massacre nearly wiped out Nepal’s royal family.Today, the Kot Massacre is still marked at Dasain not by non-violent rituals, but by the mass slaughter of hundreds of buffalos, goats and birds.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/vegetables-and-famous-veggie-dishes-this-Dasain,3951" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Dasain, vegetate</a>, Sonia Awale<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Overkill-in-Gadhimai,1794" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Overkill in Gadhimai</a>, Lucia de Vries and Deepak Adhikari

The sacrifice of animal sacrifices

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Writing about Nepal from afar

The Chinese are coming

The sacrifice of animal sacrifices