<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce6cb9c7e80680e096787jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Suresh Teli and his father Purna Teli at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Photo: UPASANA KHADKA</figcaption></figure>On January 20, Prabhu Nath Teli in Kapilvastu received a call from Krishna Chaudhary in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-and-malaysia-rewrite-rules-for-migrant-labour/">Malaysia</a>, a co-worker of his 24-year-old son Suresh. The two had worked together at D&amp;Y Textile for the past three years, and Suresh had been seriously injured after jumping off the first floor of his hostel.Only three days before, Prabhu had spoken with his son who had sounded distraught after not being able to come home despite months of trying.  Suresh now has a serious spinal injury following the jump, which along with his erratic behaviour was a result of the severe mental pressure he was under.“My son wanted to come home but his employer was not willing to let him return,” says Prabhu, adding that his son’s supervisor had called the police on him when they got into a disagreement over his absence. “This scared Suresh, and in an attempt to escape he jumped off the first floor of his hostel and got severely injured.” On the one hand, his employer was unwilling to let him go. On the other, personal family issues were piling up over the three years he had been away. To make matters worse, Suresh had a history of mental health problems. “He was suffering from depression before going to Malaysia, but he responded well to treatment. He got better over the years and was doing well in Malaysia,” recalls Prabhu. “But not being able to return home was a trigger, and his mental health problems re-emerged.” Jay Kumar Teli, Suresh’s uncle, who was in Kathmandu to help with his nephew’s repatriation and recovery, questions how the Malaysian employer could keep hard-working migrants against their will.  “They need to understand that their workers are human beings with personal problems and obligations. Not disposable commodities without emotions,” he says.  <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce6ce9c7e80680e096788jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But Suresh is not an isolated case.  “The ban on the recruitment of new foreign workers in Malaysia due to Covid-19 means employers are unwilling to let their workers leave” explains Deepak Dhakal, Labour Counsellor at the Nepal Embassy. “During the pandemic, there have been delays in the issuance of check-out memos which are like exit permits required for a worker to leave the country and many employers use this as an excuse to keep workers back. It doesn’t matter if workers want to return due to personal emergencies or because their contracts finished.” Dhakal adds.  This, in addition to increased workload due to labour shortages, pressure from families back home for financial support and strains in transnational relationships can take a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-the-minds-of-nepals-migrant-workers/">psychological toll on them. </a>“Mental health issues among migrants who face pressure from both the employers and families back home are rampant and need to be systematically addressed,” says Prakash Panthi, Labour Attache at the Nepal Embassy in Malaysia. While responsible employers in Malaysia and elsewhere take care of their workers, this is often not the case. Even in situations when workers need hospital-based medical care, they are kept in hostels with only very basic medication. But the most vulnerable are undocumented migrants, some of whom are brought to the embassy in Kuala Lumpur by Nepali volunteers when their situation has deteriorated without timely attention. Regularisation schemes like the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-in-malaysia-to-gain-from-amnesty/">Malaysian government’s Recalibration Program</a> that allows undocumented workers to change their legal status could benefit undocumented migration, Dhakal notes.  <figure><img width="854" height="384" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6d19c7e80680e096789jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Coordinated rescue effort  Following his fall, Suresh received care in the orthopaedic ward of a Malaysian hospital for his spinal injury and was kept under psychiatric observation before being transferred to a nursing home.  Suresh was scheduled to fly to Kathmandu on 5 February after pressure from hundreds of Nepali employees at the company. But the airline refused to fly him because of his health condition. Says Labour Attache Panthi, “The employer reached out to us to make agitated Nepali employees understand that the delay in Suresh’s repatriation was due to his health condition and not the employer’s apathy.”There was also pressure on the employer to bear all medical costs till Suresh recovered.  His condition subsequently improved and he was deemed fit to fly but either a doctor or a nurse had to accompany him, which was too costly.Eventually, he was approved to fly with a non-medical personnel, a co-worker who was returning to Nepal.In Nepal, Suresh’s father Prabhu had to make five trips to Kathmandu over the last few months. “The agent in Kapilvastu said he could help if I paid him Rs100,000. The recruiter Al Rahim says he is taking the case up with the authorities. That is a lie, he has no clue that my son is already coming home,” Prabhu says.In a desperate plea, Prabhu and his wife appealed to MP Arjun KC to help bring their son home. Says KC, “It was just one case, but the amount of coordination needed was tremendous. We had to directly or indirectly engage with the Foreign Employment Board, the Nepal Embassy, Nepal Airlines and the hospital here for his repatriation and further recovery. One weak link and it would not have happened.”Private airlines were hesitant to accommodate a stretcher but Nepal Airlines agreed. The Nepali mission put pressure on the employer to bear the medical and travel costs. Without financial support from the employer or from the Foreign Employment Board, the only option would have been to rely on personal donations that would have further delayed the repatriation. Among many stories of an uncaring state, there are stories like that of Suresh Teli where different agencies of the state came together, surpassing the expectation of the people who are conditioned to not expect too much from the government.  <figure><img width="540" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6d49c7e80680e09678ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The long road to recoveryIn many ways Suresh was lucky. He survived the fall when he could have been one of the many coffins that arrive at Kathmandu airport every week. His medical costs in Malaysia and air tickets were borne by the employer. His family recognises these positive aspects and is happy their son is finally coming, but is also cautious of what lies ahead: the long road to recovery, from physical and mental wounds, from unpaid loans and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wage-theft-of-migrants-during-pandemic/">foregone earnings</a>, and from personal relationships <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/far-from-home-during-a-pandemic/">strained by distance.</a> The Teli family has only a tiny piece of land, and it has to pay Suresh’s medical bills by borrowing from local lenders. Formal support is unlikely to come through. The recently signed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-future-is-older/">Social Security Agreement</a> (SOCSO) between Malaysia and Nepal only applies to work-related injuries, illness, or death. Suresh’s family is hopeful that the Foreign Employment Board will provide injury compensation via the Welfare Fund, but even this is unlikely given uncertainties around his labour permit status as he has been away for three years.  <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6d69c7e80680e09678bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Arrival The evening of 23 April, Suresh was being pushed in a wheel-chair out of the arrival area at Kathmandu airport and put into an ambulance with the support of the medics and his father. As they waited for the rest of the family to join them before heading to the Trauma Centre, the medic in the ambulance held his hands and asked him questions about his health and the travel. He responded willingly, a marked progress from the initial phase of the injury. When his mother, Urmila Teli finally climbed into the ambulance, Suresh glowed and broke into a wide smile. Despite the discomfort due to his injuries and the support from the Jewett brace, he leaned aside from the stretcher to touch her feet. He was finally home.   <figure><img width="640" height="1055" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6d99c7e80680e09678cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/labour-mobility/crossborder-virus-and-nepali-migrant-workers/">Crossborder virus and Nepali migrant workers,</a> Upasana Khadka

Upasana Khadka

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Mindful of migrants' mental health

<figure><img width="1400" height="894" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121148/6368f07a9c7e80680e0359d7jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>SOFT TARGET: Malaysia-bound migrant workers at a Kathmandu-based GSG facility, where their passports and fingerprints are scanned for Immigration and Security Clearance.</figcaption></figure>A deeply-rooted nexus of politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats in Nepal and Malaysia have looted more than Rs5 billion over the past five years from vulnerable <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nepali-migrants-hounded-out-Malaysia-,3036" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali migrant workers desperate to seek work</a> in Malaysia.Nepal’s Labour Minister Gokarna Bista is trying to dismantle those involved in the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/undocumented-Nepali-migrant-workers-in-Malaysia,3958" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exploitation</a> by cracking down on several Kathmandu-based companies set up to extort fees from overseas contract workers. In Malaysia itself, the newly-elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has also launched an investigation into the previous government’s involvement in profiting from migrant workers.The scam involved powerful Malaysian businesses with close links to ministers and officials in the Barisan Nasional coalition of former Prime Minister Najib Razak and implemented by their agents in Kathmandu who had contacts with influential politicians and bureaucrats in Nepal.Also read: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nepali-migrants-too-young-to-die,2811" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Killed in the line of duty</a> , Om Astha Rai<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korea-treating-Nepali-migrant-workers-right,2813" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Doing it the right way</a>, Seulki Lee  <figure><img width="1400" height="896" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121148/6368f07d9c7e80680e0359d8jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It all started five years ago when Malaysia’s Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi outsourced a private company (Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd) which required <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/disproportionate-number-of-deaths-of-Nepali-workers-in-Malaysia,2812" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali migrant</a> workers to apply for work visas through a Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal. The agency charged Rs3,200 from every Malaysia-bound Nepali worker, and collected Rs 1.95 billion from more than 600,000 workers between September 2013 and April 2018.Then in July 2015, Malaysia made it mandatory for all <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/doubts-on-zero-cost-migration-deal-coming-into-force,2157" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali migrants</a> to undergo a biometric test. The Malaysian government hired Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a tech firm run by Malaysian Home Minister Hamidi’s brother-in-law Amin Bin Abdul Nor, for biometric health screening. Minister Hamidi’s brother Abdul Hakim Hamidi and ex-Malaysian Environment Minister Ajmi Khalid also reportedly owned shares in Bestinet.Bestinet partnered with Nepal Health Professional Federation (NHPF) to carry out biometric screening through 39 medical centres which charged Rs4,500 from each migrant worker for biometrics. Bestinet and NHPF have already collected over Rs1 billion from over 200,000 Nepali workers.Previously, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/death-of-nepali-migrant-workers-in-qatar,1592" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrant workers</a> could have applied for visas independently or through any <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/manpower-agencies-of-Nepal-are-the-ones-against-zero-cost-migration-policy,2402" target="_blank" rel="noopener">manpower agency</a> . They could get a visa for just Rs700. They could get medical tests from any of 200 government-approved health facilities. But after Malaysia required private companies for visa processing and biometric screening, workers were forced to pay much more.The real scam involved the lack of transparency in Malaysia and in Nepal on the choice of the private companies hired to facilitate this process, which ended up fleecing workers.While in Malaysia the companies were partly-owned by relatives of politicians, in Nepal bureaucrats and politicians benefited from kickbacks for sanctioning the new system. Fees were added on arbitrarily, and all involved in the syndicate in the two countries divided up the profits.For example, the Rs3,200 visa processing fee did not cover all visa-related costs of a migrant worker. In May 2016, Malaysia hired another private company, One Stop Centre (OSC) to collect visa forms and passports and drop them at its embassy in Kathmandu. The OSC chose the same Malaysia VLN Nepal for this job, which added an extra fee of Rs2,800 from each applicant.Bestinet has also been allowed to charge each migrant worker Rs3,200 just for scanning passports, fingerprinting and an additional Rs3,500 to upload the data online. Bestinet’s Kathmandu-based agent, GSG Nepal, scans passports and fingerprints for all Malaysia-bound migrant workers. Bestinet in turn collaborated with labour recruitment agencies in Kathmandu and has so far collected over Rs1.3 billion in fees for passport and fingerprints scanning, and online data entry. <figure><img width="1400" height="1012" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121148/6368f0809c7e80680e0359d9jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Tallied together, the Malaysia government and companies backed by powerful Malay politicians have, in total, taken more than Rs5 billion (US$ 450 million) from over 600,000 Nepali workers between September 2013 and April 2018. Nepali politicians, bureaucrats and businesses were directly colluding with their Malaysian counterparts in cheating the workers. There are over 600,000 Nepali workers in Malaysia, and their remittances help sustain Nepal’s economy.The arrangements have been put into place on an ad hoc basis, without transparency and in the absence of any bilateral agreements between the governments of Nepal and Malaysia. Some of the companies managing migration in Nepal do not even have government approval.Nepal’s Labour Ministry was initially reluctant to accept Malaysia’s proposal to introduce biometric systems, arguing it would allow certain medical centres to overcharge migrant workers. But those lobbying for biometrics were so powerful that the ministry had to approve the system as a ‘pilot project’ for six months.But long after the six months were over, Bestinet and the NHPF continued with biometric system with no interference from the government.In January 2015, Parliament’s International Relations and Labour Committee instructed the government to terminate the biometric system. It also directed the government to ask Malaysia to first make biometric test mandatory for migrant workers from all 14 countries that supply labour to Malaysia. It also ordered that biometric tests should be less expensive by ending the monopoly of a handful of selected medical centres. <img width="752" height="519" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121148/6368f0849c7e80680e0359dajpeg.jpg" alt="">The Parliament committee, however, reversed its decision after its Maoist Chair Prabhu Sah went on a junket to Australia paid for by the Nepal Health Professional Federation in which he was accompanied by NHPF’s Kailash Khadka.In June 2016, a committee led by Joint Secretary Govinda Mani Bhurtel recommended that the government prevent private firms from overcharging Nepali migrants. But Labour Minister Deepak Bohara trashed the report and himself flew to Kuala Lumpur to ‘study the problem’ the following month. He met Malaysian Home Minister Hamidi’s brother Abdul Hakim at the Hotel Oriental Mandarin in Kuala Lumpur. On his return, Bohara took no action against Bestinet.In Malaysia itself, Prime Minister Najib Razak and Home Minister Hamidi were slammed for hiring private companies to do what the Immigration Department should have done. Najib’s party lost the elections in May mainly because of allegations of massive corruption.<a href="http://cijnepal.org.np/0002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Centre for Investigative Journalism</a>Also read: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/homes-away-from-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Homes away from home</a>, Upasana Khadka<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-workers-football/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The workers' football</a>, Upasana Khadka<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/best-years-of-their-lives-migrant-workers,3722" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Best years of their lives</a>, Kunda Dixit <h2>Duped and dumped</h2> Before Malaysia-bound Nepali migrant workers were forced to undergo expensive biometric tests from July 2015, they used to go to for normal health check-ups at any of the 200 health facilities accredited by the Nepal government.But a significant number of workers who got a clean chit of health from Nepali medical centres were found to be ‘unfit’ in tests in Malaysia and immediately deported. Medical centres in Nepal licensed to examine the health of migrant workers were seen to not meet international standards.This was the excuse used to push the biometric system. Those who lobbied for the biometric system had promised Nepali migrant workers that they would not have to undergo another test in Kuala Lumpur if they were declared ‘fit’ in a biometric test in Kathmandu.However, the 100,000 Nepali workers who go to Malaysia every year also have to undergo a separate expensive test conducted by the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (FOMEMA).More importantly, the percentage of Nepali migrant workers who pass health tests in Nepal but fail them in Malaysia has also not decreased.Last year, more than 9,000 Nepali migrants were declared ‘unhealthy and unfit’ by the FOMEMA, and were sent home. Saroj Sarki of Chitwan is one of them. He spent more than Rs120,000 to go to Malaysia, passed the health test in Nepal, failed it in Malaysia, and was immediately deported.Sarki filed a complaint against the Nepali recruiting agency, but has not got his money back. The Labour Ministry has received more than 200 complaints filed by those who passed the health test in Nepal but failed the FOMEMA test in Malaysia. No action has been taken against some of the 39 private medical centres chosen by the NHPF which were responsible.Also read: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/As-It-Happens/Nepali-migrants-illegal-Malaysia-,718" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Illegal, ill treated</a>, Om Astha Rai<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/stay-home-Nepal-Malaysia-migrants,3037" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Staying home</a>, Sonia Awale <h2>Hundi men</h2> In May, police arrested 40 businessmen, including Malaysia VLN Nepal Chief Ram Prasad Shrestha, for illegally charging Nepali migrant workers for visa processing, biometric and online data entry.Shrestha, who was later released along with 39 others on bail, told police that he was just an agent responsible for sending fee money collected from migrant workers to Malaysian companies in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. He also informed police that his Kathmandu-based company would get a cut of Rs168 of every Rs3,200 visa processing fee and another Rs420 of every Rs2,800 passport collection fee.Shrestha claimed his company had sought permission from the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to transfer the money to Malaysia and Hong Kong. Police wrote a letter to the NRB to verify Shrestha’s claim. Bhisma Raj Dhungana, Executive Director of the NRB’s Foreign Currency Exchange Department, says: “A company that does not have a permission from the government to collect money cannot exchange currency and transfer it out of Nepal.”There is evidence that the companies used unofficial hundi channels to transfer cash to Malaysian parent companies. Malaysia’s Migrants Management System (MIGRAM) collected more than Rs720 million through Nepali manpower agencies between May 2016 and April 2018 through the illegal hundi system.The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has revealed that ex-Malaysian PM Najib Razak’s brother owns an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands which was used to stash ill-gotten wealth. The speculation in Kuala Lumpur is that it includes fees collected from impoverished and desperate Nepali migrant workers, that were illegally sent to Kuala Lumpur.Follow Ups<a href="https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/436743" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali workers' scam: The whos and hows behind it</a><a href="https://newmalaysiatimes.com/2018/07/30/more-companies-behind-nepal-foreign-workers-scandal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More companies behind Nepal Foreign Workers Scandal</a><a href="https://www.malaymail.com/s/1654729/report-implicates-malaysian-nepali-officials-in-migrant-worker-registration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Report implicates Malaysian, Nepali officials in migrant worker registration 'scam'</a><a href="https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/07/393582/bestinet-denies-nepali-times-article-company-milking-nepalis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bestinet denies Nepali Times article on the company 'milking Nepalis'</a><a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/07/22/report-tells-of-rm185-mil-scam-over-nepali-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Report tells of RM185 mil scam over Nepali workers </a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/malaysia-wants-ban-lifted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Malaysia wants ban lifted</a>

Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

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

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The Last Days of the Khampa

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