<figure><img width="4032" height="3024" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121140/636b923a9c7e80680e06f137jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: MADHU ACHARYA</figcaption></figure>Worldwide, the impact of Covid-19 underscores the need for more social security buffers built upon the access to four basic services: affordable credit, reliable saving and pensions options, life and health insurance, and quality healthcare.  This is true in Nepal, too, where large sections of the country’s nearly 30 million people lack access to social security.  In fact, there were less than 3 million total beneficiaries from some form of government social security in 2015. More investment in building the baseline infrastructure, digital pipes for service delivery and platforms for demand/supply matching, can deepen and widen key services that help create social buffers. Covid-19 is not the first disaster to hit Nepal, and it certainly will not be the last.  Mobile and digital technology, central to the pipes and platforms, can be vital in rapidly expanding access to formal credit, pensions, life and health insurance, and quality healthcare, the key elements of a functioning social security ecosystem.  This ecosystem must focus on improved accessibility, which in turn depends on developing a range of service delivery models specific to Nepal’s diversity. India with its India Stack, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and countries in Latin America and Africa are successfully using mobile and digital technology to build-on and bolster traditional forms of group resilience. Nepal is also ready to explore new service delivery models suited to our market and social idiosyncrasies.  New youth-led Nepali organisations must be able to connect with incumbent stakeholders -- the banks, insurance companies, pension schemes, and hospitals -- to build unique service delivery models that extend the reach of each stakeholder. Customer-centric digital and mobile platforms can connect to incumbents and rapidly distribute their products/services.  Government finance and concessional capital, therefore, must focus on fostering trust in the ecosystem, so that incumbents can begin to partner with digital and mobile platforms.  Access to Finance  Mobile payment systems and digital credit form the backbone of a basic infrastructure required for an accessible and responsive social security services.  Nepal’s payment ecosystem has developed <a href="https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2020/10/Oversight-Report_2076-77.pdf">significantly</a> over the past five years. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), financial institutions (FIs), and technology service firms have made considerable headway in making the transfers of money more efficient and secure. However, innovations in delivery of financial products continue to stall.  Companies such as Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) and F1Soft have created shared infrastructure and enabled financial institutions to conduct digital transactions and extend such services to customers. As a result, digital payments between individuals, financial institutions, businesses, and government bodies have spiked, especially during the pandemic.  But Nepal’s financial institutions are yet to use digital channels to expand their portfolios. Brazil’s Cignifi, for example, provides telecos and financial institutions with analytics services to calculate credit scores based on non-financial alternative data, uncover invisible consumers, and extend micro-loans.  Nepali incumbent FIs are yet to partner with such types of third-party organisations to explore new products and customers. FIs must get into open banking designs, an architecture where third-party developers are able to connect to the FI’s internal functions and build overlaying applications and services.  Incumbent financial institutions in frontier markets like Nepal do not even need to create things from scratch. They can leverage products from companies like South Africa’s Jumo that provide the full technology stack as a service for building and running digital financial services.  Nepal Payment System, a Payment Systems Operator (PSO), and Nepal Electronic Payment System (NEPS), another PSO managing a local card network, along with NCHL and F1Soft are helping Nepal’s financial ecosystem move towards an open banking architecture as well.  The Nepal government still needs to step in and build additional shared infrastructure, particularly for digital identity verification and safe data sharing. What the shared infrastructure can then allow is for savvy tech developers and entrepreneurs adept at customer acquisition to partner with incumbent financial institutions to expand their reach.  Nepal’s telecom providers have also finally been licensed to provide payment services, and they can contribute significantly to expand financial inclusion. M-Pesa from Kenya and bKash from Bangladesh have set strong examples. They work with telecom companies and banks to allow telecom-based payments and offer micro credit services even through dumb feature phones. <img width="523" height="565" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121140/636b923d9c7e80680e06f138jpeg.jpg" alt="">Pensions Pensions are critical, whether it be for an individual’s retirement or preparing for the family’s future. Nepal’s pensions schemes must use some of the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/apis-future-financial-services/">shared financial technology infrastructure</a> being built to improve their accessibility and quality of services. Khalti, a Nepali Payment Service Provider (PSP), recently started enabling payments to Nepal’s Social Security Fund (SSF). But, what customers and beneficiaries want are additional SSF services accessible through Khalti. Ghana’s Petra Trust, for example, has revolutionised the pension system by attracting corporates, multinational organizations, and government agencies into their schemes through a focus on customer experience and operational efficiency. Our pension schemes also need strong operational capabilities to execute on their mandates, widen their beneficiary base, and extend higher-value services. Khalti can help SSF do these things as well. And, in time, another specialized third-party service provider might be able to come along and partner with SSF to provide customised investment advisory services to individual beneficiaries along with more sophisticated products and asset management strategies that align to each persons’s financial goals. Fisdom in Bangalore, among others, is one such platform.A Khalti-like third-party service provider may also help extend pension benefits beyond urban centers and into rural Nepal. Peru’s Credinka, for example, stimulates savings in remote communities in the Andes through their agents, who are increasingly digitising. Half of their savers are women, and more than a quarter are from rural areas. Additional shared infrastructure from the government, such as digital ID verification service or secure data sharing service, should allow Nepal’s other PSPs to connect with the vast network of savings groups and cooperatives that need to digitize rapidly, to expand high quality pension schemes in those networks as well. Insurance Nepal’s insurance market needs to deepen with broader adoption and better products. Our insurance industry has undergone very little digital transformation. Digital wallets, such as eSewa, allows beneficiaries to pay their premiums online, and Arthanomy and ebeema are seeking to replicate India’s policybazaar.com -- an online insurance aggregation platform – in Nepal. Digital sales of Covid-19 insurance policies during the last year did quickly address a risk everyone was ill-prepared for. But digital sales are not enough for the insurance sector to improve product quality and distribution. There is lack of digitisation in product development, underwriting, analytics and claims settlement in the insurance sector. Insurers need to distribute high-quality and appropriate products, then follow through on their commitments; thus, key areas for operational efficiency – customer communication and claims processing – are yet to be digitised in Nepal. Resolution Insurance in Kenya, for example, has been a trailblazer as the insurer of choice for SMEs in East Africa. Closer to home, Softlogic Life in Sri Lanka is one of the fastest growing life and health insurers. It caters to the growing digitally savvy Sri Lankan middle class that seeks an end-to-end digital/mobile experience. Nepali insurers need to partner with third-party service providers to offer end-to-end digital experience to younger Nepali consumers. The entry of telecom companies in payment services can help expand insurance coverage in rural areas. Models such as those of BIMA Mobile can serve as examples. BIMA partners with mobile network operators, mobile money operators, and large insurance underwriters to distribute, underwrite, and settle claims for life, property and casualty, and health insurance to low-income consumers through simple feature phones. Such a model can vastly expand micro-insurance to Nepal’s rural areas.  <figure><img width="854" height="541" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121140/636b923f9c7e80680e06f139jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>WEF (6.4.2021) What’s Next for Open Banking </figcaption></figure>Healthcare Just as the stakeholders in the financial system came together to create shared infrastructure, there is also such a need in the healthcare value chain. Digitisation in the healthcare industry is low, whether it be how hospitals manage their internal operations or how they manage patient data. Therefore, Nepal’s hospitals do need to digitise internally first before they build meaningful partnerships with third-party digital service providers to expand and improve services. Let us explore what greater digitisation might enable in hospitals, pharmacies, and rural women groups:Nepal’s hospitals have faced capacity constraints and shortages of equipment in recent weeks as they grapple with Covid-19. But, what if hospitals were able to share their operational data to third party service providers who could coordinate supplies and customers? Mexico’s SaludFacil, for example, places low-income patients in hospitals that have extra capacity. They negotiate with private hospitals to lower cost of service to low-income patients by fulfilling hospitals’ slack capacity. A single digitised hospital might not have fared better, compared to a network of hospitals that is able to communicate with one another seamlessly to improve patient outcomes. Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN), for example, is working to build a data network among health institutions and support telemedicine. Capacity of Nepal’s local pharmacies are just as important for capacity in the healthcare industry because they are typically the first points of contact for many low-income folks seeking medical advice. GoodLife Pharmacy in East Africa, for example, is dedicated to increasing access to healthcare through pharmacy stores. The company not only provides affordable and quality medical products, but each of its stores also includes consultation centers and telemedicine services. Our independent pharmacies in Nepal need some shared infrastructure and network so that third-party digital platforms can easily partner with them and enable them to provide quality medical counsel. Finally, Nepal’s rural women networks, who have been instrumental in improving health outcomes for women and children over the past 30 years, need help to improve their services. Bodhi Health in India, for example, provides quality medical education and information to health workers and community health workers through their mobile phones in English and local languages. Nepal’s rural women also need some shared infrastructure, through which they can partner with digital platforms to expand and improve services.  <figure><img width="831" height="458" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121140/636b92429c7e80680e06f13ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Source: PWC (2017) The Digital Healthcare Leap</figcaption></figure>Advances in mobile and digital technology along with innovative entrepreneurs are spurring rapid improvement in access to credit, pension, insurance and healthcare in developing countries. Mobile phones and digital platforms have upended traditional notions of how these services need to be delivered. Policymakers need to focus on allocating government and concessional resources towards building shared infrastructure, which can allow incumbent institutions – banks, insurance companies, pension schemes, and healthcare organisations – to partner with third-party digital platforms that can help improve the reach and quality of products/services. This focus can rapidly build accessible and adaptable social safety nets in Nepal. Ashraya Dixit is a Senior Fellow with the Nepal Economic Forum.

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Digital path to social buffers in Nepal

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/636934c99c7e80680e03e017jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1024"/>Prime Minister K P Oli’s media blitz this week taking full credit for a social security scheme for private sector employees was an attempt to shore up his sagging image. But can Nepal’s sagging economy afford this ambitious scheme?Many across Nepal woke up on Monday morning to see the prime minister’s stern visage staring at them from jacket covers of broadsheets, lamp-posts and street banners. They did not know what hit them. The ads and posters just said that a ‘new era’ had dawned in Nepal, and the government was fulfilling its promise of protecting the working class.Prime Minister Oli was trying to take credit for an employees’ social security scheme that was designed by previous governments. The real reason the Oli government tried to take full credit for initiating the social safety net through such pompous publicity sponsored by private companies may be that he has his eye on the next elections in 2022.But what architects of this campaign don’t seem to realise is that public memory is short. In fact, going by social media backlash against the publicity stunt, most seem to see it as an unseemly attempt to distract the public from unsolved crimes and other failures to keep promises.The are also doubts about whether the new social security scheme will yield a political dividend like earlier allowances for the elderly, single women and the disabled. Analysts say private sector employee pensions may not be a surefire hit because implementation of such a giant scheme is iffy.The plan is to provide social security to private sector employees and reduce the fiscal burden of social security allowances. But economist Bishwo Poudel says it still leaves out millions of Nepalis in the informal sector, there is a risk that it will increase the government’s fiscal liability.“It is an excellent scheme on paper, but we need to see how it will be implemented,” he said.Under the scheme, private sector employers will have to deposit 31% of the basic salary of each employee (11% by workers and 20% by company) into a government-owned Social Security Fund (SSF) which will assign a special number on registration. After depositing money into the SSF for 15 years, private sector employees will be entitled to life-long pensions just like retired government employees. They and family members will be eligible for other facilities like medical expenses. Conditions apply.But only 3.4 million Nepalis are employed by private businesses. They will be covered by the scheme in the first phase, but the much larger number in the informal sector who are in much greater need of social security will be left out.Because of this scheme, employers will now have to pay a little more than what they have been paying for provident fund and gratuity. But it will be a monstrous challenge for the government to bring every private employee into the program.The 2022 elections are too far away, and the obstacles too many for this week’s saturation media bombardment of Nepalis for the Communists to exact a political payback.

Social insecurity

Violations of Nepal’s airspace during WWII

One of the few Newa towns situated outside Kathmandu Valley, Panauti still evokes the feeling of a place frozen in time.&nbsp; Largely untouched by haphazard urbanisation, this town 32km east of Kathmandu used to be a kingdom revered for the sacred confluence of the Punyamati and Rosi rivers.&nbsp; The Bramhayani temple is the site of a 12 yearly Makar Mela which is attended by devotees from as far away as India.&nbsp; Panauti’s crumbling monuments were restored in the 1990s by the French government. Temples, resting places, traditional homes were rebuilt and locals trained to revive their craft. Panauti and France marked 50 years of cooperation in September.&nbsp; However, the priceless murals on the temple walls are fading and need urgent restitution. Now, these crumbling wall paintings are meticulously documented in the Wall Paintings of Panauti and Their Context.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260106090116_31f6acf06ef879037fec8274b85153eab4468566abf71616490679bf8468b85d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260106090116_31f6acf06ef879037fec8274b85153eab4468566abf71616490679bf8468b85d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1596" height="1074" loading="lazy" alt="Panauti murals"> </figure>  In his foreword, French researcher Gérard Toffin writes about some of the earliest wall paintings from the Malla period in Kathmandu, including a 17th century mural depicting the procession of Rato Machhindranath which has since been restored.&nbsp; Several other pieces still exist but in a pitiful state, defaced by scratches. ‘They were painted on a plaster coating made of soil, husks, or limestone, which were applied to the bricks making up the walls,’ Toffin notes.&nbsp; The book delves into the cult of Asta Matrika among Newa of all castes and classes, the first of which is Bramhayani. These all-pervading deities are linked to Shaktism which focuses on the importance of the female principle and together, combine the forces of life, sex and fertility with that of death and eros. The deities are painted on the wall, carved on the stone or moulded into metallic statues.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260106090120_836efd2b0a569d8ec0fb2c6651a29b8f2dd8f8f75b72e27bb86b0bfc0ad8461f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260106090120_836efd2b0a569d8ec0fb2c6651a29b8f2dd8f8f75b72e27bb86b0bfc0ad8461f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1074" height="1434" loading="lazy" alt="Panauti murals"> </figure>  Riddhi Baba Pradhan, former director general of the Department of Archaeology who oversaw the restoration of Panauti 30 years ago, writes that a colourful wall painting depicting Buddha's past life at the Chabahil Chaitya built or restored during the reign of Lichhavi king Vrisdev in the 3rd century might be the earliest mural in Nepal. As for Panauti, a fragment from a 400-year-old scroll which illustrates a scene of Triveni Ghat with Dalinchok Hill in the background is likely the oldest. But that relic is currently at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the United States.&nbsp; Pradhan recalls first encountering wall paintings inside Bramhayani temple which were deteriorated by smoke, leaky roof, dust, vermilion, sprinkles of animal blood and lack of maintenance. The team led by chemist Bhimvar Singh Thapa treated the wall paintings and some of the details were recovered including the paintings of Astamatrika and Asta Bhairav on the east, west and southern walls.&nbsp; PAINTINGS ARE NOT VISIBLE The murals were painted during the reign of the last Malla King of Bhaktapur Ranjit Malla and Queen Viswalaxmi Devi 300 years ago. But 40 years after the restoration, Pradhan notes that the murals are again in poor condition: ‘The paintings are not visible, the plaster is severely damaged and the surface has peeled off … electrical wires hang haphazardly inside the temple.’ The second lot of murals at Ghat Sattal are thought to have been commissioned during the late Malla period or the beginning of the Shah dynasty. Exterior walls depict incarnations of Lord Vishnu as well as Sesh Narayan, Ganesh, a scene of Samundra Manthan, of angels Maya, Moha, Ganga. Their attributes, dresses, ornaments, facial expressions, body postures are all skilfully represented but in a deteriorated condition.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260106090116_88d06703ae23a271905d81f35056d41df92cbbc4b9966fac3f34821659e585a8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260106090116_88d06703ae23a271905d81f35056d41df92cbbc4b9966fac3f34821659e585a8" data-rendition-name="original" width="588" height="862" loading="lazy" alt="Panauti murals "> </figure>  The wall paintings of Bramhayani Dyochhen are 90% degraded even though they were restored and repaired 40 years ago by the Panauti Integrated Project. Compared to other artefacts, wall paintings are more delicate to external factors, and if not preserved an important part of Nepal’s heritage will be lost.&nbsp; Furthermore, most of the wall paintings in Nepal are temperas, and not frescos. Tempera is painted with water-soluble mineral or vegetable pigments fixed with glue on the cow dung clay plaster on the brick walls. While Nepal’s focus has been on the repatriation of stolen artefacts from abroad, religious and cultural objects within the country like the Panauti murals need urgent attention.&nbsp; This slim publication by Panauti Municipality is an important call to begin the work before it is too late.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260101120124_d0efa1e57b2710a206beb37c7e934ac34e694afc278985934eac2fc52124a92c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260101120124_d0efa1e57b2710a206beb37c7e934ac34e694afc278985934eac2fc52124a92c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Wall Paintings of Panauti"> </figure>

Saving Panauti's murals

In 2025, Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry" target="_blank">added six new 8,000m peaks </a>to those listed on its website. These are subsidiary summits of <a href="https://explorersweb.com/kangchenjungas-challenging-confusing-subpeaks/" target="_blank">Kangchenjunga</a> and <a href="https://explorersweb.com/through-the-unknown-to-the-impossible-lhotse-middle/" target="_blank">Lhotse</a>, which some view as insufficiently independent to be called separate peaks. In 2024, the international mountaineering federation (UIAA) responded to a request by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and the government to officially recognise these peaks. While recognising that ‘there is no one definition of a “mountain” or a “peak” or a “top” or “point” in topographic terms’, and encouraging further debate the UIAA’s opinion was that the 8,000m peaks should continue to the ‘Classic 14’, first completed by Reinhold Messner in 1986. The degree of prominence and isolation of <a href="https://www.climbing.com/news/new-8000-meter-mountains-nepal/?scope=initial" target="_blank">the six new peaks </a>varies, with Yalung Kang having the strongest claim to being a separate peak with a prominence of 135m, but they are all separate enough to be included on some peak-bagging lists. The UIAA’s own list of 4,000m summits in the European Alps includes Punta Giordani with a prominence of only 6m. Whatever the case for the six peaks being geographically separate mountains, they represent significant climbing challenges. They are not minor tops that can simply be ‘bagged’ on route to a main summit. In the case of <a href="https://explorersweb.com/through-the-unknown-to-the-impossible-lhotse-middle/" target="_blank">Lhotse Middle and Lhotse Shar</a>, no one has ever managed to traverse between them and Lhotse itself.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260107080144_881321a6e46818beb7bbd4fe6f21589d89d19bf77ae8218474d373ef7ab0c431.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260107080144_881321a6e46818beb7bbd4fe6f21589d89d19bf77ae8218474d373ef7ab0c431" data-rendition-name="original" width="2888" height="1590" loading="lazy" alt="New 8,000ers"><figcaption>Nepal’s 8 existing 8,000ers: Chomolungma 8,848.86, Kangchenjunga 8,586, Lhotse 8,516, Makalu 8,485, Manaslu 8,163, Dhaulagiri 8,167, Annapurna 8,091, Cho Oyu 8,201. Photo: GOOGLE EARTH PRO</figcaption></figure>   <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260107080144_27bf905c1a559c46819dc96ca33d22c27fc301d415fc034f26b8acd105c12da7.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260107080144_27bf905c1a559c46819dc96ca33d22c27fc301d415fc034f26b8acd105c12da7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="976" loading="lazy" alt="New 8,000ers"><figcaption>Nepal has listed six additional 8,000ers: Yalung Kang (8,505, Yalung Kang West 8,077, Kanchenjunga Central (8,473, Kanchenjunga South 8,476, Lhotse Middle 8,410, and Lhotse Shar 8,400. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>  Several fine routes have already been climbed on these mountains, such as Slovenians Andrej Štremfelj and Marko Prezelj’s alpine style ascent of the South-West Ridge of Kangchenjunga South. The six peaks have not yet achieved universal acceptance, but it is possible that climbing an expanded list of 20 eight-thousanders could become a new mountaineering challenge, just as the 14 classic peaks are today. It is therefore interesting to analyse who is currently closest to achieving this goal, using data from The Himalayan Database and other Internet research. The first conclusion of my analysis is that these six additional peaks have received far less attention than the classic 14 eight-thousanders. One of them, Yalung Kang West, has never been climbed or even attempted: probably because it is a subsidiary peak of <a href="https://explorersweb.com/kangchenjungas-challenging-confusing-subpeaks/" target="_blank">Yalung Kang</a> which is itself a subsidiary peak. The other five peaks have seen a total of 138 ascents. Just 101 people have ever climbed one or more of the additional peaks, which compares with 354 people who climbed Everest on a single day: 23 May 2019. Russian Evgeni Vinogradski is unique in having climbed five of the six new peaks. He has also climbed six of the classic 8,000ers, giving him a total of 11 out of the 20 peaks on the expanded list. Vinogradski is now 80 and is unlikely to increase this total. Several other former Soviet climbers have climbed three of the new peaks, having participated in the 1989 traverse of the four main summits of Kangchenjunga. This includes two legends of Soviet climbing: Kazakh Anatoli Boukreev and Ukrainian Sergey Bershov, each of whom has climbed 13 out of the 20 peaks on the extended list. Boukreev died attempting Annapurna in 1997. Bershov, one of the only men to have ever climbed Lhotse South Face, is now 78 and, although he was in good form when I met him in Chamonix last summer, he is unlikely to further extend his tally. The addition of the new peaks does not take any of these climbers beyond the total of 14 peaks achieved by the 76 climbers who have completed the classic ‘Himalayan Crown’. Of those who have climbed all 14 classic eight-thousanders, only one, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/um-hong-gil-s-project-impossible" target="_blank">Korean Um Hong-Gil</a>, has climbed any of the six additional peaks.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260107080144_5651fc6445f5e5fd838f28e1eac1da45da136b309a4a00db1e4aafa7d4836251.png" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260107080144_5651fc6445f5e5fd838f28e1eac1da45da136b309a4a00db1e4aafa7d4836251" data-rendition-name="original" width="2142" height="1310" loading="lazy" alt="New 8,000ers"><figcaption>Only one mountaineer, Korean Um Hong-Gil, has climbed any of the six additional peaks.</figcaption></figure>  Um climbed both Lhotse Shar and Yalung Kang, giving him a total of 16 summits. He required four attempts to climb Lhotse Shar, including one attempt in which he turned back just 100m from the summit following the deaths of two teammates. He finally succeeded in 2007 via a route up the Lhotse South Face. If a race to climb all 20 eight-thousanders were to begin, Um is currently in the lead. <a href="https://www.himalayandatabase.com/" target="_blank">The Himalayan Database</a> also lists two additional mountains in Nepal not included among the peaks announced by the Ministry of Tourism: Annapurna Central and Annapurna East. If these are included, bringing the total to 22 peaks, a few additional climbers deserve mention. Poles Piotr Pustelnik and the great Jerzy Kukuczka have both climbed all 14 classic eight-thousanders as well as Annapurna East, giving them 15 out of 22. Swiss climber Erhard Loretan climbed all 14 as well, and both Annapurna subsidiary summits, giving him a total of 16 out of 22 peaks. Annapurna East has a greater prominence than some of the 6 new peaks proposed by Nepal, but Broad Peak Central in the Karakoram has the greatest prominence of any subsidiary 8000m summit. Kukuczka has also climbed Broad Peak Central, so if the list is extended to 23 peaks, he has 16, equal with Loretan and Um. Then, there is a case for Shishapangma Central in China, which further complicates the task of coming up with a definite extended list. At the moment, these subsidiary summits are not attracting a lot of attention: of the 138 summit climbs on them, only 12 occurred in the last 25 years and none since 2011. Most climbers like to have some wide recognition of a target before investing time and money in trying to achieve it, and this may make it hard to build interest. But as completing the classic 8,000m peaks starts to become a rather frequent occurrence, some may be attracted to the longer list. If this new challenge catches on, as the Ministry of Tourism presumably hopes, how long will it be before someone passes Um Hong-Gil’s total and how long before someone climbs all 20 or 22 or 23 summits? <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/dispelling-myths-about-climbing" target="_blank">Edward Morgan</a> is a British author and climber based in Switzerland. His first book, Lhotse South Face - The Wall of Legends, has been published in several languages and his second book, Chasing Mallory's Dream is due out in the UK this year.

New 8,000ers may restart peak-grabbing race

The American military action in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicholas Maduro may redefine Nepal’s geopolitics as it juggles between three world powers, India, China and the United States.&nbsp;
Nepal’s interim government is busy preparing for elections on 5 March, and it was late issuing a statement on the American intervention in Venezuela, but the country may have to re-evaluate how it deals with its immediate neighbours and the global power.
“How does Nepal avoid being the next Ukraine or Venezuela? Small countries shouldn’t go around irritating big neighbours. And when big neighbours really get upset, they usually put up a moral fig leaf justifying their miltary action,” says energy economist Dipak Gyawali. “What we see with Venezuela today is bereft of such moral content, essentially banditry which in today’s day and age is unacceptable. Neither the rising new powers nor much of the Global South will take this lying down.”
International relations experts have said that there is now a new world order in which rules-based diplomacy has been thrown out of the window, and the world has been carved into America leading the western hemisphere, Russia is allowed to do what it wants in Ukraine and Europe, and China’s sphere of influence is now the Indo-Pacific.
Foreign affairs expert Nischal Pandey says there is a lesson for smaller nations like Nepal: “We have to be aware of the sensitivities of the major powers in the vicinity.”
There is also a lesson for smaller resource-rich countries not to give an excuse for intervention with poor governance and political instability due to inequity. In Venezuela’s case it was throttling democracy and not using its immense oil-wealth to uplift its people.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration’s abduction of a sitting president of a foreign government regardless of the dictatorial nature of his regime and Venezuela’s volatile internal politics, is illegal and breaches the international order that has been in place since after World War II and its devastation on humanity.
While Trump’s intervention in Venezuela, and threats against Colombia, Cuba and Greenland have brought international condemnation, here in Nepal it has not been taken as seriously as it should.
Says Amish Mulmi, author of the book All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China: “Some of the reaction on social media has been that of glee over the fall of a dictatorial Communist government on the other side of the world. However, the government statement about fully respecting the principles of sovereignty and the Charter of the United Nations is a strong statement that makes clear Nepal's position on the matter.”
“The abduction of Maduro is a clear sign of Trump's America ensuring its sphere of influence through might and a warning to toe the line,” Mulmi adds. “It also infringes on the sanctity of borders and the preservation of sovereignty. Trump's actions reek strongly of a bygone era of imperialistic control and resource capture.”
Venezuela has 17% of the world’s reserves of crude oil, even though refining this heavy tar-like oil will be costly, and is possible in only a few places including Texas.
“This has to do with a larger political economy of oil, the unravelling of pax Americana and the post-World war II order. This is USA’s heavy-handed response to remain on the top as well as to partly solve its debt of $39 trillion,” explains Gyawali. “But this is not going to help: China is far ahead, Russia has recovered from its 1990s low point, and manufacturing capital has moved away from America. So controlling only financial capital - and using military power so brazenly - is not going to work.”
The might also be specific lessons for Nepal as a smaller country with vast water resources. While water, unlike oil, is renewable, India’s interest in Nepal’s hydro resources cannot be ignored. Ironically, America’s capture of Venezuelan oil reserves could exacerbate climate breakdown and the melting of Himalayan glaciers, which will put Nepal’s water resources in jeopardy in the coming decades.
The only way to deal with this for Nepal and downstream India will be to build reservoirs on rivers to store monsoon precipitation, and that makes water a strategic commodity for the future.&nbsp;
“If we continue in the current mode of hydropower-biased water resources development ignoring irrigation, flood control, navigation, fisheries, tourism and other benefits, India will get the free benefit of regulated water while we pay the upstream environmental and social costs. History will blame our elected leaders for having undersold our resources,” adds Gyawali, who served as water resource minister in the early 2000s.
As for a larger geopolitical lesson: “We in Nepal are fortunate in having not one threatening hegemon but two superpowers India and China: they don’t agree with each other, but do agree on a peaceful Nepal for their own security. However, our current political leaders are irritating both the neighbours, unlike since the centuries past when our rulers looked solely after Nepal’s core interests and our neighbours knew that.”
American intervention in Venezuela also calls for strengthening of our institutions and diplomatic outreach. Nepal has been a non-aligned state, and for all its history has tried to follow a policy of equidistance between India and China. The difference with Venezuela is that Nepal has to deal with two giant neighbours, and not just one.
Says Mulmi: “It is no more only about balancing great power relations but also about benefiting from them. But that will be increasingly difficult as international law and the principles of sovereignty are encroached upon.”

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