Tired of working a desk job that left her physically and mentally drained, Dutch citizen Hana(pictured, below) planned a trekking trip to Nepal in 2021. As soon as she reached Pokhara, all her tiredness seemed to slip away, and she felt as though her life had changed.&nbsp; “I was drawn to Pokhara’s mountains, the nature, and the climate,” says Hana who was in Nepal to do the Annapurna trek. “But once here, I discovered the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-comes-alive-at-night">Pokhara comes alive at night</a> Hana is back in Pokhara for the third time in three years, and spends time in daily meditation and yoga. She says, “Pokhara is so peaceful and beautiful, it is the perfect yoga destination.”&nbsp; Like Hana, there are thousands of ‘meditation tourists’ visiting Pokhara during what used to be the monsoon off-season for visitors. Many yoga retreats have sprung up in and around this scenic city, and instructors advertise private meditation classes in hotels.&nbsp; One instructor is Maheswar Man Shrestha (pictured, below), who grew up as a sickly child in Kathmandu and was often hospitalised, missing school for months at a time. When modern medicine did not work, his father, himself a doctor, sought ayurvedic treatment and combined it with yoga and meditation. Shrestha soon got miraculously better. &nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/practicing-mindfulness-in-schools"> Practicing mindfulness in schools</a>, Basu Gautam Now in his fifties, Shrestha is a true believer in the power of yogic healing. “I went from medication to meditation, I am living proof that yoga ensures physical and mental wellbeing,” says Shrestha who teaches yoga to overseas tourists at his Purna Yoga Retreat.&nbsp; Being both<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-other-abc-trek"> the start and end point for treks</a> makes Pokhara perfect for tourists to combine physically taxing Himalayan hikes with a soothing recovery. But even outside the trekking season, its lush monsoon greenery, the lakes and cloudscape make Pokhara the ideal place to decompress from the material world. “Pokhara’s proximity to nature and relatively clean environment makes it great for tourists to come here to learn yoga,” Shrestha says. Indeed, Nepal’s travel industry has lately discovered that blending <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/getting-up-close-and-personal-with-the-mountains">mountains</a> and meditation is a popular combination. After all, the Buddha was born in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/lumbini-is-not-a-buddhist-disneyland">Lumbini</a>, a seven hour drive to the south of Pokhara, and for many a trek in Nepal is already also a pilgrimage. Rishi Raj Lamsal (pictured, below) worked for a travel agency outfitting and guiding trekking groups. Once, on a hike to Poon Hill, his clients gasped at the panorama of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna at sunrise, and they promptly took out yoga mats and started doing asana and pranayam.&nbsp; It was there and then that Lamsal (pictured) realised that tourism had a spiritual aspect that Nepal’s travel industry had largely ignored. As soon as he returned to Kathmandu, he started designing meditatiton tourism packages. Lamsal also learnt yoga and has been an instructor based in Pokhara for many years, teaching not just foreign visitors but also Nepalis from all over the country.&nbsp; “I have been to 42 districts, but there is no place like Pokhara, its geography is ideal to mixing tourism with spiritualism. It is natural beauty that draws people initially, but once here they also find inner peace,” Lamsal says.&nbsp; Deepa Basnet initially took up yoga to reduce weight, but is now pursuing a degree in yoga and is also an instructor on the side. “I wanted to increase my knowledge of yoga beyond the basic asana to ayurveda,” she explains.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/yoga-unites-the-world">Yoga unites the world</a>, Yugeshwor Koirala Pokhara’s fame as a yoga city has been boosted by the Indian Embassy holding the International Day of Yoga on 21 June every year in partnership with local organisations. The city’s strategic location between sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Muktinath and Lumbini also help. Ekraj Rokaya was working in Australia, and while there he began to ruminate on impermanence, suffering and human existence. He returned to Nepal a changed person, and began to practice and teach yoga and meditation, changing his name to Raj Karmayogi (pictured, below).&nbsp; Seeing the benefits of meditation, he wanted to share its value with others and set up a yoga school in Pokhara six years ago. “Pokhara is a yoga city just like Rishikesh in India, it can be associated internationally with yoga,” he believes.&nbsp; Indeed, with better road connectivity yoga centres are no longer concentrated in Pokhara city, but have been established in the surrounding mountains which command a stunning panorama of the Annapurnas. &nbsp;&nbsp; Pokhara was the venue for the International Yoga Festival in March last year with 50 overseas participants, and a four-day repeat of the festival is planned for October in which renowned instructors will be taking part.&nbsp; While individuals and instructors are promoting Pokhara on their own, they lament the lack of interest on the part of the government and the Nepal Tourism Board in marketing the city as a yoga hub internationally.&nbsp; “There is zero interest from the government to promote yoga tourism,” states Manohar Shrestha, of Purna Yoga Retreat Centre which takes tourists on hikes in the nearby mountains with yoga and meditation sessions in the mornings and evenings.&nbsp; Since India has branded the International Day of Yoga, Shrestha and Lamsal suggest Pokhara could be promoted as an International Meditation City, and the Nepal government could set aside an annual commemorative day for it, which the provincial and municipal government can then peg events on. “Nepal and the Himalaya are where the Buddha and numerous Hindu sages meditated, these mountains are the spiritual home of both religions. There is no better place to honour them by rediscovering yoga,”says Lamsal.&nbsp; But like all other sectors in Nepal, there is a lack of regulation, and fly-by-night yoga retreat operators are giving the city a bad reputation. It is not only Nepalis involved, foreign trainers also bring clients and take private classes without paying taxes, local retreat owners say. Only certified instructors should be allowed to train and proper protocols should be in place for yoga tourism, they add.&nbsp; Krishna Prasad Bhandari of the Pokhara Tourism Council adds: “Yoga and meditation must be developed such that it becomes synonymous with Pokhara, but we should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in the process.” &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tired of working a desk job that left her physically and mentally drained, Dutch citizen Hana planned a trekking trip to Nepal in 2021. As soon as she reached Pokhara, all her tiredness seemed to slip away, and she felt as though her life had changed.&nbsp; “I was drawn to Pokhara’s mountains, the nature, and the climate,” says Hana (pictured, below) who was in Nepal to do the Annapurna trek. “But once here, I discovered the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.” Hana is back in Pokhara for the third time in three years, and spends time in daily meditation and yoga. She says, “Pokhara is so peaceful and beautiful, it is the perfect yoga destination.”&nbsp; Like Hana, there are thousands of ‘meditation tourists’ visiting Pokhara during what used to be the monsoon off-season for visitors. Many yoga retreats have sprung up in and around this scenic city, and instructors advertise private meditation classes in hotels.&nbsp; One instructor is Maheswar Man Shrestha, who grew up as a sickly child in Kathmandu and was often hospitalised, missing school for months at a time. When modern medicine did not work, his father, himself a doctor, sought ayurvedic treatment and combined it with yoga and meditation. Shrestha soon got miraculously better. &nbsp; Now in his fifties, Shrestha is a true believer in the power of yogic healing. “I went from medication to meditation, I am living proof that yoga ensures physical and mental wellbeing,” says Shrestha (pictured, below) who teaches yoga to overseas tourists at his Purna Yoga Retreat.&nbsp; Being both the start and end point for treks makes Pokhara perfect for tourists to combine physically taxing Himalayan hikes with a soothing recovery. But even outside the trekking season, its lush monsoon greenery, the lakes and cloudscape make Pokhara the ideal place to decompress from the material world. “Pokhara’s proximity to nature and relatively clean environment makes it great for tourists to come here to learn yoga,” Shrestha says. Indeed, Nepal’s travel industry has lately discovered that blending mountains and meditation is a popular combination. After all, the Buddha was born in Lumbini, a seven hour drive to the south of Pokhara, and for many a trek in Nepal is already also a pilgrimage. Rishi Raj Lamsal worked for a travel agency outfitting and guiding trekking groups. Once, on a hike to Poon Hill, his clients gasped at the panorama of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna at sunrise, and they promptly took out yoga mats and started doing asana and pranayam.&nbsp; It was there and then that Lamsal (pictured) realised that tourism had a spiritual aspect that Nepal’s travel industry had largely ignored. As soon as he returned to Kathmandu, he started designing meditatiton tourism packages. Lamsal also learnt yoga and has been an instructor based in Pokhara for many years, teaching not just foreign visitors but also Nepalis from all over the country.&nbsp; “I have been to 42 districts, but there is no place like Pokhara, its geography is ideal to mixing tourism with spiritualism. It is natural beauty that draws people initially, but once here they also find inner peace,” Lamsal says.&nbsp; Deepa Basnet initially took up yoga to reduce weight, but is now pursuing a degree in yoga and is also an instructor on the side. “I wanted to increase my knowledge of yoga beyond the basic asana to ayurveda,” she explains.&nbsp; Pokhara’s fame as a yoga city has been boosted by the Indian Embassy holding the International Day of Yoga on 21 June every year in partnership with local organisations. The city’s strategic location between sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Muktinath and Lumbini also help. Ekraj Rokaya used to be a migrant worker in the Gulf, and while there he began to ruminate on impermanence, suffering and human existence. He returned to Nepal a changed person, and began to practice and teach yoga and meditation, changing his name to Raj Karmayogi.&nbsp; Seeing the benefits of meditation, he wanted to share its value with others and set up a yoga school in Pokhara six years ago. “Pokhara is a yoga city just like Rishikesh in India, it can be associated internationally with yoga,” he believes.&nbsp; Indeed, with better road connectivity yoga centres are no longer concentrated in Pokhara city, but have been established in the surrounding mountains which command a stunning panorama of the Annapurnas. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120824_c38be59a8ca83ce85c0d1277e248c25855a188474b1c3a4bb4e0642a0901413b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240817120824_c38be59a8ca83ce85c0d1277e248c25855a188474b1c3a4bb4e0642a0901413b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga and tourism in Pokhara NT 5"> </figure>  Pokhara was the venue for the International Yoga Festival in March last year with 50 overseas participants, and a four-day repeat of the festival is planned for October in which renowned instructors will be taking part.&nbsp; While individuals and instructors are promoting Pokhara on their own, they lament the lack of interest on the part of the government and the Nepal Tourism Board in marketing the city as a yoga hub internationally.&nbsp; “There is zero interest from the government to promote yoga tourism,” states Manohar Shrestha (pictured, below), of Purna Yoga Retreat Centre which takes tourists on hikes in the nearby mountains with yoga and meditation sessions in the mornings and evenings.&nbsp; Since India has branded the International Day of Yoga, Shrestha and Lamsal suggest Pokhara could be promoted as an International Meditation City, and the Nepal government could set aside an annual commemorative day for it, which the provincial and municipal government can then peg events on. “Nepal and the Himalaya are where the Buddha and numerous Hindu sages meditated, these mountains are the spiritual home of both religions. There is no better place to honour them by rediscovering yoga,”says Lamsal.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-season-in-the-nepal-himalaya">Peak season in the Nepal Himalaya</a>, Vishad Raj Onta But like all other sectors in Nepal, there is a lack of regulation, and fly-by-night yoga retreat operators are giving the city a bad reputation. It is not only Nepalis involved, foreign trainers also bring clients and take private classes without paying taxes, local retreat owners say. Only certified instructors should be allowed to train and proper protocols should be in place for yoga tourism, they add.&nbsp; Krishna Prasad Bhandari of the Pokhara Tourism Council adds: “Yoga and meditation must be developed such that it becomes synonymous with Pokhara, but we should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in the process.”&nbsp; <h2>Spiritual scams</h2> Katherine is an American yoga teacher and practitioner who signed up for a 300-hour training course at a yoga centre in Pokhara. It was a two-month course specifically tailored for trainers and instructors, and Katherine paid $2,800 after arriving in Nepal.&nbsp; She was deeply disappointed. Nothing was what was promised on the website, and she filed a complaint with the Nepal Tourism Board.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120816_63135505a5c57153a6b647ee24bed17cf3e28f52b59b267f8a70f6b6a24316c5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20240817120816_63135505a5c57153a6b647ee24bed17cf3e28f52b59b267f8a70f6b6a24316c5" data-rendition-name="original" width="5184" height="3888" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga NT 2"> </figure>  “The trainer was not qualified and the training lacked &nbsp;international standard. I feel cheated,” said Katherine (name changed). “I &nbsp;wasted the flight cost and course fee, it all went down the drain.” As Pokhara gains popularity as a destination for yoga tourism, there are also reports of others like Katherine being scammed.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-malaysia-nepal-migrant-scam-nexus">The Malaysia-Nepal migrant scam nexus</a>, Ramu Sapkota and S Vinothaa Spiritual ‘wellness’ centres have sprouted like mushroom along Pokhara’s Lakeside. Some promise 200-hour teacher training, others have 300 hours sessions and some are 21 days long. The lack of regulation and strict enforcement of guidelines for instructors and certification of ashrams is the main reason for the increase in fraud in the business.&nbsp; “Some individuals and organisations offer training and classes without understanding the depth and importance of yoga and meditation,” says instructor Maheswar Man Shrestha. “There are instructors in hotels who are responding to demand but lack &nbsp;knowledge and training to teach others.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120820_581167e11418f3f29220d98cee5fc4e2c975544a4c44377f6822cd06c4cc0b40.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20240817120820_581167e11418f3f29220d98cee5fc4e2c975544a4c44377f6822cd06c4cc0b40" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="810" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga NT 3"> </figure>  It should be up to the Nepal Tourism Board and Gandaki Province Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment to prevent Pokhara from getting a bad name for cheating foreign yoga students. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/embossed-plate-company-involved-in-scam">Embossed plate company involved in scam</a>, Ramesh Kumar Pokhara Mayor Dhana Raj Acharya admits there are some unscrupulous establishments, and says his municipality is coordinating with the Gandaki Province government to crackdown. He adds, “The reason is that the spiritual wellness sector is relatively new and we have not been able to play catchup with regulatory mechanisms.”&nbsp; &nbsp;Nepal Tourism Board’s Nabin Pokharel says he understands the need to standardise yoga and meditation centres with some regulatory guidelines. He admits: “If we don’t do something about it, it can give a negative impression of Pokhara.” If Katherine’s experience is any indication, that is already happening.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120820_fa6a5c3ac5b22b18e17221e187c696a38ffab83fcf3cd11381bfd508a07a26d6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20240817120820_fa6a5c3ac5b22b18e17221e187c696a38ffab83fcf3cd11381bfd508a07a26d6" data-rendition-name="original" width="785" height="889" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga and tourism in Pokhara NT 4"> </figure>

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Medication to Meditation in the Mountains

Nowhere is Nepal’s delicate balancing act between its giant neighbours India and China as evident as it is in this tourism capital.&nbsp; The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-china-connection">Chinese have cultivated a special relationship with Pokhara</a> ever since they built the 200km Prithvi Highway connecting it to Kathmandu in 1974, right up to the inauguration of Pokhara International Airport last year. India has not been far behind: it financed the 181km Siddhartha Highway connecting Pokhara to Bhairawa in 1971, and a dam that raised the level of Phewa Lake. There are strategic reasons for India and China to eye Pokhara. Most <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/recruitment-of-nepalis-into-indian-army-paused">Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army are sourced from these mountains</a>, and there is an Indian military pension centre here.&nbsp; For China, it is important to keep an eye on refugee centres here with thousands who fled Tibet after the Chinese annexation. Both India and China have an interest in who governs Nepal, and have followed (often meddled) with political developments in Kathmandu. A Nepali Congress-Maoist coalition that was seen by many to be India-leaning was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/catapulting-to-singha-darbar">suddenly replaced on Monday with a Communist-led coalition</a> more amicable to China.&nbsp; However, it is Pokhara that is on the main geostrategic fault line between India and China, where the rivalry is openly played out. Pokhara’s mayor Dhana Raj Acharya is from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist and has earned the moniker ‘Chinese mayor’ for pushing direct flights to Pokhara from Chinese cities, and activities like the Dragon Boat Festival on Phewa Lake, the China International Crosscountry Championship, and a full-scale celebration of Chinese New Year last month.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240309010324_1a033dbd507869e172cfe184d622391defeaf39a1af0a4a4e1c6b60bd5d1a675.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240309010324_1a033dbd507869e172cfe184d622391defeaf39a1af0a4a4e1c6b60bd5d1a675" data-rendition-name="original" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara epicentre of Sino-Indian rivalry in Nepal"> <figcaption>Pokhara Mayor Dhana Raj Acharya with Chinese Ambassador Chen Song. Photo: DHANA RAJ ACHARYA/FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>  The Indians have been looking at this flurry of Chinese activity with some concern, and have organised their own events.&nbsp; The first international flight at Pokhara's new airport was a Sichuan Airlines jet from Chengdu in June flying in the Dragon Boat Festival crew. India has been dragging its feet on allowing direct flights between Pokhara and Indian cities because the airport was built by the Chinese. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-desperation-and-hope">Pokhara's desperation and hope</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit To make its point, the Indian Embassy organised a Yoga Day function on the same day as the inaugural Chinese flight. It was not a coincidence that both the Chinese and Indian ambassadors to Nepal were in Pokhara on the same day.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240309010324_d07a2bdaa9fdff8dd3d9e585673b83f642e3bbf03dfc45d5b7bbec0d6cfbd55d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240309010324_d07a2bdaa9fdff8dd3d9e585673b83f642e3bbf03dfc45d5b7bbec0d6cfbd55d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1840" height="1292" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara epicentre of Sino-Indian rivalry in Nepal"> <figcaption>A Sichuan Airlines Airbus 319 was the first international flight to the new Chinese-built Pokhara airport in June last year. Photo: XINHUA. It landed on the same day that the Indian Embassy organised Yoga Day at the nearby Pokhara Stadium (below).</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240309010328_ac491e7363d9a7ee6ff46ff926bcb29b0cc08aba0687d9c6d3d4bb5afa09318e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240309010328_ac491e7363d9a7ee6ff46ff926bcb29b0cc08aba0687d9c6d3d4bb5afa09318e" data-rendition-name="original" width="2250" height="1501" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara epicentre of Sino-Indian rivalry in Nepal"> <figcaption>Photo: DHANA RAJ ACHARYA/FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;On another recent visit to Pokhara, Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava made a pointed reference to the fact that Pokhara was connected to the Indian border (by the Indian built road in 1971) before it was linked to Kathmandu (by the Chinese-built road in 1974). He added that although Indian visitors liked to drive to Pokhara, they were facing difficulties because of the poor state of the Prithvi Highway.&nbsp; “I don’t know who is repairing that highway,” Ambassador Srivastava continued, referring obliquely to Chinese contractors, “but India has set a record in highway construction. Next time, also remember Indian companies.” Srivastava made no mention of India’s reluctance to allow flights to Pokhara, adding that most Indian visitors came by road anyway. Chinese Ambassador Chen Song also appeared concerned about the slow progress on the expansion of the Prithvi Highway, and drove along a part of it during a recent visit, posting drone footage of the upgrading work on social media. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/begnas-going-the-way-of-phewa">Begnas going the way of Phewa</a>, Durga Rana Magar While in Pokhara, Ambassador Song also publicly criticised the Indian policy of not importing electricity from Nepali hydropower plants built by the Chinese. And to drive that point home, two Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft landed at Pokhara airport in November with 50 tonnes of relief for Jajarkot earthquake survivors.&nbsp; New Delhi insisted that the India-Nepal Bilateral Consultative Group on Security Issues be held in Pokhara in October.&nbsp; “The great game between India and China is being played out in Nepal, and Pokhara is where it is most visible,” explains geopolitics expert Indra Adhikari.&nbsp; She adds, “India is concerned about an increase in Chinese activity around Pokhara, and competition between Nepal’s neighbours is heating up.”&nbsp; India’s main sensitivity appears to be over the fact that Kaski and neighbouring districts of central Nepal are major recruitment centres for the Gorkha regiments of the Indian Army. The Gorkha Pension Camp was opened as far back as 1955 in Pokhara, and in 1987 it established a school for the children of Gorkha soldiers in its military.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024031106034_a5c5037ae3a76c0443eca037a02d822494de1f60649e6f42466936fb3e632ddd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2024031106034_a5c5037ae3a76c0443eca037a02d822494de1f60649e6f42466936fb3e632ddd" data-rendition-name="original" width="900" height="551" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara geopolitics"> <figcaption>Indian Ambassador Navin Srivastav with mayor Acharya.</figcaption> </figure>  Similarly, China’s touchiness concerns the presence of British Gurkha veterans and their families living in Hong Kong, and Tibetans in four refugee camps in and around Pokhara.&nbsp; Pokhara was also the staging post for American and Indian military support for Khampa guerrillas who were fighting the Chinese Army in Tibet till they were disarmed or driven out in 1976. Explains analyst Ananda Raj Mulmi: “Beijing does not want Pokhara to once more become a base for anti-Chinese activities.” After opening the China-Nepal border at Korala in Mustang, the Chinese are keen to make Pokhara a trading hub in central Nepal.&nbsp; “The Chinese had a long term time horizon to link the Prithvi Highway to Korala, and wanted to extend the road from Pokhara to Jomsom but King Mahendra did not approve, so they just built it up to Baglung,” adds Mulmi.&nbsp; Pokhara’s sister city relations with eight Chinese cities is a source of soft power, and means there are frequent cultural exchanges. Pokhara is a household word in China because of the popular television serial Deng Feng Lai which was filmed on location here, and the main characters took a paragliding flight. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/chinese-tourist-influx-to-nepal-in-2020-nqr538k3">Chinese visitors used to be the mainstay of Pokhara’s tourism till Covid</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024031106034_ff7c3ce0f0e3b2e83849bcdf35942892b9fb7e4f110ce6032920fd3e4ccd8094.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2024031106034_ff7c3ce0f0e3b2e83849bcdf35942892b9fb7e4f110ce6032920fd3e4ccd8094" data-rendition-name="original" width="976" height="665" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara geopolitics"> </figure>  More than a year after the inauguration of Pokhara Airport, there are no regular international flights. India may be preventing flights to its cities, but it is Nepal’s failure that it has not been able to attract airlines to connect Pokhara to Chinese destinations.&nbsp; “This is because we went ahead and built an expensive airport without factoring in geopolitical sensitivities,” says foreign policy expert Krishna KC. “We have to convince the Indians that it is also in their interest to allow flights.”&nbsp; Chinese Ambassador Song announced at Pokhara Airport’s inauguration that it was a BRI project even though it predated the concept, and this ticked India off even more. Nepal’s unclear flip-flopping over the issue aggravated both sides, diplomatic sources say.&nbsp; Even so, most people here blame India for being petty-minded about not allowing new air routes making Pokhara operations feasible, as well as permitting connections to Indian cities.&nbsp; Professor of geostrategic studies Bhim Nath Baral says it is natural for both powerful countries to be concerned that Pokhara will be used against its national interest.&nbsp; “But it is up to Nepal to deploy diplomatic skills to understand and reassure both sides,” he adds. “That can only come with a mature and self-confident foreign policy.”

Pokhara epicentre of Sino-Indian rivalry

Maury Mason was following a Shelduck gliding over the mirror calm water of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/two-women-in-a-boat-and-some-tea">Begnas Lake</a> through binoculars from his rooftop when a motorboat cut through the stillness. The startled bird flew away. Mason came to Nepal from Canada 52 years ago, travelling across the country before reaching Pokhara and promptly falling in love with the city. He remained enamoured by the beauty of the valley, its lakes and its rich diversity of birdlife. Mason lives by Begnas Lake, having fled <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-shrinking-phewa-lake">Pokhara’s overdevelopment</a>. He was not so bothered by tourists on row boats on the lake, but then came the motorboats. Residents of the Pachbhaiya village near Begnas were also shocked by the motorboats, which were introduced by local businessmen of the Begnas Lake Boat Traders Committee. Without a hint of irony, Ravi Raj Kandel of the committee says the boats were brought to “develop tourism” in Begnas. The motorboat can carry 10 people at a time, and each passenger is charged Rs400 for the ride. The Committee is promoting the motorboats for groups larger than ten rather than paddle boats. “We have introduced the motorboats for rescue operations and so pilgrims can visit the Baraha Temple on the lake,” says Dhak Nath Kandel, ward chair of Pokhara Metropolitan City-31, which includes Begnas. The 250 wooden paddle boat operators as well as the local fishing committee were not consulted, and it has affected their livelihood. Along with residents, they have protested against the motorboats.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231116091140_0fafb32c6534f35522032838a47b145ba08b8a9d0d7267973220fbb258692bce.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20231116091140_0fafb32c6534f35522032838a47b145ba08b8a9d0d7267973220fbb258692bce" data-rendition-name="original" width="2016" height="1307" loading="lazy" alt="Boating in Begnas"> </figure>  Local fisher Tanka Jalari says the fish yield has decreased since the boats were introduced and his income has dropped from Rs30,000 a month to almost zero. Jalari adds that it is dangerous to go out on the lake when the motorboats are operating. “Our family has to constantly go back and forth across the lake, and those motorboats can easily capsize our small fishing boats,” he says. Manoj Gurung, a resident of Pachbhaiya, enjoyed the novelty of seeing motorboats in the beginning and thought it might boost tourism, but has now realised how harmful it is to the environment, livelihoods and tourism. On World Wetlands Day 2015, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-shrinking-lakes">Pokhara’s lakes</a>, including Phewa, Begnas, Rupa, Gude, Khaste, Niureni, Dipang, Kamal Pokhari and Maidi were included in the List of Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance. The nine lakes are listed as the Lake Cluster of Pokhara spanning 64,514 hectares.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231116091140_a166f5d9022b272235524b23b690f24e71eaa53d7f27b8eea1789f74554ac117.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20231116091140_a166f5d9022b272235524b23b690f24e71eaa53d7f27b8eea1789f74554ac117" data-rendition-name="original" width="1478" height="979" loading="lazy" alt="Boating in Begnas"> </figure>  Wetland ecosystems are crucial habitats for migratory birds, fish, amphibians and vegetation. Nepal’s 10 wetlands of Nepal, including the Lake Cluster of Pokhara are lprotected under the Ramsar Convention. All nine lakes of Pokhara were already in danger due to pollution, encroachment and over development. Businessman Ganesh Pariyar frequently sees fuel spillage from motorboats on the previously pristine Begnas Lake. “The peace of the lake and surrounding areas is constantly disturbed by visitors shouting along to music blaring from the speakers of the motorboats,” Pariyar adds. Nepal’s Local Government Operation Act 2017 stipulates that the local government has the authority to permit and regulate tourism business operations. However, the Begnas Lake Boat Traders Committee only applied for a permit three months after it began to operate the motorboats. There are concerns over the local government’s commitment to protecting the lake’s wetland ecosystem as Pokhara Metropolitan City wants to introduce 20 kinds of water sports to promote tourism in Begnas — including the operation of three-tier engine-powered boats on the lake.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231116091140_89ff0a993ac15baa68e22516dc256c008a2bf12ce2c44eda98fa62bca3b5a15d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20231116091140_89ff0a993ac15baa68e22516dc256c008a2bf12ce2c44eda98fa62bca3b5a15d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1478" height="979" loading="lazy" alt="Boating in Begnas"> </figure>  The National Wetland Policy 2012 states that environmental impact assessments be done before plans for development and construction in and around wetland areas. No such report was done at Begnas Lake. Bishal Ghimire, secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of Gandaki Province, admits that even small-scale projects like motor boats on lakes require a basic environmental study. However, there is little communication between the local and provincial governments, and Begnas residents complain that the local government does not care about what is happening to their pristine lake. Begnas is not as well known as Phewa Lake, but that is now changing. Says Manoj Gurung: “It is really important for us to protect Begnas to leave it for the next.

Begnas going the way of Phewa

Chandraa had to be carried down the hillside on a makeshift stretcher, as she went into labour. The pain she experienced at the time wasn’t taken away by the bright blueness of the October sky above her or the singing of the birds on the trees. As the men hurried her down the hillside on the stretcher, the jolts they made, only made her pain worse. She wondered if she would make it to hospital on time or if like her friend, Sukundara, she too would end up giving birth to her baby in a boat. She decided that to drip into the Begnas through the boat was not going to be her fate. And in response, her water broke as they scurried downhill and they halted and the women crouched beside her to help her and there, in the middle of the forest, in the Begnas valley, Chandraa’s daughter was born. “She’s 16 now and she’s in class ten,” Chandraa says. “My son is 12 now and he was born in the hospital. I wasn’t going to risk birthing in a forest the second time.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231105121156_36d1aa692742ad68e05029c77c5bfd361557dc2fc739ba3376f6d97cc9758e6c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231105121156_36d1aa692742ad68e05029c77c5bfd361557dc2fc739ba3376f6d97cc9758e6c" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Begnas Lake"> </figure>  The oars push into the water and away as Chandraa works her way across the lake. “You tell me where you want to go and I’ll take you there,” she says. I ask her to row closer to the thicket and we drift along the edge of the lake where the shore meets the forest— we’re far out in a deserted corner. No other boats in sight, it’s Chandraa and I, and the cicadas, at their loudest. A dragon fly perches on the oar and she pauses briefly, lets it alight on a bundle of grass parked on the side of the boat, and then rows again. “I don’t want my children to have to work as hard as I have had to and so they’re both going to go to college and work in offices,” she says. And so, Chandraa takes up extra work when it is available. She explains how rare a ride is during low-season, and that while she charges 800 per ride, she only gets to pocket 200. I ask if she spends some of that money on herself. “On my children,” she says. Chandraa is a full-time farmer, but on days when the field work is wrapped up, she picks her bag, umbrella and her hat, and sets downhill to the lake, in the hope of finding a tourist to ferry around. “This is easier than field work and sometimes I meet nice people who like to talk and ask questions,” Chandraa says. But the conversation quickly turns and she starts to dart questions at me. “What happened to your hair, madam?” she asks. Old age, I say. She laughs: “I can’t tell if you coloured your hair or if you’re really old.”&nbsp; I am old. We laugh some more.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023110513110_0f83af6a9a6ac5eb3207c727d78ca9098820cf8e121fb0e16d4c59ae7838480e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2023110513110_0f83af6a9a6ac5eb3207c727d78ca9098820cf8e121fb0e16d4c59ae7838480e" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Begnas Lake"> </figure>  … Januka joins me on the park bench by the lake. “It is impossible,” she sighs. “They all owe me money and say they can only pay me tomorrow. And now I have no money.” At first, it sounds as though she’s talking to herself, but I soon notice it is directed at anyone who will sympathise. Once she is done settling her twin flasks on the bench, she looks at me and smiles. “Are you selling tea?” I ask. She says: “Yes. But I have run out of tea today.”&nbsp; By this time, I’m holding out some money in her direction. She looks at the money, smiles and shakes her head. No more tea. I make an offer: “How about you keep the money for two cups of tea and my friend and I will meet you here tomorrow so you can give us some tea.” She stares at the notes for a while and then takes them from me and repeatedly says: “Please make sure to come by tomorrow.”&nbsp; It is after two days that I am finally able to launch Mission Januka and scour the lakeside for her. When I finally run into her again, she’s sitting in a dark patch by the lake, under a tree, handing out teas in paper cups. Eh, she says when she sees me: “Why didn’t you come the other day? Right right, the storm! It lasted two days, no?” “Where’s your friend?” She tilts her head to check as though she were expecting someone to emerge from behind me. It’s just me, I say. Januka pulls out a paper cup, uncorks her thermos and pours me a cup of tea. The wind has started to gather around us again and we both have hair flapping across our faces. “It’s crazy weather again, no?”&nbsp; “Yes, makes me think of the year we had the earthquake,” she responds. “That’s right. My family is from near Barpak and we moved here after the earthquake. I go to school here now.” Januka says she makes around 400 rupees a day selling tea after school. “It’s not much, but the work is easy and the money is useful,” she says. I ask if it is safe for her to walk home at night. Januka explains there are other vendors like herself and they usually wait for everyone to finish the sales and walk back together to their rented rooms. I close my fingers over the paper cup. The liquid is warm against my hands. It begins to pitter-patter. I’ll head to my hotel now, I say. “Will you be safe walking alone, madam?” Januka asks me. “If you’re safe, I’m safe, I guess.” We exchange smiles. Hers is the smile of a child, awkward but generous. Almost suddenly, I’m filled with a sense of joy that only a cup of sweet, fragrant tea could have brought me on a rainy evening. I sip the tea and walk on in the drizzle, talking to random street dogs and thinking about Januka counting her money at the end of each day.

Pratibha Tuladhar

Two women in a boat and some tea

In 1960, during his second official visit to Nepal, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai sat on a boat on Pokhara’s Phewa Lake with Prime Minister B P Koirala for one and a half hours and was spellbound by the reflection of Mt Machapuchre on the water.&nbsp; King Mahendra’s chief adviser Gunja Man Singh and Chinese ambassador Yuan Zhongxian had signed the agreement to establish diplomatic relations between Nepal and China on 1 August 1955, only a year after Zhou became Premier.&nbsp; In the nearly 70 years since, China has financed and supported infrastructure projects across Nepal — but especially those with links to Pokhara, like the Prithvi Highway that first linked Kathmandu to Pokhara by road. Anand Raj Mulmi, former president of the Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), notes that China initially wanted Pokhara to be its focal point in Nepal.&nbsp; “The Prithvi Highway was built to project China’s soft power, and advance its geopolitical interest to link Nepal to China through Korola in Mustang,” Multi explains.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023091313094_0e0bd60f12dc8ce1ea07bb38116ae1d8da359d06808774e980ae840766d435f6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2023091313094_0e0bd60f12dc8ce1ea07bb38116ae1d8da359d06808774e980ae840766d435f6" data-rendition-name="original" width="4608" height="3072" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara China connection"> </figure>  Indeed, China worked on road, irrigation, highway and hydropower projects in Pokhara. After the Prithvi Highway, it financed the construction of the Pokhara-Baglung road in 1988. The strategy was connectivity, long before the Belt and Road Initiative was even thought of. By 1980, China was also helping Pokhara’s irrigation sector, providing financial and technical assistance for a hydropower and irrigation project on the Seti River. All this&nbsp; Chinese activity made India suspicious, and Mulmi says things did not turn out like Beijing wanted.&nbsp; Even so, China’s love affair with Pokhara did not wane. The popular Chinese tv serial Deng Feng Lai (Up in the Wind) was filmed on location in Pokhara in which the two protagonists took <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19255#.XgmF09Iza70" target="_blank">a paragliding flight</a>. Since then, many young Chinese have started booking holidays in Pokhara.&nbsp; This dovetailed well with Rs 22 billion Chinese ExIm Bank loan for Pokhara International Airport which was inaugurated on 1 January 2023. The international flight to land there was a Sichuan Airlines Airbus 319 from Chengdu last month.&nbsp; The chartered flight on 23 June brought 130 Chinese passengers to Pokhara for the first Nepal-China Dragon Boat Race Festival organised by the Nepal Tourism Board, Pokhara Metropolitan City.&nbsp; “Events like the Dragon Boat Race Festival will bolster Pokhara’s economy, and enhance the socio-cultural relations between our two countries and its people,” said Chinese Ambassador Chen Song during the opening ceremony of the event.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023091313094_3e8d98945946e3368b5b5a360f9dad23253f680eee3d5e63049a47dd1d8a2861.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2023091313094_3e8d98945946e3368b5b5a360f9dad23253f680eee3d5e63049a47dd1d8a2861" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="896" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara China connection"> <figcaption>A Chinese team participating in Nepal-China Dragon Boat race earlier this year.</figcaption> </figure>  Although the pandemic killed tourism prospects in Pokhara, Chinese tourists are flocking back. Lakeside restaurants in Pokhara once more have Mandarin menus and the city is still hoping that Chinese airlines will start direct flights to the new airport. Pom Narayan Shrestha, chairman of the Pokhara Tourism Council, says that Pokhara’s local as well as Gandaki Province government should push promotional activities.&nbsp; Pokhara first established sister-city relations with the city of Linzhi in the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2008. Since then, similar sister-city links have been established between Nepali cities and Kunming, Guangzhou, Yibin, Chiuchow, Haikou, Nanning and Yanji to promote bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including business.&nbsp; However, entrepreneurs in the region say that there have been no benefits to their business from such agreements.&nbsp; Experts also note that Pokhara has not been able to take advantage of the agreements, and the bilateral relationship has been limited to mayors and deputy mayors of Pokhara and the Chinese cities attending events in each other’s countries.&nbsp; “Pokhara’s sister-city agreements with various Chinese cities will only be relevant if Pokhara is promoted as a tourist destination there, and entrepreneurs from Pokhara can participate in and benefit from trade fairs in those cities,” says Mulmi. “Similarly, people from China also need to be invited to events in Pokhara, that is how all of the cities involved will benefit economically. Events like the Dragon Boat festival, and other Chinese cultural affairs represent a new beginning.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230913130920_a2059268ee3f3ff7fbb916cb47806e0710fbfb02e25595771c49a5f1ac26640b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20230913130920_a2059268ee3f3ff7fbb916cb47806e0710fbfb02e25595771c49a5f1ac26640b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara China connection"> <figcaption>Pokhara Mayor Dhanraj Acharya with Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chan Song.</figcaption> </figure>  Kiran Prasad Koirala of Pokhara Metropolitan City, admits that the town has not been very aggressive in promoting &nbsp;sister-city relationships, but adds that Chinese cities have supported Pokhara, having provided financial, ambulance, and other aid during the pandemic. &nbsp; Bishwa Shankar Palikhe, president of the Nepal-China Friendship Association, has been actively involved in expanding exchanges between Pokhara and its sister cities in Kunming, Guangzhou and Linzhi. However, he admits a lot more needs to be done.&nbsp; Palikhe adds: “We must study the development and experiences of our sister cities and incorporate them into Pokhara’s development plans. Additionally, the entire world at present is trying to draw tourists from China, we must take advantage of our proximity.”&nbsp;

Pokhara’s China connection

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 1255 shook the entire Himalayan region, Tibetan plateau and northern India. We know the exact date because there are historical records that one-third of the population of Kathmandu was killed, including King Abhaya Malla. At about this time, in central Nepal the entire western flank of Annapurna 4 broke off and fell into the glacier below, damming the Seti River gorge and covering the basin in pulverised rock and melting ice. Geologists have known that it was a debris flow on the Seti that formed the terraces of sediment in Pokhara Valley, but <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06040-5">a recent paper</a> in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06040-5">Nature</a> has for the first time described just how cataclysmic this event was and that it could happen again. The rockslide was so enormous that it chopped off 500m of the top of the paleo-summit of Annapurna 4, which means the mountain was at one time an eight-thousander. The peak is now 7,525m, and scientists estimate that 23 km3 of rock fell nearly 3,000 vertical metres into the Sabche Cirque with terrific kinetic energy. The study titled Medieval Demise of a Himalayan Giant Summit Induced by Mega-landslide has Jérôme Lavé of CNRS, Université de Lorraine in France as lead author, and includes among others Ananta Prasad Gajurel of the Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University. Although the study is an investigation into ways in which Himalayan mountains erode along their glaciers and headwalls, it takes as a case study the Annapurna 4 rockfall in approximately 1190CE. &nbsp;&nbsp; ‘Our data suggest that a mode of high-altitude erosion could be mega-rockslides, leading to the sudden reduction of ridge-crest elevation by several hundred metres and ultimately preventing the disproportionate growth of Himalayan peaks,’ the introduction to the paper notes, suggesting that the erosion of the peaks could happen in sudden ridge collapses and not just through mass wasting.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230718150720_d574c8ddc7596812293db6982abe17a0cb4005d5ed9c4c8d81b64f93af064c07.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230718150720_d574c8ddc7596812293db6982abe17a0cb4005d5ed9c4c8d81b64f93af064c07" data-rendition-name="original" width="1806" height="1698" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara Valley"> <figcaption>Nepali Times issue #704 of 2 May 2012 analysing the rockfall of 2012. Read the story: https://issuu.com/nepalitimes/docs/nepali_times__705</figcaption> </figure>  The scientists examined the debris in the Sabche Cirque which in the past 800 years has eroded into sharp limestone pinnacles with exposed glacier-polished bedrock below. They conclude that the breccia came down in the collapse of Annapurna 4. In their paper, Lavé et al have sketched models of the mountain as it probably existed before its collapse, showing where the immediate debris fell, and where it was eventually transported downstream by the Seti River to create the 200m deep sediment fan on which the city of Pokhara is located today. The deposits brought down by the river dammed side streams, creating Phewa, Rupa, Begnas and other lakes that make the valley so scenic today. The Nature paper says the catastrophic Sabche rockslide has lessons for present-day Nepal: ‘Giant rockslides also have implications for landscape evolution and natural hazards: the massive supply of finely crushed sediments can fill valleys more than 150 km farther downstream and overwhelm the sediment load in Himalayan rivers for a century or more.’ Indeed, the summit ridge of Annapurna 4 is still raw and sees frequent rockfalls, including a smaller one almost <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330">exactly at the same spot in May 201</a>2 and an ensuing flood on the Seti River that killed at least 70 people downstream near Pokhara. Although the authors do not seem to think the rockslide 800 years ago was caused by a seismic event, there are records of big earthquakes in central Nepal in 1223, 1255 and five years later in 1260, which approximately fit the timeline of the scientists for the Sabche event.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230718150720_be91b7bfe18290a2f0bbc16e263413ee5994d0bf2656a58719d4252cc306ef9a.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230718150720_be91b7bfe18290a2f0bbc16e263413ee5994d0bf2656a58719d4252cc306ef9a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1231" height="809" loading="lazy" alt="Annapurna Pokhara Valley"> <figcaption>Google 3D map of the Annapurnas, showing Annapurna 4 before its collapse in an event 800 years ago, as proposed by scientists recently in a paper in the journal Nature. This satellite image taken in October 2017 shows dust from a more recent rockfall in 2012.</figcaption> </figure>  Even if the rockfall was not directly caused by an earthquake, the differential in the pace of erosion of the glacial valley and the headwall could eventually lead to failure of overhanging slopes. Scientists have speculated that climate change-induced melting of the permafrost that cements rocks together above the 0oC isotherm could have been a factor in the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330">2012 collapse on Annapurna IV</a> and on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">Saldim Peak in the Makalu-Barun in 2017</a>.

Kunda Dixit

Pokhara 800 years ago

<figure><img width="2048" height="1366" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150240/63fe12849c7e80680e0da529jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The first flights from Kathmandu on 1 January 2023 when Pokhara's new international airport was inaugurated. The Yeti Airline ATR-72 seen here is 9N-ANC, the same one that crashed two weeks later. Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>Pokhara is where so much of Nepal’s tourism prospects rest, with its lakes, proximate Himalaya, indigenous culture, adventure sports, unique geographical setting, and enchanting geology.Residents look to riding Pokhara’s placement and possibilities to achieve prosperity. The past has shown the future, provided there is proper stewardship of this unique place.But the 15 January air crash of Yeti Airlines that took 72 lives was a blow at a time when tourism was in revival. This was the biggest air crash ever of a national airline in terms of lives lost, and its worldwide publicity combined to devastate prospects of Pokhara’s new airport inaugurated just two weeks previously. It was a blow to a country already in the European Commission’s black list for poor civil aviation oversight.Boat owners on Lake Phewa are dejected, many eateries and businesses along Lakeside are shuttered, one Pokhara hotel lost Rs6 million in business in the month following the crash. If the roads were good, Pokhara could recoup with domestic tourists, but approach highways are horror stories. Pokhara used to be the staging ground for trekkers, but tourism has declined with the expansion of the road network. Over the years, the kind of urban blight that defines Kathmandu Valley has overtaken the city as well. The natural terraces that define the valley floor are no longer visible.The Yeti aircraft crashed right into the narrow and serpentine Seti Gorge; this unique canyon is no longer touted as a tourist attraction amidst the concrete sprawl.For all the hype surrounding its opening, we cannot call Pokhara’s new aerodrome an ‘international airport’ as long as it only serves domestic flights. Kathmandu has been lax in economic diplomacy to get cross-border flights to Pokhara.A calibration flight was conducted successfully before the airport was inaugurated, yet there is no explanation as to why instrumental landing system has not been in activity, which would also allow night flights.For decades, the old airport had been in use without incident as far as the Kathmandu-Pokhara trunk route was concerned, even though aircraft were required to take a sharp starboard turn just before landing. The very aircraft that carried out the inauguration flight with the same captain was the one that came down on 15 January. The co-pilot was wife of the pilot of a Tara Air aircraft that stalled while banking left into landing in Jumla 15 years ago, and a left bank stall was what took her life and that of 71 others over Pokhara. The preliminary crash report says the propellers of both engines were found to have been feathered seconds before, and we need to know why the pilots did that.Regardless of the economic and social costs of the Yet Airlines disaster, the national media and social media did not dwell long over the Seti canyon. The sell-immolation by frustrated entrepreneur Prem Prasad Acharya on 24 January even as the Prime Minister’s motorcade exited Parliament grabbed attention. Even before the intense focus on the public suicide had subsided, the citizenship issue of then Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane reverberated across the national psyche, and thereafter the national concentration has been on the selection of the new President of the Republic.The Yeti crash was a blow to Nepal’s national economy as a whole, at a time when tourism as a mainstay was struggling to revive. In Pokhara, like elsewhere, the industry was finally recovering from the decade of conflict and political instability, followed by the April 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, which was trailed by the Indian blockade – and then came the back-to-back disasters of Covid and Dengue.Chinese tourists had started arriving in large numbers in the mid-2000s, and before long Pokhara was full of signage and restaurant menus in Mandarin. But the Chinese have stayed away, and even President Xi Jinping’s declaration during banquet address at Shital Niwas in October 2019 that Nepal was where Chinese citizens most wanted to visit among all South Asian countries has not helped in a revival of arrivals.Beijing has not included Nepal in its January list of 20 ‘approved destinations’ for Chinese travelers after its Covid closures of 2022. However, the list includes nearby Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.It is no exaggeration to say that Pokhara is one of the finest attractions for tourists in all of Asia, and the reasons are many. Sub-tropical Pokhara Valley is 300m lower than Kathmandu and sits less than 50km from the semicircle of the Annapurnas. The steep viewing gradient that makes visitors gasp is Pokhara’s primary attraction, and the reflection of Machapuchre on Phewa Lake has been the stuff of postcards for decades. <figure><img width="1400" height="280" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150240/63fe12879c7e80680e0da52ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The geology of Pokhara is wondrous even if the tourism brochures pay no attention to it: massive lake outburst floods in historical time brought up to 5 cubic km of rock and debris down the Seti River, encasing the hills and dales like a viscous fluid.The earlier mid-montane hilltops ended up as ‘islands’ on Pokhara’s plains, Phewa and other lakes were formed when side rivers were blocked. The exceptional ‘natural terraces’ of Pokhara's debris plain were carved by water and gravity, and the Seti ultimately made its way across the plateau through a labyrinthine gorge cut through the boulders.Locals would do well to study the work of Harka Gurung, the multi-disciplinary scholar who studied and wrote on geography, anthropology, ecology, mountaineering, migration, and had a special place in his heart and mind for Pokhara Valley, the subject of his 1965 PhD thesis from the University of Edinburgh. He was also the person behind the International Mountain Museum at Rato Pairo, one of the few genuine attractions created in Pokhara over the modern era.Pokhara is the meeting ground of the Magar and Gurung communities, with their unique heritage that includes the mesmerising and meditative ghatu naach. The valley is further enriched by its mix of communities including the Newa of the bazars, the Bote fisherfolk and Gaine troubadours, the Thakali from up north who have sunk roots here, and the Chhetri and Bahun. Tibetan refugees were residents after the 1950s, but their presence is now much diluted.The environs of Pokhara are a bird-watcher’s paradise, and up below Machapuchre is a hill flank set aside as a pheasant sanctuary with five species. The promenade by the lake, boat excursions, eateries and tourist services have helped evolve a sophisticated ambience that South Asians travelers in particular find inviting. The café culture, the warmer climes of the relatively low valley, and quick escape to nearby  mountains has made Pokhara a cosmopolitan destination even for Kathmandu's recreation-minded.‘Trekking’ was a term whose modern meaning evolved in Nepal in the 1960s-70s under the stewardship of outfitters such as Col Jimmy Roberts and Mike Cheney. Pokhara was a staging point for treks to Jomsom and Mustang up the Kali Gandaki, ‘round Annapurna’ and down to Manang, straight into Annapurna Sanctuary, as well as midhill treks to places like Ghandrung, Sikles and Poon Hill.The road-building boom since the mid-2000s pulled the rug from underneath the trekking industry, with the roads mostly overlapping the trekking trails, and Pokhara was the most affected.For Pokhara to do good for itself and to benefit the national economy, it must understand the value of the prize it holds in its hand. It can start by plumbing the depths of history, geography and mountain lore related to the locale, with school children taught to distinguish between the peaks of the Annapurna range beyond Machapuchre – Gangapurna, Annapurna South, Annapurna II and of course the summit ridge of Annapurna I – to read up on Maurice Herzog as the first climber of a 8000m peak in 1950, or learn the geology that delivered ammonite (saligram) on the Kali Gandaki defile.Pokhara must protect its lakes from pollution and encroachment. The competition to place ever-taller statues and view-towers on hilltops is actually the path to hell, they attract picnickers rather than well-paying tourists, and distract from the indigenous culture and himal views that lie at the heart of what it means to come to Pokhara. Why not view platforms rather than view-towers?Let the homestays be welcoming for their warmth and comfort, rather than sheds masquerading as hospitality places. Respecting its own cultural depth, Pokhrelis should not let ghatu be the stuff of dohori restaurants, and require travelers to visit villages at appointed dates to watch performances in the community setting.For the sake of history, some of the simal dugout canoes must be retained on the Phewa amidst the rowboats and paddle platforms. The song-and-dance sequence from Maitighar film shot in 1966 must be studied for its adoration of Pokhara (‘Basanta nai basna khojchha yahan lolayera…’) and used to project what the valley has to offer.Let us remember Dharma Raj Thapa, who propagated Pokhara-based folk singing sensibility throughout the land. The great Pokhara panorama by Toni Hagen in his pioneer 1960 work Nepal: The Kingdom in the Himalayas must be put to better use, as also photographs of the DC-3s parked by the great pipal tree that used to serve as the terminal of old Pokhara airport. <figure><img width="956" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150240/63fe12899c7e80680e0da52bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It should not be difficult for Pokhara’s tourism entrepreneurs to wage a campaign to bring visitors from within flying range of narrow-body Boeing 737s, Airbus 320s that the airport can handle. This means marketing forays to Dhaka, Colombo, Lahore, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Also Chengdu, Kunming, Lhasa and Ulaanbaatar. Start with chartered flights before moving on to scheduled ones, but first pressure Kathmandu authorities for customs and immigration desks. The grand hang-gliding from Sarangkot allowing circles over Phewa Lake has been discontinued due to the new international airport, and the adventure travel companies need to quickly relocate to retain Pokhara's place as an international centre for the sport.Pokhara must push self-centric Kathmandu to wake up to the evolving needs of national tourism, such as the urgency for sub-regional understanding between India, Pakistan and Nepal to prevent the Indus-Ganga haze – which among other things is helping obliterate Himalayan views. The cost to tourism of soiled mountain vistas has not yet been calculated.Pokhara seems to be losing its charms before it gets to even fully understand them, as the city begins to urbanise. The fully empowered local government must develop a sewage system. As the capital of Gandaki Province, Pokhara must work on revival of surrounding farmlands to prevent the terraces from reverting to jungle.Many of the ‘hilltop islands’ on the Pokhara plain have been mined for stone, and one has just been decapitated to allow better approach to the new airport. The concrete jungle is covering up the Seti terraces. And there are harebrained ideas aplenty beyond more and taller hilltop statues – such as a local hotelier’s campaign to have Begnas Lake empty into Rupa Lake through a tunnel in order to create a waterfall. As if Pokhara needed additional attractions rather than nurture and project the heritage it commands.One identity marker of Pokhara used to be walls made of boulders and ubiquitous chautari of bar-pipal, but mostly they have not been preserved. Built as it is on a massive sea of stones and boulders, Pokhara must be attentive to seismologists’ warnings of the great earthquake that has been pending for 500 years along the western Nepal seismic gap.There are two large spaces in the centre of Pokhara’s urbanism that need to be kept open and un-encroached. Ratna Mandir, the royal estate on the banks of the Phewa, is an arboreal gem whose gates should be opened to the citizens and tourists alike. It will provide continuity to the lakeside walkway and add incredible texture to the Pokhara Experience, but already there are signs of encroachment – a military hospital has opened gates on one side, and the grove of trees that hosted hundreds of egrets by the lake shore has just been summarily chopped down. Whoever thought of that, and why?The prize that everyone is going to fight over is the old airport grounds. Most likely it will be apportioned between government entities and/or leased out to private developers in decades-long leases. Rather than such an abominable solution, Pokhara needs to decide on a ‘central park’, a large swathe of green within the urbanised valley. Only those with little imagination will be unable to see what an economic boon it would be for Pokhara, already attractive to the world, to have such a space.The old airport was small, but it had charm, and it was a less than ten minute drive from Lakeside. It had possibly the finest restaurant terrace in the world, providing views of the runway as well as the Annapurna ramparts. The new airport terminal resolutely turns away from the Himalaya, is an hour away from lakeside, and no restaurant seems to have been planned, with or without a view.Amidst the dislocating changes, Pokhara must take heart that the lakes will remain as will the mountains, even though the volume of snow and ice may reduce due climate change. And no one can take away the location. In fact, Pokhara is part of a touristic continuum that starts with Lumbini and Kapilvastu to the south, and the Kali Gandaki valley that leads right up to the Lo Manthang and the Tibetan plateau.Pokhara’s residents and planners must look to the future by incorporating the mindset that their valley is the true geographical mid-point of Nepal. Since historical time through the Panchayat era, down to the present, Kathmandu has perceived itself as the east-west centre of the country, and so the ‘Central Development Region’ was established in what was obviously the east.While Kathmandu was and remains the power centre, however, true geographical, demographic and economic balance is achieved at the Pokhara-Narayanghat longitude, and this scientific reality must help guide not just tourism, but equity-based economic planning. When the time comes that Pokhara understands its place and placement, we will all be richer. When Pokhara understands its riches and wonders, it will be appropriate to have a touristic slogan for worldwide marketing – simply put, ‘Only Pokhara’.

Pokhara’s desperation and hope

<figure><img width="2048" height="1365" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a0229c7e80680e0d7022jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>A Yeti Airlines ATR72 aircraft from Kathmandu to Pokhara on Sunday morning crashed near its destination. The plane had 68 passengers on board and four cabin crew led by senior captain Kamal KC. Six of the passengers are children, 15 foreigners, of which five are Indians, and 53 Nepali nationals, including eight members of a single family.The 72-seater took off at 10:30AM from Kathmandu before it crashed into <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/setis-gorgeous-gorges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Seti gorge</a> between the old airport and the Pokhara International Airport in Ward 15 near Sitaram Bridge. The plane was engulfed in fire immediately after.An eyewitness video showed the nose-up plane seemingly in a stall, banking in a steep dive before crashing.According to rescuers, 32 bodies have been recovered so far. But onlookers say it is unlikely anyone survived the crash given the accident site being in a deep narrow gorge. Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police teams had not been able to douse the fire even 2 hours after the crash.A crowd of spectators at the crash taking photos and videos with mobile phones have made the rescue more difficult and added to traffic in the area. <figure><img width="640" height="1241" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a0269c7e80680e0d7023jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="750" height="796" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a02a9c7e80680e0d7024jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This is a rare instance where a plane on a trunk route crashed during a good weather. The plane was landing at Pokhara's new international airport that was only inaugurated on 1 January 2023. One aviation expert who did not want to be named, told Nepali Times: "It is too early to pinpoint the cause of the crash, but from the eyewitness video the plane appears to be in a nose-up altitude prior to a stall."The expert said what needs to be determined is what caused the stall: either a bird strike, mechanical issue, or a steep nose-up that bled air speed at low altitude.One of the reasons the inauguration of the new airport was delayed was because Pokhara's landfill site, which is located in the Seti River near the runway, posed birdstrike danger to landing aircraft. <figure><img width="843" height="483" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a02c9c7e80680e0d7025jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="2048" height="1536" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a02f9c7e80680e0d7026jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="2048" height="1536" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a0339c7e80680e0d7027jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="2048" height="1536" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140212/63e3a0379c7e80680e0d7028jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-opposition-less-parliament/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal</a> and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane who had visited Kathmandu airport's control room for the details are going to Pokhara on Sunday itself. Dahal had previously called an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers while Lamichhane has directed authorities for immediate rescue and relief. Nepal is one of the most challenging countries in the world for aviation because of treacherous terrain and weather. It has seen 67 fatal air crashes in the last 60 years. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/pokhara-jomsom-flight-with-22-missing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The most recent accident</a> was the May 2022 Tara Air flight from Pokhara to Jomsom crash killing 22 passengers. But the nature of Saturday's tragedy would make it a crash with the highest number of casualties on a domestic flight in Nepal's aviation history. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/60-years-of-living-dangerously/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">See: 60 years of Nepal's aviation history</a>. Most <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/60-years-of-living-dangerously/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">aviation accidents in Nepal</a> between 1952-2022 were caused by planes flying into mountains hidden in clouds, known as Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT). But this was in broad daylight, in good weather, near a new airport with modern navigation facilities.

Pokhara bound flight crashes in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/6372234a9c7e80680e0c0342jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>All photos: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>National Paddy Planting Day or Dhan Diwas is a celebration across the country. It is an even bigger deal here in Pokhara Valley which grows some of Nepal’s most famous indigenous varieties of rice including Jethobudo, Mansuli and Pokhreli.Famers gather, singing and dancing. Mud-splashing is a celebration-must, as is the feast on dahi chiura, a traditional post ropain meal of curd and beaten rice on Asar 15.What these pictures do not tell us, however, is how the local communities are having to cope with the increasing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-high-monsoon-alert-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impacts of the climate crisis</a>. Farmers, majority of whom are dependent on rain for agriculture, have either little too or little too much water pushing their planting schedules.This has also meant that many local <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-rise-of-rice-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rice varieties</a> are disappearing and others are being attacked by new pests and diseases. This has had a direct impact on further impoverishing the poor who are now migrating to the cities, across the border to India, or the Gulf or Malaysia for better economic opportunities.Paddy is Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepals-rice-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major crop</a> but the productivity has not kept in pace with the increasing population. As it stands, the country grows 5.13 million metric tons of paddy a year at 3.47 tons per hectare.Nepal was expected to record its highest annual rice harvest last year given the early start to the monsoon. But much of the standing crop was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/post-monsoon-rain-ruins-nepals-crops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">destroyed in an unseasonal post-monsoon cloudburst</a> in October.Back in Pokhara, photo journalist Amit Machamasi captures farmers as they transplant rice seedlings this week.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/6372234e9c7e80680e0c0343jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223519c7e80680e0c0344jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223549c7e80680e0c0345jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223579c7e80680e0c0346jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223599c7e80680e0c0347jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/6372235c9c7e80680e0c0348jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223609c7e80680e0c0349jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223629c7e80680e0c034ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223649c7e80680e0c034bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223669c7e80680e0c034cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637223699c7e80680e0c034djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/6372236c9c7e80680e0c034ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-affects-himalayan-rice/">Climate change hits Himalayan rice</a>, Erica Wu

Paddy planting in Pokhara

https://youtu.be/OqgYSpyn4OEA Tara Air DHC-6 aircraft with 22 people on board is missing while on an early Sunday morning flight between Pokhara and Jomsom in poor weather.The Twin Otter aircraft lost contact with Jomsom air traffic control at 4:21 UTC after reporting Ghorepani. Rescue helicopters from the Nepali Army and Fish Tail Air have turned back because of bad visibility in the mountains where the plane last made contact along the rugged Kali Gandaki Valley between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri massifs. <figure><img width="1938" height="1510" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/6372194b9c7e80680e0baa8fjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>A Flightradar24.com replay of the flight path of the Tara Twin Otter after departure from Pokhara for Jomsom. the aircraft lost contact with Jomsom ATC at 0421 UTC.</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="3000" height="1694" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/6372194f9c7e80680e0baa90jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Weather over Central Nepal was particularly bad on Sunday morning with pre-monsoon storms building up over the mountains. </figcaption></figure>Among the passengers were 13 Nepalis, including the crew, 4 Indian nationals and two Germans, according to the carrier which is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines. Nepal has been hit by pre-monsoon rains and the en route weather on Sunday morning was said to be particularly bad.The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2014/02/17/twin-otters-in-the-nepal-sky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canadian-short takeoff and landing aircraft</a> with call sign 9N-AET was built 43 years old and had been in service with Tara Air since 1998. The plane has a seating capacity of 20 and was fully-loaded.Even by Nepal’s standards of air safety, the Pokhara-Jomsom route is regarded as being one of the most accident-prone even in good weather. The route takes planes from Pokhara, past Ghorepani Pass after which pilots have to make a sharp turn north into the Kali Gandaki Valley. <figure><img width="1210" height="686" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/637219529c7e80680e0baa91jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The Tara Air Twin Otter with call sign 9N-AET was 43 years old, seen here taking off from Jomsom a few years ago. Photo: TwinOtterWorld.com</figcaption></figure>Jomsom lies on the arid north side of the Himalaya, and has operations only in the mornings because of high winds and cloud build up during the course of the day. And Jomsom airport is the gateway for tourists visiting Nepal's Mustang District, and also for Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims going to the sacred shrine at Muktinath.The route has seen many fatal accidents in recent decades, most of them involving Twin Otters, and nearly all due to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11168#.YpMuAxRBxpR" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)</a> during bad weather. In fact 90% of accidents in Nepal since 1960 have been due to disoriented pilots hitting mountains hidden by clouds.The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2016/02/24/twin-otter-crash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">previous almost identical accident</a> on this route, also Tara Air, was of a brand new Viking Twin Otter near Dana in 2016 in which 23 people were killed. In 2012 an <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2012/05/14/another-air-crash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agni Air Dornier 228 crashed</a> while landing at Jomsom, killing 15 of the 22 on board.In 1997 a Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Twin Otter chartered by Lumbini Air crashed on a flight from Jomsom to Pokhara in, killing all 19 on board. In 2002 a Shangrila Air Twin Otter from Jomsom crashed just south of Pokhara killing 17 passengers and crew. In 2013 a Nepal Airlines Twin Otter had a runway excursion while landing in Jomsom, but there were no fatalities. <figure><img width="2358" height="1546" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/637219549c7e80680e0baa92jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A photo taken in clear weather in 2014 of a Twin Otter overflying Ghorepani Pass and into the Kali Gandaki Valley. Dhaulagiri in the background. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT.</figcaption></figure>Tara Air serves Nepal’s remote airports, and has had a disproportionate share of crashes because of the difficult terrain it operates in. A Yeti Airlines (now Tara Air) Twin Otter slammed into a cliff below Lukla in 2008 while attempting to land in bad weather, only 1 of the 19 people on board survived. Another Tara Air Twin Otter hit a mountain in 2010 in Ramechhap, killing all 22 passengers and crew.Nepal’s air safety record has been improving in recent years, but the crash on Sunday will once more highlight the dangers of domestic aviation in Nepal. CAAN has been lobbying to have Nepal lifted from the European Union (EU) safety list that bans Nepali carriers.

Pokhara-Jomsom flight with 22 missing

112 dead, 65 missing in Nepal floods

Ayan Dallakoti spent his childhood in Japan, speaking Japanese and for all intents and purposes, considered himself Japanese. It was only as he grew older that he realised he was actually from Nepal. &nbsp; Ayan was eight years old when his mother Pratibha brought him and his younger brother Avan back to Nepal. Their father Anjay, who is still in Japan, had decided to send the boys home so they could “become Nepali”. Ayan was somewhat familiar with the Nepali language and the country, but in Kathmandu, everything felt foreign, including the education system. “Things were a little easier when he had a classmate who had also returned from Japan, but making Nepali friends did not come easily for them,” remembers Pratibha.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040928_c4a683bc4723ce1f5b5683d41add972c915ea6b6fc229a44b713c707381d8787.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240922040928_c4a683bc4723ce1f5b5683d41add972c915ea6b6fc229a44b713c707381d8787" data-rendition-name="original" width="5856" height="3904" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 3"> <figcaption>All photos: GOPEN RAI</figcaption> </figure>  Japan is now a major destination for Nepali families like the Dallakotis. Officially, there are 180,000 Nepalis in Japan and 35,000 more left just in the past year – a 30% increase from the year before that.&nbsp; Japanese embassy figures show that of those who left last year, 23,124 were on student visas, 8,566 were on working visas and 7,849 were dependents. While most of the older generation of Nepalis in Japan are cooks who went as ‘skilled labour’, the new crop of migrants are mostly on student visas, working part-time. For the Japanese government, a student visa is a carefully calibrated temporary migration system to fill the country’s labour shortage in the service sector. Unlike the Gulf, Korea, Malaysia and other countries, Nepalis in Japan can also take along their families. Which is why Nepali schools have sprung up in large cities in Japan. These schools teach Nepali language, culture, and also English. But for families who work far away from those cities, the children have no option but to get a Japanese education.&nbsp; Anjay Dallakoti initially went to Japan as a student, but extended his stay with a working visa. Pratibha joined him a few years later as a dependent. Ayan was born in Japan, and six years later Avan. After 12 years, Pratibha is back in Nepal with both her boys.&nbsp; In many Nepali families in Japan, it is the children who are having to adjust to being caught in between two worlds. Many have to cope with the double adjustment of first arriving in Japan, and then returning to school in Nepal. According to Masako Tanaka, a professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University, nearly 20,000 Nepalis in Japan are minors. Tanaka has been working closely with Nepali migrants in Japan, and says many mothers are bringing their children back to Nepal because of worries that they are losing touch with their identity and culture back home. The other reason is that the children are not learning enough English, and the parents fear they will lose out in later life. &nbsp; “Returning to Nepal and studying in schools here helps create an environment for the children to either stay and work in Nepal in future or go to a third country,” says Sapana Kharel, who also returned to Nepal with her two children. For Nepali families who have not yet got permanent resident status, staying on in Japan and continuing their children’s education is too uncertain. They worry that this could interrupt their children’s education if they have to leave Japan midway through school.&nbsp; “There is fear that the children will neither have a place in Nepali schools nor there in Japan,” adds Kharel. Others say that they would have returned to Nepal for the sake of the children no matter what, even if they got permanent residence in Japan. Indeed, there are Nepali mothers who are already permanent residents who have opted to return with their children.&nbsp; Take the Subedi family who have permanent resident status in Japan, but brought their daughter Shibika to Nepal after she completed Grade 1 in Japan.&nbsp; Many migrant children like Shibika had to repeat grades they had already studied in Japan. She had to repeat Grade 1, and is now in Grade 9. Her mother Nitu Bista Subedi feels that repeating a year was necessary to strengthen her daughter’s foundation in the Nepali curriculum.&nbsp; “Shibika has fond memories of Japan and misses being together with the whole family there, and she worries that her Japanese classmates are getting ahead of her,” says Subedi. Ten-year-old Ahana Odari had her own struggles when she was brought to Nepal by her mother a year ago. She too had to repeat Grade 3. “She just wouldn’t speak for the first few months because of the language problem,” remembers her mother, Balika Odari. “Ahana took a whole year to adapt and adjust to Nepal and its ways. But this was necessary.”&nbsp; Like a lot of parents, Balika feels that although Japan’s education system is one of the best in the world, children there are more reclusive and do not socialise as much. “We were worried our children would turn out the same way, and that is why we decided to bring them back and introduce them to their country and culture,” she explains. In more extreme cases, migration can hinder the psychosocial development of returning children. &nbsp; “Early-age children are good at learning dual or multiple languages, but because of the limited vocabulary they are exposed to, they might not always have words to express how they are feeling. And that is where the problem lies,” says Srijana Adhikari, a clinical psychologist at Happy Minds.&nbsp; “For healthy development, the environment the child grows up in and the needs to be stable,” she adds. “If not, this may lead to problems adjusting, separation anxiety and struggles in building relationships.” Sneha Khatri, now 14, oscillated between Nepal and Japan over the years. She was born in Japan but was brought to Nepal when she was six. She studied here until Grade 3 and then went to the Nepali-run Everest International School in Tokyo.&nbsp; Sneha came back to Nepal a month ago to appear for her Basic Level Examination (BLE) but is worried about her results. She is taking extra tutorials in mathematics.&nbsp; Ayan is now in Grade 7, and is also worried about his BLE next year. He says in Japanese-accented English: “Social Studies is my first hardest subject, and Nepali is the second hardest.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040932_3ddaf6b56253baac855f2b4de4f9a646b1c80a677cc8e9d73d469a3c37496ea7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240922040932_3ddaf6b56253baac855f2b4de4f9a646b1c80a677cc8e9d73d469a3c37496ea7" data-rendition-name="original" width="5477" height="3651" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 4"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040932_3b59646b4c1f30831b039caf8c5e9018fb0ce23349dacebfa0cbee024b4bd885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240922040932_3b59646b4c1f30831b039caf8c5e9018fb0ce23349dacebfa0cbee024b4bd885" data-rendition-name="original" width="5928" height="3808" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 5"> </figure>  Speaking Nepali with family and friends is not hard for the returnee migrant children, but Nepali as an academic subject is difficult.&nbsp; Professor Tanaka says migrant children have fallen through the cracks between Japan and Nepal. She asks rhetorically, “Who will think about the welfare of the migrant children? Who is responsible for them?”&nbsp; Tanaka was in Kathmandu recently for a workshop on Nepali language education for migrant children during which she presented research findings of her Migrant Children Language Education project. Tanaka’s conclusion is that mother tongue Nepali language education is the best way to help the reintegration of children returning from Japan. “The government can start by developing Nepali language learning resources for online or home learners abroad, training teachers abroad, and organising and encouraging events for Nepali children overseas,” Tanaka told Nepali Times.&nbsp; “Nepal can learn from countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil which are working on national language education for their migrant children in Japan.” To be sure, there are also students who are doing well despite the culture shock of moving back and forth between Japan and Nepal.&nbsp; Sapana Kharel’s daughter, Saurya was born in Japan. She came to Nepal when she was six to study in Nepal. Soon after, she went to Japan. She came back when she was 12 to appear for the Nepali BLE. She initially struggled and had low confidence, but soon overcame it and did well. “Now, I’ve realised the importance of learning my mother tongue and have taken up Nepali classes as part of my course,” says Saurya, now 17, in flawless Nepali. But for other migrant children whose parents do not speak enough Nepali when they were in Japan, mastering the mother tongue is still a big hurdle.&nbsp; Ayan’s mother looks at her two children playing at her home in Kirtipur, and says, “The sacrifice we made as a couple, living far from one another, is for our children, their education and for a better future.”&nbsp; <h2>Nepali in Nippon</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040928_bb476f3818df3d28240779b520cb93b2aee216f9a1023e0bbe0fccd3abbcd6f6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240922040928_bb476f3818df3d28240779b520cb93b2aee216f9a1023e0bbe0fccd3abbcd6f6" data-rendition-name="original" width="6000" height="4000" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT "> </figure>  In June, when the SEE (Secondary Education Examination) results came out, one of the students who passed was a Zambian national student from Japan. He was studying at the Everest International School Japan (EISJ) in Tokyo which follows the Nepali curriculum, and accommodates the need of families in Nepal and other countries in Japan to also learn English. Initially started in 2013 by the Nepali community, this school came under Nepal’s Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2015. EISJ is the only school in Japan that is certified to take Nepal’s SEE in Japan.&nbsp; Other schools that follow the Nepali curriculum have also opened up, over the years. But only two of them, Tokai Batika International School in Nagoya and Himalayan International Academy in Tokyo are certified to conduct Nepali curriculum as per Nepal’s Ministry of Education. But both provide education only below Grade 10.&nbsp; “As of now, the only country to have schools that follow Nepali curriculum is Japan,” says Parshuram Tiwari, director at the Education Review Office at the MoE in Kathmandu. The majority of Nepali families and a few non-Nepali families working in Japan decide to send their children to schools like EISJ because of the English medium. But these are private international schools, unlike the Japanese government schools which are free of cost. And because these schools are not certified, the Japanese government provides no subsidy, no transportation discount among other privileges to these schools, says Professor Masako Tanaka at Sophia University in Tokyo. &nbsp;“Most importantly, graduates of EISJ cannot get visa status independently even after graduation from high school level, while the migrant students who graduate from Japanese schools are eligible.” Many Nepali families enrol their children to such schools without knowing this, adds Tanka. But even those who know about drawbacks want to provide their children with the opportunity to get international exposure with English language skills. Nepali curriculum schools are mostly based in and around Tokyo, and many Nepali families who live in the suburbs of Japan opt to come to Nepal for their children’s education. (Adjoining article) “We lived in Niigata. It would take us six hours to travel to Everest International School in Tokyo. So, we came to Nepal to give our children English medium education,” says Pratibha Dallakoti, who returned from Japan with her two sons in 2020. While schools that follow the Nepali curriculum in Japan have been a relief for Nepali parents who want their children to pursue Nepali curriculum education, these schools getting certified by the Japanese government would be better. “There are several other international schools in Japan that are certified by both Japanese and foreign dual standards like the &nbsp;Kyoto Kokusai School,” wrote Professor Tanaka in an email interview. “It is for the better that these Nepali curriculum schools like EISJ become similar to KKS which makes it easier for the children as they can get a certificate from both the government. ”

Japan-born Nepali children struggle to ‘be Nepali’

This late monsoon storm was not a surprise. Weather forecasts had warned of heavy precipitation a week before, the Met Office predicted heavy rain on 27-28 September, SMS warned people to take precaution, radio stations issued bulletins, and night buses were banned in 56 districts.&nbsp; The tragedy was compounded because we knew what was coming, and did not do enough to prepare. The accurate weather forecast made no real difference on the ground. When it started raining on Thursday morning and did not stop till Saturday, there was no sense of the scale of this emergency. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/60-dead-64-missing-in-nepal-floods">More than 200 people lost their lives, dozens are still missing.</a> Thousands of homes were swept away, Nepal lost nearly half its electricity generation capacity because of damage to power plants, Kathmandu has been nearly cut off with bridges and sections of highways swept away. Yes, this was primarily a natural disaster. Kathmandu Valley and its surroundings got half the average annual precipitation in just 40 hours, the heaviest rainfall measured since records started being kept in 1972. But the high death toll was totally manmade.&nbsp; Three buses were buried by a mudslide in Dhading, killing at least 35 people. This was an eerie reminder of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">Simaltal accident on 12 July </a>when two intercity buses were swept by a mudflow into the Trisuli River at night, killing 62. The buses have still not been found.&nbsp; In both cases, heavy rainfall on a poorly engineered local road up the mountains triggered the initial landslide that swept debris to the highway below. This was manslaughter, not an ‘accident’.&nbsp; We said it then, and we are saying it now: most mountain roads follow no reason or science. It is a corruption-fed activity in which local governments and their cronies plan roads ad hoc and rent their own bulldozers. Debris accumulated during construction is dumped over the edge, where monsoon rains wash them to settlements, farms and highways below. Last weekend’s disaster is a warning that accurate weather early warning is just the first step – it is not enough to prevent a huge loss of life. After the warnings, there should have been door-to-door miking along hazardous river banks urging people to move to higher ground, shelters should have been in place, rescue equipment and rafts pre-positioned, live monitoring of precipitation in the catchments. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) was just posting situationers on social media. The Home Ministry became a Ministry of Condolences and Empty Promises.&nbsp; This disaster is a reminder of the 1993 Central Nepal cloudburst that hit the Lothar Khola in Chitwan, the Kulekhani areas, and highways blocked highways marooning Kathmandu for weeks. More than 1,300 people were killed.&nbsp; The death toll in Kathmandu this time was compounded by the fact that the city has spread into the floodplains of the Vishnumati, Manohara and other tributaries of the Bagmati. Natural waterways have been hemmed in by streets. The rivers were just reclaiming what was theirs.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240930150944_1221b4fb442a21e8d2dbf1aeeca61b7a8d791c117d6a93401f15ba2a95d49a69.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240930150944_1221b4fb442a21e8d2dbf1aeeca61b7a8d791c117d6a93401f15ba2a95d49a69" data-rendition-name="original" width="1949" height="1299" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal floods"> <figcaption>Kathmandu Valley, especially its southern fringes looks like an epicentre of a major quake following the rains. Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption> </figure>  Urban pressure has also forced settlements to move up the Valley’s rim, below steep hillsides with topsoil already saturated in the late monsoon. The torrential downpours caused the slopes to fail. The damage to Upper Tamakosi and dozens of other hydropower plants also is a warning not to put all our eggs in one basket. The Sikkim disaster exactly this time last year was proof that these are at high risk from glacial lake floods and landslide dammed rivers suddenly bursting. More logical would be to build smaller, better designed, plants on many rivers. The Himalaya is also the youngest and most fragile mountain range on earth, Nepal has always had either too much or too little water, and climate breakdown is making this contrast more extreme. Combined, this means we in Nepal live in a multi-disaster prone country with seismic, hydrological and climate risks.&nbsp; After multiple floods in early 1990s, a Japanese grant helped set up the Disaster Prevention Technical Centre (DPTC) in Pulchowk, which was later renamed the Department of Water Induced Disaster Management. We have not heard much from them lately. With the government AWOL, it is ordinary Nepalis who have shown extraordinary courage in saving those being swept by flood water, rescuing babies on canoes (pictured), or digging for passengers trapped in buses buried by landslides. The Nepal Army and the Police rescued thousands, but there was an absence of coordination.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240930150944_cb55edb93eb3aad169b22bc4dec06b5478746fbe75417c628bf671ec698f7912.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240930150944_cb55edb93eb3aad169b22bc4dec06b5478746fbe75417c628bf671ec698f7912" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal floods"> <figcaption>Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA</figcaption> </figure>  Now, the attention must focus on urgent relief and rehabilitation. But that might be a tall ask just before everything shuts down for Dasain, and when governance fails, lack of accountability and transparency is the norm even without holidays.&nbsp; Sonia Awale

When it rains it pours

The Imadol neighbourhood of Kathmandu Valley was among the worst hit by last weekend’s devastating floods. The Manohara River, swollen by incessant rainfall, overflowed into the settlements along its banks. A photograph taken by French anthropologist Corneille Jest in monsoon 1972 shows the Manohara meandering across a wide plain, its banks lush with ripening paddy. Two farmers cross the field carrying a kharpan, a sturdy traditional bamboo basket carried on shoulders, that has almost vanished from the Valley today. It is a tranquil view of a once-emerald Valley and its unique civilisation that blended urban living with intense agriculture on the fertile topsoil. Gazing at these images shows us the life and times of Old Nepal. This and other photographs taken by Jest during his research in Nepal’s Dolpo and Kathmandu 60 years ago are a reminder of how much in Nepal has changed, and what remains the same. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-passage-of-time-in-photos">Kathmandu’s passage of time in photos</a>, Ashish Dhakal  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024100505108_e5eae5b7745301134e49b009d519326ea826f2e11c76b33aa63ea13734fa9d2c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024100505108_e5eae5b7745301134e49b009d519326ea826f2e11c76b33aa63ea13734fa9d2c" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1667" loading="lazy" alt="An anthropologist's perspective of Nepal"> <figcaption>Offering a prayer flag at a pass above Tukuche in 1963.</figcaption> </figure>  Jest visited Nepal every other year since 1960, and the exhibition itself shows us the passage of time -- it is aesthetic and evocative, a lament and sometimes deeply nostalgic.&nbsp; The exhibition is organised by Mémoires de l’Himalaya, a French association that works to preserve works on the trans-Himalayan region. Jest was a prolific photographer and out of the 45,000 negatives in his collection, &nbsp;almost 100 black and white and colour prints were selected for this exhibition at the Patan Museum. “The data researchers collect rarely helps the community being studied.. So, it was Jest's idea and ours as an organisation to give back, what we can, to the local community,” says Rémi Chaix of Mémoires de l’Himalaya, who is also one of the curators. “The field notes taken by Jest can also be accessed.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/making-nepal-s-history-colourful">Making Nepal’s history colourful</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241004091020_eb98695b6253e9dde6f051b24596bc09060834bdba1219b9cff2ac080540c63c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241004091020_eb98695b6253e9dde6f051b24596bc09060834bdba1219b9cff2ac080540c63c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="3000" loading="lazy" alt="An Anthropologist's Early Glimpses of Nepal NT"> <figcaption>Members of the Tarap community at Dolpo's Drolma Pass during their pilgrimage to the Buddha-ri sacred mountain in 1960.Corneille Jest - Mémoires de l'Himalaya</figcaption> </figure>  Curated by Fernand Meyer, Kunsang Namgyal-Lama and Chaix, the first floor of the museum showcases photographs of Kathmandu Valley and the second floor is dedicated to Dolpo, especially Tarap Valley where Jest spent most of his time. This curatorial choice of placing the photographs of a place in a specific floor is important, allowing viewers to keep the two worlds separate. The photographs on the first floor are exclusive and published for the first time. There is also an 11 minute documentary on loop that captures the 1968 Seto Machhindranath festival. One does not just get to see this era but even hear its sounds. Photos of Dolpo on the second floor show how little the landscape and dwellings of this remote region has changed in the past decades, although with the road now reaching the district it will inevitably undergo rapid transformation. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/memories-of-an-archivist">Memories of an archivist</a>, Anita Bhetwal  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241004091020_ae632fde3aac88ac90bad7e348904446b10b793d650d7bfc4a2f7a977f6f84cc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241004091020_ae632fde3aac88ac90bad7e348904446b10b793d650d7bfc4a2f7a977f6f84cc" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="884" loading="lazy" alt="An Anthropologist's Early Glimpses of Nepal NT"> <figcaption>Attendees at a Buddhist ritual, Tarap, 1963.Corneille Jest - Mémoires de l'Himalaya</figcaption> </figure>  Some of the Dolpo photographs have already been published in Jest’s books like ‘Tales of The Turquoise: A Pilgrimage in Dolpo’. “Jest had a habit of clicking the same image twice. One would be in black and white and the other would be in colour,” explains Chaix who along with other two curators had to decide which would be a better fit for the exhibit. Jest’s photos of Dolpo are intimate and let the audience peek into the Himalayan lifestyle at the time. Researching about the Himalayan people and the culture while living in Tarap Valley, Jest developed a particular affinity for Dolpo, shares Guillaume Jest, one of Corneille’s sons, who was here at the inauguration of the exhibition.&nbsp; “I think that my father’s fondness for the population of Dolpo and their religion and culture comes from the fact that they build their way of life in a very harsh but breathtaking world of the high valleys of the Himalayas,” says Guillaume. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/adventures-of-a-lone-archivist">Adventures of a lone archivist</a>, Alisha Sijapati  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241004091020_6cba26cf4cd2c38db65a4b00966f58ed87d46de3e01c8927f6ac1d8d3f5cadc3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20241004091020_6cba26cf4cd2c38db65a4b00966f58ed87d46de3e01c8927f6ac1d8d3f5cadc3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1666" loading="lazy" alt="An Anthropologist's Early Glimpses of Nepal NT"> <figcaption>Terraced maize and paddy fields during the 1972 monsoon at Imadol, which has been built over and was submerged on 28 September.Corneille Jest - Mémoires de l'Himalaya</figcaption> </figure>  Being an anthropologist, Jest’s focus is always on the people he encounters and the landscape or architecture being props. This is a rich visual documentation of what people wore, what they ate, what the houses looked like, their daily work in the fields, the harvest process, cultural rituals and celebrations. “Corneille Jest’s photographs give us a rare insight into the everyday life, culture, and landscapes of Nepal during a pivotal period in the country’s history, just after its opening to the rest of the world. They reveal the depth and diversity of Nepali culture,” says Virginie Corteval, French Ambassador to Nepal, who opened the exhibition last week. She adds: “These represent a testimony of the important work by pioneer French researchers such as Corneille Jest or Sylvain Lévi, in studying the diversity of the Nepali civilisation.” &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-archive-of-nepali-heritage">An archive of Nepali heritage</a>, Ashish Dhakal <h2>Lalita Niwas 60 years ago</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241004091020_72859aaf3e5f323bfce71e7adb8ba84fe1016e7e7323b4b3458570be22572146.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20241004091020_72859aaf3e5f323bfce71e7adb8ba84fe1016e7e7323b4b3458570be22572146" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1667" loading="lazy" alt="An Anthropologist's Early Glimpses of Nepal NT"> </figure>  The Lalita Niwas Land grab scandal is making headlines today, and has implicated the high and mighty of the land. But few know what the original palace of Subarna Shumsher Rana looked like. Corneille Jest’s aerial photograph in 1963 of the neoclassical palace gives us an idea of the grandeur and size of the complex that spread over a 7 hectare plot in Baluwatar. After the property was nationalised during the Panchayat, it has been fragmented, bought and sold numerous times. The scandal has put 18 of the 310 individuals charged behind bars. The building now houses the Nepal Rastra Bank.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19789#.YX-e4S8w3u0">The first photographs of us</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit An Anthropologist’s Early Glimpses of Nepal 10AM-6PM Till 18 October Patan Museum

pokhara