<figure><img width="2969" height="2370" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238619c7e80680e0c7381jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Lisa Choegyal shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth at the British Embassy in Kathmandu during the 1986 royal visit. Col Jimmy Roberts is at left. </figcaption></figure>It is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-marks-the-yen-ya-festival/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Indra Jatra</a> in Basantapur but in Britain, the Queen is dead. Through an early September cloudburst we navigate the uneven flag-stoned narrow streets around Om Bahal.Water drips down my collar, drenched awnings hang limp and locals shelter in the shopfronts amidst an air of anticipation. Not far away, the elaborate chariots are assembled ready to parade Ganesh, Bhairava and the Kumari through Kathmandu and Hanuman Dhoka.The ancient annual outing of the living goddess is the culmination of the spectacular Indra Jatra festival attended by masked dancers, musical bands, tantric priests, devotees and foreign onlookers. It marks the end of the monsoon rain to ensure a good harvest and seeks protection from the deity Indra, the temperamental ruler of heaven.Kathmandu’s Kumari used to be royal, venerated by the Shah kings, but since the end of Nepal’s monarchy and the advent of the federal republic, it is today’s political leaders who lead the reverence in lieu of her former regal patrons.But in Britain, despite all odds, the monarchy endures. <figure><img width="2667" height="2134" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238649c7e80680e0c7382jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The sudden death of Queen Elizabeth and the transition to King Charles has rocked Britain, the Commonwealth and indeed the world over the last week. Even the Downing Street switch just two days earlier to a new Prime Minister was eclipsed by a nation engulfed with grief. We make our way through the flooded streets to sign the condolence book at the British Embassy – everyone is dressed in sombre black and President Bidya Devi Bhandari has arrived just ahead us.All over Britain, tearful throngs gather at the gates of royal palaces to express their loyalty and respect with carpets of flowers, tributes and accolades for the late Queen Elizabeth. The June Jubilee celebrating the Queen’s unprecedented 70 years on the throne have morphed into mourning.The well-rehearsed crimson and gold pomp and pageantry of the passing seamlessly swings into action. Within hours London resounds with solemn music, cannon salutes, black-ribboned trumpet volleys and tolling church bells. Crowds line the streets to observe the historic events, show solidarity with the bereaved new King, and witness ceremonies and sumptuous regalia dating back a thousand years that will consume the coming days.At aged 96 the death of Queen Elizabeth could not be unexpected, but no one seems emotionally prepared for it, so keenly felt by many who had known no other British monarch and whose reign defines a constancy woven into the fabric of many of our lives.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/queen-elizabeth-the-gurkhas-and-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Queen Elizabeth, the Gurkhas and Everest</a>, Kunda DixitKathmandu newspaper headlines were unequivocal ‘The Queen Dies’, with<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/queen-elizabeth-the-gurkhas-and-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> articles</a> remembering her two visits and recognising the enduring bond with the British Gurkhas in both her personal and official capacity. Nepali friends confessed to sobbing at the news.A retired Nepal army general’s eyes teared up as he told me: “She really was the most extraordinary woman who impressed the entire world and was admired by us all.” It feels good to recall incidents, recount stories, dig out photographs, find solace in collective grieving.She became Queen the year after my birth, and I was not even three years old when my mother, a lifelong royalist, hoisted me onto her shoulders in the grimy streets of post-war Newcastle to wave our little Union Jacks as she drove by on a tour of North-East England soon after her coronation. <figure><img width="780" height="577" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238689c7e80680e0c7383jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>I last saw her in person across the parade ground in the shadow of the magnificent Wren-designed Royal Hospital in Chelsea leading a full hand of all the immediate British royal family to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gurkhas in the British Army. I was with my mother that chilly June evening in 2015 as the purpling London night sky faded above the Nepali and British participants – smart green uniforms, precision marching, wailing bagpipes and whirling khukri.  Nepali rulers have long and affectionate ties with British royal visits dating back to Jang Bahadur and Queen Victoria, and share an entwined history since the entanglements with British India that ended in 1816. Friendly relations at that time suited the preservation of Nepal’s sovereignty as well as providing much-valued recruits for the British Army.The relationship was further cemented when news of the first ascent of Mt Everest by Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary on a British expedition that buoyed Britain by arriving on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in June 1953. Sir Ed, a Knight of the Garter, appreciated his close association with her, and in his understated Kiwi way was known to have thought the Queen was ‘a bit of all right’. <figure><img width="1464" height="965" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/6372386a9c7e80680e0c7384jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Queen and Prince Philip have twice visited Nepal. First was the infamous tiger hunt of 1961 hosted by King Mahendra, saluted by 376 domestic elephants, catered by Boris Lissanevitch and immortalised in the book Tiger for Breakfast.Our Tiger Tops Meghauli grass airstrip was carved out of the thick jungle, ‘coolies’ cleared insects from the royal camp and allegedly tipped buckets of water into the cistrn when the chain was pulled in the hastily constructed royal loo.But the 1961 trip can be said to have signalled the early beginnings of Nepal’s tiger conservation story. The Duke of Edinburgh, the first president of WWF, refused to hunt in order to highlight the need for conservation, pleading a diplomatically bandaged trigger finger -- little comfort to the Chitwan tigers and rhino that were shot by others in the party that day.During the second state visit 25 years later in early 1986, I and others had the chance to shake her hand in the garden of the British Embassy in Kathmandu. The emphasis was on development, diplomacy and the decades of service by the British Gurkha, with moving meetings with highly decorated veteran heroes of the ranks.The Duke of Edinburgh broke away from the main program to revisit his old hunting ground, gratifyingly now protected as Royal Chitwan National Park and South Asia’s first natural World Heritage Site. Binoculared and safari-suited, he spent a peaceful day in the Tarai jungles with then-Prince Gyanendra and joined us at <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/back-to-Chitwan,1075">Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge</a> for lunch.The new King Charles III has been in Nepal on three occasions, first representing the Queen at King Birendra’s splendid coronation in 1975 amongst many world leaders -- Imelda Marcos was observed flirting with him. King Charles returned twice to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/sons-of-the-famous,945">trek in the Annapurnas</a>, an official visit accompanied by Prince Dhirendra in 1980 and a private one with friends in 1992.Both were planned and organised by trek pioneer<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hiking-with-jimmy/"> Col Jimmy Roberts</a>, but his walking days were over and I recced the first Royal Trek route in 1980 with Pertemba Sherpa, mountaineer and one of Mountain Travel’s star sirdars.  Then-Prince Charles strode uphill towards the silhouetted skyline tree that still bears his name near the first day lunch spot where Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge now stands, accompanied by a royal retinue that included security detail, radio operators and medics equipped with blood.‘The mountain views were gin clear for all four days,’ Colonel Jimmy noted with satisfaction. My task was to escort the press pack back down to file their stories. Only the murder of John Lennon knocked the Nepal story off the world’s front pages. <figure><img width="482" height="720" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/6372386d9c7e80680e0c7385jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="708" height="948" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/6372386f9c7e80680e0c7386jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="708" height="948" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238719c7e80680e0c7387jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>No photographs survive of the Prince’s Trek, the circuit south of Phewa Tal that we organised for the Prince of Wales’ second private trek in 1992. But I was with him in Pokhara at the British Gurkha camp for the pre-trek briefing and a jolly dinner in the mess tent hosted by the Colonel. It was a turbulent time for Charles, following the India visit where Princess Diana was famously photographed perched alone and forlorn on a marble bench in front of the Taj Mahal.The well-worn navy leather wallet engraved with the silver three feathers insignia presented to me by the Prince, sorry I mean King, is in my bag that sad morning after his mother’s death as I dodge the downpour in a festive Kathmandu Darbar Square.His long apprenticeship over, every day Charles is looking more like a king. Whilst a bereaved country gets used to new words in an old anthem, updated bank notes and other ritual changes, he faces the controversies of modernising the monarchy in a complex post-colonial world.  The Queen is dead, long live the King.Lisa Choegyal wrote the column <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/nt/opinion/so-far-so-good/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">So Far So Good</a> in Nepali Times from 2018-2020. She is a sustainable tourism specialist who has made Kathmandu her home since 1974.

Lisa Choegyal

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The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237ef9c7e80680e0c735ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1872" height="1148"/>The highlight of the two trips Queen Elizabeth II made to  Nepal in March 1961 and exactly 25 years later in 1986 were meetings with British Gurkha veterans who served in the world wars.Gurkhas have fought and died for Britain since even before the end of Nepal’s war with the East India Company in 1816. More than 200,000 soldiers from Nepal fought in the British Army in the two world wars, at a time when Nepal’s total population was barely 4 million.About 40,000 of them were killed in Gallipoli and Flanders Field in the First World War, and in Italy, Burma and Malaya in the Second.The Queen, who died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96, had a soft spot for Nepal, since news of the first ever ascent of Mt Everest got to London on the morning of her coronation on 2 June 1953 that year.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237f29c7e80680e0c735bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="696"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237f59c7e80680e0c735cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2339" height="1324"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norway had reached the top of the world’s highest mountain on 29 May, but the news took several days to reach London via the British Embassy in Kathmandu which got a coded radio message from Namche that had to be first carried in a piece of paper by runner from Base Camp.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-postcard-from-jan-morris-1926-2020/">James Morris of The Times</a> accompanied the British Expedition, and had the scoop about the successful ascent in the Fleet Street press. The Daily Express tabloid's banner headline on coronation day was: “ALL THIS — AND EVEREST TOO!”Queen Elizabeth’s 1961 visit to Nepal was touch and go since it happened barely a year after King Mahendra’s coup in which he dissolved Nepal’s first democratically elected parliament, imprisoned Prime Minister B P Koirala and his cabinet, and ruled as an absolute monarch.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-thukten-phillip-sherpa-got-his-name/">How Thukten Phillip Sherpa got his name</a>, Lisa Choegyal The royal visit was seen by some as an endorsement of the coup, but this was during the height of the Cold War and tensions were also rising between India and China. The West regarded an assertive monarchy in Nepal as a stabilising factor in a volatile region, and for King Mahendra himself it was proof of international endorsement of his move.Lisa Choegyal recalls in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-thukten-phillip-sherpa-got-his-name/">one of her columns for Nepali Times</a> about how Konjo Chumbi, the guardian of a yeti scalp at Khumjung Monastery, was on his way from Namche to Kathmandu for an audience with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1961 when his wife gave birth along the way near Jiri.They made it to Kathmandu airport just in time to meet the royal couple before they flew out, and when Prince Philip found out the baby did not have a name, he suggested they call him ‘Philip’. Thukten Phillip Sherpa was 25 when he met Prince Philip again during the Queen’s 1986 trip. He now lives in California.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237f79c7e80680e0c735djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1728" height="1350"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237fa9c7e80680e0c735ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Carrying on the tradition of Nepal’s Rana rulers, the British royalty in 1961 was taken on a tiger hunt in Chitwan with the Queen filming the trip on her 16mm movie camera from the back of an elephant.The government went to extreme lengths to beautify Kathmandu and give it a modern look. What is today Kantipath in front of The Royal Hotel and the Tripureswar roads were widened by cutting down a row of jacaranda to impress the British visitors. Pretend street lights that did not work were erected along the way.The Royal Hotel’s Russian owner Boris Lissanevitch catered for the state banquet for the Queen hosted by King Mahendra at Singha Darbar. The hot meals had to be carried by relays of servants across the city.Desmond Doig writes in his book My Kind of Kathmandu about the royal banquet: ‘The Queen of England, who had disappointed expectant Nepalis earlier by wearing the simplest dresses and a strand or two of pearls, came shimmering in the famous emerald tiara, emerald necklace, emerald drop earrings and diamonds everywhere, even embroidered into her Hartnell gown.’Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8301#.YxqjSuxBzDI">The royal visit of  1961</a>, Desmond Doig<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237fc9c7e80680e0c735fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1112"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The next day, Edmund Hillary was knighted at a function at the British Embassy in Lazimpat. Queen Elizabeth had to cut a brown, green and white cake supposed to represent Mt Everest with two tiny marzipan figures representing Hillary and Tenzing on the summit.Doig recalls in his book that the Queen advanced towards the cake 'with a scimitar-like knife', looked at Hillary, and quipped: ‘I'm afraid I shall have to cut you in half, Sir Edmund.’In contrast to Queen Elizabeth’s expressions of gratitude during her 70-year reign for the service of British Gurkhas and her two visits to Nepal, surprisingly not a single British prime minister has visited Kathmandu.Queen Elizabeth attended the parade in 2015 in London marking the 200th anniversary Gurkha service in the British Army. Her grandson, Prince Harry served with the First Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles in Afghanistan in 2007-8.A Royal Gurkha Regiment contingent was invited to take part in Harry’s wedding with Meghan Markle in 2018. And Harry himself visited Nepal in 2016, inspecting some of the Gurkha Welfare Trust projects.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7996#.YxqjmexBzDI">Symbol of Nepali nationhood</a>, CK Lalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61CQ74nw-NQVideo clip of the British royal visit to Nepal in 1986.Prince Charles, now King Charles III, has served as Colonel in Chief of the Royal Gurkha Rifles since 1977.Two Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officers from Nepal guard her at most functions, a practice that dates back to Queen Victoria’s reign in 1876 and which Queen Elizabeth revived.Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stopped over in Kathmandu again in 1986 for a four-day visit on their way to Australia and New Zealand. King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya were at the airport to greet them as they stepped off a British Airways L-1011 Tristar.The highlight of the trip was the Queen’s meeting with 200 British Gurkha veterans, among them seven surviving soldiers who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in previous wars.Queen Elizabeth walked across Kathmandu Darbar Square to the 16th century Kasthamandap accompanied by Kathmandu’s mayor Kamal Chitrakar.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131140/637237ff9c7e80680e0c7360jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This time there was no royal hunt, Chitwan had been turned into the Royal Chitwan National Park. While the Queen visited Gurkha camps,  Prince Gyanendra flew down to Meghauli with Prince Philip for a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-thukten-phillip-sherpa-got-his-name/">morning safari and lunch at Tiger Tops</a> in South Asia’s first natural world heritage site. Both princes were now avid conservationists.Queen Elizabeth’s last interaction with Nepal was in May when Nepal’s new ambassador to UK, Gyan Chandra Acharya, presented his credentials to her virtually at Buckingham Palace. Prince Philip died in 2021, the Queen was frail and already starting to restrict her public engagements.In her statement during that ceremony, Queen Elizabeth extolled the ‘friendly and mutually rewarding relations’ between Nepal and Britain, and recalled her two historic state visits to Nepal in 1961 and 1986.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/champions-of-nepals-conservation-movement/">Champions of Nepal’s conservation movement</a>, Lisa Choegyal

Kunda Dixit

Queen Elizabeth, the Gurkhas and Everest

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/6369036c9c7e80680e037cc1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1022"/><figcaption>Chuck McDougal's first pressure plate photography traps in which the tiger triggered its own picture</figcaption></figure>Encountering a tiger in the wild is a privilege not to be taken lightly, and an experience never forgotten. Words cannot do justice to this most magnificent of all creatures, but many have tried to capture the instincts triggered by its terrible beauty, the reality of our inherent human frailty when confronted with nature’s most evolved predator.Our consciousness is fully awakened by ‘Tiger tiger, burning bright’. Hairs rise, breath stills, time stops and the heart skips a beat as the sun striped shadows dissolve into the largest of the world’s cats, the sheer wonder of several hundred kilos of elegant muscle and striped intensity.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How many tigers in Nepal?</a>, Kunda DixitFirst arriving at Tiger Tops in the Chitwan National Park, I was told: “You can live your entire life in the jungle without ever seeing a tiger.” The king of the jungle is essentially nocturnal, solitary and adept at avoiding people and encounters, its lone survival depending on self-sufficiency.For our guests, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/Tigerman-tiger,930" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck McDougal</a> and his naturalists shortened the odds by reading the signals, identifying tracks and interpreting alarm calls – barking deer, grunting monkeys and coughing chital. Jungle excursions and elephant safaris took place early morning and late afternoon to maximise the probability.In the bad old days, a young male buffalo was tethered in the same spot every night, watched over by a shikari who ran back on swept paths to summon us from the lodge bar or dinner table. Barefoot, breathlessly silent and peering through the small windows of the grass machan, a tiger could be discerned crouched over its kill, bones crunching, illuminated by a rudimentary searchlight powered by an old car battery.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/6369036f9c7e80680e037cc2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="990" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Despite such contrivances, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/More-trouble-in-Chitwan-National-Park,2956" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tiger sightings in the wild</a> are never certain. Even after we stopped baiting and depended on our naturalists skill, every year only one quarter of all Tiger Tops guests were fortunate enough to catch a precious glimpse of the planet’s largest cat.And for me, every time was a moment of magic and quiet respect that such splendour coexists on this earth.Originally protected as a sanctuary for Nepal’s Greater One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), the fame of Chitwan was soon usurped by the tiger’s elusive glamour, the undisputed star of the show. Even the Latin name resonates with awe and mystery: Panthera tigris.Chitwan’s rich habitat, watered by the Raptiand Narayani rivers with alluvial grasslands, mixed riverine forest and the sal-covered Chure Hills, had long been set aside by ruling Ranas as prime hunting country, reserved as a refuge to impress a favoured few royals, viceroys and maharajahs. The Shah kings were required to prove their bravery with bagged tigers and perform obscure religious rites that included climbing inside the carcass of a slaughtered rhino.During Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 1961, for which Meghauli airstrip was carved out of the jungle, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/join-us-on-land-boris,869" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boris Lisanevitch</a> catered an elaborate royal camp and 327 elephants were rallied for the game drive, Prince Philip famously refused to shoot. Yesterday’s hunters were evolving into today’s conservationists, and cameras were replacing guns.Throughout its range, Asia’s apex predator had become critically endangered due to a combination of loss of habitat, depletion of prey species, human conflict, poaching and hunting. South Asian tigers drastically dwindled to less than 2,000 from an estimated population of 40,000 at the turn of the century, plummeting to less than 3,500 from 100,000 worldwide.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903729c7e80680e037cc3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">In response, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1973 launched Project Tiger throughout India, and the same year Chitwan’s 360-square-miles of undisturbed biodiversity were gazetted as Nepal’s first national park. Designated a natural World Heritage Site in 1984, and linked with adjacent reserves into the huge tiger conservation landscape of Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki in 1998, Royal Chitwan National Park rapidly became renown as one of the best wildlife viewing experiences in Asia, especially for the increasingly rare Royal Bengal tiger.At <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-quality-control-in-tourism,471" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tiger Tops</a>, a treetop lodge deep in tiger country since 1964, we were inevitably entwined and engrossed with its protection. An ideal base for wildlife research and filming, Chuck pioneered camera trapping, and helped the Smithsonian Institute’s radio tracking and long-term tiger monitoring.The government often asked help with logistics, and Jim Edwards’s former hunting skills came in handy when Hemanta Mishra and the warden requested assistance with tranquilising a man-eater – after three attacks anaberrant tiger, usually old or injured, would be sentenced to life in Kathmandu Zoo. As the elephants fanned out through the hot dry grass, mahouts shouted to drive the aging tigress towards the waiting dart-gun and I clung nervously to the ropes of my elephant’s gaddi behind a tense driver – we knew she had terrorised villagers from across the river straying into the jungle to collect grass and firewood.Nepal can be proud of its well-protected parks and successful conservation record, the envy of other tiger range countries with recovery of Nepal’s tigers well ahead of target. Nepali scientists have trained neighbours in scientific counting methods, we contributed sustainable tourism recommendations agreed by all tiger range countries (in Thimphu 2011), and naturalist guides have created conservation awareness with park visitors and celebrities.Actor Bob Hoskins got too close for comfort during a tiger documentary in Bardia, and <a href="https://www.leonardodicaprio.org/protecting-wild-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leonardo DiCaprio’s passion for tiger conservation</a> was first ignited at Tiger Tops Karnali, resulting in millions of dollars of WWF support.In the 2010 St Petersburg Declaration, 13 countries endorsed <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16820#.W2_ejWaB1TY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Global Tiger Recovery Plan</a> to double the number of tigers worldwide by 2022, the next Chinese Year of the Tiger. Nepal committed to expand its tiger population from 121 to about 250. By 2013 we had already achieved 63% of this goal with 198 tigers resident mainly in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/habitat-destrcution-of-tiger-in-Tarai,3423" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chitwan</a>, but also Bardia, Shuklaphanta, Parsa and Banke protected areas.No one should live in a world without wild tigers. We <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">await the results of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation 2018 census</a>, but Nepal’s tigers remain a powerful tourism icon and a potent symbol of Nepal’s conservation success.The spelling of  Zbigniew Brzezinski in the caption has been corrected.

Sun striped shadows

The Kathmandu Valley has attracted an exceptional number of outstanding and accomplished foreigners over the decades, but few as extraordinary as Marilyn Silverstone (1929-1999).&nbsp; Frances Klatzel’s book A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a fitting and fascinating biographical celebration of this American woman whose life of unusual choices took her, as the title suggests, from an affluent Jewish childhood in Scarsdale, New York to becoming an acclaimed and adventurous Magnum photographer.&nbsp; Roving the world, her camera captured many of the most iconic events of the 20th century, her images were published in Time, Life, Newsweek, Look, National Geographic, Paris Match, Vogue and other magazines. Following the teachings of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Marilyn Silverstone devoted the last twenty years of her eventful life to living quietly and practising Buddhism in Nepal. Ordained as a Buddhist nun, she took vows in the sanctified Solukhumbu precincts of Thubten Choling with Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche in the spring of 1977. Living in Kathmandu until her death in Shechen Monastery, which she helped create, Marilyn wrote: ‘When I look back over the years, although I did not know it at the time, ending my life as a Buddhist nun was logical and inevitable.’&nbsp; Ani Marilyn was a familiar figure amid the sacred spaces of the Valley, the lanes of Boudha and even Kathmandu’s drawing rooms during my early years in Nepal, a large smiling presence draped in maroon robes, dyed sneakers, slightly whiskered, robust.&nbsp; As a wedding gift she gave Tenzin and I an inscribed copy of her slim volume, Ocean of Life, aptly named for the span of her achievements and expansive embrace – editor, translator, writer, filmmaker, photographer, journalist and Buddhist nun. Marilyn’s nephew wrote: ‘Her legacy was that she was always herself no matter what chapter of her life that she was living.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1164" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> <figcaption>Ani Marilyn as a Tibetan Buddhist nun at Shechen Monastery in Boudha.</figcaption> </figure>  Working with a wide range of impeccable sources, Frances Klatzel has assembled first-hand the personal recollections and unsparing insights from Marilyn’s most intimate friends. One of these, Jane Abell Coon, wrote the Introduction. She was a well-known person in 1980s Kathmandu whose husband Carlton Coon served as American Ambassador to Nepal and she simultaneously as American Ambassador in Bangladesh.&nbsp; The book begins with a rare message from the 14th Dalai Lama and a touching Foreword by Venerable Rabjam Rinpoche. It ends with exquisite excerpts from a Buddhist religious tract that Marilyn had translated from its traditional Tibetan text. Marilyn’s initial trip to India was to photograph Ravi Shankar in 1955, the classical sitar maestro. Increasingly fascinated by ‘the complex and compassionate culture’ of Tibet, her Himalayan archives include images throughout India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.&nbsp; The first internationally accredited photojournalist to base herself in India, from 1959 Marilyn lived in Bombay then Delhi, with her lifelong partner Frank Moraes, the Goan journalist, writer, commentator and first Indian editor of the Times of India after Independence. INDIAN INFLUENCERS I remember being taken to meet the legendary Frank Moraes in 1973, by then politically exiled in Marilyn’s elegant but chaotic London house, a magnet for South Asian intellectuals. She was not there, but Frank’s son the poet Dom Moraes was slumped desultory on a sagging sofa. My impression of Frank was well-dressed, polite and slightly distracted. Marilyn’s talent for friendship and wide network of Indian influencers and princely connections gave her unique access to historic events, as well as recording refugees, rituals, droughts, floods, famines and funerals. In addition to maharajahs and global leaders, her images portray personal moments, ordinary people, unflinching pain and flashes of joy. She said: ‘In my job, the closer you get to people, the better off you are.’ This book is illustrated with a thrilling trove of pictures of and by Marilyn, many of which reflect the impact of Henri Cartier-Bresson who signed her up as one of the first women to join his prestigious Magnum photo cooperative.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2124" height="1404" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> </figure>  Her assignments ranged across warzones in Vietnam, the Shah of Iran’s coronation, and Russian tanks rolling into Prague. Marilyn’s 1960s involved constant travel, her Magnum beat was the ‘Far East’, from Pakistan and Bangladesh to China, Korea, and Japan.&nbsp; With a knack at being in the right place at the right time, Marilyn was the only western woman journalist to record the arrival from Lhasa into ‘safety and exile’ of the young Dalai Lama in 1959. She was at Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s funeral in Delhi, the Chogyal of Sikkim’s marriage to Hope Cooke, and with Jacqueline Kennedy on a small boat at the Lake Palace of Udaipur.&nbsp; Marilyn snapped the Pope giving blessings in Bombay, Mother Teresa attending to the poor, and the Beatles on their way to meet the Maharishi. With Frank, she travelled to Africa and shot Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, Nigeria’s independence celebrations, and a very old and solar-topied Dr Albert Schweitzer in his jungle hospital in Gabon.&nbsp; A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a highly recommended tribute to an inspirational life, told with discerning honesty and private perceptions by those who knew her best.&nbsp; Her monastic years living in Nepal continued to feature travel, hard work, undiminished curiosity, dogged fights for right, uncompromising support for others, disdain for conformity and battles with ill health, but all with her characteristic good humour. Marilyn leaves us with some sound advice in her own words: “I can say that I did it all. The secret though is just keep walking through life without analysing it too much or clinging to it too much. Just walk on.” &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="marilyn silverstone"> </figure>

“Just walk on”

The pale green ice on the top of the lake gleams in the pale January sunlight. The dark waters beneath are visible through the translucent frozen surface. This is Thulagi Glacial Lake at the foot of Mt Manaslu in central Nepal, classified as one of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/danger-nepal-s-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up">most dangerous lakes </a>to appear in the Himalaya due to climate heating.&nbsp; The place is breathtaking not just because of its 4,050m altitude, but the scenery all around. The beauty belies the threat this expanding lake poses downstream along the Marsyangdi Valley. &nbsp; The lake lies at the terminus of the 4.5km long Thulagi Glacier. The local Gurung inhabitants call it Dona Tal. They say it started appearing in the 1960s. Local guide Chandra Bahadur Gurung, 47, has been ferrying trekkers to the spot for about 20 years.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_a34407fbb58b41554f08d392933ea32360649deaf712e2221686533f81507f58.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260122100136_a34407fbb58b41554f08d392933ea32360649deaf712e2221686533f81507f58" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>MELTING MOUNTAINS: Thulagi Glacial Lake in Manang has been identified among 47 lakes in Nepal at risk of an outburst flood because of climate breakdown. All photos: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_4d3c25c9b4f6eaff3e538b36346471c301d38338514bfdfa9ee63ccd77d20489.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260122100136_4d3c25c9b4f6eaff3e538b36346471c301d38338514bfdfa9ee63ccd77d20489" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Yaks graze below Thulagi Himal (7,059m) and Mt Manaslu (8,163m) along the Dona Khola that drains the lake.</figcaption> </figure>  “Dona used to be small, but it has now grown bigger,” he says, gesturing to how the glacier has receded and shrunk. Trekkers used to be able to go to the other side, but now the glacier is riddled with ponds and boulders falling off the moraine that make it dangerous.&nbsp; Gurung adds rather matter-of-factly: “The lake will burst sooner or later.”&nbsp; Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been studying Thulagi for the past two decades. Topographic maps from the 1960s and early satellite images show the lake being much smaller.&nbsp; When the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-resource-curse">Marsyangdi Hydropower Project</a> project was being built in 1994, the German Institute of Geology and Natural Resources with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology measured the lake to be already 2km in length. More recent surveys show the lake has increased its size since then to more than 1 sq km. &nbsp; The lake is among 47 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/meltpools-in-the-himalaya">dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal and Tibet </a>&nbsp;identified by ICIMOD in 2020 due to its size, the risk of landslides and avalanches, and the gradual collapse of the lake’s ice-core moraine dam.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9b9fea3665494614c2d89e4202c735fd642a13552d67ca2be3da5c390320ca9b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260122100136_9b9fea3665494614c2d89e4202c735fd642a13552d67ca2be3da5c390320ca9b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Local guide Chandra Bahadur Gurung has been taking trekkers up to Thulagi Lake for 20 years.</figcaption> </figure>  In 2018 a team of glaciologists led by Umesh K Haritasya <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/5/798">published a journal article</a> about the evolution of three glacial lakes including Thulagi, Lower Barun, and Imja. Even back in 1976, Thulagi was twice the size of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Diverting-danger,3172">Imja glacial lake</a> in the Khumbu and six times the size of the Lower Barun. The team measured the lake’s depth at 79m, and calculated that it held 36.1 million m3 of water. Since then, Thulagi has been growing at a slower rate than the other two lakes because it is shielded by shadows of mountains. There is also not as much glacial calving in the narrow valley.&nbsp; Nonetheless, scientists and experts have long warned that a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) from Thulagi poses a big risk to four hydropower projects on the Marsyangdi and settlements like Besisahar and Dumre (map).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260125130136_eac3ccf38d2f91619825ab977bb21ea3eee84d6e87939721f9a8dbb7f0f22504.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20260125130136_eac3ccf38d2f91619825ab977bb21ea3eee84d6e87939721f9a8dbb7f0f22504" data-rendition-name="original" width="2076" height="1444" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi map"> </figure>  The lake feeds into Dona Khola, a tributary of the Marsyangdi where the 49.9MW Dona Khola hydropower project is being built at a cost of Rs10 billion. Another 42MW Super Dona Khola project is planned on the river. “One of the trigger points that could lead to a glacial lake outburst could be the steep lateral moraine, which might be weakened by rapidly melting permafrost,” says Scott Watson, a University of Leeds researcher who was part of the team that conducted the 2018 study. Locals are already witnessing what Watson describes. They say that it was easy to reach Thulagi’s headwaters even until a few years ago, but that is now dangerous because of ice and rockfalls.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_217a1951a620e8efe11e5936600be172874976a0c04a1031495cf6687ce8f82c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260122100136_217a1951a620e8efe11e5936600be172874976a0c04a1031495cf6687ce8f82c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1426" height="1070" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>The 50MW Upper Marsyangdi Hydropower Project station in Lamjung. A Thulagi Lake outburst would damage four hydropower projects on the Marsyangdi and its tributaries.</figcaption> </figure>  GLOF WARNING&nbsp; Glaciologist Rijan Bhakta Kayastha has been studying Thulagi since 1994, and was part of a team that discovered that the lake’s terminal moraine was made up of rocky soil on top and ice at its core.&nbsp; In 2020, Kayastha's team published a study that modelled the route of a possible GLOF. They found that if the lake burst, it would take 2.5 hours to reach Dharapani, and 4 hours to reach Bahundanda 39km downstream. The surge would be 13.7m high at Dharapani and 15m by the time it reached Taal, the village most at risk because it is situated only a few metres above the Marsyangdi. ‘Considering the size of the Thulagi glacial lake and its dam, it seems unlikely that a rock fall or avalanche would cause the lake to breach the moraine dam,” concluded the study. “But an earthquake or climate change would require a separate study. At present, there is no immediate or imminent threat of this glacier bursting.” MEMORIES OF 2021 Across Manang valley, residents are haunted by the memories of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayan-floods-a-sign-of-worse-to-come">2021 flood on the Marsyangdi</a> that swept away parts of Chame, Dharapani, Naso, and Taal villages.&nbsp; Kamarkali Gurung, grew up on the banks of the Marsyangdi in Dharapani, and had never imagined that the tranquil river she knew could become such a monster. She had saved up to build her own three-story property with 17 rooms.&nbsp; Her family was away that June evening when the flood swept away her hotel. “Not even a spoon remained, everything was gone,” says Kamarkali. “Losing the hotel hurt like losing a loved one. The Marsyangdi flows through my house now, I can never go back.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_925087c286f18a0374f5d2fae5cc528b6e8b5a55e02813e470c49b923b4f193a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260122100136_925087c286f18a0374f5d2fae5cc528b6e8b5a55e02813e470c49b923b4f193a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>SURVIVORS: Kamarkali Gurung's hotel was swept away by the 2021 flood on the Marsyangdi. She now operates her hotel from a rented house in Dharapani.</figcaption> </figure>  Surendra Gurung, also a hotelier, was in Dharapani the night of the flood, and can still remember the fear as the river roared towards the village. “I did not know if I would live or die,” he says.&nbsp; Sirantal village was merely 10m above the Marsyangdi, and was completely destroyed by the flood. Thirty-two people were rescued by army helicopters, and most of the families have now relocated to Taal.&nbsp; One of them is Singha Bahadur Gurung who also ran a lodge for 20 years. “We did not have to buy anything except rice, the soil in Sirantal was so fertile,” he remembers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9da9290e59a6d565ae9cb81a850f725ccd937fd658d0adfabccfe4114ec94bed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260122100136_9da9290e59a6d565ae9cb81a850f725ccd937fd658d0adfabccfe4114ec94bed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Singha Bahadur Gurung operated a lodge in Sirantal before the flood swept it away in 2021.</figcaption> </figure>  Marsyangdi now flows through where Singha Gurung’s village used to be. “Ever since the flood, I am terrified every time it rains from June to August,” he says.&nbsp; The 2021 flood was during the monsoon, and was caused by unusually heavy rainfall in the catchment. A GLOF on the Marsyangdi would be much more destructive. Roshni Ghale, 46, runs a hotel in Taal, and escaped with her family to a nearby cave as the flood engulfed nearby homes.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_7a6b74a4c33b597e2815b035ec5d56ffea35923016518f0fb35bcc4fc925dccd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20260122100136_7a6b74a4c33b597e2815b035ec5d56ffea35923016518f0fb35bcc4fc925dccd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Roshni Ghale spent six months after the 2021 flood rebuilding her hotel in Taal. Tourism has steadily picked up in the four years since the flood. </figcaption> </figure>  “We spent the next six months after the flood rebuilding our lives, going to bed hungry many a night,” she recalls. In the four years since, tourism has picked up again, but the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unseen-wounds-of-climate-disasters"> community is still traumatised</a>. In the wake of the floods, the government had begun talks to rehabilitate and repatriate the community, but until now, they have been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/from-one-disaster-to-the-next">empty promises</a>. In any case, the people here, most of them experienced hoteliers whose livelihood depends on tourism, are unwilling to uproot their lives and start over elsewhere.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9a13c863422806eefdcd826ed12f9906e2372bd8f60f83c5351652eccf050384.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20260122100136_9a13c863422806eefdcd826ed12f9906e2372bd8f60f83c5351652eccf050384" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="844" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Most of the survivors of the 2021 flood on the Marsyangdi from villages like Sirantal have relocated to the upstream village of Taal, which itself was hit by a monsoon flood in 2021.</figcaption> </figure>  DISASTER PREPAREDNESS Even though studies have assessed the risk of GLOFs in Manang and across Nepal, and warned about the damage that such floods could cause, it took until 2021 for early warning systems to be installed on the banks of the Marsyangdi and in the town of Taal.&nbsp; But beyond that, there has been little preparedness. Early warning systems and disaster preparedness are necessary not just along the Marsyangdi but also at and around Thulagi itself, say experts. Locals here are becoming increasingly aware of the risk posed by the expanding lake up the valley, but are reluctant to leave homes and communities that they have lived in for generations. The hydropower projects on the Dona Khola promises jobs, and the local government is upgrading the hiking trail to Thulagi Lake which has become a tourist attraction. “Manang now gets <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/too-little-snow-too-much-rain">too little snow and too much rain</a>, and the Marsyangdi charts its own course,” says Min Rashi Gurung, chair of Ward-1 of Naso rural municipality, where Thulagi is located. &nbsp; But help may be on the way.Last year, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved a $36.1 million grant to help Nepal reduce risk of GLOFs in Thulagi and four other glacial lakes. The project is managed by the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project is set to begin next fiscal year, and will reduce the water level in the four glacial lakes including Thulagi, similar to what was done in Imja and Tso Rolpa, says Dinkar Kayastha at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. &nbsp; Centre for Investigative Journalism - Nepal

Hotter Himalaya melts glaciers

This is the 81st episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working and studying abroad. I went to Australia in 2008 because everyone was headed there. It was my first time leaving the country and my first job. My college helped me find work as a kitchen helper at a Brisbane restaurant.&nbsp; I did not know that being a kitchen helper meant washing dishes. I was young and did not know how to wash dishes or how to handle the steam, the hot water, and the busy kitchen. The utensils were thrown at the dishwashing station continuously, and water splashed on my face. My shoes and clothes were always wet. It was an on-call job. A couple of days into the job, I was asked to come in when I was at the movies. I refused. They fired me. That was that. I then worked on a farm, picking lemons and oranges. The lemon work was particularly hard because I would get cuts all over my hands. This hustle was not for me.&nbsp; Within a year in Australia, I decided to return to Nepal because the foreign life did not suit me. After spending eight months in Nepal, reality sank in. Nepal was not all that great either. I went back to Australia. On the plane, I befriended a Nepali woman who was homesick and a first time traveler. At the immigration in Australia, the officer noticed my long absence and started interrogating me. He noticed the Nepali woman waiting for me and asked who she was. Without thinking I lied that she was my girlfriend. That seemed to do the trick because he did not want us to be separated. He stamped my passport. She went her way. I went mine.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260127130112_5e7bfa6acc5f94d5f1905537e387c2d4169469679ace2b71de368912f3bd514f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260127130112_5e7bfa6acc5f94d5f1905537e387c2d4169469679ace2b71de368912f3bd514f" data-rendition-name="original" width="987" height="1004" loading="lazy" alt="DD 81 NT"> </figure>  In Sydney, I again found a dishwashing job at a fine dining restaurant. A Sri Lankan colleague helped me learn the job. The pace at which I had to do the dishes was insane but I got the hang of it in two weeks. I always dreamt of one day wearing the chef’s white coat. It commanded respect, I could tell. In addition to becoming good at my job washing dishes, I also had good language and networking skills so I built good relationships with colleagues. There was a need for a pizza chef at the restaurant. It was expensive to hire someone new, and they asked me if I was up for the job. I said yes even though I knew nothing about making pizzas. My Italian colleagues coached me and before I knew it, I became better than others at the job. Soon, I realised that I did not just want to make pizzas. Whatever I wanted to learn, I just asked seniors to take me under their wings and I would help without pay. They would agree but still pay me. It wasn’t a strategy per se, I genuinely wanted to learn. At some point, a Japanese sous chef in my restaurant and I had coincidentally applied to the same restaurant, and there, under him, I got to learn even more. Working with a Japanese chef is really difficult, but you learn a lot. He would sometimes even hold my hand with tongs dipped in hot water when I screwed something up. I worked in a few restaurants after this and was earning well. When one of my colleagues, a dishwasher, was let go unfairly, I decided to leave because I did not want to be a quiet bystander to this act. I returned to Nepal immediately after this.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012719010_f33ba38bb5f86f1d33262fd0d7ccd09ed01f6cc52148ca3d4cd66c434b695730.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026012719010_f33ba38bb5f86f1d33262fd0d7ccd09ed01f6cc52148ca3d4cd66c434b695730" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="DD 82"> </figure>  I started a restaurant called Ghumti, but it was struggling. The location of the restaurants was not good and it failed. I bought another restaurant in Darbar Marg. I was managing two restaurants when Covid hit. The rent kept piling up, and there was no revenue. I took a huge loss. I gave them up and returned to Chitwan and started making migration plans. I came across a job vacancy for Alba in Qatar by the famous Enrico Crippa. I still remember the heat when I got out of the airport in Doha, it was like entering an oven. Thankfully, I had a Nepali roommate who showed me around and helped me adjust.&nbsp; The hotel was still under construction, but training had started. We worked really hard for the opening and things went well. In 2023, we even won the Best MENA Restaurant award. But at some point in 2024, the international Crippa chain decided to leave.&nbsp; Some colleagues including the head chef left and I suddenly was put in charge. I had some head chef experience from Australia and had previous experience working in high pressure environments, so I stepped up. We had to start from scratch again, this time as Alba in Raffles, Doha.&nbsp; The name of our restaurant comes from the Alba white truffle, which is the best available and is expensive, selling at around 40,000 QAR per kg. We had heard the official announcement that the Michelin was coming to Qatar, and we worked even harder.&nbsp; Michelin inspections are strict, highly secretive and you have no idea you are being investigated. Even then, we were up for the game. We were ‘selected’ which meant we had potential.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012719010_bab3a904af69603e9e79f333aeea89b035401c0c8d1750930107f3594ff1f565.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026012719010_bab3a904af69603e9e79f333aeea89b035401c0c8d1750930107f3594ff1f565" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="697" loading="lazy" alt="DD 81"> </figure>  I went to the award ceremony with low expectations. But because they announce the name alphabetically, Alba came first. I was very happy and felt validated. Being recognised as a Michelin one star restaurant is a huge achievement for us. My MD reminded me of a promise I had made of getting a Michelin tattoo if we got the award. I guess I will get it done when I come to Nepal next. My plan is to get a tattoo that captures my journey right from the dishwashing days.&nbsp; I have cooked for Obama, Beckham, Kaka, Trump, 50 Cent, Lindsay Lohan, you name it, because our restaurant is visited by high profile guests. At first, I used to feel the pressure. Now I view all guests as the same. The food you make is the same no matter who is eating it. I love the work. In fact, it does not feel like work. The rush in the kitchen, the atmosphere, the heat, the scent, I live for it. When I am not working, I get bored. It is like an addiction without which I get withdrawals. I want to contribute in introducing Nepali cuisine and ingredients in the worldstage. Nepalis overseas have a lot of potential in the hospitality sector. But my advice to youth is to focus on building a strong base and invest in learning. It is increasingly common for Nepalis to job hop for a salary jump. While other skills like language are also important, it is the hard skills that we really need to focus on. In our field of work, it is the plate that needs to speak.

Sky is the limit

A mighty metal bird, ‘Heron on Hunt’ spreads its wings and unhinges its mouth hungrily. It looks down at ‘The Defending Crab,’ which has windshield wipers for legs and opens its pincers defiantly at the heron, daring it to attack. The crab shell is made of a ceiling fan, the blades of which have been cut up to form the bird’s wings. “The story is that you are what you eat,” says artist <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Saurab Koirala</a>, whose solo exhibition ‘<a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Metamorphosis</a>’ at <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/archiving-for-the-future-an-intersection-of-heritage-and-architecture/" target="_blank">Taragaon Next </a>has sculptures made of material retrieved from garbage warehouses. Koirala was in the studio when protestors ransacked the adjacent Hyatt Hotel on 9 September. The windows of the iconic museum designed by <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/957728/carl-pruscha-an-architect-investigating-overlooked-territories" target="_blank">architect Carl Pruscha</a> in the 1960s were all shattered, but the studio survived. He used the broken glass to make fins for his fish sculptures and wings for insects.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_0c6c0f6d69472940e1c623db7bae62235a18ded418066b1c8ecc89485d76dcd4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2026012409010_0c6c0f6d69472940e1c623db7bae62235a18ded418066b1c8ecc89485d76dcd4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  Metamorphosis is a reference to the transformation of trash into art, but it is also fitting because many of the repurposed items are of insects: a firefly, a dung beetle, a spider, a dragonfly, a queen ant. The most striking are the pair of praying mantises, the smaller one is black, made of windshield wipers, and the larger grey one is made of a motorcycle silencer, bicycle parts, and a fluorescent tube holder. About the unrealistic size difference, Koirala notes that each piece is made of a component that defines its size. For the larger grey mantis, the defining piece is the silencer that makes up its torso. “The mantises are mating,” Koirala explains. “The female mantis will cannibalise the male afterwards, and the dragonfly witnesses the whole scene.” It is possible to look at each installation and immediately recognise what it is meant to be, but on looking closer we see what the parts are made of, and how. The exhibition is from Koirala’s Taragaon Next residency program sponsored by the Saraf Foundation.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_35d47a71c3e357d4cdba166cdcbf37019639c68a3d69a158f19fe97ea48065ea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2026012409010_35d47a71c3e357d4cdba166cdcbf37019639c68a3d69a158f19fe97ea48065ea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  Koirala thinks of himself as primarily a painter and a caricature artist, and not a sculptor. His mother was a teacher, and would make miniature animals, gods, houses for her students. “Seeing how happy she was doing that made me want to do it too, although she did not want me to be an artist,” Koirala recalls. Some of his mother’s creations are also on display at the exhibition. Koirala got more experience working with 3D models digitally in his work at Incessant Rain animation studio, especially animals. This seems to have given him strong visualisation skills that he has put to use in the art pieces, using minimal bending and cutting. Koirala participated in the WastArt Competition in 2018, where his Danphe sculpture made from colourful coke and soda cans was so striking that it became a part of the permanent collection at the Sagarmatha Next Art Gallery in Syangboche. Koirala worked in the studio in Khumbu, fashioning yaks and bees out of trekking trash.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_253578bca93f136dca51102fc03a675cc3a8f47ba0b2d31ae2a4020c2c6e7485.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2026012409010_253578bca93f136dca51102fc03a675cc3a8f47ba0b2d31ae2a4020c2c6e7485" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  “My back hurts,” he grimaces as he opens the doors to the studio, an unassuming shed a short walk from the exhibition which is littered with metal spare parts for future art. He has gone through three whole bicycles with a power saw. Koirala seems to want to alter the scrap as little as possible, and it is uncanny how well some of it fits the pieces. The aerodynamic curved fuel tank of a Bajaj Avenger motorcycle becomes the abdomen of a gigantic queen ant. A mosquito repellent becomes the green body of a spider. A stapler and a coconut turn into a snail. The steel legs of a rolling office chair curve exactly into the legs and paws of a fox in motion. “I did not want the animals to be in static poses. I wanted to capture dynamic movement,” says Koirala. Fittingly, most of the parts he has chosen have come from vehicles: bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, car horns, air filters. While Koirala’s work in his Sagarmatha Next residency was about waste encroaching into nature in the mountains, his work in Metamorphosis is a nostalgic memory of a happy childhood in Biratnagar. ‘There used to be abundant dragonflies in my hometown,’ writes Koirala in his description. “As kids, we would catch them and tie threads to their tails and fly them like kites.” The message about the degradation of nature is more valid than ever. The world is seeing the mass extinction of insects, and uncontrolled urbanisation of polluted Kathmandu Valley means only ants and some spiders survive. Artist in Studio #9: <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Metamorphosis</a> <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/" target="_blank">Taragaon Next</a> Till 30 January 10AM-5:30PM