A Flushing Local 7 subway train approaches the platform and commuters get ready to step in. The scene cuts to solid black. These first few seconds set the tone for the rest of Diversity Plaza — this is going to be a film &nbsp;about people in motion. Movement through time and space is something of a trademark for acclaimed documentary maker Kesang Tseten, with previous films like In Search of the Riyal, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13035">We Corner People</a>, Castaway Man and Frames of War. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Kesang-Tseten-documentary-on-Dor-Bahadur-Bista,2176">Some of these films</a> will be screened in a retrospective this weekend.&nbsp; For the next minute or so, Diversity Plaza shows us beauty parlours and nail salons, a kabab king, street vendors, a Covid-19 vaccine centre and a momo van.&nbsp; We are in Jackson Heights in the New York borough of Queens. A subtitle tells us it is ‘the most linguistically diverse zip code in the US and perhaps the world’. Queens is home to 75,000 immigrants from Nepal, Bhutan and India. More than 60% of the people here are foreign-born and speak 160 languages. They are politically aware, and concerned about their place in a changing America, and an altered world. There is an intersection in Queens actually named Diversity Plaza, and Tseten films immigrants campaigning for candidates for city council amidst the Covid crisis, while there are attacks on Asians after President Trump called the bug the “Chinese Virus”. Near the Plaza in a nondescript building is Adhikaar which works for the rights of Nepali immigrants. &nbsp;Among them is Dibya Shori Shakya, who ever so slowly writes her name and address on the board. A group of women gathers to talk about being ashamed initially of their status as domestic help and nannies. “The children we raise will go on to become doctors, engineers or even presidents someday. So we shouldn’t feel lowly or discriminate against ourselves,” says one woman. United Sherpa Association Inc may sound like a mountaineering outfit, but is a monastery. After prayers, devotees do yoga. Some asana are too difficult, and they burst out laughing.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024022304020_dc3c87201c606792b8980dbb7203eb88332eebf015f4e3a638a74c9c11a780b0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2024022304020_dc3c87201c606792b8980dbb7203eb88332eebf015f4e3a638a74c9c11a780b0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1426" height="750" loading="lazy" alt="Diversity Plaza"> <figcaption>Screengrab from Kesang Tseten's Diversity Plaza</figcaption> </figure>  This is an intimate look at Himalayan peoples living in Jackson Heights, their struggles and aspirations. Some are busy celebrating festivals and keeping traditions alive, others try to assimilate and are more concerned with making their voices heard in their new country. Adhikaar staff are out on the streets of New York including at Times Square in Manhattan, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-promise-of-an-american-dream">advocating for immigrant rights</a>. They are also urging fellow Nepalis to fill up census applications. “Census means numbers. What happens when there are numbers? Power, and when there is power, there is wealth… when there is wealth there is respect and when there is respect, there is recognition,” Narbada Chettri of Adhikaar explains on camera. During the film’s hour-long runtime, viewers in Nepal are transported to the other side of the world, almost forgetting that the scenes are happening on a screen. The cuts are rough, almost cinéma vérité style, unlike some of the sleeker films being made today. Tseten does not embellish the stories, the landscape, the people. Like his previous documentaries, the film lays bare the raw reality of immigrant life in America.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kesang-tseten-is-still-silent-but-not-absent">The director</a> himself takes a back seat, his inputs barely discernible. But of course he is there throughout in the composition of the shots, selection of scenes, the final edits. Tseten calls it an ‘unprompted’ style modelled after American filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. Even though there is no script in Diversity Plaza, the documentary still has a beginning, middle and an end. In Kathmandu this week, Tseten recalled how he was in New York in 2021, trying to persuade a character for his forthcoming film on the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bon-voyage"> Bön Po</a>, when he heard about Diversity Plaza with its strong Nepali presence. He was familiar with Jackson Heights ever since he was a student at Columbia Journalism School in the 1980s, and it piqued his attention. “Diversity Plaza is like Thamel,” he says. “The restaurants are filled with our own people.” The documentary ends on a high note, literally and figuratively. An immigrant from India performs a Karnatak song as the 7 train clatters above Diversity Plaza. She translates the verse into English before singing its original: “Do not seek or mind similarity in identity in the world. Why is it that we always look for the things that are the same about one another instead of celebrating and valuing our differences?” &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024022304020_d5d5a26acda7234986e3edbd6f7dc593b10ecdeaf2f4178880249381d5371ec2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2024022304020_d5d5a26acda7234986e3edbd6f7dc593b10ecdeaf2f4178880249381d5371ec2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1135" height="635" loading="lazy" alt="Diversity Plaza"> </figure>  Social Science Baha and photo.circle's Kesang Tseten Retrospective will take place from 23 to 25 February at Nepal Tourism Board.

Sonia Awale

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Seeking identity in diversity

A couple enter the third decade of marriage even as their eldest daughter finds herself trapped in a failing one. The son doesn’t want to be hitched, while the youngest daughter is enthusiastic about her upcoming arranged marriage. On the stage of Kausi Theatre this is a microcosm of marriages in contemporary Nepal, acted out in a two-hour play.&nbsp; Bidushi (Ranjana Bhattarai), the youngest daughter of Rukmani (Loonibha Tuladhar) and Krishna Koirala (Aashant Sharma), is getting married to a man based in the US, a person she has never seen before.&nbsp; The family has come together for the wedding, with Hema (Kenipa Singh Pahari) making the trip from Australia to be part of the celebration. Her husband, still in Australia, is not in touch with her.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230927070944_976c38a2cdcdb1e91bc42c946991002f583d9943678fb287d4e11fe4c4a5529f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230927070944_976c38a2cdcdb1e91bc42c946991002f583d9943678fb287d4e11fe4c4a5529f" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="640" loading="lazy" alt="Wedding Album"> </figure>  Amid wedding preparations, their sibling Rohit (Sudam Ck) tries to reconcile his own relationship with his girlfriend to the other marriage proposals coming his way. Meanwhile, Rukmani and Krishna’s own 30-year marriage is tainted by Krishna’s past abuse of his wife.&nbsp; There is added tension in the home because of the strained relationship between Rukmani and Kusum Didi, the Koiralas’ housekeeper. &nbsp; Wedding Album is directed by Katha Ghera co-founder Akanchha Karki, who also adapted the play into Nepali from Indian actor and dramatist Girish Karnad’s 2011 play originally written in Kannada, which Karnad translated into English himself.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230927070916_c512eec6955be86eed0064de5a3cfd944f0ce20a2fc12804421610eb9f2555fc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230927070916_c512eec6955be86eed0064de5a3cfd944f0ce20a2fc12804421610eb9f2555fc" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="959" loading="lazy" alt="Akanchha Karki NT"> <figcaption>Director Akanchha Karki. Photo: AKANCHHA KARKI/FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>  Against the backdrop of the various conjugal conflicts, director Karki gets the cast to tackle issues including mental health, misogyny, domestic abuse, sexual violence, self-worth, and the female psyche. As individual stories and hidden truths of each of the family members unfold, Karki weaves these issues through their interaction with each other—showing how each personality constantly contradict itself. &nbsp; For instance, Bidushi is headstrong, outspoken, progressive, sexually liberated. She confronts men who sexually assault her in a cafe. Yet she is ready to be married off to someone she has never met. She is unable to understand why her sister is in an unhappy marriage.&nbsp; Hema lives with her family in Australia but is not more tolerant. She still disapproves of her brother’s Christian girlfriend. She is aware, but silent about her father’s abuse of her mother. Even as she tells her sister that it is okay to leave the relationship if she is not happy with her soon-to-be partner, she struggles to comprehend that she could leave her own crumbling marriage.&nbsp; Middle child Rohit plays the ideal, responsible, long-suffering son fending off unwanted marriage proposals. But his personality is transformed once out of the home. He also agrees that his sister Bidushi should leave her husband if the relationship breaks down, but mistreats his own girlfriend.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230927070944_f35d97f6b552b5698ee333662acce965465e704fb9d1d7463b4ef91dbea739bf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230927070944_f35d97f6b552b5698ee333662acce965465e704fb9d1d7463b4ef91dbea739bf" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="640" loading="lazy" alt="Wedding Album"> </figure>  The Koiralas are educated and ‘liberal’, but still willing to marry off their daughter to someone they have not met before. They are not impervious to the inherent wastefulness and spectacle of extravagant South Asian weddings meant to show off wealth, rather than a contained celebration of love. The strength of the play lies in its cast. LoonibhaTuladhar and Ashanta Sharma are brilliant as Rukmani and Krishna, while Kenipa Singh, Sudam Ck, and RanjanaBhattarai hold their own as the three siblings. The supporting cast is solid, if a bit melodramtic at times.&nbsp; The clever staging and set design enhance the production. Director Karki does not employ unnecessary movement just for the sake of covering the entire stage. A particularly poignant scene sees Rukmani and Krishna at opposite ends of the stage, their anger palpable. Meanwhile, props and music have been used sparingly. As the end of the play approaches, there are a lot of loose ends in the stories of the siblings and parents. Perhaps as in life itself.&nbsp; Wedding Album will play at Kausi Theatre in Teku until 14 October.

Marriage drama

Nestled within the historic confines of Baber Mahal Revisited, the ‘Amalgam’ art exhibition at Siddhartha Art Gallery is a vibrant tapestry of contemporary expressions of over 40 Nepali artists young and not-so-young.
A staple of Kathmandu’s annual art calendar since 2009, Amalgam aspires to foster &nbsp;connections between artists, art aficionados, writers, and patrons, all converging to celebrate creativity and vitality.
Initially begun as 'Monsoon Moods', the exhibition has evolved over time into Amalgam, but still happens during the wettest part of Nepal’s rainy season, embodying the melding of various viewpoints, concepts, and artistic forms.
The exhibition spans two venues within Baber Mahal Revisited: the main gallery showcases 54 items featuring diverse mediums such as acrylic, polymer clay, oil on canvas, sculpture.
‘Melting Life’ by Min Thapa is a painting meticulously composed of thousands of dots, masterfully capturing the urgency of the climate crisis.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/deciphering-thangmi">Deciphering Thangmi</a>, Ashish Dhakal
Teesha Shrestha’s ‘Beauty and the Beast II’ poignantly portrays the encroachment of modern cement structures upon the city’s cultural urbanscape.&nbsp;
Sara Koinch’s ‘Parallel Journeys’ is a reflection on a personal odyssey of transitions between traditional and contemporary norms sensitively conveyed evoking both worlds.&nbsp;
The visual diversity of the exhibition becomes remarkably apparent through the vibrant colour palette and the intricate play of textures on the first floor. In contrast, the second floor presents a more subdued tone with sepia and pen and ink hues, gently conjuring a sense of nostalgia and timelessness.
The annexe building has 25 artworks using mediums like knitwork, mixed media, embroidery, digital print, mandala work.
The common theme in both galleries is thoughtful exploration of contemporary societal dynamics with a compelling mix of themes that ranging from culture, religion, and traditionalism to materialism, climate change, and the modern world. Spiritualism and indigeneity are also explored.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/vibrant-mithila-art-thrives-in-nepal">Vibrant Mithila art thrives in Nepal</a>, Anita Bhetwal
The convergence of established and emerging artists adds depth and contrast to the exhibitions. Curator Sangeeta Thapaexplains: “Amalgam is a platform that gives space to artists who have not got a chance to represent their art. Younger artists may feel left out because of the long waiting period to be seen. This is so they do not feel that way.”&nbsp;
Prithvi Shrestha from Bindu who collaborated on amalgam has his own artwork ‘Believe’ that hangs on the first floor of the art gallery.&nbsp;
"Our different cultures are getting lost, but the young generation still has veneration for an invisible force,” says Shrestha, pointing out his display. “The mask signifies that. When we put on the mask, we get the feeling of being god ourselves." &nbsp;
Shrestha adds that the mission of the exhibition is to spotlight the skill and creativity of artists from various backgrounds and experiences. Amalgam is successful in showcasing Nepal’s diversity.&nbsp;
Amalgam
Siddhartha Art Gallery
Till 27 August, 11pm to 5pm&nbsp;
Free entry
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places/">Nepali art going places</a>, Kunda Dixit

Amalgamation of Nepali art

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/6372396a9c7e80680e0c73ddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Wind-swept Mount Everest. Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVES</figcaption></figure>Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest begins in Spring 2019. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/peak-climbing-season-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s mountaineering</a> has just rebounded from the deadly avalanches on Everest in 2014 and 2015, and a year before the pandemic hits.High on Mt Everest, internationally certified mountain guide Tendi Sherpa and his 60-year-old American client leave their tent in Camp 4 and climb into the ‘death zone’.Only 800m remain, but for a guide, the worry is not so much about the summit as it is about returning to Camp 4 safely. Tendi’s story is but one among the many that are woven together in Sherpa, a new book by authors Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep Bashyal.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/6372396d9c7e80680e0c73dejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1536"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>At the moment Tendi is among 800 climbers on Manaslu, and took the video of a massive serac collapse near Base Camp on Sunday. Another avalanche near Camp 4 on the mountains killed one Nepali and wounded 10 others, and another American skier is missing near the summit – underscoring just how dangerous mountain climbing can be.For the Sherpa, it is doubly dangerous since they have to put themselves in harm’s way (on the Khumbu Icefall, in the death zone) for longer periods than their clients.The book attempts to go behind the climbs to portray the lives, dreams and destinies of the people who have made their surname and ethnicity a word for ‘support crew’ in the English language dictionary.Even as climbing in recent years has been over-commercialised, adding to the environmental impact and danger, climate crisis is changing the very nature of climbing.The two Nepali journalist authors of the book ask at one point: “Can climbing Everest ever be ‘a picnic’ for anyone?”Every year, hundreds of Sherpa guides accompany their Patagonia-clad clients to the base of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/journey-to-the-mountain-of-the-spirit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mountains in Nepal</a>, Pakistan, India and even the Alps and North America. They fix ropes to summits, put ladders across crevasses, guide them up ice faces, pitch tents and even cook – all with a smile.It is often easy to end up exoticising and giving a sense of otherness to the Sherpa climbers, painting them as superhuman sidekicks, relegating them to the footnotes of another’s attempts. Paired with the spectacular description of landscapes, the meditative, riveting or tragic first-hand accounts of the many Sherpa climbers and their families ensure that the book avoids this pitfall.Sherpas now increasingly climb not just because it is a job but because they enjoy the adventure. And they are financing their climbs by taking clients along. Increasingly, the portering work is now increasingly done by Nepal’s other ethnic groups. The guide who died on <a href="https://explorersweb.com/manaslus-can-of-worms-did-anyone-at-all-reach-the-true-summit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manaslu</a> on Monday was a Rai.Rather than asking the vague ‘why people climb’ questions, the authors cast their nets relatively wide over the history of mountaineering in the Himalaya, covering also a larger geographical area, from Khumbu to Darjeeling to the United States.They trace their aspiration and motivation alongside the changing attitudes towards the mountains, trade and tourism. An entire chapter is dedicated to  women climbers. Legends and superstitions mix with the tales of ambition and endurance. The Sherpa's ‘romance with the mountains and the act of climbing,’ the authors realise, ‘is attached to their love stories back home.’Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everestby Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep BashyalCassell, 2022321 pages    Rs699<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/637239709c7e80680e0c73dfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="2113">

Ashish Dhakal

Stories of Nepal’s summiteers

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235599c7e80680e0c497fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="809"/><figcaption>All photos: Sudam CK</figcaption></figure>Bhaktaprasad Bhyaguto is an odd little frog. Born in Ichangu under the ever-watchful gaze of Swyambhu, he is unlike any other anuran. Losing his tail, and out of his tadpole teens, he wants to explore Nepal.Kanak Mani Dixit’s 1998 children’s book धुमधामको घुमघाम follows ‘Bhaktay’ as he floats down the Bagmati in a tin-can, rides an oxcart, wades through the Tarai jungles, travels to Pokhara in a truck, and even treks up to Dolpo, to return home in the shirt pocket of a Twin Otter pilot.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/6372355b9c7e80680e0c4980jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="3376">The Adventures of a Nepali Frog has been translated into over 20 languages, and 25 years after the book first came out, Bhaktay is also the first Nepali frog to star in his very own musical.The play was adapted by Aayush Niroula and directed by Akanchha Karki, who herself grew up reading the frog book in school. Her adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm last year at Kausi Theatre was a hit.धुमधामको घुमघाम on stage is a vibrant and colourful production, reflecting the exuberance and wanderlust of a curious frog, the people and animals he meets along the way, the dangers, excitement, changes and comforts of growing up on the go. Subhas Rai’s pencil etches in the original book metamorphose into the dynamic stage design.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/6372355f9c7e80680e0c4981jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="3376">The lyrics of the songs, the music and live rendition by Strings Impact  bring the characters and locations leaping out of the set. The humour and emotional content of the story finds perfect expression in the mellifluous soundtrack of folk and blues, remixes of old Nepali classics like Chanchaley chanchaley and Ma ta khadina kuwa ko pani, and even John Denver’s Country Roads.The dialogue alone may not always release or appeal to pathos, but with songs and dance, the body shakes itself loose, twists and turns, jumps and slides, and the energy travels like lightning from the stage to the audience, as the impressive actors roll and quip, turning their heads and limbs to animal instinct and nature’s music.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235639c7e80680e0c4982jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="3376">The play does not ask the audience to suspend its disbelief: the actors are very clearly in onesies and animal masks. But viewers immediately find a point to connect with the characters, and empathise when the inhabitants of Chitwan National Park lament the loss of their jungle, or when a marmot is bullied for being different and having dreams and interests bigger than itself.The lessons here, from geography to science to spiritualism, are manifold, but perhaps at the core the message is: ‘Be adventurous, travel and learn – be open and mindful, and appreciative of local culture.’Courage is infectious, and Bhaktey and his creator both hope their imaginary journey inspires others to face challenges and undertake great adventures. The musical follows the novel’s core thirst for life and learning, inviting the audience to also go out and discover their country.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235679c7e80680e0c4983jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="3376">Akash Nepali, star of the show, says, “A mark of a good play, a good performance is that the audience eagerly partakes of the journey and joins in it.” धुमधामको घुमघाम does just that.Produced by Rato Bangala Kitab, the original publisher of the novel, and Katha Ghera, the play was staged from 26-29 August 2022 at the Kamal Mani Theatre, and will continue at Kausi Theatre in Teku from Friday, 2 September.धुमधामको घुमघामBased on the children’s book by Kanak Mani DixitAdapted by Aayush NiroulaDirected by Akanchha Karki 2-19 September 2022Kausi Theatre, TekuEvery day at 5:30PM (except Tuesday)Additional 1:30PM show on SaturdayRead more: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11224#.Yw73zOxByjA">Bestseller in Braille</a>, Manesh Shrestha

One small step for Frog, a giant leap for amphibians

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234099c7e80680e0c4911jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="2348"/><figcaption>Photo: ASHISH DHAKAL.</figcaption></figure>Siddhartha Art Gallery is once again alive with a vibrant colour palette, meticulously textured on canvas, depicting stunning expressions of devotion and dedication to art, inspiration and shakti.Renowned <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/Manandhar-fourth-exhibit-Nepal,2641" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">artist Kiran Manandhar</a>’s latest show ‘Samarpan’ – his first in four years – adds a delectable frenzy of red, orange, blue, black and white to the space. The gap in between the canvases sit like columns or bars, as though the frames were each a window and the viewers were staring directly into the eyes of providence.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372340d9c7e80680e0c4912jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="654"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234109c7e80680e0c4913jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="621">Photos: SAGAR MANANDHARIt is immediately difficult to group these artworks in a single genre. The softer lines and sharper angles are balanced by almost distinct faces. The curves of eyes, lips and limbs are bracketed by amorphous flames and shadows. There is a certain vagueness about the paintings – like the waves and ripples one sees in rivers or the sea – and the deities, Kali, Brahmayani, Kumari, Vaishnavi,  Ganesh, Seto and Rato Machhindranath, look abstract enough, but Manandhar will not relent so easily.“I am like a bird,” he says sitting under a parasol outside the gallery, as a sparrow skips across the courtyard paved with bricks on to a nearby bush. “I don’t make art saying one style or another, I like to hop from one branch to another, from one tree to another."Manandhar jokes that birds do not need visas to fly around. This desire for no restriction, to dissolve borders (at least in art) is strikingly conspicuous in ‘Samarpan’. Stylistically diverse, the paintings and a couple charcoal drawings even transcend philosophies and the various global schools of art. Influences of the European masters, for instance, blend in with the traditional Nepali figures, iconography and style.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234139c7e80680e0c4914jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3976" height="2352"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234179c7e80680e0c4915jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2523" height="2478"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nature and light also create an overall dream-like impression. Perhaps this ever-moving effect produced may be explained by Manandhar’s own drive to understand what art is. He is not being coy when he candidly admits, “Even after all these years, I still don’t know what a painting is.” This admission sums up his oeuvre.In fact, it is also an expression of the phenomenological conundrum: can one ever truly understand a concept or craft absolutely? Perhaps when one knows what painting is entirely, one does not need to paint anymore, but Manandhar has no intention of stopping. He describes the itch to make art, even at odd hours and places: working to figure out, to develop one’s skills and understanding:“I cannot stop,” he says, “My wish is to paint, to take Nepal’s name everywhere.”An evidence of this is ‘Samarpan’ which may appear at the outset to be very different from what the general public has come to take Manandhar’s modern and abstract works in the past. Abstract art, after all, has roots in indigenous and folk art.There is much variety here and the paintings do not want to be tied down to a particular adjective or movement. They are themselves in motion instead, to show the world and other artists, especially young ones, just how much there is to do.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372341b9c7e80680e0c4916jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="2279"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>‘Samarpan’ is the fruit of labour of four year and a couple paintings go far back as 2016. Much of the work was made during the Covid-19 pandemic and the title refers to  the dedication, the offering made to art, to inspiration, to the many artists who were compelled to give up by the pandemic and the constraints it invited, and to Nepal which Manandhar so lovingly calls ‘devbhumi’ – land of gods.To call them patriotic or nationalistic would be missing the point, for this presupposes borders which Manandhar wishes to bring down. While the gods depicted are Nepali in essence, the art is an homage, a look towards the past and the traditions. It is also a representation of a spiritual landscape and the power of divine inspiration. After all, who can traverse boundaries and partitions as easily as the gods?<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372341e9c7e80680e0c4917jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="3008"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/art-for-a-cause/">Artists have to be sensitive</a>,” he adds, “We have to be observant and thoughtful.” But he admits it is not easy being one. Many artists, he says, especially young, are compelled to give up because there is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6263#.Yvy_xH1ByJB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no immediate ‘sound and effect’</a> result in art.He recalls speaking to other artists who are now abroad and no longer painting, who lament the lack of support and opportunities in Nepal. “One works for as long as one can,” he says. “Which is why a good support system is necessary that brings together artists, educators and patrons.”SamarpanBy Kiran ManandharSiddhartha Art Gallery.Baber Mahal RevisitedOpen 11:00AM – 5:00PMTill 24 August 2022.

Art for art's sake

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fc09c7e80680e0c2531jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"/>For 19 days in May, artist Sushila Singh followed the Rato Machhindranath chariot, its construction from the ground up.She sat, watching the locals gather material to build the rath and sketched the progress in real time, the chariot taking form in sharp, meticulously sketched black lines.By the time Bunga Dyo Jatra was over, Singh had made 19 drawings, 16 of which will be on display at the upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Nepali Art (MoNA) starting 17 July.Singh came to Pulchok from Baneswor every morning at around 5 before her two children were up.“It was helpful that they didn’t have school then,” she quips. She would work for two to three hours before the sun got too warm, sometimes returning in the evenings to plan where she could sit and work the next day.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fc49c7e80680e0c2532jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1530" height="2000">The series is reminiscent of the chronophotography, the 19th-century photography technique that captured multiple phases of motion, and prompt one to imagine the drawings placed side-by-side and then moved at lightning-speed.The chariot of Bunga Dyo grows before the viewer’s eyes: first the wheels, then the wooden columns. Slowly the storeys add and the skeleton rises. Then comes the outer layer of green Juniper and vines, which look like lines reached out to the heavens.Sketched entirely in pen and ink, the drawings strip the rath off any ostentatiousness, presenting it in its essential form. In the shifting hues of a consistent palette, the audience notices how the shape, size and depth of the lines change according to the light, and where Singh must have sat when she made them.The light is not exactly visible on the canvas, but Singh leaves clues. In one of the drawings, for example, a rope extends, curls and breaks.She explains, “I drew it as it appeared to me when the light hit it from behind.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fc79c7e80680e0c2533jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1333" height="2000">In some ways, the gradual growth in the drawings is also reflective of Singh’s own artistic journey, inviting the viewer to think about the dedicated creative process.Like many artists, she too began drawing at a young age, making hills and mountains in school, and filling in the colours.“I remember I used to make postcards during Guru Purnima and other festivals myself and gift them to my teachers and friends,” she says, but this did not necessarily mean that she knew she wanted to be an artist later in life: in fact, all she was certain about was that she did not want to do a 9-5 job.In 2004, after completing her bachelor’s in accounting, Singh joined Lalit Kala Campus for fine arts without telling anyone.“Even then I did not know what I wanted to do,” she recalls, a wide smile across her face, “but I enjoyed art school very much, and slowly, almost subconsciously, I became an artist.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fca9c7e80680e0c2534jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1313" height="2000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fcd9c7e80680e0c2535jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1322" height="2000">Many art students begin with portraiture, and Singh’s portraits were well-received in her family. Her parents, she recalls, did not force dreams and ambitions upon her. “They were pleased and encouraging,” she says.Then in 2011, she had a successful first solo exhibition at the Nepal Art Council, some pieces from the show will be displayed at MoNA as well.These works are striking for their linework, and also the fact that Singh made the canvases herself, unfolding the paper on a stretcher and then applying three layers of white texture.But Singh’s œuvre is multimedia. She had in 2019 an exhibition showcasing her work on paper and with ceramics, ‘Udaan, Beyond Bounds’.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fd19c7e80680e0c2536jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1334" height="2000">Highlights of the exhibition were the iconic dream-like temple pagodas in black and orange strokes, with oblique finials, as though one were looking up at an exceedingly tall monument –– and earned her a National Award.She repeated the feat in 2021 with her brick installation at Gallery MCube, a section of which will be reproduced at MoNa.She did learn to work with pencil in the beginning, but Singh now prefers to draw directly with pen and ink without outlining. But Singh enjoys this intense artistic experience: “I find that it helps me be more confident, and thoughtful.”Perhaps this is only fitting for an artist whose works reflect long periods of careful thinking and thorough patience, often accompanied by philosophical enquiries. “I am also the kind of person who thinks about where these thoughts come from,” Singh says laughing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fd59c7e80680e0c2537jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1333" height="2000">She recalls that during her work on the chariot of Bunga Dyo, she found parallels between the structure, the construction, and the different private and public persona of people.“As in the case of the rath, we only ever see the outside, what’s apparent, and very few of us pause to think about what’s hidden,” she says. “After all, the rath cannot stand unless it is one with the people and the people with each other.”The many layers of meanings and musings are characteristic of Singh’s artwork, which become even more pertinent when one realises that no women participate in the construction of the rath, except as spectators or on a specific day when only women pull the chariot from Lagankhel to Thati.In these 16 exquisite drawings, Sushil’s Singh has built her own chariot.The exhibition will take place alongside that of Raj Prakash Man Tuladhar at the Museum of Nepali Art, Thamel 17-30 July 2022.Read more: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/makers-of-machhindranath,2204">Makers of Machhindranath</a>, Cynthia Choo

Sketching the chariot of the rain god

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111152/63721e0e9c7e80680e0bd522jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="807" height="605"/><figcaption>Behind the scenes still from Urmi with director Limbu (left) and Purna Gurung (right). Photos: ASHISH DHAKAL.</figcaption></figure>Pranay <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14302#.YmTykidBxpQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Limbu</a>’s Urmi (उर्मि) opens with the early hours of dawn in Buddha Chok of Dharan. The sky is velvet black, crickets chirp in the background. Every once in a while, a motorcycle or a car rushes by and the screen turns momentarily bright, filled with the rattle of engines.At the centre of the shot is a lonely house, its first floor bathed in an eerie yellow falling squarely upon figures that look almost alive from a distance. Slowly, the sun creeps in from all directions, signalling the start of another day.The house gains more colour, more features. A blue signboard at the top reads, ‘Late Poet Bimal Gurung Memorial Library’ in Nepali and English. Purna Gurung, can be seen walking about inside, arranging books. He pauses occasionally, his calloused hands run across the tables and the books, eyes rippling and wandering like pools of water in the monsoon.Urmi is a story primarily of absence, where every note is sustained and every shot lingered. The protagonist is an ex-<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/gurkha-grandparents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">British Gurkha</a> coming to terms with his son’s death 28 years ago. But there is no way the grief can be truly expressed, even after all this time. Purna Gurung says so himself early in the film: “I don’t know how to explain.”Bimal Gurung, the son, was 20 when he died in a bus accident in 1991. Always abroad on duty, Purna never really got to spend time with his son and truly bond. So, he establishes the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/pandemic-revives-reading-culture-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">library</a> in his son's name, as he was a voracious reader.Purna also visits his old teachers and friends, flips through the family album, reads Bimal’s passionate and politically charged poems – all in an attempt to understand and build the character that was his son.Shot in nine days over two years, the film is a strange blend of documentary and drama. Certain events, such as when a real estate broker from Kathmandu dressed garishly in denim struts into the library to try and buy it from Gurung, are the amalgamation of various middlemen who continue to try and coax Gurung into selling the property.“I am a businessman,” says the smooth-talking broker with a glint of malice slipping through his teeth, “I do not only think of my own benefit, I think of yours too.”But Purna Gurung is a patient man. The deep lines on his face are testament to his devotion to the memory of his son and family. “I will think about it,” he says, and in the end leaves Tolstoy’s <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2738/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How Much Land Does a Man Need?</a> bookmarked in a story collection for the businessman to read.Another impressive dramatisation is the haunting voice that reads Bimal’s poems, punctuating the film in what feels like a series of exclamation marks. To be fair, the drama would fall flat without the interviews with Gurung himself. But without the drama, the film’s background and direction perhaps would not have been possible to convey either.The emotional climax of the film comes when Gurung wells up, saying “When I am with these books, I feel like I am with my son … his soul is in these books.” Purna trembles, and says later: “About Bimal, I have no words.”It is a risky mix, certainly, of fact and fiction – not in that the parts of the story are untrue, but only so far as they are metaphors – but Urmi is successful because of that risk taken.The word ‘उर्मि’ means a wave of sorrow and pain – and in the film, the viewer follows a father, who has recently turned 80, in search of his lost son, piecing together the images and memories others have of him. To tell this story entirely through interviews would have missed the point. How else can one show absence, that heavy abstract feeling of nothingness?Urmi was screened at the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/documenting-the-subcontinent-for-a-generation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">25th Film Southasia</a> in Yalamaya Kendra on 23 April 2022.URMI (उर्मि)Nepali | 85 minutes | 2022Directed by Pranay LimbuCinematography by Deepak BajracharyaEdited by Chandan Dutta

In the name of the son

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721cec9c7e80680e0bd4bbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3503" height="2289"/><figcaption>EARLY REFLECTIONS: Takashi Miyahara (above) in 1970 with a Nepali co-worker during the construction of the Hotel Everest View.</figcaption></figure>Takashi Miyahara was a Japanese development worker who was first assigned to Nepal in the 1960s, when the powers he had ordained that the country’s future was possible through something called the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">‘cottage industry’</a>.Miyahara soon realised that progress along that path would keep Nepal backward. Mesmerised by Nepal’s scenery and its culture, he was convinced tourism-led development was the only way ahead, and went on to build <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">Nepal’s first world-class high-end hotel in Syangboche</a> at 3,880m.Together with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/back-to-Chitwan,1075">Tiger Tops in Chitwan</a>, Miyahara’s Hotel Everest View brought Nepal to the attention of the outside world in all its variety – from the highest mountains to tropical jungles teeming with wildlife.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/miyahara-san-a-life-devoted-to-nepal/">Miyahara-san: a life devoted to Nepal</a>, Kunda DixitPage by page, we learn of the tenacity of a man who married in Nepal, and made this country his home. He renounced his Japanese citizenship to set up the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13408#.YljYMtNBz0s">Nepal National Development Party</a>, and even contested (and lost) the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections.Many in Nepal did not help Miyahara, some put obstacles in his way (you know who you are), but he never gave up.Even in the most desperate moments when officials dilly-dallied on the hotel permit, or when Royal Nepal Airlines gave him the runaround, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">he persevered</a> — not only setting up a hotel that put Nepal on the international map, but gave Khumbu its own airfield.It is not Miyahara’s fault that governments did not exploit the visibility that Hotel Everest View gave Nepal globally to push for high value, low-volume tourism. The potential of Syangboche airfield was also never fully exploited because of vested interests.He went on to also get Japanese investors for the Himalaya Hotel in Patan, and was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/miyahara-san-a-life-devoted-to-nepal/">already bringing in 1,000 up-market Japanese tourists</a> to Nepal in the 1970s. His other dream project was the Annapurna View Hotel in Sarangkot.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721cef9c7e80680e0bd4bcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3876" height="2700"><figcaption>Takashi Miyahara looks out of the window of the completed Hotel Everest View in Syangboche with Ama Dablam and surrounding mountains reflected on the pane.</figcaption></figure>But we get a sense from his memoir that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">Miyahara had already realised</a> that even developing a high yield tourism model was not enough to get Nepal to leapfrog development.The only way to change things was <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13408#.YljZHtNBz0s">to infiltrate politics</a>. He used to joke that he wanted to be a prime minister of Nepal to fast track the country’s growth.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">A Himalayan High</a>, Nepali TimesWhich is why he <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13408#.YljZHtNBz0s">set up his own party.</a> Much of his thinking on infrastructure-led growth, sustainable tourism development, the premium on protecting nature, formed the basis of his party’s political platform, and are contained in the later chapters of his memoir.He told <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/miyahara-san-a-life-devoted-to-nepal/">this newspaper in an interview before the 2008 elections</a>: “Tourism will not only increase national income but also help Nepal become self-reliant. This means using Nepal’s natural resources like rivers and forests, and moulding them for tourism purposes, and also harnessing their potential through hydropower generation and transportation.”Miyahara died in 2019 at age 85, and was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/miyahara-san-a-life-devoted-to-nepal/">cremated near the hotel he built with his bare hands in Syangboche</a>. His vision lives on at Hotel Everest View, and is spelt out in this memoir. For maximum impact, this book deserves to come out in translation in Nepali since it is Nepal’s policy-makers and the public for whom the book should hold most value.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721cf29c7e80680e0bd4bdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="278">Takashi Miyahara told <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/miyahara-san-a-life-devoted-to-nepal/">Nepali Times in another interview in 2015</a>: “The public must be aware of the political failure that led to Nepal lagging behind. Bureaucrats don’t take decisions and just shift responsibility. There is greed, and society lacks a moral compass.”Go online to read excerpt of the book: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/">https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/</a>Read more: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Takashi-Miyahara-2020-vision,2540">Takashi Miyahara 2020 vision</a>, Karma Gurung

A ray of hope for Nepal

<figure><img width="1500" height="1073" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ee89c7e80680e0b7944jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>In 2013, Hima and Maggie Doyne at the spot where the two first met in 2006. All Photos: BLINKNOW FOUNDATION</figcaption></figure>Six-year-old Hima Tamata used to look at her reflection in a pool on the banks of a river near Surkhet. The still water was clear as a mirror. Her mother, Ganga, toiled nearby, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/crushing-tale-of-Chure">crushing boulders</a> with a hammer for a pittance. Occasionally, she wiped the sweat from her brow in the sweltering heat. The stones she broke for a contractor were used to pave new highways, and Hima sometimes joined her mother to break smaller stones with her tiny hands.Hima used to watch her mother from the river bank. A single mother, she had to work all day to feed Hima and her three brothers after her husband left her to remarry. Hima sometimes rummaged in a nearby garbage pile to find things to sell. <figure><img width="640" height="512" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720eeb9c7e80680e0b7945jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="511" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720eef9c7e80680e0b7946jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It was 2006, and the Maoist conflict had just ended. Maggie Doyne, a 19-year-old American visitor, was backpacking through western Nepal to understand how the decade-long war had affected children."I sensed someone watching us from a distance as I helped my mother break stones. And when our eyes met, she gave me a dazzling smile,” recalls Hima. "I smiled back because her smile made me happy." <figure><img width="2306" height="1146" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ef29c7e80680e0b7947jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Maggie and Hima immediately bonded, and she asked Hima if she would like to go to school. The answer was a quiet “yes”, and that was all it took. That chance meeting prompted Maggie Doyne to pay for Hima’s enrollment in a primary school in Surkhet.But soon, Doyne found out that there were hundreds of other children like Hima. So, she went on to help set up a home for children in Surkhet orphaned by the conflict, using money her parents in the US wired her from saved up baby-sitting money.  By 2010, she added a school where 400 of Nepal’s neediest children now get free education. She co-founded the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BlinkNow.org/">BlinkNow Foundation</a> and established the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/starting-nepals-green-school-movement/">Kopila Valley Children's Home and School</a> in Surkhet. The two institutions also work in vocational training and to foster grassroots community development. <figure><img width="1196" height="862" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ef59c7e80680e0b7948jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Her work has been championed by <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Never-too-late,3105">Pulitzer Prize</a>-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and the Dalai Lama, among others. The story of BlinkNow's beginnings has been featured on the Huffington Post , VH1, MTV, and DoSomething.org. Maggie was named <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/philanthropist-maggie-doyne-on-career-and-success">Glamour magazine's</a> Woman of the Year and was used as an example for her groundbreaking work at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy. In 2015, she was named <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=maggie+doyne&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sxsrf=APq-WBvxNefJZa1xSKYRPGQYF1ZmOPJjzg:1648342861509&amp;source=lnms&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi-uenVi-X2AhUyxYsBHUbbD3EQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&amp;biw=1502&amp;bih=859&amp;dpr=2#imgrc=oPBxr9QuabVtxM">CNN Hero.</a> Maggie's story carries a message of hope, love, and the possibility of how the smallest individual acts can spark big changes. She believes that poverty, hunger, and violence can be alleviated when children are provided with their most basic needs: a loving, happy childhood, nutrition, and a quality education. Maggie's resolve to educate one child has now metamorphosed into a Children's Home for 50 kids and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/female-foeticide-to-football/">Kopila Valley School</a>, where over 400 students get tuition-free education every year. Among the students was Hima, who graduated two years ago, completed a chef internship and is enrolled in a hotel management diploma course. <figure><img width="1404" height="1620" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ef89c7e80680e0b7949jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Hima was inspired to be a chef by her mother, who left her stone-breaking job and works in the kitchen of the Kopila Valley Women's Center, a vocational training program that <a href="https://blinknow.org/">BlinkNow Foundation</a> also set up to empower women in the community. Ganga herself was trained at the Center to be a cook.Ganga, a graduate of the same program, currently cooks for over 40 people daily. This has inspired Hima, who intends to follow in her mother's footsteps in practicing cooking professionally."I learned cooking as a little girl since my mother and brothers would be working outside all day,” Hima says. "While studying at Kopila, I also baked and sold cookies at football tournaments. It helped me with pocket money, which further motivated me and built my confidence." Sixteen years later, Hima recently went back to the river bank where she gazed at her reflection, the pool is muddy and polluted. There is now a busy market on the roadside where her mother used to break stones. Now 23, Hima wants to follow the example set by her mentor, Maggie, and help others like her. Maggie Doyne’s work to nurture under-served Nepali children is detailed in her new book Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother's Story of Hope and Love."I feel proud to be a part of Maggie's journey, but I have to carve my own story too,” says Hima. “Maggie would want that. So, I work hard towards my goal to be somebody of my own."  <img width="640" height="958" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720efc9c7e80680e0b794ajpeg.jpg" alt="">Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hopeby <a href="https://www.google.com.np/search?tbo=p&amp;tbm=bks&amp;q=inauthor:%22Maggie+Doyne%22&amp;source=gbs_metadata_r&amp;cad=4">Maggie Doyne</a>HarperCollins Focus, 2022<table><tbody><tr><td width="35">ISBN</td><td width="575">0785240284, 9780785240280</td></tr></tbody></table>272 pages,  <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Doyne/e/B098R58FFS/ref=zg_bsnr_11350_bl_20/000-0000000-0000000?pd_rd_i=0785240284">$14.99 on Amazon</a>Read more: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17635">Nepal's Hero</a>, Nepali Times

The stone-breaker’s daughter

Earlier this month, Nepal received Rs1.6 billion from the World Bank as part of its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees">Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)</a>, rewarding the country for increasing its carbon sink capacity. Nepal is the first in South Asia to benefit from this facility, and it is specifically to recompense the country for increasing forest cover in 13 Tarai districts between 2018-2024. “We are also trying to get another Rs13 billion from the facility while also preparing for free market-based carbon trading in the international market,” says Nabaraj Pudasaini of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) Implementation Centre. Big emitters of greenhouse gases are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and many have signed agreements to do so by investing in decarbonisation projects in developing countries. Countries that emit more than a specified amount of carbon would be able to buy emission rights from countries that emit less. Nepal is internationally known for its community forestry program which has been largely credited for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous">increasing tree cover to over 45%</a> in less than three decades. But this achievement had not been adequately recognised or rewarded internationally before. Forests, especially in the tropics, absorb and store large amounts of carbon while releasing oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">Preventing deforestation</a> and increasing canopy cover is considered a much more achievable goal than reducing emission in the scale necessary to limit global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP11 in Montreal in 2005 first proposed reducing carbon emissions by improving forest quality by halting degradation. By 2015, a new mechanism of financial assistance was created to help less developed countries with sustainable management of forests <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/">(called REDD+)</a>. Under this new mechanism, countries receive aid based on their efforts to prevent forest degradation and increase carbon sink, and in 2021 the World Bank was entrusted with implementing it. Nepal’s FCPF receipt this month was calculated on the basis of 2.4 million tons of carbon stored at a rate of $5 per ton. In the second phase, Nepal will receive more than Rs4 billion within the next year for storing an additional 7 million tons of carbon. Eighty per cent of this amount obtained from carbon trading needs to be spent on local beneficiaries and indigenous communities.&nbsp; But carbon trading is not easy, Nepal needs to prove that protected forests will not be destroyed in future.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="Greenbacks for greenery NT "> <figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Explains carbon trading expert Yugan Manandhar. “Forests should be handed over to the community and shown that they are managed sustainably. Proving this will be particularly challenging; forest encroachment and degradation is rife in the Tarai.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke">Deliberate forest fires</a> have also added to the challenge because they increase carbon emissions and reduce the sink capacity of forests. The basis for the amount that Nepal received was set five years ago by calculating the carbon reserves of forests in the 13 Tarai districts. In the meantime, sustainable forest management, tree plantation, forest destruction and erosion control were prioritised to increase carbon reserves in those forests. Nepal is signing another carbon trading agreement during the ongoing Baku climate conference. The <a href="https://www.leafcoalition.org/">Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF Coalition) </a>proposes to sell the carbon stored in the forests of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. For this, Nepal signed the letter of intent three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow. The target is to store 70 million tons of carbon in 32 million hectares of forest in the three provinces per which Nepal will receive Rs13 billion in four years at $10 per ton with provisions to increase the rate if various conditions are met. However, the agreement in itself doesn’t guarantee the amount. According to the targets set by Nepal, forest degradation should be stopped and carbon reserves increased by protecting tree cover. Preparations are also underway for clean air carbon trade because it has offset fossil fuel use by introducing 30,000 electric vehicles. Nepal has been selected for the first round to receive $40 million within one and a half years through the Clean Air System of the World Bank. Given that most of Nepal’s energy mix is from biomass, replacing them with electric stoves can significantly improve health by reducing indoor pollution as well as strengthen the country’s capacity for carbon trade. “Nepal's goal now is to sell carbon in the free market where carbon credits are bought and sold based on supply and demand in an open and transparent manner,” adds Pudasaini of the REDD Implementation Centre. “Nepal can now set its own price and bargain with interested buyer countries and organisations.” Lately, India has been discussing setting up a carbon market. Nepal has exported Rs12.72 billion worth of electricity to India so far this fiscal year, which can be traded under Nepal’s carbon market. “Carbon trading can create significant economic benefits for Nepal, which will help reinvest in development and environmental protection projects,” says Manandhar. “But we must prioritise sustainable management of forests, cutting older trees and allowing regrowth as well as promoting electric stoves and electric vehicles.”

Greenbacks for greenery

Khukri Rum is <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3719#.WurBk6SFPIU">one of Nepal’s most iconic brands</a>, and is now launching a new Cask Series premium product to sell in Nepal and abroad. The Cask Series Smoked Finish Khukri Rum is a limited edition sipping rum with only about 5,200 bottles made for export and rum connoisseurs in Nepal. Each bottle is numbered and will mention the cask from which it is derived. “We are taking a classic Nepali liquor to a premium, luxury rum category. Each Cask Series flavour line will only be produced once,” explains Shuvash Lamichhane, General Manager of The Nepal Distilleries that first started making Khukri rum in 1959 in Balaju and has never stopped. Fermented from molasses in the Tarai after the annual sugarcane harvest, the rum is matured for at least eight months during distillation. The distillery bottles the classic Khukri XXX, Coronation Khukri XXX, Khukri White Rum and Khukri Spiced Rum. It is now adding this limited edition of the Cask Series. While the original rum is stored in huge wooden vats, the rum used for this more exclusive line is in smaller casks made from oak or sal, with charred insides that give the rum a smoky, smoother flavour. The Cask Series rum is indeed smokier than the classic, while the spiced rum tastes toasty and mostly of cardamom. These flavours are carefully crafted by blenders and tasters who have to pass regular palate tests.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241122131124_10b8ddca93b37b0348bf964b4f09e7fac6ef4e754cca6231368850539cd558e2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241122131124_10b8ddca93b37b0348bf964b4f09e7fac6ef4e754cca6231368850539cd558e2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1498" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Khukri Rum"> </figure>  The packaging for the Cask Series is as special as the process. A sturdy patterned box that opens up to a black glass bottle with gold lettering, and an indication of which cask the rum is from. These are then shipped to premium customers around the world One of the reasons this is the more expensive premium line is because the casks are smaller than the vats and the blenders reject more than half of the rum in the casks when the aging period is complete. The trick for the blender is also to decide when to take the rum out of the cask. Says Lamichhane: “If we have 25 casks, only ten might match the flavour profile for a certain series.” Over the decades, The Nepal Distilleries has created and maintained a brand that feels quintessentially Nepali, and serves as Nepal’s ‘ambassador’ with exports to Germany, Korea, Belgium, Finland, the Czech Republic, besides the existing markets among Nepalis in the US, UK, Hong Kong and Australia. Its unique <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khukri-rum-sharpens-its-act">khukri shaped bottle</a> first introduced for King Birendra’s coronation in 1975 has been a collector’s item. The bottle and rum have been a staple for Nepalis and visitors to take as gifts when they leave the country, and is used as decoration on bar tables around the world. Now, nearly 40 years later, even that bottle will soon be getting a makeover with a sharper design and sleeker handle. “Our bottle design has always been instantly recognisable,” says Lamichhane.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241122131124_b9474db3fc83c85845348dddc30c49652ee1f17229531867fa241de50849cedc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241122131124_b9474db3fc83c85845348dddc30c49652ee1f17229531867fa241de50849cedc" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Khukri Rum NT"> <figcaption>Christopher Armes, master blender of the Cask Series.</figcaption> </figure>  The Himalayan restaurant at The Hague, for example, has a Khukri Coronation bottle<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/from-the-himalaya-to-holland"> adorning its bar</a>. In Washington DC, Himalayan Heritage Restaurant &amp; Bar offers a ‘Nepalese Khukri Rum’ mojito with fresh mint, soda water, lime juice and sugar syrup, for $12. A distinct element of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/khukri-rum-gets-award">award-winning classic Khukri rum</a> is its 'modern auburn' colour from caramel sourced from cooking sugar and blended with the raw rum. The spirits are then stored in a warehouse with floor-to-ceiling vats which are not just for storage, as the wood imparts flavour into the rum, and removes a lot of the harshness. &nbsp; On a visit this week, the bottling room was just about to begin for the day and the production line was churning out different shapes and sizes of Khukri bottles. Most of the process is automated, including screwing bottle caps, sticking labels, placing the government seal, and packaging. The only manual intervention is quality control where bottles are held against the light to check for sediment and colour.

Khukri goes premium with new rum

Turkish Airlines has introduced a new amenity kit collection designed in collaboration with French fashion house Lanvin for international business class passengers on flights more than five hours. It consists of five pieces designed for sustainability and elegance. Bags are reusable and will consist of Lanvin cosmetic products like hand and body lotions and lip balm. Eye masks and socks are made from recycled materials, earplugs are packaged in paper and the toothbrush is bamboo.

Turkish amenity kit

Nepal now generates a surplus of electricity and it is all from renewable hydropower. Nearly half the country is under forest cover. Despite meeting these decarbonisation goals, Nepal’s hydropower plants are threatened by increased risk due to climate impact.&nbsp; Till <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">28 September</a>, Nepal was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-nepal-sign-power-exchange-deal">exporting just over 1,000MW</a> of electricity to power-hungry India, when flash floods and landslides unleashed by historically heavy rains damaged over 30 hydropower plants across the country, temporarily <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/power-to-the-people">slashing nearly half the power generation.</a> The 456MW Upper Tamakosi in Dolakha was the hardest hit and it will take six months and Rs2 billion to repair. This has significantly reduced exports as well as domestic generation. Two months later, Nepal has still not been unable to fully keep its export commitment, and is actually paying Rs100 million in fines to India. Thirty-seven existing and under construction projects under the Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal (IPPAN) suffered Rs2.5 billion in damage. One of them is the 22MW Bagmati project in Makwanpur which was almost completely buried in flood debris. Even before <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/60-dead-64-missing-in-nepal-floods">record-breaking rain in September</a>, 15 other hydropower projects had been damaged by floods. Last year, floods caused by heavy localised rain damaged 28 hydropower plants. World governments met in Baku for COP29 to discuss the Loss &amp; Damage Fund and the Adaptation Fund, but for countries like Nepal the commas and brackets are meaningless until they are turned into $ and €. And likelihood of adequate compensation for climate-related damage is a long way off, if ever. Nepal’s national strategy is to use its vast hydropower resource as clean energy to spur economic growth, job creation, and boost export revenue. But the plants are located in narrow Himalayan valleys prone to landslides and floods even at the best of times. Now, those <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/changing-climate-for-investment-in-nepal">risks have been heightened by weather extremes</a> due to climate breakdown. At present, Nepal generates over 3,300MW of clean hydropower, and the target is to reach 12,700MW in the next five years. Projects equivalent to 6,000MW are under construction or ready to start. The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation has an Energy Development Roadmap and Action Plan with the target of producing 28,500MW by 2035 by when more than half of it will be exported.&nbsp; “The climate crisis will further change the rainfall patterns making hydropower generation a big question mark in the future,” Manjeet Dhakal in Baku, who is also the Nepali adviser to the LDC Chair at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “We are building hydropower projects on rivers without evaluating risk. This whole process needs to be reviewed and reconsidered.” The report of the National Adaptation Plan published by the Ministry of Forest and Environment last year mentions that hydropower production, transmission and distribution will be at risk from flash floods, debris flows, glacial lake outbursts and rising temperatures.&nbsp; This risk is not confined to Nepal. Average global temperatures have increased by 1.3°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Worse, the Himalayan mountains are warming faster than the global average by 0.7°C because of elevation-dependent warming. A study conducted by our own Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in 2017 showed that the average temperature in Nepal has increased in the last four decades. Scientists say this is leading to extreme weather unleashing floods and landslides on slopes already destabilized by seismicity.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241124071128_d22901a360e8958f606d80ffa21defba05a671f65afec65539dc21a6885d8345.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241124071128_d22901a360e8958f606d80ffa21defba05a671f65afec65539dc21a6885d8345" data-rendition-name="original" width="1333" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Right climate for Nepal’s energy transition NT"> <figcaption>BIBLICAL RAIN: Photo taken during catastrophic rain on 27-28 September at the Upper Tamakosi project site that destroyed the control room, killing four staff and burying the sedimentation tanks. Photo: RSS</figcaption> </figure>  Increased atmospheric temperatures has made the monsoon rains more erratic. It does not rain when it is supposed to, and it comes down in torrents when it is not supposed to. The September floods happened two weeks after the monsoon was supposed to retreat from central Nepal. Kathmandu Valley received half its annual precipitation in just over a day. &nbsp; Winter precipitation has also failed, especially in the high mountains and trans-Himalayan valleys. Thirteen of the past 19 years experienced winter drought. This impacts on dry season flows of the rivers, reducing hydropower generation. Nepal’s power capacity normally goes down by one-fourth during winter, but the gap is widening. The Kabeli corridor could only generate 20MW November-March even though plants there have an installed capacity of 200MW. Similarly, Upper Tamakosi only produced 65MW at most against its 456MW capacity last winter. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) pays producers double the price for winter electricity, Rs8.40 per unit. Even though winter operation is highly profitable the rivers run low and NEA has to import from India to meet the winter demand. “This is not just a weather problem but a serious challenge also for the country's energy future, good climate-friendly design should be combined with policy and effective implementation,” says Subarna Das Shrestha, a hydropower investor and CEO of Sanima Mai Hydropower. “Insurance premiums have gone up as well, and settlement for damage is not timely.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-risk-to-hydropower-investment">Hydropower investment</a> at one time was regarded as having a high rate of return. Now, some investors have become <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure">wary of the risks involved</a>. Says IPPAN’s Uttam Blon Lama: “Hydropower projects expected to give stable returns are now looking risky. Not only is climate adaptation design and planning expensive, but future repair and maintenance costs will also skyrocket.” Nepal has only one storage type dam <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/rivers-be-dammed">in Kulekhani</a> and another one is being built in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">Tanahu</a>, but they are also at risk. In September, the sluice gates of Kulekhani Dam had to be opened causing loss of life and destruction downstream. Nepal has to learn lessons from the deadly collapse of the $1 billion <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">Chungthang Dam in Sikkim</a> in October 2023 cause by a glacial lake burst. Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Nepal pose potentially catastrophic risk to infrastructure. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">Thame flood in August</a> was a relatively minor debris flow that damaged half of this village in the Everest region when <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">two glacial lakes at 4,760m burst</a>. Luckily there was no loss of life. Of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">47 high-risk glacial lakes</a> in the eastern Nepal Himalaya, 21 are in Nepal and the rest are in rivers in China that are tributaries of the Arun and Bhote Kosi where Nepal has major hydropower plants under construction, or planned.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241123021128_b596cd8520c57a6c5476031e7a3ea6510f26b464c4d5351d2bc10f6f7d6b70d8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20241123021128_b596cd8520c57a6c5476031e7a3ea6510f26b464c4d5351d2bc10f6f7d6b70d8" data-rendition-name="original" width="871" height="648" loading="lazy" alt="Page 10-11 map #1236 NT"> </figure>  Global temperature rise is accelerating the melting of Himalayan snow and ice, increasing the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/living-below-nepal-s-melting-mountains">number and size of glacial lakes</a> so that we do not even have names for them. Imja Tso did not even exist in the old trekking maps until 25 years ago, but is now a 2km long lake. “Natural moraine dams in the mountains are weak, and the projects downstream can face major destruction if they burst, and the risk will only increase in future,” warns climatologist Arun Bhakta Shrestha at the <a href="https://www.icimod.org/">International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)</a>. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/terrifying-assessment-of-a-himalayan-melting">An ICIMOD assessment in 2019</a> projected that if present heating trends continue, as they probably will, the Himalaya will lose two-thirds of our glaciers by the end of this century. “Generally speaking, hydropower developers hand over the project to the government after 30 years but by that time given the climate risks, they may not be an asset anymore,” says Manjeet Dhakal. Indeed, the cascade of expensive projects India is building on the Arun River are supposed to be handed back to Nepal in 25 years, but there is a big ‘if’ about whether they will survive that long. &nbsp;&nbsp; Planning of hydropower projects is still based on historical hydrological data, and does not take into account future temperature rise and its consequences. Investors, on the other hand, say that planning hydropower projects with climate components would make them even more expensive.&nbsp; “It’s not that we aren’t preparing for climate risk, we design keeping in mind the once-in-100-year flood,” says Blon of IPPAN. “But if we start designing based on once in 1,000 years flood, the cost would be so high that we won’t be able to build them at all.” Nonetheless, Subarna Das Shrestha of Sanima Mai Hydropower says that there is no option but to go for climate smart infrastructure despite the higher cost. Sanima Mai's powerhouse, for example, is completely underground. The strategy could also be to spread the risk by building less expensive plants located on rivers all over the country. Nepal is also diversifying away from its sole reliance on hydroelectricity, which at present supplies 92% of the power in the grid. Most of the rest comes from solar plants, where the total potential has not even been scratched. &nbsp; This article is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758" data-rendition-name="original" width="680" height="103" loading="lazy" alt="SDG logo"> </figure>  &nbsp;