<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b91119c7e80680e06f0c9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1288" height="1088"/>Ujwal Bahadur Thapa, an influential social activist and the founder of Bibeksheel Nepali Dal -- Nepal’s first values-based and youth-led political party -- passed away on the 1 June in Kathmandu from Covid-induced complications. He was 44. He is survived by his parents, wife Erica and a younger brother who lives overseas.Born to a middle-class family from Syangja in central Nepal, Ujwal completed his secondary education at Budhanilkantha School in Kathmandu. Classmates nicknamed him “maverick” after he outscored them by submitting cartoons and sketches as answers in an O-level English literature final exam.The sciences were his strength, and he soon earned a full scholarship to study astrophysics at Bennington College in Vermont.“For a deeply conservative teenage boy from the hills of Nepal,” he once said, “I found Bennington’s ultra-progressive, liberal values both intriguing and jarring.”He became a serious computer gamer “often playing it to the wee hours of the morning”, studied Buddhism, rediscovered his passion for the arts, changed his major to focus on the design side of computer science, and even flirted with the idea of dropping out altogether to join a monastery in Berkeley.After graduation, he returned to Nepal, “without a clear idea about what to do next and probably as a disappointment to my parents and relatives”.Nepal’s civil war was its peak, and he thought he would be useful if he became a mediator to resolve political conflict at the local level. He traveled to Rolpa, Surkhet, Syangja offering mediation training programs.He later recalled this experience as an eye-opening one, for he got to work with community members and listened to their concerns and hope for a better future. Emotionally, the work was nourishing, but it did not pay much.And so, putting his degree to work, he started a computer design company, which, at its peak, had 35 employees, and was among the first Nepali firms to take order from and ship completed IT work to clients in the United States.Others would attempted to take such a company to greater financial heights, but Ujwal said he derived enormous satisfaction that many of his employees left to start their own companies – creating, in the process, more entrepreneurs, more skilled jobs and more income for many.He quickly realized that that there was hardly any mentorship support for young Nepalis in market linkage, funds and wider network. To assist them, he started Entrepreneurs for Nepal (E4N) in 2007 to host monthly talk programs, training and link investors with entrepreneurs.He kept the group going through thick and thin, ensured that the finances were clean and the organisation was lean. He collaborated with other like-minded institutions and roped in sponsors to pay for the activities. Thanks to his seeding, the initial model of operations, the group now has its own active Facebook page with almost 120,000 members. It is credited with having kick-started Nepal’s innovation-driven entrepreneurial movement, which gets stronger with each passing year.Ujwal later said that he nurtured this group with a belief that successful entrepreneurship in our part of the world remained one of the most overlooked democratising forces, for it paid little attention to the privileges of caste, family origins, education and connections.In this, so far, he has been proven right, for many young and diverse Nepali entrepreneurs, armed only with their determination and hard work, have launched and grown successful businesses through the support of E4N and similar networks.With the Maoist war coming to an end, violent street agitation was common in Nepal. On the flimsiest of excuses, political parties routinely shut down and paralysed the entire country, making movement impossible and making life difficult for ordinary people.The shutdowns or bandhs often went on for days. Declaring that enough was enough, Ujwal with friends, led rallies and campaigns against shutdowns. At a time when engaging in violence and vandalism was the default state for most Nepali political parties, it was courageous of him to encourage and lead people in a silent manner, out on the street to defy the forced shutdowns. Emboldened by Ujwal’s repeated public rallies, citizen groups sprang up in many parts of Nepal to counter shutdowns and the attendant violence.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ujwal-thapas-light-shines-on/"> Ujwal Thapa's light shines on</a>, Kunda Dixit<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b91149c7e80680e06f0cajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1278" height="1278">At around that time, disappointed that the first Constituent Assembly (CA) of 2008 had failed to deliver a new Constitution, Ujwal wondered what sort of political leadership Nepal needed. He gathered like-minded young people for weekly meetings. Over time, these led to the birth of Nepal’s first youth-led alternative political party called Bibeksheel Nepali Dal.Ujwal was elected as its leader, and he contested a seat in the CA elections in 2013. Though he lost, he left memorable impressions on many voters who found his brand of engaging citizens to hold politicians to account, his way of organising people to the dream of a better future for themselves and their children, and his way of promoting younger people to take leadership positions refreshing and optimistic.Ujwal led the Bibeksheel Nepali Dal till 2017. He learnt and mastered the nitty-gritty of running a political party on a shoe-string budget and while managing many conflicting, contradicting personalities and the media that hardly gave him much thought. But he was able to attract many young, driven and idealistic people to the party.Asking them to figure things out by themselves and by seeking help from others, he gave them leadership responsibilities that were often beyond their immediate capabilities. But he always supported and challenged them to do their best – which they all did -- and taught them to set up an accountable and transparent system of internal party governance.In the summer of 2017, he led the merger of that 4-year-old political party with Sajha Party, which had just been started by Rabindra Mishra, a former BBC journalist. Ujwal was unanimously chosen as one of the two Co-ordinators of the resulting Bibeksheel Sajha Party.Ujwal contested from KTM-5 in the 2017 general elections against traditional politicians who not were years senior to him, but were also deeply entrenched in the old clubby system of the political machinery.Ujwal collected funds from urban professionals, released daily videos, and made his campaign’s financial transactions public. Many young people, tired of the same old political faces, flocked to serve as interns and volunteers.After losing the elections, Ujwal traveled across the country to engage with citizens, and to drum up support for his vision of inclusive leadership that put public service above self-service, public welfare above corruption, and fought against ‘loot-tantra’, a term he coined and made popular.Quiet yet public-spirited and unassuming yet keenly observant, Ujwal loved to create what he called “tribes and groups”. Once a group got going, he would hand over the leadership to someone younger. This was evident in his creating the entrepreneurs’ groups, campaign groups that worked against violence against women, and groups that rallied against bandhs.He believed that with a critical mass of people doing good work in different groups in various public spaces, connections should be made among them to fuel bigger social and political movements that could eventually make change happen for the better.As such, he was persistent about going from one group to another, learning from one and sharing in another, getting to know people and then introducing them to others, and always looking for ways to knit and stitch together a shared vision for a society that put the Bibeksheel values of servant leadership at the center.Indeed, when he led his breakaway faction out of the merged Bibeksheel Sajha Party in 2019, his primary concern was that the new party had not only discarded Bibeksheel’s participatory decision-making system, but also lost its experimental culture which valued encouraging the young to take initiatives and adapt with agility than have them wait to carry out instructions from the top.The year 2019 was Ujwal’s transition year from being a public figure to someone who wanted time alone to figure out what he wanted to do next. He handed over the Bibeksheel leadership duties to Milan Pandey, who later led the re-merging of Bibeksheel with Sajha in a bid to create unity among the alternative political forces.Ujwal spent a month at Stanford University as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StanfordCDDRL/videos/2352837071509636" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/StanfordCDDRL/videos/2352837071509636&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622793169898000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHiRPmiMmSY-y7CstevRME0Sp7Z0A">a Draper Hills Fellow</a>, where he learnt how autocrats around the world used seemingly democratic methods to derail democracy to hold on to power. He worried that this was exactly what was happening in Nepal too.In the last year and half, Ujwal was deepening relationships with alternative politicians in India and elsewhere, while taking part in public protests for better medical care of the returnee migrant workers. After more than a decade in voluntary public service, he was also looking for ways to financially sustain his family, and wanted to commercially scale up his smallholder coffee farm in Syangja.In early May, he was on a trek back from the Everest region when he caught the virus. His untimely demise, after two weeks in three hospitals, came a shock to all his supporters and well-wishers. With him gone, Nepal has lost a rare purpose-driven leader who never sought credit for his work, and whose sole mission in life was to patiently but surely help create a constellation of Bibeksheel political and social leaders who would go on to bring about positive change by making public service their lives’ highest calling.Ujwal Thapa’s thoughts can be found here: <a href="https://www.whynepal.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whynepal.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622793169898000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFUqEawh0_Dhx1yQje4WK4D3-msSg">https://www.whynepal.com/</a>

Ashutosh Tiwari

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Nepal loses rare purpose-driven leader

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90d69c7e80680e06f0b2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4961" height="4961"/><figcaption>Illustration: Bhushan Shilpakar</figcaption></figure>It was in his passing on Tuesday after a two-week battle against Covid-19, that Ujwal Thapa got the kind of public recognition that would have proven to him that his vision for the future of Nepal is the right one.The outpouring of support and respect for this founder of a new and small alternative party showed just how much Nepalis want fresh new blood in the country’s leadership, and how disillusioned they are with the constantly-bickering superannuated faces in the mainstream parties.In social media posts and other outlets, his colleagues, friends and even those who did not know Thapa personally, have extolled his inspirational leadership qualities, his self-effacing personality that hid a fierce drive for a new style of politics to deliver the kind of accountable and efficient leadership this country needs.Ujwal Thapa never hankered after being a leader himself, prefering to breed leaders. Through the Bibeksheel Party that he founded and which later merged with Sajha Party, he was incubating a new generation of groundbreakers with the vision and competence that the current crop of tried and failed politicians in the main parties lack.In his death, Nepal has lost a promising trailblazer who had the courage and commitment to finally lift the country with the gift of good governance. Although his party united, split and united again with Sajha, and despite not winning any seats in Parliament in 2017, in many constituencies candidates that Thapa had personally groomed got respectable numbers of votes.One of them was Ranju Darshana whom Bibeksheel fielded as a candidate from Kathmandu. She tweeted on Tuesday: ‘The physical body of Ujwal dai is no more with us. He fought till the end. At 4:25 he stopped breathing. I’ve no more to say dai. I feel blessed that I got to be associated with you in your journey. You lived gracefully dai. And you left gracefully too.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90da9c7e80680e06f0b3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="556"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90dc9c7e80680e06f0b4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="1009"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90de9c7e80680e06f0b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="1016">With its sights clearly on the next election, Bibeksheel-Sajha was working to build its base and take advantage of the widespread disenchantment with Nepal’s stagnant and corrosive politics. For this, the party would have to break the vote banks of the main parties, and get younger voters to place their bets on candidates with a potential for performance.The overwhelming outpouring of grief, respect and affection for Ujwal Thapa showed that the party that he helped build is on the right trajectory. In his death, Ujwal Thapa also left a message: that a more responsible and responsive state would have been able to reduce the kind of suffering and loss of life that Nepal has endured during this pandemic.To replace the old with the new, Bibeksheel Sajha will have to struggle against the established parties, including the one that once took up arms for the liberation of the people, which will fight tooth and nail to maintain their stranglehold on the state. They will use their troll armies, disinformation networks and detractors to discredit the new younger leaders (as they did in 2017) to protect the crony-driven and corrupt political superstructure that they monopolise.On Monday, while doctors were trying to save Thapa’s life, his former colleague and friend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oohiashu">Ashutosh Tiwari posted on Facebook:</a> ‘Ujwal is a rare man who -- with no expert degrees, no mainstream political party support, no electoral victory to his name, and no previous high-paying job credentials -- comes perhaps once in a generation in a country like ours. There are people who have authority and power. And there are people like Ujwal who have courage and influence. I see enormous heartfelt outpouring of support, affection, love and concern for him in this light.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90e19c7e80680e06f0b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="581" height="817">These widespread messages of support in the past week while Thapa battled for his life at Mediciti Hospital showed that the Nepali public is impatient for change.Thapa had gone on a trek, possibly trying to evade the second wave as it hit Kathmandu, which may be where he was infected. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was taken out of ventilator support and put on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). His cremation took place at Pashupati on Tuesday evening.In a self-published memoir in English titled <a href="https://www.whynepal.com/?fbclid=IwAR2JnZUMDttrYowwWDfzUFjeFwHzH8bX7ZM0guaI5MwWte0UPvqTMl7VVgA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why Nepal? </a>Thapa describes his return from Bennington College in the United States in a light and self-deprecating style: how he became disillusioned with materialism, tried to enrol in a zen monastery in California, and finally returned to Nepal with just a computer in his bag, and started an IT company. But his activist streak showed in many rallies he held to defy political banda, and how this grew into a citizen’s movement and finally the Bibeksheel Nepali (literally: Nepali with common sense) Party.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90e39c7e80680e06f0b7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="585"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b90e59c7e80680e06f0b8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="444">In his book, he also lays out his vision for the country and how with honest and efficient politics, Nepal can have accountable leadership. He did not want Bibeksheel Sajha to remain an ‘alternative’ party, but grow into a mover-and-shaker political force to be reckoned with.‘To build a society that can produce (judicious) leaders consistently, I am helping provoke Nepali citizens to be ‘bibeksheel’ in nature, and bring positive change within them,’ he writes in Why Nepal?. ‘I continue to work on my passion to build as many platforms/tribes/networks of hope for Nepal … in the hope that in the coming days we can join together to build a peaceful, prosperous Nepal within our lifetime.’

Kunda Dixit

Ujwal Thapa’s light shines on

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1b99c7e80680e09d8c1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4961" height="4961"/><figcaption>Illustration: Bhushan Shilpakar</figcaption></figure>It was in his passing on Tuesday after a two-week battle against Covid-19, that Ujwal Thapa got the kind of public recognition that would have proven to him that his vision for the future of Nepal is the right one.The outpouring of support and respect for this founder of a new and small alternative party showed just how much Nepalis want fresh new blood in the country’s leadership, and how disillusioned they are with the constantly-bickering superannuated faces in the mainstream parties.In social media posts and other outlets, his colleagues, friends and even those who did not know Thapa personally, have extolled his inspirational leadership qualities, his self-effacing personality that hid a fierce drive for a new style of politics to deliver the kind of accountable and efficient leadership this country needs.Ujwal Thapa never hankered after being a leader himself, prefering to breed leaders. Through the Bibeksheel Party that he founded and which later merged with Sajha Party, he was incubating a new generation of groundbreakers with the vision and competence that the current crop of tried and failed politicians in the main parties lack.In his death, Nepal has lost a promising trailblazer who had the courage and commitment to finally lift the country with the gift of good governance. Although his party united, split and united again with Sajha, and despite not winning any seats in Parliament in 2017, in many constituencies candidates that Thapa had personally groomed got respectable numbers of votes.One of them was Ranju Darshana whom Bibeksheel fielded as a candidate from Kathmandu. She tweeted on Tuesday: ‘The physical body of Ujwal dai is no more with us. He fought till the end. At 4:25 he stopped breathing. I’ve no more to say dai. I feel blessed that I got to be associated with you in your journey. You lived gracefully dai. And you left gracefully too.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1bc9c7e80680e09d8c2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="556"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1be9c7e80680e09d8c3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="1009"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1c19c7e80680e09d8c4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="1016">With its sights clearly on the next election, Bibeksheel-Sajha was working to build its base and take advantage of the widespread disenchantment with Nepal’s stagnant and corrosive politics. For this, the party would have to break the vote banks of the main parties, and get younger voters to place their bets on candidates with a potential for performance.The overwhelming outpouring of grief, respect and affection for Ujwal Thapa showed that the party that he helped build is on the right trajectory. In his death, Ujwal Thapa also left a message: that a more responsible and responsive state would have been able to reduce the kind of suffering and loss of life that Nepal has endured during this pandemic.To replace the old with the new, Bibeksheel Sajha will have to struggle against the established parties, including the one that once took up arms for the liberation of the people, which will fight tooth and nail to maintain their stranglehold on the state. They will use their troll armies, disinformation networks and detractors to discredit the new younger leaders (as they did in 2017) to protect the crony-driven and corrupt political superstructure that they monopolise.On Monday, while doctors were trying to save Thapa’s life, his former colleague and friend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oohiashu">Ashutosh Tiwari posted on Facebook:</a> ‘Ujwal is a rare man who -- with no expert degrees, no mainstream political party support, no electoral victory to his name, and no previous high-paying job credentials -- comes perhaps once in a generation in a country like ours. There are people who have authority and power. And there are people like Ujwal who have courage and influence. I see enormous heartfelt outpouring of support, affection, love and concern for him in this light.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1c39c7e80680e09d8c5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="581" height="817">These widespread messages of support in the past week while Thapa battled for his life at Mediciti Hospital showed that the Nepali public is impatient for change.Thapa had gone on a trek, possibly trying to evade the second wave as it hit Kathmandu, which may be where he was infected. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was taken out of ventilator support and put on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). His cremation took place at Pashupati on Tuesday evening.In a self-published memoir in English titled <a href="https://www.whynepal.com/?fbclid=IwAR2JnZUMDttrYowwWDfzUFjeFwHzH8bX7ZM0guaI5MwWte0UPvqTMl7VVgA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why Nepal? </a>Thapa describes his return from Bennington College in the United States in a light and self-deprecating style: how he became disillusioned with materialism, tried to enrol in a zen monastery in California, and finally returned to Nepal with just a computer in his bag, and started an IT company. But his activist streak showed in many rallies he held to defy political banda, and how this grew into a citizen’s movement and finally the Bibeksheel Nepali (literally: Nepali with common sense) Party.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1c59c7e80680e09d8c6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="585"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131140/636cf1c89c7e80680e09d8c7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="444">In his book, he also lays out his vision for the country and how with honest and efficient politics, Nepal can have accountable leadership. He did not want Bibeksheel Sajha to remain an ‘alternative’ party, but grow into a mover-and-shaker political force to be reckoned with.‘To build a society that can produce (judicious) leaders consistently, I am helping provoke Nepali citizens to be ‘bibeksheel’ in nature, and bring positive change within them,’ he writes in Why Nepal?. ‘I continue to work on my passion to build as many platforms/tribes/networks of hope for Nepal … in the hope that in the coming days we can join together to build a peaceful, prosperous Nepal within our lifetime.’

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

Turkish Basketball

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

ujwal-thapa

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Ujwal Thapa’s light shines on

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The Last Days of the Khampa

Turkish to Seville

Digital protection for Nepal’s art