When Nepal opened up for trekking and mountaineering, it restricted foreigners from travelling to trans-Himalayan districts like Mustang and Dolpo because of the cultural sensitivity and limited ecological carrying capacity of the land.
Later in 1992, they were opened up, but unlike other trekking areas visitors had to pay the Annapurna Conservatioon Area Project (ACAP) $500 for 10 days and an additional $50 per day for any extra duration.&nbsp;
Since then, Nepal has become a federal republic and there is now a highway connecting Pokhara to Jomsom and Lo Manthang right up to the Chinese border, and locals say it does not make sense to charge such high fees anymore, saying it is impacting on the local economy.
“The permit fee for the restricted areas is too high and we would get a lot more tourists and raise local incomes if it was revoked,” argues Tashi Norbu Gurung, the elected chair of Lo Manthang Rural Municipality. “This is severely affecting our livelihoods and businesses.”
With support from local residents, hoteliers and village councils, Gurung along with the chairs of adjoining rural municipalities recently submitted a petition to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Chief Minister of Gandaki Province Surendra Pandey and Minister of Forest and Environment Birendra Kumar Mahato to remove Upper Mustang from the list of restricted areas.
Most of the fee goes to ACAP, and local municipalities complain that they do not really benefit from the extra charges on tourists.&nbsp;
Says Rinjin Gurung of the Waragung Muktikshetra Rural Municpality: “Because these are at present restricted areas, tourists cannot easily access them, and this has affected us all negatively.
Of the total 71,707 tourists who visited Mustang in 2022/23, only 3,388 visited Upper Mustang, paying the ACAP premium fee. Trekking traffic to the region has been climbing to nearly pre-Covid levels with more than 3,000 tourists in the first nine months of 2023. The number of Nepali visitors to the region has also grown exponentially, with most travelling by motorcycle or jeep from Pokhara.
“It is important that we set up fees and create a system that is appropriate for tourists of all classes and economic status,” says Vikal Sherchan member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly. Indeed, there is fear that opening up Upper Mustang to mass tourism can lead to some of the negative effects seen in other parts of Nepal with unregulated building, high costs, theft of antiquities and an impact on the region’s fragile ecology.
Upper Mustang in Nepal’s trans-Himalaya is a major tourist attraction with arid and desolate mountain landscapes, ancient Tibetan culture with monasteries and chortens and places of historical importance. In fact, in a lot of ways Mustang is geologically, culturally and linguistically closer to Tibet than Nepal.
Many visitors to Mustang are also Hindu and Budhist pilgrims who come worship at the Muktinath shrine. Trekkers often traverse the Thorung La pass from Manang to Mustang, for which they do not have to pay the extra ACAP fee.&nbsp;
New high-end hotels have now come up in Jomsom, Lo Manthang and along the trail in between. Some of the investors in these hotels feel lifting the premium fee will increase the footfall in Upper Mustang.
Adapted from RSS
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Comings and goings in Mustang</a>, Shrijan Pandey

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1084x550

Call to scrap Upper Mustang tourist fee

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd49c7e80680e060045jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>From Korala Pass on the Nepal-China border facing south. Annapurna and Nilgiri in the distance.</figcaption></figure>As the road meanders uphill towards my village of Dhee in <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a>, I recall my childhood amidst these mountains. Life was hard then, things people take for granted now were privileges only few could afford.I walked 11 days to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pokhara-nepals-new-aviation-gateway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pokhara</a> for my SLC exams. Seeing cars was magical. We were more likely to see helicopters in Mustang than vehicles.There was only one primary school in whole Kingdom of Lo then. It was a six hour walk away, and the only secondary school was in Jomsom, three days away.Thanks to the secretary of the late King of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7328#.XgyEd1UzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>, Chandra Bahadur Thakali, I stayed with his family in Jomsom paying his family a rent of Rs310 a month in 1976. That was a what a full-grown sheep cost then.Mustang was a restricted area, outsiders were rare. Today, there are western trekkers, Nepalis on motorcycles all on the motorable road that joins <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6251#.XgyDLlUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lo Manthang</a> to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/going-to-jomsom-in-the-off-season,3878" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jomsom</a>. In fact ‘domestic tourists’ are more visible than non-Nepali visitors.And that is the biggest change in Mustang today: The Road. Accessibility has accelerated change in this kingdom within a republic. The 11-day trek from Pokhara can be done in one day – the highway may be precarious but it is a new lifeline.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd79c7e80680e060046jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="522"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fd99c7e80680e060047jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Subsistence agriculture and pastoralism have been replaced with trade, and now with outmigration and tourism. The road connects <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bon-voyage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang’s pristine culture</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2012/09/07/monsoon-in-the-rainshadow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stark beauty</a> and fragile ecosystem to the outside world.Accessibility has also helped upgrade health facilities, improve education and brought modern everyday necessities which were nearly non-existent in the past. With no knowledge or access to primary health care, locals mostly depended on traditional amchis healers. With modern medicine and better nutrition, most health indicators have improved.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fdd9c7e80680e060048jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Food was always a scarce during my Mustang childhood. Mules, horses, yaks, people and sometimes even goats had to travel for a week days to transport grain to the villages, making it expensive.Although we ate nutritious local produce like buckwheat, beans, wheat, potatoes and barley, the road has brought processed and packaged food. However, the road has also contributed to food security by bringing down the cost of grain and other essentials.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe09c7e80680e060049jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>One big change now is that the few local primary schools that did exist are now all closed. With increased income, locals prefer to send their children to Jomsom, Pokhara or even Kathmandu. Even so, education and exposure to the wider world has given Mustang’s youngsters a deeper understanding of the value of their cultural and natural heritage.Also adding to the exposure is the interaction with tourists, who come to Mustang to admire its unique cultural heritage and stunning scenery. This has allowed locals to realise that they are worth preserving, and has contributed to restoring pride in their way of life.However, development comes at a cost. With the road, there is now pressure on the region’s fragile ecology. Haphazard road construction has triggered landslides, and added sediment to the rivers. Drainage has been disrupted, creating water shortages as springs go dry. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-must-prepare-for-climate-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate breakdown</a> has exacerbated this crisis.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe49c7e80680e06004ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2500" height="554"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Traffic will increase once the Kali Gandaki Corridor is upgraded to connect to the China border at Korala. It is essential to urgently carry out an assessment of its impact on the environment and plan for sustainable and green infrastructure.<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate change</a> has changed rain and snowfall patterns, but on the flipside, it has also had positive impact: cucumbers, tomatoes and  vegetables never used to grow here because of the cold are now plentiful. Mustang apples <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can now grow in areas which were not suitable for the orchards</a>.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fe69c7e80680e06004bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fea9c7e80680e06004cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>On balance, road connectivity has provided a strong boost to the economy through tourism. It has connected produce to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools, and patients to hospitals.The once forbidden kingdom is now connected to the world, and is now at the crossroads, it is vital that decisions to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/new-high-way-to-dolpo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">balance development with conservation of nature and cultural heritage</a> be taken now so Mustang’s fragile beauty is preserved for the next generation.Ghana S Gurung is the Country Representative of WWF in Nepal and Snow Leopard Champion for the global WWF network. The views expressed here are personal.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b6fed9c7e80680e06004djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="310">

1250x600

11-day trek is now a day’s drive in Nepal

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a67809c7e80680e0599dfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1252"/>Road-trips are not an established genre in Nepali films, like romance, action or comedy even though they may have all these elements. But in the last few years more than a few have made it to commercial cinema as a trend.Road trip movies tend to be mostly romantic and usually feature guy and girl trekking to Jomsom or Mustang with a gaggle of friends to bicker and eventually fall in love. Dollops of crude and convoluted sex jokes spice up the script, and keep the plot moving.There is usually a dead parent, a crazed brother or a failing orphanage in the mix as part of a thinly established back story or a point of conflict. The mountains always glisten in the backdrop as romance blossoms. It is a Nepali movie-goers have to suffer.However, there are a few memorable films within the sub-genre if we look at the last couple of decades. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/344/Interview/13437#.XgSKDVUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caravan</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14366#.XgSKIlUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kaagbeni</a> and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19506#.XgSJ5lUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highway</a> come to mind – adventure, horror, and the last a political drama.<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/631523-ama-khando?language=en-US" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ama Khando</a> is an addition to this list. It is an intimate comedy-drama depicting the journey of two families from Lo Manthang in Mustang to Pokhara, as part of an annual trip. But this year is different, especially for the little boy who is co-lead with his mother in the film.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drOXmPvz2l8The eponymous Khando of the movie’s title is Ama, or mother, to a school-skipping, fight-picking 10-year-old who never seems to listen to her. Even though the film’s central relationship is between Khando and her son Dhondup, the family friends who are travelling with them also ebb and flow inside the story.The elder son Lobsang of the other family wrestles with his fate of having to abandon his studies for a lack of money, and has a terse relationship with his father because of this.Khando, a financially vulnerable single mother is also frustrated with her son as she worries for his future. The elders in the story are concerned for their children’s prospects in the difficult terrain of Mustang as the world closes in. Even though they are conflicted about the idea of the city, its bustle and pollution are a draw.For young adults like Lobsang the idea of remaining farmers is financially and socially unattractive. Much like most of our young migrants overseas, they can only be nostalgic for a homeland they are already moving away from.For children like Dhondup , who does not care for much beyond food, entertainment and his long lost father, these larger themes do not interfere in his small adventures, but will eventually decide his fate.Writer-director Tshering Dhondup is from <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a>, and drew from personal experiences to create this story. He plays himself in some portions of the film and so does his own mother, and his friends have roles too.The film is made up of little moments, small talk and chance encounters. There are no spectacles here, but much like the colossal mountains that make for the background in this journey, brooding themes of love, loss and identity are quietly visible under the surface.  Here at least, the mountains do stand for something. Here is a road movie where the characters are real and the emotional stakes highly resonant.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a67839c7e80680e0599e0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="990" height="756"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The film does occasionally falter (musical cues seem needlessly placed and expose a proclivity for forced sentimentality, and some handheld shots feel random) but in the larger scheme of things, Ama Khando works.And one reason it does is the lead actress Pema Dolker Gurung’s performance which is unencumbered by showiness and lends itself so beautifully to the screen. The score by Pushpa-Sangam, and the understated cinematography by Ali Rasheed and Manoj Panta blend well.Made by a skeletal crew and under the painful circumstances that come with filming in far off locations on a shoestring budget, the film nevertheless has heart enough to travel. The film was selected for the prestigious <a href="https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=42642&amp;c_idx=332&amp;sp_idx=&amp;QueryStep=2">Busan Film Festival</a> and the <a href="http://pibarchive.nic.in/newsite/photoright.aspx?phid=149731">50th International Film Festival of India in Goa</a>, coming home in December to a warm reception at the Kathmandu International Film Festival, where it won the audience award for best film.

Ama Khando: a different road trip film from Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46959c7e80680e04d3e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>ALL PHOTOS: KAMZANG JOURNEYS</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46989c7e80680e04d3e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">Another harsh winter this year in the part of the Tibetan Plateau that is located in Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a> region has resulted in a massive loss of livestock.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>’s nomads have been particularly hard hit, losing hundreds of yaks, sheep and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ode-to-goat,3321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goats</a>. Blizzards in February killed many of the goats and sheep in their pens, and yaks in the upper regions also died. The nomads have a close bond with their sheep and goats, giving each of the baby animals to the correct mother every evening after grazing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469b9c7e80680e04d3e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="935"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469e9c7e80680e04d3e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="801">The nomads who live on the Nepal side of the border with China are resilient, and know how to survive in the bitter cold winters of the high plateau. But nothing prepared them for the ferocity of this year’s storms. A series of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/annapurnas-avalanche-and-blizzard-early-weather-warning-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blizzards</a> in February and March left up to 1m of snow, and before it had a chance to melt, more started falling.This is the third winter in the last seven years with unusually heavy snowfall, and the nomads have suffered the loss of a large percentage of their livestock.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a19c7e80680e04d3eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a49c7e80680e04d3ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">News of the blizzards did reach faraway Kathmandu and the provincial capital in Pokhara, but no help came. The nomads, many of whom are Tibetan refugees without Nepali citizenship, do not have monetary savings and survive on barter, so they had no way to recover their losses.Local communities and trekking groups have been helping the nomads living near <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3802#.XQtcRRYzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lo Manthang</a> recover. One of them is <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamzang Journeys</a>, which specialises in taking trekking teams to camp and travel with the nomads.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a89c7e80680e04d3ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1279" height="854"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46ab9c7e80680e04d3edjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="853">It has set up <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/the-nomad-fund-adopt-a-goat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nomad Fund</a>, and says the money collected from its Adopt a Goat program is delivered directly to nomad families. Despite its name, the $150 per goat collected can be used by the nomads as they need, whether for food and supplies, medical care or to purchase replacement livestock.“The Adopt a Goat project is very close to our hearts as we have been trekking with these resilient, warm, generous and tough nomads for nearly two decades,” says Kim Bannister of Kamzang Journeys. “We provide families with financial help when they lose their animals during winters, and help with sales of their hand-woven textiles.”To contribute to Adopt a Goat and The Nomad Fund go to: <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.kamzangjourneys.com</a>/

Gift a goat to Tibet nomads in Nepal

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

Thousands of Nepali students dreaming of an American education have been forced to look elsewhere as the Trump administration’s visa restrictions make their future uncertain.
The US was long considered a top destination for higher studies, making Nepal the 10th biggest country of origin for international students in America.&nbsp;
However, that number has seen a significant decline with the total for Nepali students now at 16,482. Some 8,000 Nepali students obtained no-objection certificates to study in the US from the Ministry of Education in the past year.&nbsp;
India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom and Japan are the other popular destinations for Nepali students. There are no clear numbers for Nepalis going to India, but a slight decline was noted this year after the deaths of two female students.
The US State Department has issued a circular to its embassies not to issue new visas to applicants until further notice. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the directive stated that the department planned to expand the screening of applicants' social media.&nbsp;
While new applicants are barred including those applying for visitor visas, students with scheduled interviews are allowed to proceed.
“Many of our students are affected by the new restrictions, but those who had applied for student visas earlier have got interview dates,” one Kathmandu-based college counsellor told us.
Meanwhile, even foreign students with spotless records already in the US have not been spared, as visa scrutiny intensifies under the new policy. In a move that underscores the growing sense of insecurity, many US colleges advised international students to carry their passports and documents at all times, even when traveling locally.
“Me and my friends did not go home this summer because we were not sure we would be allowed back, so we just went to Niagara Falls,” said a Nepali undergrad in Ohio, who like many interviewed for this report did not want her name used for fear of repercussion.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="MORE NO OBJECTIONS" aria-label="Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-a7y6L" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/a7y6L/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="600" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); </script></div>
Nepali students have adopted a cautious stance, with many choosing not to return home during summer vacation due to fear of visa revocations as well as travel bans. Meanwhile, over 7,000 Nepalis with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will have to come back to Nepal by 5 August or face deportation. Thirty-seven were flown back to Kathmandu on Omni Air last week.
“The US is one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education, and the ban will definitely impact bright students,” says Narottam Aryal of the King’s College in Kathmandu.
Indeed, Nepali undergraduates admitted into Ivy League colleges for the 2025 academic year have been asked to look for alternatives. The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board resigned on Wednesday citing interference from the Trump administration on the selection of this year’s cohort. Some Nepali students already on Fulbright scholarships have noted disruptions, delays and even cancellation of stipends.&nbsp;
The student visa restrictions were initially just for foreign students admitted to Harvard University, but it was later extended to all Chinese students and now to all students. Universities like Columbia which actively recruit foreign students, face sharp enrolment declines, threatening their financial stability and diversity.
An Indian female PhD candidate at Columbia University had her visa revoked by the US State Department, and said she was targeted on the basis of her social media posts on Israeli military attacks in Gaza. Social media vetting of political activism has raised concerns about privacy and freedom of expression in a country where such rights were a given.
Many students have been informed via email that their visas have been revoked for getting speeding or parking tickets, but even others with no criminal record have been affected. The fear of deportation looms large amongst international students, including those from Nepal.&nbsp;
For most Nepalis who migrate to the US for education, the journey is a high-stakes investment. They come largely from middle-class families, often rely on a patchwork of scholarships, work-study programs, loans, or even the sale of family assets to afford fees.
Most Nepali students pursue STEM subjects which offer extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) periods that help fund their education. But with the US backsliding on education and humanitarian matters, countries like the UK and Canada are becoming more attractive despite their own recent stricter controls on student visas.&nbsp;
The UK universities saw a 63% rise in Nepali students’ admissions in 2024. Japan is another popular destination with 64,816 Nepali students enrolled as of 2024.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="WHERE WE WENT" aria-label="Map" id="datawrapper-chart-yUABv" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yUABv/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="500" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); </script></div>
Already, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia are poised to benefit from the increased scrutiny of US student visas. Several Hong Kong universities are offering unconditional admission to affected students, while Malaysian institutions are targeting previously US-bound Asian students. China and India have 330,000 and 280,000 students respectively in America, but the numbers for China have seen a sharp drop in the past year.
Elsewhere, branch campuses of American institutions such as NYU in Abu Dhabi, Georgetown in Dubai and Northwestern in Doha are getting more admission applications, and universities in the Gulf region are expanding infrastructure to accommodate those who would otherwise have gone to the US.&nbsp;
Even educational institutions in Nepal are hopeful that the US visa restrictions can be an opportunity to at least keep Nepali undergrads in Nepal, and also attract foreign students from the region.&nbsp;
“Many students might choose to complete their undergraduate degree here in Nepal and then move abroad for their Master’s degree later,” says Aryal of King’s College. “There was a need for quality higher education in Nepal anyway in terms of innovation and opportunities, so this could be the time to reduce our dependence on other countries.”
Nepal’s strategic position between India and China makes it sensitive to US policy shifts. India, a key ally, is also under US scrutiny for potential student travel restrictions. Chinese universities are already offering more scholarships to Nepali talent to capitalise on the US retreat.
American universities have challenged student visa restrictions in the courts. A federal court in Boston revoked the blanket ban on Harvard, and the State Department has ordered the resumption of processing student and exchange visitor visas.&nbsp;
Some are still hoping that President Trump will backtrack on the student visa restrictions, just like he has done with many of his more drastic executive orders.
Even so, the visa see-saw and longer-term uncertainties about living in the United States and its education system means students across the world are making alternative plans.
Says Aryal: “Policies of foreign countries change according to their needs, so excessive dependence was never a good idea. We should work to create different opportunities and choices of higher education within Nepal, so students are retained.” &nbsp;

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.