Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:54 AM
Nov 19, 2011 News
The People of Nepal have many things to boast of – of the ten tallest peaks on earth eight are in Nepal; the deepest gorge is in Nepal, and the world’s second largest hydroelectric dam is also found in Nepal.
Further, Nepal is a world leader in the area of conservation i.e. lands that were totally denuded 20 years ago are experiencing revegetation and there is an interesting twist to this. Communities more than 20 years ago were given title to lands that were identified for replanting.
However, for communities to actually benefit from the forest they were required to design operational and management plans; in that way harvesting of all forest and non-forest products are carefully managed and all funds accrued from harvesting goes into a single account from which the community decides through majority consent how it will benefit the community.
Nepal emerged from a prolonged civil war between the then Rana dynasty and the Maoist rebels three years now. Following an agreement, the last King agreed to abdicate the throne and Nepal is now a constitutional republic governed by a ceremonial president with a Prime Minister as its Head of Government and a unicameral parliament.
Before this agreement the capital city of Kathmandu was in the hands of the kingdom, whereas, the most of the rest of Nepal was controlled by the rebels. If there are any present day tensions, INSEC the local human rights NGO, thinks that the focus must now be shifted to empowerment and education of Nepalese and their rights as enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Economically, Nepal is a tourist driven economy with a significant percentage of its foreign reserves realised through the burgeoning tourism industry. Some examples of what Nepal has to offer tourist wise include treks to the base of Mount Everest, treks to and through high altitude mountain passes; visits include stops at many of the Indigenous Communities who reside far away from the metropolitan areas of Kathmandu or Pokhara.
Any of these offer tourists panoramic views of mountains spreading across the Nepali skyline.
Nepal has still not recovered from the Sir Edmund Hilary syndrome – thousands of tourists simply go to Nepal for treks through the mountains! Then there are the sub sectoral industries such as paragliding, parachuting, and wind powered plane rides.
One very interesting tourist-related package is a drive to the highest hill in the city of Pokhara to watch the sunrise and its ethereal effects – as the sun rises it emits an incandescent glow of gold on the snow covered mountain peaks lying in the distance. Thousands of tourists and other visitors can be seen driving up the narrow winding road to breathe in this magnificent scenery.
The Nepali people have risen to the occasion presented to them in more ways than one and in one instance in a very unique way. In Pokhara there is a service provider made up of three sisters; in fact the name of their company is Three Sisters. These are sisters who once lived and studied in India but who decided that they would devote the rest of lives to the development of their homeland.
Refusing to be married, they returned to Pokhara, Nepal where they established a hotel and an all female tour guide company. The latter caters for female tourists who would have discomforts with male guides.
At first this new phenomenon did not find an immediate welcome mat in what was a male dominated trade, but with the passage of time this unique service has not only survived but has actually grown.
Three Sisters is now a permanent presence in tourism in Pokhara, Nepal.
Another fascinating site is the Pagoda of Peace, a Buddhist shrine on the hills above the lake at Pokhara. This magnificent structure was built by the Buddhists and it sits on the highest of peaks and provides a commanding view across the lake and the lower hills and flatlands outside of Pokhara.
Driving through the mountains of Nepal leaves one in a sense of awe, that when comparing and contrasting with what is termed mountains, the Guyanese students could only concede that in Guyana there are only high hills.
Culturally the people of Nepal are multiethnic and consequently cultural as well. Though the country is described as 85 per cent Hindu and the remaining population a mix of Buddhist and Indigenous Nepal is also a country of many tribes and sub-tribes.
During October there were two holidays, one which lasted for seven days, and the second, for three. During the second, the second and third days officially commemorated the Diwali Festival.
The Nepali government and people also have had to develop creative means of dealing with the multi-ethnic character of the country. This reality came home in the pre-republican era when in the ongoing conversation as to how to arrive at a common determinant at what would increase the likelihood of ethnic tensions, and, simultaneously what would help to decrease same that denominator.
The answer was land. So the experiment was to prescribe lands to each tribe and providing mechanisms of self-determination which has to the present been deemed a success.
I arrived in Kathmandu on September 30, last, in what I could only describe as a flight through time…through so many time zones that when I arrived in Kathmandu I could only wonder at the biochemistry of the human body.
I arrived with part of a Guyana cohort of students, the total being seven, in what was to be our final Residential in a Master of Arts Degree Program offered through the Future Generations Graduate School.
This Residential included Human Ecology, Non Profit Management, Synthesis and Integration, Conservation and presentation and summarizing of Practicums and research projects. In Kathmandu we stayed in the Thamel District, the hub of the tourist industry. It was the most astonishing sight as I surveyed the narrow street which was bustling with tourists from almost every continent.
I reflected to myself that Nepal had only three years ago emerged from a civil war yet the volume of tourists was incredibly staggering.
Our one-month Residential was scheduled to cover three regions – Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dolakha, Dolakha being the highest in terms of altitudes that we were to experienced. In Kathmandu, a city set in a valley surrounded by mountains, students surveyed present day Nepal through discourses with local experts and were offered site visits to the Buddhist Temple also known as the Hanuman Temple.
This name was a reflection of the voluminous primates that occupy a central place both in the spiritual narratives as well as on the physical grounds of the Temple.
Then another visit was made to the Hindu Temple which offered, for the Hindu, an insight of the final transition of the human soul from its earthly form to the next.
The Human Ecology course commenced in Pokhara and the journey to Pokhara from Kathmandu was actually an eight hour heart stopping trip.
If there are specific and uncompromising skills and equipment that Nepalese drivers require, they are the following – brakes, perfect reflexes, with perfect 20/20 vision. Of course nerves of steel complete those requirements.
Nepali roads are narrow, so narrow that it is impossible for two vehicles to pass each other whilst in motion. Then again, these roads are built on the inclines of high mountains so that when the vehicle is in motion and/or bending a corner one is obliged to look out and down the side.
Lo and behold, distances of thousands of feet can be measured sloping downwards! Of course when one looks across at the slopes of opposite mountains the tiny looking houses are actually built on those similar sliding slopes, in some cases on the very edges of the mountains.
This scene is not so unusual for me as the culture was prevalent in Peru, another mountainous country.
A typical encounter of two vehicles on the winding mountain road is as follows: – you are the curious passenger wondering at the marvels of creation even if you are an agnostic. Then without warning the vehicle that you are in comes to a screeching halt, no prior warning; you look straight ahead and it is as though the vehicle you are in and the other were just about to kiss, only that now they are now stationary.
The window of actual sighting between the two drivers is sometimes seconds. You wonder how they do it but Nepali drivers are forced to master the art of driving whether it is on the roads of Kathmandu or on the mountains, and for good reason. One is likely to find some Nepali buses without a driver’s door.
And there is a solid reason for this – there are numerous instances of buses careening over the side of a mountain. A bus with no driver’s door allows the driver to make a jump before the bus is either going over, or to manipulate the number of casualties by one…. before the crowd gets hold of the driver that is!
Finally, if Guyanese ever think that their buses are overcrowded then don’t go for a drive on the Nepali buses, even the top of the bus has a crowd.
In Pokhara the students were hosted at the Three Sister’s hotel whilst preparation was being finalised for the five day trek. Some students were allowed to opt out but those who did were given alternative assignments. Site visits included the Living Museum where Neolithic Nepal is preserved, a HIV/AIDS NGO where the students came away impressed with the work of this institution (the Programme Manager reported an actual decline in newer HIV cases by 22 %!).
Other institutions included one where in-school reading and building of libraries across the district was being promoted, visits to communities that operated community owned forests (Gorpi and Dhampus), and the Institute of Forestry.
Charigot Dolakha was a new experience for those students who came from countries that has tropical climates such as Guyana as it was between 5-6000 feet in altitude. The difference in altitudes even within Nepal and introduction to Nepali cuisine, known as Dhall Bat, was a new experience for some students One of the sights students were able to witness was mountains of dark brown and green being covered in white as the predicted snow transformed the surrounding landscape.
Then there was the issue of hot and cold showers when the actual room temperatures ensured that any difference was contritely minimal. Human Ecology and Profit Management went into third gear as visits was made to communities with compasses and maps in hand to learn how communities documented from the tiniest shrubs to the tallest tree, then put into operation management of their forestry and non forestry resources.
Visits were made also to projects that either succeeded or failed depending on the human capacity to produce either result.
One not so serious anecdote was the disappearance of donated sewing machines. It so happened that a particular community was blessed with a donation of sewing machines. Persons were identified who would benefit and they were assigned dates when to uplift their gifts. One individual was informed by the village leaders that they (the leaders) were desirous of making him happy, and as such he was listed to benefit. So on the appointed date the gentleman set forth from the community to Charigot to receive his gift but was not seen again until a few days after, minus sewing machine.
When asked by the village leaders on the whereabouts of his sewing machine the obviously inebriated villager responded that he received then sold the instrument. The money from the sale, he rather happily announced, was consumed in its entirety in alcohol.
Depending on who deserved sympathy could be determined by the final sentence when the gentleman stated quite emphatically “You said you want to make me happy? Well I am happy now!”
After the Dolakha experience it was back to Kathmandu and graduation.
After 21 months of rigorous study, including four one-month Residentials in four different countries on three continents – North America (USA), Asia (India and Nepal), and South America (Peru) fifteen students together from around the world – Afghanistan (2), Bangladesh (2), Canada (1), Egypt (1), Guyana (7), and the USA (2) gathered at a resort in Kathmandu to receive their cloaks from Dr. Dan’’l Taylor Founder and Executive Director of the Future Generations Graduate School, and their Degrees from Dr. Clive Cluett, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Graduate School.
Present at the graduation were the Ambassadors of Egypt and Bangladesh to Nepal who were invited to witness the passing out of their citizens.
The colours Red, Gold and Green are found in abundance on T-Shirts, hats, and on buses, so it was no surprise to learn that across the age spectrum Caribbean visionary and Reggae Superstar, Bob Marley, looms large across Nepal. He is especially much more revered in those areas once associated with the Maoists, which is in the rural country.
For many Nepalese Bob Marley is simply a champion of the poor and the downtrodden.
After the graduation it was preparation to travel, for the Guyanese, to Guyana and with them they brought their hopes which were somewhat higher than when they left Timehri. At the Kathmandu Airport it was obvious that Nepal was still very much a developing nation but the people have shown tremendous resolve and with sustainability of that gift the nation and people Nepal are likely to succeed in transforming Nepal with all of its potential yet to be realised!
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