TIGblogs - Satis Shroff

Memoir: MY VILLAGE DREAMS (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Once upon a time there was a kingdom in the Himalayas called Nepal. People in the outside world also called it the Land of the Sherpas, the Land of Yetis and Yaks, the Land of the famous Gurkhas and the Land of the highest mountains in the world. It was ruled by a Gorkha king named Prithvi Narayan Shah, who in 1768 brought the different kingdoms together through his conquests. The rise of the House of Gorkhas (Shah dynasty) has endured since 238 years till November 21,2006.

In 1974, I happened to be a part of a scenario known as the ‘Back to the Village Campaign.’ It was a strange sight in the mountain kingdom of Nepal, which was a forbidden land twenty-four years ago. University professors, lecturers, bank managers, His Majesty’s section officers and other cadres, who normally barked at peons or paleys in the offices of His Majesty’s Government to bring them tea and snacks from the nearby tea-shops, were digging with shovels, lifting stones, plastering up the stone blocks with cement. The place was a remote locality of the Balambu village panchayat. And the motley crowd of workers were urbanised white-collar job-holders and citizens of Nepal, working shoulder to shoulder with their rural brothers under the ‘Go to the Village National Campaign’.

The national campaign had a branch office at Balambu, which was located 18-kilometres from Kathmandu along the Kathmandu-Thankot road. In 1975, with a view to enable one to acquire first-hand knowledge regarding the progress made by the government and semi-government workers in the development tasks of the village panchayats in the suburbs of Kathmandu Valley, a couple of journalists from the pro-government media: The Rising Nepal, Gorkhapatra and Radio Nepal were invited to take part in a surprise whirlwind tour of these areas. The ten panchayats where the Go to the Village National Campaign was being implemented in the valley were: Naikab-Nayabhanjyang, Purano Bhanjyang, Saritartha, Machhegaon, Mahadevsthan, Thankot, Dahachowk - Chowketar and Ward-Bhanjyang.

The Go to the Village Campaign was the brainchild of King Mahendra, the father of King Gyanendra Shah, and was launched in the Nepalese month of Pousch 1, 2024 (Nepalese calender). The National Campaign was intended to mobilise the masses, taking into consideration the fact that Nepal was predominantly an agriculture-based country. A country where the village forms the most important unit. And every village had its five elders who so-to-say ran the village.

It was believed in the palace circles, and in the panchayat government, that if there was to be an awakening at all in the country, it had to come from the rural masses of Nepal, and a so-called tentative ten-point programme was implemented in the villages of the kingdom, in which His Majesty’s civil servants, students and workers from the urban areas were deputed to go to the villages and help ‘to strengthen and popularise the sentiment of nationalism and national unity’. Nepal’s masses were to be acquainted with the Panchayat Democracy, and thereby develop and further strengthen it.

The panchas at the grassroot-level were required to stick to the principles of the non-aligned foreign policy that the country had adopted, a far sighted policy of the ruling Shah dynasty to maintain their power. As long as you were non-aligned, you could rule a kingdom as you pleased, and there were no allies who’d look over the shoulder and protest when human and other rights were misused. The Kingdom of Nepal had always been a special case as far as geo-politics were concerned. India had a patronising attitude towards Nepal because it was the only Hindu Kingdom, and India’s Hindus and Buddhists flocked to Kathmandu’s holy temples like Pashupati and Swayambhu. After all the Goddess Sita from the Ramayana came from the Nepalese town of Janakpur. Moreover, Gautama Buddha was a prince from Lumbini, another place of pilgrimage for the Buddhists and Hindus. Thanks to the assistance of Japan’s Zen and Shinto Buddhists, Lumbini is an attractive place now.

A campaign was to be started against corruption, injustice, oppression and bungling of works that were of national reverence. The campaign was to make the village population active and conscious. Efforts were to be made to render assistance for the successful implementation of the existing land-reforms, civil code, social reforms and development works which had a national bearing. The idea of cooperatives was to be expanded and propagated. The people were to be made aware of the importance of the forests and wildlife, and were to be encouraged to plant tree-saplings. Since agriculture was the mainstay of the country, agricultural output was to be given greater priority. Cottage industries were to be encouraged and extended in keeping with the blueprint of the national campaign.

All this was the gist of the Go to the Village National Campaign, which a Nepalese linguist named Tara Nath Sharma once dubbed as ‘an echo of Mao Zedong’s repressive measure of closing down the universities and sending teachers, intellectuals and writers to villages for mandatory manual labour during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.’

Showcase villages were taken as examples and the development under the Panchayat government shown to the media. Prior to the implementation of the National Campaign, modern medical facilities were unheard of in a village like Satungal and the local population had to resort to the shamans of the village, who would practice their ‘strange, archaic, unscientific, mysterious and useless occult art on the simple taboo-ridden villagers (sic).’ The exorcists and shamans didn’t demand money for their services, but the villagers paid them in kind, by sacrificing their best roosters, goats and other animals.

Things slowly changed and a dispensary was set up by the local unit of the Campaign, and the doctors started coming on a three-day rotation to the village and treated the patients. Sample medicines were distributed ‘whenever possible’ (most of the time it wasn’t possible), and the dispensary trained volunteers from the ten panchayats of the area as health assistants. Some of the diseases that were (and still are) common tend to be: ascariasis, hepatitis, colitis, amoebiasis and malnutrition in general. The villagers talked about the family-planning programme, which was also active in the hamlet and the rural population of the village had been vaccinated.

At Chowkitar village, a farmer showed the patch where he was growing pear, plum and peach from the seeds provided by the Campaign and which had been distributed by the local panchayat office. I had the impression that simple Nepalese villagers didn’t know that the seeds that were distributed by their respective panchayats could be used by them, and they’d be free to make a profit out of the produce. Nobody had told them anything about it. There was an unspoken loathing on the part of the villagers, when it came to interactions with the government officials. Many farmers seemed to have the notion that the products obtained through the use of government seeds would be confiscated.

That the villagers were fully aware of the importance of the forests was amply evident in the higher reaches of the villages, for the mountains were dotted with saplings of Pinus roxburghii. The saplings were, of course, provided by the Department of Forestry, and the planting was done exclusively by the Campaign workers. The farmers were too apprehensive about the consequences of bureaucratic involvement. Soil erosion, which has been a prime factor for the lessening of yield in the remote areas of Nepal, can be checked to a considerable extent through the much-publicised tree-planting ventures. The Nepalese farmers were shown films of the royal family King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, Crown Prince Dipendra, and the other two princes Gyanendra and Dhirendra planting saplings in different regions of Nepal to the accompaniment of the ironical song ‘Nepal ko dhana, hariyo bana’ (Nepal’s wealth is its forests).

If, for instance, there was a conflict regarding land-ownership- rights in the Eastern part of Nepal, as in the case of my college-friend Karki, the petition had to be filed in front of the Narayanhiti Royal Palace as a last instance of justice on earth. Even though Mr. Karki was educated in a college in Kathmandu, and could read and write in Nepali and English, he was obliged to have a petition filed, and written, by an official petition-writer, whose duty was to write a letter in longhand with sentences that were standard examples in circumlocution and archaic, courtly, subservient manners of expression. Having paid the writer for his trouble and artistry, one had to leave the matter to the Gods, and wait and pray that it be heard somewhere in the chambers of the spacious, modern Narayanhiti palace. For Vishnu, who is also called Budanilkantha in Nepal, reposes on his bed of serpents in the primeval waters, couldn’t be bothered with such earthly matters. Vishnu’s preserving and restoring power has, in the past, been manifested to the world in a variety of forms through his incarnations.

During a visit to Lalitput I met Tschering Lama, a lean, bespectacled, restaurant-owner, who’d bought a plot of land smack on the shore of the beautiful Phewa Lake in Pokhara (Central Nepal). He was extremely proud of his new acquisition. Sometime later, when he actually wanted to build a house on his patch of virgin Nepalese earth, he came to know that the land definitely hadn’t belonged to the man he’d bought it from, and that his purchase document wasn’t worth a rupee. The land was the property of the Royal Family, and as such, not for sale to the commoners.

Mr. Lama was awfully disappointed, frustrated and depressed, because his life-savings had gone in this bargain. He’d had plans to build a lodge for the foreign tourists and also cater to their gastronomic delights. And there he was, a broken man with a glum expression on his face. He did have his smart attitude though, and that’s one trait I really admire among the Nepalese from the mountains. They keep a stiff upper lip.

You can see this smartness even under desperate situations amongst the hill-tribes and the Gurkha war-veterans from Flanders to the Falklands. The Nepalese are indeed a stoic, proud and sympathetic people, and a visitor to Nepal notices it, and learns to cherish it after a journey in the teeming cities, crowded trains and blazing plains of the Indian subcontinent. If you’ve had the pleasure of travelling around in India with its maddening crowds, a visit to Nepal can be so exhilarating. Due to the tourism trade, the tourist or traveller might be pestered by curio-sellers and money-changers in Kathmandu’s famous Freak Street (Jochhey Tole, as the Newars call it) and at the bazaars in Thamel. But the people in the countryside are grateful if, and when, they have visitors. These visitors were, before the tourists came en masse, travellers, ascetic holy men (sadhus), monks and pilgrims, or trading Thakalis and Tibetans with mule and yak caravans, and it was normal for the travellers to be questioned about their heritage, caste, birthplace and so forth.

A Nepalese invariably asks, ‘tapaiko jat kay ho?’ Which caste do you belong to? This is because the caste-system and tribe-clans are well-established in Nepal, and every Nepalese name also bears evidence to his or her caste or tribe. For instance: Birendra Bahadur Karki. The first name is this case is Birendra, and then comes ‘Bahadur’, which means ‘courageous’ because all Nepalese males would like their sons to be brave and courageous. And finally ‘Karki’, which denotes that the person belongs to the sub-caste of the Chettris, the second highest order in the Nepalese Hindu hierarchy.

The life of a Hindu, from birth till his remains are turned to ashes, is saturated with religion. Everything he or she does, even eating and drinking, is connected with a religious ceremony. Whereas India has thrown away the shackles of colonialism, as well as the privilege of hundreds of Rajas and Maharajas, because it is a secular state in accordance to its constitution, Nepal still remains Hindu, perhaps due to the fact that its doors were closed to the outside world, and foreign influence kept at bay. But in this Himalayan enclave which has been conserved by dynasties of Shah kings and Ranas who usurped the throne, there are also other ethnic Nepalese who practice other religions, like Buddhism, Animism, Islam etc. India has solved the problems of underprivileged tribes and castes by giving them the status of ‘scheduled’ and has created scholarships from the school-level to the University level.

The reason why the Maobadis under Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Comrade Prachandra, became stronger in West Nepal (Rukum, Rolpa, Jajarkot und Salyan) was because of Nepal’s general poverty, corruption, nepotism and lack of perspective. Only a small section of the Nepalese population benefited from the schools, colleges und universities and the blessing of Nepal-aid from foreign countries and mountain-tourism. The Maobadis are fighting now for the banishment of monarchy and removal of the feudal structures in the society.

In Nepal it was always difficult for a poor dalit (lower caste) or someone from the hill-tribes to set foot in Kathmandu, and give them a good education. It is a sad fact that only the rich can send their children to the best English schools in Kathmandu, Darjeeling, Kalimpong or Gorakhpur. The rest of the Nepalese parents sent their children to the government-run schools, where the standard of education was miserable. Nevertheless, thousands of Nepalese students pass their School Leaving Certificate exams and go to colleges and universities, with an English handicap.

In the Hindu society of Nepal, the King has always been the patriarch, who swears to his descent from ancient Vedic heroes who were worshipped by the people. A Newsweek interview with the former King Birendra Shah also didn’t help to throw new light into this ancient tradition, for His Majesty coughed up a diplomatic reply and that was it. The Bada Raj Guru, a Brahmin, was the first State Minister in ancient times, though the Nepalese Raj Guru has still retained his power, because in this Hindu set-up every governmental or stately decision is associated with a religious ceremony. For instance when the King of Nepal leaves his Narayanhiti Palace and visits his own country or other countries, the court astrologer is consulted to choose an auspicious day. The King is for the Hindus, not only the protector and preserver of ancient Hindu culture, but is also a manifestation of tradition and development in the Hindu world.

In September 1995, I was astonished how far the winds of democracy had swayed into Kathmandu valley. In Kathmandu Valley there are three former kingdoms: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur (Bhadgaon) and Patan (Lalitpur). At the Rato Bangala, an elite school in Patan smack in the middle of the Sri Durbar, run by a dear family I personally know, I had the privilege of taking part at a school theatre and there were parents and guests from Kathmandu’s upper society. A literary natak (play) in Nepali was staged, in which the protagonists played the role of the people of Kirtipur during the times of Prithivi Narayan Shah. The entire play was from the viewpoint of the besieged and cheated Kirtipurians, and not from the angle of the attacking and marauding Gorkha king in 1768.

I found it rather innovative and courageous on the part of Patan’s man-of-letters Mr. Kamal Mani Dixit, in comparison to the pre-democracy days when everything was controlled, and lips feared to speak about human rights and democracy. The people of Kirtipur had put up a brilliant fight in those days, but were defeated, and the males of this brave kingdom, located on a hillock near the Tribhuvan University, had to pay a terrible price. The Shah king ordered the lips and ears of the Kirtipurians to be cut. Only the traditional wind-instrument players retained their lips and ears. It was a bloody affair with a huge pile of lips and ears. The barbaric treatment meted out to the Kirtipurians spread like wildfire in the other parts of Kathmandu Valley and soon Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu fell.

If you are planning to go to Nepal soon, do visit the brave town of Kirtipur, near Kathmandu. The triple-roofed Bagh Bhairab temple walls in Kirtipur are still decorated with swords and shields of the Kirtipurian troops defeated by Prithivi Narayan Shah’s victorious Gorkha army. There is also an image of Vishnu astride the Garuda. Underneath you’ll see the elephant-headed God Ganesh and Kumar. The Nepalese king is also revered as an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. I don’t want to sound like Borat, but blood sacrifices are made on two auspicious days: Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Another place in Kathmandu valley where such blood-sacrifices are made is in the temple of the Southern-Kali, where the Nepalese cook their lunch and have a feast after the temple visit.

I had a chance to meet King Birendra at the reception in La Redoute (Bonn) and had a small talk with such niceties as ‘How long are you in Germany? When are you returning?’ At the Graf Zeppelin Hotel in Stuttgart and Echterdingen airport, where I had the opportunity of handing Queen Ayeshwarya, who was a fellow poet despite her cruel role during the democracy revolution in 1990, a bouquet of flowers which I’d brought along from Freiburg im Breisgau. The late Madame Busak, the Stuttgarter Royal Nepalese honorary consul, was also there, in addition to Herrn Späth, the then Minister-Präsident of Baden-Württemberg. The Nepalese anthem never sounded more nostalgic then, and the traditionally quaint, triangular Hindu Nepalese flags fluttered in Stuttgart’s windy airport as the Bundesgrenzschutz played the Nepalese and German anthems.

In the meantime, Nepal’s multi-party government and the Maobadis have signed a peace accord and declared a formal end to a ten-year war of terror that killed more than 13,000 Nepalese. The agreement paves the way for the Maoists to give up their weapons and be confined to UN-monitored camps. An assembly will draft a new constitution and decide the future of the King Gyanendra Shah’s dynasty as the monarch of Nepal.

One thing is definite: the Maoists and the other communists don’t want the 200 year old monarchy anymore. What is encouraging, and curious, is that they have vowed to honor the outcome, even if the assembly decides to maintain a ceremonial monarch, stripped of his powers. A new wind blows in the Himalayas. Will the Maobadis give up all their arms like the Khampas (Tibetan freedom fighters from Eastern Tibet who’d come to Langtang) did in 1974, after they were confronted by the Royal Gurkhas? With a little bit of monitoring from the UN and Swiss officers, it might be possible to fill up a few containers, but will all the Maobadis surrender their arms? We can only hope and trust them to do so.

What will happen to the angry, restless, mobilised Maobadi fighters and child soldiers? Will they go back to their schools, if not destroyed, or for treatment in case they are traumatised? Will there be social programs for those who suffered under the atrocities of the government troops and the Maobadis? There’s a lot to be done in this country under the shadow of the Himalayas. Will it be a back to the village dream, after the triumphal march of the Maobadis into Kathmandu, heads and hands smeared with red vermilion powder and automatic guns in their hands? Or will the new government use the manpower resources by mobilising and subliming their youthful energies, towards the development of new jobs and a new economy?

Copyright © 2007 Satis Shroff, Freiburg

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About the Author: Satis Shroff is a writer and poet based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) who also writes on ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Science in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

Writing experience: Satis Shroff contributes regularly articles and stories to www.Americanchronicle.com with its 21 affiliated US newspapers. He has written two language books on the Nepali language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag, and an anthology of poems (www.Lulu.com). He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). He has written many articles in The Rising Nepal, The Christian Science Monitor, the Independent, the Fryburger, Swatantra Biswa (USIS publication, Himal Asia, 3Journal Freiburg, top ten rated poems in www.nepalforum.com (I dream, Oleron, an Unforgettable Isle, A Flight to the Himalayas, Which Witch in Germany?, Fatal Decision, Santa Fe, Nirmala, Between Terror and Ecstasy, The Broken Poet, Himalaya: Menschen und Mythen, A Gurkha Mother, Kathmandu is Nepal, My Nepal, Quo vadis?). Articles, book-reviews and poems in, www.isj.com, www.inso.org., www.nepalikhabar.com. Please also search www.google & www.yahoo under: Satis Shroff.

حكم في ال [هيملس], فساد, محاباة الأقارب, تطوير, تدمير, أمل لمستقبل
Automatically translated into Arabic thanks to WorldLingo

سيرة: ي قرية كان حلم ([ستيس] [شروفّ], [فريبورغ])

[أنس وبون ا تيم] هناك مملكة في ال [هيملس] يدعى نيبال. دعا الناس في العالم خارجيّة أيضا هو الأرض من [شربس], الأرض من [يتيس] و [يكس], الأرض من ال [غركهس] مشهورة والأرض من الأجبال [هيغست] في العالم. هو كان حكمت ب [غركها] ملك يعيّن [بريثفي] [نرن] [شه], الذي في 1768 أحضر الممالك مختلفة معا من خلال غزواته. قد احتمل الإرتفاع من المنزل [غركهس] ([شه] سلالة) منذ 238 سنون حتّى نوفمبر - تشرين الثّاني 21,2006.

في 1974, حدث أنا أن يكون جزء من سيناريو يعرف ك ال `[بك تو] القرية حملة.' هو كان جهاز تسديد غريبة في الجبل مملكة نيبال, أيّ كان يمنع أرض [تونت-فوور] سنون [أغو]. جامعة حفر أستاذات, محاضرات, [بنك منجر], عظمته قسم ضابطات وأخرى أطر, الذي عادة نبح في [بيونس] أو [بلس] في المكاتب من عظمته حكومة أن يحضرهم شاي ووجبة خفيفة من القريبة [ت-شوبس], كان مع مجرفة, يرفع أحجار, يجصّص فوق القوالب حجريّة مع إسمنت جير. كان المكان مكان بعيد من [بلمبو] قرية [بنشت]. وكان الحشد متعدّد الألوان عاملات مدّد بيضاء طوق [جوب-هولدرس] ومواطنات نيبال, يعمل كتف أن يتنكّب مع إخوانهم ريفيّة تحت ال `يذهبون إلى القرية حملة وطنيّة'.

تلقّى الحملة وطنيّة [برنش وفّيس] في [بلمبو], أيّ كان حدّدت 18 كيلومترات من كاتمندو على طول [كثمندو-ثنكوت] طريق. مكّنت في 1975, بصدد واحدة أن يكتسب معرفة [فيرست-هند] بخصوص التقدم يجعل بالحكومة و [سمي-غفرنمنت] عاملات في التطوير مهام من القرية [بنشتس] في الضاحيات من كاتمندو واد, زوج الصحفيات من ال [برو-غفرنمنت] أوساط: ال يرتفع دعات نيبال, [غركهبترا] وراديو نيبال كان أن يساهم في مفاجأة زوبعة رحلة من هذا مناطق. كان العشرة [بنشتس] حيث النشاط إلى القرية حملة وطنيّة كان يكون طبّقت في الواد: [نيكب-نبهنجنغ], [بورنو] [بهنجنغ], [سريترثا], [مشهغون], [مهدفسثن], [ثنكوت], [دهشوك] - [شوكتر] و [ورد-بهنجنغ].

كان النشاط إلى القرية حملة البنت الفكر الملك [مهندرا], الأب الملك [جنندرا] [شه], وكان أطلقت في [نبلس] شهر [بووسكه] 1, 2024 ([نبلس] تقويم). نويت الحملة وطنيّة كان أن يجنّد ال [مسّ], يأخذ داخل إعتبار الحقيقة أنّ نيبال كان غالبا [أغريكلتثر-بسد] بلد. بلد حيث القرية يشكّل الوحدة مهمّة أكثر. وتلقّى كلّ قريته خمسة شيخات الذي [س-تو-سي] ركض القرية.

هو كان صدقت في القصر دوائر, وفي ال [بنشت] حكومة, أنّ إن هناك كان أن يكون يوقظ في كلّ في البلد, هو اضطرّ أتيت من ال [مسّ] ريفيّة نيبال, وما يسمّى تجريبيّة [تن-بوينت] طبّقت برنامج كان في القرى من المملكة, في أيّ عظمته [سفيل سرفنت], طالبات وعاملات من ال [أوربن را] كان أوفدت أن يذهب إلى القرى وساعدت `أن يقوّي وعمّرت العاطفة من قومية ووحدة وطنيّة'. نيبال كان [مسّ] أن يكون على تعرّف مع [بنشت] ديموقراطيّة, وبذلك يطوّر وأبعد يقوّي هو.

تطلّبت ال [بنشس] في ال [غرسّرووت-لفل] كان أن ب التصق إلى المبادئ من السياسة خارجيّة غير منحاز أنّ البلد كان قد تبنّى, سياسة [فر سغتد] من ال يحكم [شه] سلالة أن يبقي قوتهم. [أس لونغ س] كان أنت غير منحاز, أنت استطاع حكمت مملكة ك أنت سرّ, وهناك كان ما من حلفاء الذي' [د] نظرة على الكتف وإحتجاج عندما إنسان وأخرى حقوق كان استعملت. كان المملكة نيبال تلقّى دائما حالة خاصّة [أس فر س] [جو-بوليتيكس] كان تعلّقت. هند تلقّى رعى موقف نحو نيبال لأنّ هو كان المملكة وحيدة [هيندو], وهند احتشد [هيندو] و [بودّهيست] إلى كاتمندو هياكل مقدّسة مثل [بشوبتي] و [سومبهو]. بعد [ألّ ث] إلاهة أتى [ستا] من [رمنا] من [نبلس] مدينة [جنكبور]. فضلا عن ذلك, كان [غوتما] [بودّها] أمير من [لومبيني], آخر مكان الحج ل ال [بودّهيست] و [هيندو]. شكور إلى المساندة من اليابان [زن] و [شينتو] [بودّهيست], [لومبيني] مكان جذّابة الآن.

حملة كان أن يكون بدأت ضدّ فساد, ظلم, إضطهاد ويفسد من أعمال أنّ كان من توقير وطنيّة. كان الحملة أن يجعل القرية السّكان نشطة وواعية. جهود كانوا أن يكون جعلت أن يرجع مساندة للتزويد ناجحة من ال يتواجد [لند-رفورمس], [سفيل كد], إصلاحات اجتماعيّة وتطوير أعمال أيّ تلقّى اتّجاه وطنيّة. كان الفكرة التعاونيات أن يكون مدّدت واستولدت. كان الالناس أن يكون جعلت مدركة من الأهمية من الغابات وحيوان برّيّ, وكان أن يكون شجّعت أن يزرع [تري-سبلينغس]. بما أنّ زراعة كان الدعامة من البلد, كان إنتاج زراعيّة أن يكون أعطيت أولوية عظيمة. [كتّج يندوستري] كانوا أن يكون شجّعت ومدّنت [إين كيبينغ ويث] الطبعة زرقاء من الحملة وطنيّة.

كلّ كان هذا ال [جست] من النشاط إلى القرية حملة وطنيّة, أيّ [نبلس] لغويّ عيّن [ترا] [نث] [شرما] مرّة يدعى ك `صدى من [مو] [زدونغ] إجراء قمعيّة من يغلق نزولا إلى الجامعات ويرسل معلمات, مثقفات وكاتبات إلى قرى لعمل إجباريّة يدويّة أثناء الثورة صينيّة ثقافيّة. '

إستعراض أخذت قرى كان كمثل والتطوير تحت [بنشت] حكومة يبدى إلى الأوساط. قبل التزويد من الحملة وطنيّة, كان تسهيلات حديثة طبيّة [أونهرد] من داخل قرية مثل [ستثنغل] والالسّكان محلّية اضطرّ تردّدت إلى ال [شمن] من القرية, الذي مارس هم `غريبة, قديمة, [أونسكينتيفيك], غامضة وفن نافعة سرّيّة على البسيطة [تبوو-ريدّن] قرويات ([سك]).' ال لم يطلب [إإكسورسستس] و [شمن] مال لخدماتهم, غير أنّ القرويات دفعواهم في نوع, ب يضحّي ديوكهم جيّدة, معزات وأخرى حيوانات.

ثبتت أشياء ببطء يغيّر ومستوصف كان فوق بالوحدة محلّية من الحملة, والدكاترة يبدأ يأتي على دوران مدّته ثلاثة أيام إلى القرية وعامل المريضات. عينة كان الطبّ يوزّع `كلّما يمكن' (أكثر من الوقت هو [ب] لم يمكن), والمستوصف درّب متطوعات من العشرة [بنشتس] من المنطقة كصحة مساعدات. بعض من الأمراض أنّ كان (وبعد يكون) عامة يميل أن يكون: [أسكريسس], التهاب كبد, [كليتيس], [أموبيسس] وحالة سوء تغذية في جنرال. [تلك بووت] القرويات ال [فميل-بلنّينغ] برنامج, أيّ كان أيضا نشطة في الكفر والالسّكان ريفيّة من القرية تلقّى يكون طعّمت.

في [شوكيتر] قرية, أبدى مزارعة الرقعة حيث هو كان نما كم, خوخ ودراق من البذرة يزوّد بالحملة وأيّ تلقّى يكون وزّعت بالمحلّية [بنشت] مكتب. أنا تلقّيت الإنطباع أنّ بسيطة [نبلس] قرويات لم يعرفوا أنّ البذرات أنّ كان وزّعت ب [بنشتس] هم شخصيّة استطاع كنت استعملت ب هم, وكان هم حرّة أن يجعل ربح من الإنتاج. لا أحد كان قد قالهم أيّ شيء حول هو. هناك كان [أونسبك] يكره [أن ث برت وف] القرويات, عندما أتى هو إلى تفاعلات مع المسؤول حكوميّ. بدا كثير [فرمرس] أن يتلقّى الفكرة أنّ المنتوجات نالوا من خلال الإستعمال من حكومة بذرات كنت صادرت.

أنّ كان القرويات كلّيّا مدركة من الأهمية من الغابات كان بوفرة جلّيّة في الإستطاعة [هيغر] من القرى, لأنّ الأجبال كان منقّطة مع شجيرات من [بينوس] [روإكسبورغيي]. كان الشجيرات, [أف كورس], بشرط بالقسم الحراجة, وال يزرع كان أتمّت حصريّا بالحملة عاملات. كان ال [فرمرس] أيضا مدركة حول النتيجات من تورط دواوينيّة. لوّنت تأكل, أيّ قد كان [بريم فكتور] ل ال يقلّل من عائد ماليّ في المناطق بعيد نيبال, يستطيع كنت فحصت إلى مدى هامّة من خلال ال [موش-بوبليسسد] [تري-بلنتينغ] مجازفة. [نبلس] أبديت [فرمرس] كان أفلام من الملكيّة أسرة ملك [بيرندرا], ملكة [أيشورا], تاج أمير [ديبندرا], والأخرى اثنان أمراء [جنندرا] و [دهيرندرا] يزرع شجيرات في مناطق مختلفة نيبال إلى المرافقة من الساخرة أغنية `نيبال [كو] [دهنا], [هريو] [بنا]' (نيبال ثروة غاباته).

إن, [فور ينستنس], كان هناك نزاع بخصوص [لند-وونرشيب-] حقوق في الجزء شرقيّة نيبال, بما أنّ [إين ث كس وف] [كلّج-فريند] ي [كركي], العريضة اضطرّ كنت صنّفت أمام [نرنهيتي] قصر ملكيّة كمثال متأخّرة عدل على أرض. [إفن ثوو] [مر.]. ربّيت [كركي] كان في كلية في كاتمندو, واستطاع قرأت وكتبت في [نبلي] وإنجليزيّة, هو كان أجبرت أن يتلقّى عريضة يصنّف, ويكتب, ب [بتيأيشن-وريتر] رسميّة, الذي واجب رسم كان أن يكتب حرف في [لونغند] مع جمل أنّ كان مثل معياريّة في [سركملوكأيشن] وقديمة, كيّسة, [منّرس] [سوبسرفينت] تعبير. يتلقّى يدفع الكاتبة ل ه اضطراب وروح فنّ, واحدة اضطرّ تركت الأمر إلى الآلهات, وينتظر ويصلب أنّ يسمع هو في مكان ما في الغرف من ال يوسع, حديثة [نرنهيتي] قصر. يرتاح ل [فيشنو], الذي يكون أيضا دعات [بودنيلكنثا] في نيبال, على سريره حيّة في المياه أوّليّة, استطاع لم يكن ازعج مع هذا أوامر أرضيّة. [فيشنو] يحفظ وأبديت يحيي قوة يتلقّى, في الماض, يكون إلى العالم في تشكيل الأشكال من خلال تجسيده.

أثناء زيارة إلى [لليتبوت] التقى أنا [تسكهرينغ] [لما], ميل, [بسبكتكلد], [رستورنت-وونر], الذي' [د] اشترى خطة من أرض نكهة على الشاطئ من الجميلة [فوا] بحيرة في [بوكهرا] (نيبال مركزية). هو كان جدّا فخورة من [نو كقويسأيشن] ه. يوما ما فيما بعد, عندما أراد هو واقعيّا أن يبني منزل على رقعته من بتول [نبلس] أرض, هو أتى أن يعرف أنّ الأرض بالتّأكيد تلقّى لم ينتسب إلى الرجل هو كان قد اشترى هو من, وأنّ ه شراء وثيقة [ب] لم يساوي [روب]. كان الأرض الخاصية من الأسرة ملكيّة, وبما أنّ مثل هذا, لا لعمليّة بيع إلى ال [كمّونرس].

[مر.]. خيّبت [لما] كان بشكل مروّع, ثبّطت وخفّضت, لأنّ [ليف-سفينغس] ه كانوا قد ذهبوا في هذا صفقة. هو كان قد تلقّى خطط أن يبني مستودع للسائحات أجنبيّة وأيضا موّنت إلى بهجاتهم ذوّاقيّة. وهناك كان هو, رجل مكسورة مع تعبير كئيبة على وجهه. هو تلقّى موقفه ذكيّة مع ذلك, وأنّ واحدة سمة أنا حقّا أعجب بين [نبلس] من الأجبال. هم يحافظون شفة صلبة علويّة.

أنت يستطيع رأيت هذا [سمرتنسّ] حتّى تحت حالات يائسة [أمونغست] ال [هيلّ-تريبس] وال [غركها] [ور-فترنس] من فلاندرز إلى الجزيرة فولكلند. [نبلس] حقّا رواقيّة, فخورة والناس تعاطفيّة, ويلاحظ زائرة إلى نيبال هو, ويعلم أن يدلّل هو بعد سفر في ال يسكب مدائن, يحتشد قافلة تموين ويتّقد سهول من الهندية [سوبكنتيننت]. إن أنت قد تلقّيت المتعة من يسافر حوالي في هند مع ه يجنّن حشود, زيارة إلى نيبال يستطيع كنت هكذا أنعشت. واجبة إلى السياحة تجارة, السائحة أو مسافرة أمكن كنت ناكدت ب [كريو-سلّرس] و [مون-شنجرس] في كاتمندو شارع مشهورة شاذّة ([جوشهي] [تول], ك [نورس] دعوة هو) وفي الأسواق في [ثمل]. غير أنّ الالناس في الريف شاكرة إن, وعندما, يتلقّى هم زائرات. كان هذا زائرات, قبل أن السائحات أتوا [إن مسّ], مسافرات, رجال زهديّة مقدّسة ([سدهوس]), راهبات والرحّالة, أو يتاجر [ثكليس] و [تيبتن] مع بغل و [يك] عربة سكنيّة, وهو كان عاديّة للمسافرات أن يكون استنطقت حول ميراثهم, طائفة, مكان ولادة [أند س فورث].

يسأل [نبلس] دائما, `[تبيكو] [جت] [هو] [كي]?' الذي طائفة أنت تنتسب إلى? هذا لأنّ ال [كست-سستم] و [تريب-كلنس] يكون [ولّ-ستبليشد] في نيبال, وكلّ [نبلس] يحمل اسم أيضا بيّنة إلى [مي ور مي] طائفة أو قبيلة. [فور ينستنس]: [بيرندرا] [بهدور] [كركي]. ال [فيرست نم] هذا حالة [بيرندرا], وبعد ذلك يأتي `[بهدور]', أيّ يعني `شجاعة' لأنّ كلّ [نبلس] ذكران أحبّوا بناتهم أن يكون شجاعة وشجاعة. وأخيرا `[كركي]', أيّ يشير أنّ ينتسب الشخص إلى ال [سوب-كست] من [شتّريس], الثاني [هيغست وردر] في [نبلس] [هيندو] تدرج.

الحياة من [هيندو], من ولادة حتّى التفتت أثره إلى رماد, أشبعت مع دين. كلّ شيء يتمّ هو أو هو, حتّى يأكل ويشرب, ربطت مع مرسم دينيّة. حيث أنّ هند قد رمى بعيدا القيود الاستعمار, [أس ولّ س] الامتياز المئات من [رجس] و [مهرجا], لأنّ هو يكون دولة قرنيّة في مطابقة إلى دستوره, يبقى نيبال بعد [هيندو], ربّما واجبة إلى الحقيقة أنّ أبوابه كان أغلقت إلى العالم خارجيّة, وتأثير أجنبيّة يحافظ في نباح. غير أنّ في هذا أرض حبيسة [هيملن] أيّ يتلقّى يكون حفظت بسلالات من [شه] أملاك و [رنس] الذي اغتصب العرش, هناك أيضا أخرى [نبلس] عرقيّة الذي يمارس أخرى أديان, مثل بوذية, أرواحيّة, إسلام [إتك.]. قد حلّ هند المشاكل من قبائل [أوندربريفيلجد] وطوائف ب يعطيهم الوضع ال `يبرمج' ويخلق منح من ال [سكهوول-لفل] إلى الجامعة مستوى.

كان السبب لما [موبديس] تحت [بوشبا] كمال [دهل], [أليس] رفيقة [برشندرا], أصبح قوّيّة في نيبال غربيّة ([روكوم], [رولبا], [ججركوت] [أوند] [سلن]) بسبب نيبال فقر عامّة, فساد, محاباة الأقارب وافتقار المنظورة. فقط استفاد قسم صغيرة من [نبلس] السّكان من المدارس, كلاوي [أوند] جامعات والبركة ال [نبل-يد] من [فورين كونتري] و [موونتين-تووريسم]. يتنازع [موبديس] الآن للإبعاد المملكة وإزالة من البنى إقطاعيّة في المجتمعة.

في نيبال كان هو دائما يصعب ل [دليت] فقيرة (طائفة [لوور]) أو أحد ما من ال [هيلّ-تريبس] أن يثبت قدم في كاتمندو, ويعطيهم تربية جيّدة. هو حقيقة حزينة أنّ فقط الأغنياء يستطيع أرسلت أطفالهم إلى المدارس جيّدة إنجليزيّة في كاتمندو, [درجيلينغ], [كليمبونغ] أو [غركهبور]. أرسل الإستراحة من [نبلس] والد أطفالهم إلى الحكومة شوط مدارس, حيث المعيار التربية كان هزيلة. ومع ذلك, يمرّ آلاف من [نبلس] طالباتهم مدرسة [لف سرتيفيكت] امتحان ويذهب إلى كلاوي وجامعات, مع عقبة إنجليزيّة.

في المجتمعة [هيندو] نيبال, يكون الملك يتلقّى دائما الالأبّ, الذي يقسم إلى هبوطه من قديمة [فديك] بطلات الذي كان عبدت بالالناس. [نوسويك] لم يساعد مقابلة مع الملك سابقة [بيرندرا] [شه] أيضا أن يرمي ضوء جديدة داخل هذا تقليد قديمة, لأنّ عظمته سعل فوق جوابة ديبلوماسيّة وأنّ كان هو. [بدا] [رج] كان غورو, [برهمين], الأولى دولة وزيرة في وقت قديمة [, ثوو] [نبلس] [رج] غورو يتلقّى بعد يحتبس قوته, لأنّ في هذا [ست-وب] [هيندو] كلّ حكوميّة أو قرار [ستتلي] يكون صحبت مع مرسم دينيّة. [فور ينستنس] عندما يترك الملك نيبال ه [نرنهيتي] قصر ويزور ه خاصّة بلد أو أخرى بلاد, المحكمة منجمة استشرت أن يختار يوم ميمونة. الملك ل ال [هيندو], ليس فحسب المدافعة و [برسرفر] من ثقافة قديمة [هيندو], غير أنّ أيضا إظهار من تقليد وتطوير في العالم [هيندو].

في سبتمبر - أيلول 1995, أدهشت أنا كان [هوو فر] الرياح الديموقراطيّة كانوا قد ترجّحوا داخل كاتمندو واد. في كاتمندو واد هناك ثلاثة ممالك سابقة: كاتمندو, [بهكتبور] ([بهدغون]) و [بتن] ([لليتبور]). في [رتو] [بنغلا], نخبة مدرسة في [بتن] نكهة [إين ث ميدّل وف] [سري] [دوربر], شوط بأسرة عزيزة أنا شخصيّا أعرف, تلقّى أنا الامتياز من يساهم في مدرسة ساحة وهناك كان واجدات وضيفات من كاتمندو مجتمعة علويّة. A literary natak (play) in Nepali was staged, in which the protagonists played the role of the people of Kirtipur during the times of Prithivi Narayan Shah. The entire play was from the viewpoint of the besieged and cheated Kirtipurians, and not from the angle of the attacking and marauding Gorkha king in 1768.

I found it rather innovative and courageous on the part of Patan’s man-of-letters Mr. Kamal Mani Dixit, in comparison to the pre-democracy days when everything was controlled, and lips feared to speak about human rights and democracy. The people of Kirtipur had put up a brilliant fight in those days, but were defeated, and the males of this brave kingdom, located on a hillock near the Tribhuvan University, had to pay a terrible price. The Shah king ordered the lips and ears of the Kirtipurians to be cut. Only the traditional wind-instrument players retained their lips and ears. It was a bloody affair with a huge pile of lips and ears. The barbaric treatment meted out to the Kirtipurians spread like wildfire in the other parts of Kathmandu Valley and soon Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu fell.

If you are planning to go to Nepal soon, do visit the brave town of Kirtipur, near Kathmandu. The triple-roofed Bagh Bhairab temple walls in Kirtipur are still decorated with swords and shields of the Kirtipurian troops defeated by Prithivi Narayan Shah’s victorious Gorkha army. There is also an image of Vishnu astride the Garuda. Underneath you’ll see the elephant-headed God Ganesh and Kumar. The Nepalese king is also revered as an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. I don’t want to sound like Borat, but blood sacrifices are made on two auspicious days: Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Another place in Kathmandu valley where such blood-sacrifices are made is in the temple of the Southern-Kali, where the Nepalese cook their lunch and have a feast after the temple visit.

I had a chance to meet King Birendra at the reception in La Redoute (Bonn) and had a small talk with such niceties as ‘How long are you in Germany? When are you returning?’ At the Graf Zeppelin Hotel in Stuttgart and Echterdingen airport, where I had the opportunity of handing Queen Ayeshwarya, who was a fellow poet despite her cruel role during the democracy revolution in 1990, a bouquet of flowers which I’d brought along from Freiburg im Breisgau. The late Madame Busak, the Stuttgarter Royal Nepalese honorary consul, was also there, in addition to Herrn Späth, the then Minister-Präsident of Baden-Württemberg. The Nepalese anthem never sounded more nostalgic then, and the traditionally quaint, triangular Hindu Nepalese flags fluttered in Stuttgart’s windy airport as the Bundesgrenzschutz played the Nepalese and German anthems.

In the meantime, Nepal’s multi-party government and the Maobadis have signed a peace accord and declared a formal end to a ten-year war of terror that killed more than 13,000 Nepalese. The agreement paves the way for the Maoists to give up their weapons and be confined to UN-monitored camps. An assembly will draft a new constitution and decide the future of the King Gyanendra Shah’s dynasty as the monarch of Nepal.

One thing is definite: the Maoists and the other communists don’t want the 200 year old monarchy anymore. What is encouraging, and curious, is that they have vowed to honor the outcome, even if the assembly decides to maintain a ceremonial monarch, stripped of his powers. A new wind blows in the Himalayas. Will the Maobadis give up all their arms like the Khampas (Tibetan freedom fighters from Eastern Tibet who’d come to Langtang) did in 1974, after they were confronted by the Royal Gurkhas? With a little bit of monitoring from the UN and Swiss officers, it might be possible to fill up a few containers, but will all the Maobadis surrender their arms? We can only hope and trust them to do so.

What will happen to the angry, restless, mobilised Maobadi fighters and child soldiers? Will they go back to their schools, if not destroyed, or for treatment in case they are traumatised? Will there be social programs for those who suffered under the atrocities of the government troops and the Maobadis? There’s a lot to be done in this country under the shadow of the Himalayas. Will it be a back to the village dream, after the triumphal march of the Maobadis into Kathmandu, heads and hands smeared with red vermilion powder and automatic guns in their hands? Or will the new government use the manpower resources by mobilising and subliming their youthful energies, towards the development of new jobs and a new economy?

Copyright © 2007 Satis Shroff, Freiburg

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About the Author: Satis Shroff is a writer and poet based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) who also writes on ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Science in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

Writing experience: Satis Shroff contributes regularly articles and stories to www.Americanchronicle.com with its 21 affiliated US newspapers. He has written two language books on the Nepali language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag, and an anthology of poems (www.Lulu.com). He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). He has written many articles in The Rising Nepal, The Christian Science Monitor, the Independent, the Fryburger, Swatantra Biswa (USIS publication, Himal Asia, 3Journal Freiburg, top ten rated poems in www.nepalforum.com (I dream, Oleron, an Unforgettable Isle, A Flight to the Himalayas, Which Witch in Germany?, Fatal Decision, Santa Fe, Nirmala, Between Terror and Ecstasy, The Broken Poet, Himalaya: Menschen und Mythen, A Gurkha Mother, Kathmandu is Nepal, My Nepal, Quo vadis?). Articles, book-reviews and poems in, www.isj.com, www.inso.org., www.nepalikhabar.com. Please also search www.google & www.yahoo under: Satis Shroff.