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Kathmandu Sunday October 15, 2000 Aswin 29, 2057.
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They make livelihood by collecting gold
Post Report
DAMAULI, Oct 14 - The family members of Harka Bahadur Bote are busy washing
and sieving sand to collect gold on the bank of the Trishuli river to pay loan incurred by
them for celebrating Dashain festival.
Their task began on the day of "Kojagrat Purnima" ( the day when
the Dashain festival is over).To wash and sieve sand and collect gold is their traditional
profession.
He obtained Rs 3 thousand as loan and celebrated happily the festival with
his family members and relatives. Now he is worried as to how he could pay back the loan.
Like him, the people of 22 Bote families of Kumaltari in Byas Municipality,
about 5 kilometres from the district headquarters, have been celebrating the festival
every year no matter however difficult the financial situation is. They easily get loan
because of their good credibility to pay loan.
"There is no difficulty in getting loan. The only difficulty is how to
pay it back", Mangal Bahadur Bote told The Kathmandu Post before leaving for the
river bank to collect gold.
The people of Bote community have no other means other than this to pay the
loan obtained by them at high interest rates. They have also to manage family expenses
round the year from collecting gold.
There are two categories of Botes - Pani Bote and Pakhe Bote. It is only the
Pani Botes who sieve the sand and collect gold. They also work as labourers after the
season for collecting gold is over because sieving gold is no more a profitable venture.
Pakhe Botes earn their livelihood by fishing and live in Baireni, Patan, Sisaghat and
Thuga Bisouni of Tanahun district while Pani Botes live only in Kumaltari.
Pani Botes are worried because they find it more difficult day by day to earn
sufficient gold to meet their expenses round the year despite their hard work.
"In the past, one family could earn as much as 20 to 30 thousand rupees
from this work, but these days one family can hardly collect gold worth 9 to 10 thousand
rupees," Jit Bahadur Bote said.
Plenty of gold is found in the year when there is plenty of rainfall because
the river brings plenty of debris of landslide. Unfortunately,there was no excessive
rainfall over the last few years.
Pani Botes spend four months on the banks of Kali Gandaki and Trishuli rivers
in trying to collect gold."We observe our Tihar festival on the bank of the river,
only some of us return home for Tihar festival. We observe this festival in our tents on
the bank of the river in our own way," Ait Bahadur Bote said.
Pani Botes are working hard to pay back their loan
with the income of two months’ work and save some money for the rest of the year with
the income of the other two months. As there was relatively good rainfall this year, they
expect better income.
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