With Fulpati, Dashain begins in full pace

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 – From His Majesty the King to the commoner, thousands of people
gathered at local Tundikhel today to celebrate Fulpati, the seventh day of the 10-day Dashain
festival.

People from far-flung villages and around Kathmandu Valley came to the city centre to watch
Fulpati Badhai, a traditional form of celebrating the occasion, where the Nepalese army men
showed their skill in different aspects.

On the occasion, HM King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev presented the King’s Banner to
Narayan Dal Company to Company Commander Major Bhaikrishna Khatri.

Earlier in the morning, the Brahmins from the ancestral Royal Palace in Gorkha district brought a
Fulpati into the Dashain Ghar at Hanumandhoka Royal Palace.

Fulpati is the Royal Kalash (traditional jar) filled with holy water, banana stalks, jamara and
sugarcane stick tied with red cloth. "This Kalash was brought here by Royal Brahmins from
Gorkha on a decorated Doli (a carriage), under the shed of a gold-embroidered umbrella," says
Tej Ratna Tamrakar, Hakim (Chief) of the Hanumandhoka Royal Palace.

Besides dozens of priests, HM King Gyanendra also performed a puja at Dashain Ghar where the
Fulpati was kept.

The fulpati is brought from Gorkha, more than a hundred kilometers mid-west of Kathmandu. "The
Brahmins carry this Kalash all the way from Gorkha on foot, which takes them about three days,"
says Tamrakar.

Tomorrow is the eighth day of Dashain, which is known as Maha Asthami. Sacrifices are held in
almost every house on this day. The night of this day is also called ‘Kal Ratri’. Altogether, 108 all
black he-goats and buffaloes are sacrificed at Hanumandhoka Palace, which indicate the Royal
festive.

The ninth day of the festival on Thursday is called Nawami. This is the only time of the year when
the Taleju temple at Hanumandhoka is opened for the devotees. Tens of thousands of people pay
homage to Goddess Taleju on the occasion as people queue up throughout the day to get inside
the temple.

One of the major attractions of this day is the puja of God Vishwakarma, the God of creativity. All
factories, vehicles, machines and anything from which one makes a living are worshipped by
sacrificing animals. People believe that Goddess Durga would protect them from accidents
throughout the year.

The tenth day is regarded as the most important day of the festival when people visit their
relatives to receive tika and jamara from the elders. People from all the corners of the country as
well as those living outside the country return to their homes for the reunion. To make things easy
for those coming from far-flung places, the tika receiving function extends to four days till the
Purnima (full moon day).

Tens of thousands of people queue up at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace every year to receive tika
from His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen. "But this year, this function has been
cancelled and His Majesties will not give tika to the common people," says Tamrakar.

The present King and Queen are in a year long mourning of the death of Late King Birendra and
his family who were killed in the Royal massacre that took place inside the Royal Palace on June
1, 2001.

Many MPs fear going home, thanks to Maoists

By Kiran Chapagain

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 – Ruling party Member of Parliament Dilendra Prasad Badu of Darchula is
not going back to his home this Dashain due to the fear of the Maoists.

"I have to walk through vast jungles to get to my home which lacks security," says former
minister Badu, whose home is Hatt VDC in the remote part of the district, almost five days walk
from the district headquarters.

"Though I have a very strong desire to join my family for Dashain, I am not returning back due to
the fear of the Maoists," Badu said.

This has forced many MPs to stay in the capital, said Suresh Malla, a Nepali Congress MP from
Bajhang. "Most of the police posts in my district have been either withdrawn or shifted to the
district headquarters," Malla said. "This is why I can not feel secured in my village."

MP Nara Bahadur Budhathoki of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxists Leninists) too
faces the same problem. He is from Dolpa, a remote district in the Karnali zone. Not only
Budhathoki but also all his counterparts from Karnali are not going to their home districts, as they
fear action from the Maoists.

"As far as I know, most of my counterparts from Karnali are not going back to their districts as
they are not convinced of security provided there," said Budhathoki.

"I am getting message from my village not to return back," Budhathoki said. "Even people in my
village Kai are fearing to perform a cultural programme that usually takes place every Dashain due
to the threat from the Maoists."

Some of the MPs who are not going back to their districts are Siddha Raj Ojha of Doti, Lekhanath
Acharya of Rolpa, Hari Lal Joshi of Gorkha, Hari Bhakta Adhikari of Lamjung, Dilliraj Sharma of
Parbat, Narendra Bahadur Bam of Baitadi, Shivaraj Joshi of Surkhet and Tanka Prasad Rai of
Sankhuwasabha.

When people throughout the country are celebrating the biggest Hindu festival, many of their
representatives have been deprived from going back to their respective villages. The reason – fear
of the Maoists.

Many of the Members of Parliament are willing to go back to the village to be with their families
during the festival, but they have not been able to gather enough courage to do so due to lack of
security.

More than a dozen MPs talking to The Kathmandu Post mentioned the lack of security, as the
reason preventing them from going back to their home districts. But, the most astounding fact is
no single MP has asked the Home Ministry to provide security.

"No MP demanded security from the Home Ministry this year," says Gopendra Bahadur Pandey,
spokesman at the Home Ministry.

The Home Ministry and its branches at respective districts manage security for MPs, according
to Pandey. "The Ministry is ready to provide security if any MP informs the Home Ministry about
his programme," Pandey told The Kathmandu Post. He said that not a single MP this year
approached to the Ministry asking for security.

Govt to push Property Rights Bill in Winter Session

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 – Differences with the government over a clause on property rights may
have prompted the main opposition CPN-UML to block the Bill proposing to make 11th
amendment to the Muluki Ain (Civil Code), but the real casualty has been other rights proposed
for women the Bill.

Besides empowering women with the right to inherit equal parental property, the Bill was
addressing several other issues related to women like legalising abortion, increase punishment for
rape and polygamy and ending the existing discriminations against women.

"If the Bill had been passed through Parliament, hundreds of women would have been set free at
this time and would have been home in time for the Dasain festivals," Prime Minister Sher
Bahadur Deuba said.

The Bill, brought to establish women’s rights on parental property, is also proposing partially
legalising abortion under certain cases that would lift the complete ban on abortion. The new law
would help control the high maternal mortality in Nepal, half of which is blamed on unsafe
abortion.

"There are thousands women in the urban areas who perform abortion but it is the women in the
rural areas who are suffering and many are in jail because of that," the Prime Minister said.

The Bill is proposing that married women would be able to abort up to 12 week of pregnancy. In
the case of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, pregnancy up to 18 weeks may be
terminated.

In the cases where pregnancy poses danger to the physical and mental health of mothers or if
medical reports prove that fetuses are damaged leading to the birth of a disabled child, abortion is
permitted in any time with the consent of the pregnant woman.

However, if in case anyone is found testing to find the sex of the fetus with the intention of
aborting, they could face three-to-six months of prison sentence and if abortion is carried out on
the basis of sex of the fetus then the punishment is additional one year.

Ramjham: Make peace, not war

By Satish Jung Shahi

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 – After making it big through Chameli, a movie that created social
awareness against girl trafficking, the director Ravindra Baral, 36, is now aiming to promote peace
across the country in his new innovative project.

Baral is all set to release his next 2 hour 15 minutes movie "Ramjham" after the festival of Tihar
with the theme "Let Peace Prevail." The film is being released amid environment of distrust
between the government and the Maoist rebels. And what’s more: Ramjham, as Baral puts it, is
probably the first movie of its kind that will have a compilation of performances by 21 popular
Nepali singers all selected by popular voting.

"As a movie maker, my job is to create awareness as films can turn out to be a powerful medium
in advocating burning issues," says Baral, who started his career making documentaries and a
musical program that ran with the name Music Mag on Nepal Television. "What else could be
better at this stage than entertainers getting together and speaking for peace rather than only
politicians and policemen?"

Ramjham took two months to shoot. Innovative stage technologies, used for the first time in
Nepal, were set up to shoot several sequences both outdoors and at the Birendra International
Convention Centre. A part of the movie also makes an effort in preserving on celluloid the
contributions made by famous oldies singers such as Narayan Gopal, Aruna Lama and Bacchu
Kailash to name a few.

Singers such as Deep Shrestha, Karna Das, Khem Gurung, Kunti Moktan, Lochan Bhattarai,
Nabin K. Bhattarai, Om Bikram Bista, Ram Krishna Dhakal, Robin and Looza, Sukmit Gurung
and Yogeshwore Amatya are some of those who have joined the bandwagon for performing in
Ramjham.

According to Baral, the idea for making such a movie stuck him after seeing the efforts made by
singers in the international entertainment scene such as Bono of U2 who held live concerts
advocating debt relief measures for third world countries and Bob Geldof who organized the Live
Aid musical programmes in the early 1980s to help starving Africans.

Taklakot: Illegal wildlife parts and Yarchagumba traders’ paradise

By Dil Bhusan Pathak & Jay Bahadur Rokaya

TAKLAKOT(Tibetan Autonomous Region of China), Oct 23 - Illegal trade in various endangered
species of flora and fauna is rampant in this Tibetan hub that lies adjacent to Nepal’s northern
districts of Humla, Bajhang and Darchula. In other words it’s like a paradise for illegal traders.

"This year alone about seven quintals of Yarchagumba, a Himalayan medicinal plant which is
believed to have anti-impotency value, was illegally traded from Nepal’s Darchula to Taklakot,"
said one local trader here. According to him, more than 10 quintal of Yarchagumba from Dolpa,
Mugu and Jumla and about 1.5 quintal of Yarchagumba from Bajhang were smuggled to Taklakot
this year.

Taklakot is a Tibetan market, which can be reached from Simikot, the district headquarters of
Humla, after four days of trek and three hours of drive from the Tibetan border town of Sera. While
the hub is already notorious for its traders offering such wildlife parts as shatoosh, the wool of
Tibetan antelope, tiger and snow leopard pelts and bones, and things like that, what baffles one is
the fact that Yarchagumbas are brought here from as far as Rukum and Rolpa districts in the
lower hilly region.

The Nepalese government lifted the ban on collection and trade of Yarchagumba last year.
However, it has not fixed the tax rate that may be necessary while exporting the medicinal herbal
products.

"The Ministry of Forest has nearly a month back written to the Ministry of Finance to fix the new
revenue rate after consulting local people, collectors, experts and on the basis of the study of
various organisations," says Divyadev Bhatta, Director at Department of Forest.

Collection and trade of Yarchagumba was legal in the decade of 2040 BS (Nepali calendar) when
the revenue set was less than Rs 200 per kilogram but the government in 2051 BS put a halt to
its collection and transaction setting Rs 500 fine per piece of Yarchagumba.

The traders who import Yarchagumba sell them in various cities of China and even export to the
countries like Japan where there is high demand for it.

The price of Yarchagumba varies with its size. However, in the Nepalese market its cost (per kg)
varies from Rs 40,000 to Rs 100,000. According to one local trader the collectors gain a very
minimal amount of money. But the same Yarchagumba when it reaches the Tibetan market
fetches a lot of money. Per kg of Yarchagumba fetches as high as Rs 110,000 here at Taklakot,
says the trader.

According to one trader based at Humla, Yarchagumba’s transaction could be carried placing it
into three categories. The trader says that one kg of Yarchagumba which contains about 3000
pieces of it could fetch Rs 110,000; one kg of Yarchagumba which contains about 3,500 pieces of
it fetch Rs 105,000; and one kg of Yarchagumba that could contain as much as 5000 pieces of it
fetch only around Rs 80,000.

As the government earlier had banned the collection and the transaction of Yarchagumba, no
revenue could be collected from its transaction. "With the government still not setting any amount
for the sake of revenue, its legal transaction is still not allowed," says the trader. "Traders are
ready to pay as high as Rs 10,000 per kg of it".

It is the people from the cities, mostly monastery lamas, who are engaged in the Yarchagumba
transaction, say locals who claim they are merely workers.

The locals point out that illegal transaction of musk, skins and bone of tigers, leopard; shatoosh
among others also takes place in these regions. Says another local trader that shatoosh (fur of
antelope which is on the verge of extinction) has a very high demand in the international market.
A single shatoosh shawl weighing about 200 grams could fetch as high as Rs 250,000. However,
the border police near Muchu, Humla expresses their ignorance over these illegal trade. The
border police is actually situated far away from the border point.

"If the border police is transferred to the border itself, then such activities could be checked,"
says Humla Chief District Officer Gyan Prasad Sharma.

‘No propriety of opening the court’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - Although the Supreme Court is being opened even during the Dashain
vacation for the purpose of hearing and deciding the Hebeas corpus writ petitions, the spokesman
of the court said that there is no propriety of opening the court.

‘Why should the judge come and we all the employees assist him even during the greatest
festival, Dashain. Other concerned institutions do not co-operate the court,’’ said the spokesman
and joint registrar Durga Dawadi today. He further disclosed that the court is opened according to
the Judicial Administration Act, 2048 so as to make sure that people’s personal liberties would
not be taken away unlawfully. Such arrangements intend to provide immediate remedy to the
persons who are unduly detained.

Two government offices - Dillibazaar Prison Office and the District Police Office Hanuman Dhoka
denied to accept the letters sent by the Court yesterday and today respectively. ‘They did not
accept the letter even after my repeated attempts,’ said a court employee Shambhu Khatri who
was assigned to deliver the letters.

Meanwhile, a writ petition of Hebeas Corpus was filed today at the Supreme Court demanding
release of Dipendra Chandra Thakur and Riha Hamal who were arrested and detained by the
police while returning from Pokhara after completing the shootings of a film. The court
immediately sent a letter to the Hanuman Dhoka Police office to come with a reply why they were
detained. But the police did not accept the court letter. And, the court employee Khatri reported
the same, said Dawadi.

It is not only the prison office and the police office that failed to co-operate the court. It is also the
Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) which could not cooperate the
court.

The Court yesterday had sent a 24 hour letter to the CIAA asking to furnish reply as to why the
Deputy General Managar of Nepal Bank Limited was detained. Although the CIAA accepted the
court letter yesterday, it failed to furnish the reply today. While asked, the CIAA Chief Surya Nath
Upadhyay said it was not their non-compliance rather, it was their facility. ‘ We will furnish the
reply on the day when our office opens, said Upadhyay.