Tashi Delek! Gyalbo Lhosar knocks on every Sherpa door

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: Beginning Wednesday, Lakpa Norbu Sherpa, of Bouddhanath area, along with his family members will celebrate Lhosar, the greatest festival of Sherpas and other people belonging to Tibeto-Burmese communities that conicides with the Tibetan New Year 2129, which is also called Water Horse Year.

Like Lakpa Norbu, thousands of Sherpa and also the Tibetan refugees – who number around 32,000 in the country – are bracing up for the festival of Chhimar, Khapsa and Dichhyang. As Lhosar comes right on their doors, new Buddhist prayer flags and Lungtas are being put up in the houses, stupas and monasteries.

"This is our most important festival, which young and the old celebrate with equal enthusiasm," says Norbu. "And all the people who have gone far away from their houses also come back for the celebrations."

The 15-day long celebrations reach its peak on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when the Sherpas, the Tamangs and the Tibetan communities gather at their houses and monasteries. They perform pujas during the festival, which is basically the time to eat delicacies and wear new clothes.

Visiting friends and relatives, they receive blessings from elders and extend their best wishes to all. They literally forget everything in the world, such as monetary and other business transactions, except their near and dear ones.

In the run-up to the festival, they clean up their houses as they bid adieu to the miseries of the past year. All this to welcome happier days ahead. And they say to each other – "Tashi Delek ! Delek !"

They call the upcoming Lhosar or the New Year – Gyalbo Lho-Sar, which literally means kingly new year.

The Tibetan Buddhist or the Tibeto-Burmease communities celebrate three types of Lhosar – Tola (Tamu), Sonam and Gyalbo Lhosar. While the Tamu Lhosar was celebrated by the Gurungs on December 30, Sonam Lhosar was celebrated a month ahead of the Gyalbo Lhosar mainly by the peasant communities.

Whatever the timing, the festival has a single purpose: welcome the new year, or specifically putting it, welcoming the year of Water Horse. Said Sherpa Thupten Lama, a Sherpa language expert, "Irrespective of the timing and the location, the festival is more or less the same. It is also celebrated in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and China, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan and other East Asian countries.

The tradition to celebrate Lhosar, according to Lama, dates back to the time of Tibetan King Nagshi Chambo. "The tradition is believed to have started after the birth of Chambo long, long ago," he says.

The Year of Serpant turns into the Year of Water Horse on Wednesday. According to the Chinese astrological system there exists a cycle of twelve years named after different animals such as mouse, bull/cow, tiger, rabbit/cat, dragon/divine eagle, serpent, water horse, sheep, monkey, hen, dog and pig.

To mark the festival, Sherpa communities are organising different cultural programmes. For instance, the Himalayan Sherpa Cultural Centre is organising a rally from Sherpa Sewa Kendra at Bouddhanath for the unity of Sherpas on Friday. On the same day, they will also participate in a group puja.

Private sector to be included in leasehold forestry

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: The government is preparing to include, for the first time, private organisations in the management of country’s deteriorating forests.

Earlier the degraded forest that covers about 1.6 million hectares of the country’s total landmass used to be given only to families living below the poverty line for management.

With the provision of giving leasehold forestry to an organised organisation, institution, industry and eco-tourism entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation has prepared a final draft to amend the existing leasehold forestry policy.

"We have prepared this policy of leasehold forestry with the objective of giving degraded forests to private organisations, industries and eco-tourism entrepreneurs," said Chandi Prasad Shrestha, the Secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation.

In the previous policy, there was not a clear policy of giving the degraded forest to industries and organisations.

Aspirant industry, organisation, and eco- entrepreneurs should apply for the forest management with forest development programmes along with physical infrastructure to be built.

Similarly, aspirant eco- entrepreneurs will be allowed to build infrastructure only in the 20 percent of the total area of a leased forest, according to the amendment.

The amendment will also provide authority to district forest officers to give a leasehold forest to the aspiring party.

The leasehold forestry covers seven hectares of land to 1,660 user-groups comprising 11 thousand poor families.

Book on downtrodden communities released

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: The Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University, Nabin Prakash Jung Shah said that national development cannot be separated from social development in the present context. He was speaking at a book launching programme organised here today..

Shah said superstition, racial discrimination and social inequality are the main obstacles for the development of Nepalese society.

Speaking at the same programme, sociologist Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan highlighted the importance of the book to increase the awareness level of the downtrodden communities. He said that the book would be the first of its kind written about the oppressed-class people.

"Division among themselves is the main cause of the failure of their movement," remarked Prof. Panna Kaji Amatya pointing out the weakness of the Dalit Liberation Movement. Hira Bahadur Bishwokarma, a Dalit intellectual emphasized the role of NGOs in uplifting the oppressed class at the programme.

"The Oppressed Class Liberation Movement in Nepal" is a book written by Yam Bahadur Kisan. This programme organised by the People Uplifting Council was chaired by its president, D.B. Sagar.

Health Warning: Beware of hazardous medical waste

Dazen Manandhar

The "thrilling" story about an amputated limb found in the busy street of Bagbazaar is quite old. We have also read news stories about a government-owned maternity hospital throwing foetuses and other parts just next to the hospital compound. We read and soon forget such stories, as we have to get on with our busy lives.

But whether we think about it or not, the most aware, intelligent and comfortable citizens of the capital city, have to realise that they are living on a time bomb planted by the health organisations with its high-sounding slogans of quality health service. Any time, a plague can threaten the lives of thousands in this city because of the infectious waste the hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and medicine shops, throw out carelessly on the street every day.

One can hardly believe that in this so-called modern city, health institutions dump over 1,000 kilogrammes of deadly hazardous waste directly or indirectly on the streets every day.

We, the educated people of the valley, it seems know only one way of being health—conscious—chuck all the garbage out of our territory. Our conscience never bothers us that the garbage will not let us live in peace unless it is treated or managed properly. Staying with the garbage problem in the capital has become as common as "dalbhat". We have a decade-long experience in this field.

Medical waste—that is bio-medical waste, hospital waste, clinical waste, pathological waste, infectious waste, pharmaceutical waste, geno-toxic waste, chemical waste and even radioactive waste–are thousand times more dangerous to public health than plastic bags, paper boxes and rotten vegetables. In general, waste of the organic matters decompose while the non-organic ones remain intact.

But the case is quite different with medical waste. Since they are either infected with various bacteria and viruses, they can generate pests that can be harmful to our lives.

Around one-and-half million people from the valley and perhaps the same number from other districts, undergo treatment in the city’s numerous medical establishments. Do we have any idea where does the human tissues, organs, body fluids, other wastes which may transmit viral, fungal, bacterial or parasitic diseases, expired or unused drugs, gaseous chemicals, etc. go? They remain in the valley itself, on or under the ground, and their regenerated forms are flying in the air we breathe. We can’t run away from them. And we are not ostriches to bury our heads.

According to a research done last year by Environment and Public Health Organisation, over 60 hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, etc. produce 1,312 kg of such infectious and clinical wastes in the Kathmandu Valley. But only a few of these places have any equipment to treat the waste. What is happening is that many of the medical establishments mix hazardous waste with the general waste, which, according to experts, multiplies the danger by hundreds of times, because after such waste gets mixed with the general garbage pile, all the pile turns dangerous. Most of the hospitals and nursing homes usually dispose their waste on the roadside containers, and at times, burn and bury them in their institution premises.

This is what the doctors, and other health workers, whom we consider highly health- conscious and masters of health education, are leaving behind. What is there to expect from these people who are not serious about the waste they are responsible for produce?

But the blame lies not just on the health professionals. There are various laws concerning industry, health services and environment. They all say that the institutions must manage the waste that they produce. But no action has yet been taken against those who do not abide by the rules.

What can be done? Recommendations again: The government must amend its laws and punish the wrongdoers; make hospital management, doctors and cleaners aware, and immediately establish a centralised incinerator or get the hospitals and nursing homes to establish their own plants to manage such wastes. And of course, the citizens have a role to play. Have you ever heard of any citizen or civic organisation raising a voice against this deadly mismanagement? I suppose, no. Now is the time, before it gets too late.

Pollution on the rise 

By Mahendra Thapa

RUPENDEHI, Feb 12: Wide-spread pollution in Siddharthanagar Municipality is affecting prospects of the government developing Lumbini as a major tourist destination for 2002.

The environment of the Municipality has been marred by lack of public toilets, littering all around and because of the dusty highway. To make matters worse, the banks of Sunauli’s Danda rivulet, an entry point to Lumbini, is now a garbage dump.

"Having the dumping site just at the entry point to Lumbini is really disgusting. This is
creating such a bad impression among the tourists," says Deepak Kshetri Neupane, Chairman of the Hotel Association of Siddharthanagar and the Town Development Committee.

Ex-mayor of the Municipality, Dr. Balaram Gautam, expressed sadness at the decision to declare the Danda rivulet banks a dumping site. "Earlier the Peace Memorial Foundation of Japan had proposed to make a beautiful Peace Park around that place, but now it has become a stinking dumping site," says Gautam.

The dump has also affected the lives of both the people and the marine species. People say that they can no longer drink the river water.

"We have requested the Municipality officials time and again not to use the area as a dumping site, but all of it have been in vain," says an official at a local NGO, Save Environment Revolution.

The Municipality unloads four trucks of waste daily on the dumping site.

Travails of an inter-caste couple

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BIRATNAGAR, Feb 12: Inter-caste marriages even in this day and age run into several difficulties. This is the story of the travails of a 29-year-old Brahmin boy who fell in love with a Bishwokarma girl. The Bishwokarmas are regarded as lower caste people in the Hindu caste system.

Ganesh Lamsal of Mechinagar Municipality-2 got married with his beloved six years ago, and is now a father of two daughters. He talks of the struggle and suffering of going through an inter-caste marriage.

"I never knew that my marriage will cost so heavy for me. As a reward my own family members tried punishing me. I had to live in jail for 18 days because my family alleged that I had sold my  wife," says Lamsal.

He continues, "My wife was held captive for more than a month by her own parents and we were not only allowed to live with the family. We   were also shunned from the locality by the so-called upper caste people and had to shift to Biratnagar. We had to suffer all kinds of discrimination."

Lamsal says that when they brought their case to the various social organisations, all they got were verbal assurances. "No one could give us practical help."

And when their baby was born, the pandit refused to conduct the rituals saying that it was a sin to perform rituals for the baby of a "lower-caste mother".

"Even now it is tough. I have left several jobs because high-level officials belonging to what they call the upper caste, would not tolerate me."

Lamsal says that even now he cannot step into his parents’ home because his father has threatened suicide if he does so. "But my father’s hatred has made me strong, it has stoppped me from begging a share in the family property."

Border information to be updated

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BHADRAPUR, Feb 12: The joint meeting of border officials from Nepal and India concluded here with the agreements to update the border information and to control the criminal and terrorists’ activities in the border area here today.

Officials from Darjeeling of India and Jhapa, Ilam and Panchthar of Nepal participated in the meeting that was held in Kalbalgudi.

"The meeting decided to find and reconstruct the border pillars ," said Pashupati Karmacharya, Chief District Officer of Jhapa. "We also agreed to record the encroachment in the border and to inform the upper bodies about it as well as to find out the reliable measure to check the cross border crime."

"A joint team will inspect the border in the third week of February," said Pitambar Adhikari, administrative officer of Jhapa.

"We decided for the additional security in the border to make sure that no criminal activities occur there," said Adhikari.