Hippie Trail: Katmandu, drug paradise (video)

What were we looking for? Enlightenment. What did we find? Ganja-smoking Hindu sadhus.

Rock singer Bob Seger sang about Katmandu, whereas Led Zeppelin wrote a paean to Kashmir

(Hare Krishna Hare Ram) "Dum Maro Dum" (1971) In this Bollywood song about the detested hippies coming to India to smoke weed and worship Krishna devotionally like the Beatles, a brother searches everywhere for his hippie Indian sister who has fallen in with Western miscreants.

How the drug war destroyed a hippie paradise in Kathmandu

(ReasonTV) Sept. 13, 2019. Pres. Dick Nixon's pursuit of draft-dodgers and pot smokers fueled the communist ideology it was trying to contain.

In the 1970s, Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon tried to nip "communism" in the bud by destroying Nepal's Himalayan hippie Shangri-La.

In stopping the pot smokers, he sparked a Maoist blowback. As the last country on earth to forbid the sale, cultivation, and consumption of drugs, Nepal promised a mind-bending trip.

Hippie trail from Europe to Central and E. Asia

But in an era when few could afford round-the-world airfare, frugal flower children took a rougher route to the most far-out destination on the planet: The Hippie Trail followed the footsteps of the ancient [Buddhist] Silk Road.

Some travelers fled the U.S. War on Vietnam draft; others came to the Himalayas to find themselves. For whatever the reason, from 1965 to 1973, tens of thousands of young people hitchhiked or bused the overland route from Istanbul, Turkey, to Kathmandu, Nepal, annually.

The end of The Hippie Trail was a single bustling urban lane called Jhonche, rechristened as Freak Street by its new colorfully dressed inhabitants.

Far Out: Countercultural...in Nepal

Over time, the Western hippies created their own community in Kathmandu. In a fascinating look at Nepal's hippie history, Mark Liechty, author of Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, describes Freak Street as a Haight-Ashbury or Greenwich Village on the other side of the world.

Hippies lived in a fantasy Nepal that existed in their imaginations: a land where old [morals or] traditions did not apply, where they could live freely and create themselves anew.

A youth culture that was too shocking for 1960s North America found a welcome home in a faraway religious monarchy [nominally Hindu but very Vajrayana Buddhist].

But "paradise" is not of either side of this earth. Two years after Pres. Dick Nixon declared an international "war on drugs," U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew was dispatched to Asia.

VP Agnew toured every country on The Hippie Trail before arriving in Nepal. Pres. Nixon threatened to withhold economic aid from countries that held a permissive attitude toward the drug trade.

Maoist rebels start Nepalese Civil War

Months later, Nepal enacted the first anti-drug laws in its ancient history. Kathmandu's hashish shops were closed. American narcotics agents roamed Freak Street, surveilling drug takers and draft dodgers for arrest on their arrival back in the United States.

And in a move that would have consequences for decades to come, Nepal's natural marijuana fields (where it grows freely for anyone to pick) were torched.

The hippies weren't the only ones angered by the new prohibition.

In Western Nepal, far from the capital city of Kathmandu, hashish cultivation (made from the sticky, oozing sap of budding cannabis flowers) was the main source of income.

Musk: Why was this ever illegal? (Joe Rogan)

Sellers and growers were arrested. Private property with strains of the hemp (Cannabis sativa) plant growing on it was forfeited to the state in a land grab using the drug war as its pretext.

Tens of thousands of farmers were pushed to the brink of starvation. Promised development aid to the region never arrived from outside or materialized from the monarch.

Seeing political opportunity in economic collapse, the Communist Party exploited local grievances and persuaded residents that only a violent overthrow of the oppressive royal government would solve their problems.

"Dum Maro Dum/Dam Maro Dam" Hare Krishna Hare Raam original song

Dick Nixon's global war on drugs fueled the communist ideology it was trying to contain. By 2006, the communist Maoists controlled 80 percent of the country. The insurgency based in the agricultural heartland had grown into a national political force that paralyzed the nation with a series of national strikes and armed resistance to the bad king.

After a decade-long civil war that claimed 17,000 lives, Nepal's monarchy was abolished and the Communist Party were elected to power.

Today, the civil war is long over, but Nepal's war on drugs continues. It remains a hub for heroin (derived from the naturally growing poppy plant) and hashish (cannabis resin), with stories of drug busts, addiction, and violence, mainstays of Nepal's TV news coverage.

Freak Street or Hippie Row still exists in Nepal

Despite a small political movement to legalize hashish, cannabis is legal one day a year for religious purposes only. The rest of the time, locals and tourists take their chances in the black market.

These days, the real action has moved to Thamel. A short walk from Freak Street, Kathmandu's new nightlife hotspot offers visitors every kind of indulgence that was available during Freak Street's heyday and many more that the hippies couldn't have imagined on their wildest trip.

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Reason.com is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a Libertarian perspective. Produced by Todd Krainin. Music licensed under Creative Commons, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US. "Malashree Dhun" by Sringar Nepal. "Bass Bansuri" by Hamsadhwani. "Eastern Thought" by Kevin MacLeod. "Holiday (instrumental)" by Silence is Sexy. "Aspirato" by Kai Engel. "Long Time Gone" by Amaya Laucirica. ReasonTV

Getting HIGH in Nepal/Los Angeles (video)

(VICE) Getting high on rhododendron flower-fed bee honey in the Himalayas? Grayanotoxins

There's a funny thing... [This conversation took place at a Mass Meditation Initiative meeting in Pasadena].

There's a word we use in American English two mean two opposite things. There are a handful of words like this in English with some special name, like cleave and cleave. Cleave means both to "cling to" (as cleavage clings to the chest) and to "cut off" as with a cleaver (a big chopping knife).

The benefits of real "Mad [Rhododendron] Honey"

Bringing the spirit of the high Himalayas of Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan to Los Angeles

.

The Eye of Wisdom doped up on crack...

Then there's the all-useful Polynesian aloha (hello, goodbye, how are you, whatever, da kine, good times) and the out-of-this-world marklar (which, as used on South Park, means any and everything). But let's stick to English. What is that English word we misuse? "High."

What does it mean to "get high"? Before you answer, consider that you're about to say two different things, two opposite things, to mean the same thing, as if they did mean the same thing when they do not.

The Mass Meditation Initiative is a massive group meditation and concert and art festival

 

On the one hand, getting "high" means having a mind-expanding experience, dosed, ecstasy, a mind-blowing thrill, a peak experience, a psychedelic experience, an entheogenic experience, an awe-inspiring experience, to see things much more deeply or how they really are rather than how they seem.

Danny from Wasted Youth

On the other hand, we all mindlessly say that it means getting stoned, wasted, f*cked up, sh*t-faced, doped, obliterated, checked out, dropped out, intoxicated (full of mind-dulling toxins), hallucinating, seeing things exactly as they are not (as when drunk and imagining everything is okay).

Dr. Gabor Mate (author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction and When the Body Says No: Costs of Hidden Stress) makes the distinction in the Zeitgeist movie.

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Many people use alcohol, heroin, pharmaceutical opiates, analgesics ("painkillers"), and even strong (high THC, low CBD) cannabis to get "obtunded," dull, dense, senseless/painless.

Others wisely limit use of the word "high" to the first and original meaning. If someone consumes, for example, DMT, the "spirit molecule," it might be to stimulate sensitivity of the mind's eye (Buddhist dibba cakkhu), the pineal gland, creativity or psychic powers, the third or "all-seeing eye."

The Mass Meditation Initiative - presented by DisclosureFest.org

.

Vimanas get you high, literally.

Why would anyone want to see with that eye? Our other two eyes are subject to optical illusions, easy deception, distortion, hallucination, (vipallasa/perversion instead of vipassana/insight). That's not so scary, more like going to a horror film. The scary part is believing the distorted perception and developing a wrong view.

Maybe the only good "drugs," if there are any, are entheogens (things that release the divine or theos within), DMT-stimulators, like harmaline, low dose LSD, iboga, mescaline, psilocybin, ayahuasca (yage or natema, a DMT brew of three Amazonian ingredients), Syrian rue.

Maybe this is the only correct use of the word "high." But don't count on it catching on. We're lazy about language in the US, and as whip-smart Marilyn Manson famously says: "Drug abusers give drug users a bad name" or something like that. We're lazy about language.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule
The Spirit Molecule movie (imdb.com)
(Enigmas of the Universe) DMT: The Spirit Molecule

 

The Spirit Molecule investigates di-methyl-tryptamine (DMT), an endogenous (internally-produced) psychoactive compound, which exists in humans and numerous species of plants and animals.

The documentary traces Dr. Rick Strassman's U.S. government-sanctioned, human DMT research and its many trials, tribulations, and inconceivable realizations.

A closer examination of DMT's effects through the lens of two traditionally opposed concepts, science and spirituality, The Spirit Molecule explores the connections between cutting-edge neuroscience, quantum physics, and human spirituality.

Dr. Strassman's research and the experiences of the human test subjects before, during, and after the intense clinical trials raises many intriguing questions. A variety of experts voice their unique thoughts and experiences with DMT within their respective fields.

As Dr. Strassman's story unfolds, the contributors weigh in on his remarkable theories, including the natural synthesis of DMT in the human brain's pineal gland and its link to near-death experiences.

• The Pineal Gland and Herbs: Intersection of Spiritual and Physical Health (beforeitsnews.com) Hooked on learning about the pineal gland? Read on. What you need to do to help activate your pineal gland is to decalcify...

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• "Rhododendron: an ethnopharmacological and toxicological review," Journal of Ethnopharmacology
• "Rhododendron Species and Their Uses with Special Reference to Himalayas - A Review". Assam University Journal of Science & Technology: Biological and Environmental Sciences. 7 (1): 161–167.
• "The effect of root of rhododendron on the activation of NF-κB in a chronic..." Xiong, Jing; Zhu, Zhonghua; Liu, Jianshe; Wang, Ya
• Vice.com; Ananda (MMI), Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Nepal detains 20 Tibetans for illegal crossing

The cold moon dust high desert behind the Himalayas where moisture from India can only rarely overcome the peaks.

• Amazing photos of Tibet by Chandni Dossani

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Police in Nepal say they have detained 20 Tibetans who trekked the treacherous Himalayan trail for more than two weeks from their mountain homes.

They do it to escape the Chinese controlled Autonomous Tibetan Region and visit their exiled spiritual/political leader.] Police spokesman Binod Shrestha said the 15 men and five women were detained Monday after they crossed the border. They are aged 18 to 21 years old and are being transported to the capital, Katmandu. Tibetan refugees who are detained in Nepal are generally handed over to the United Nations' refugee agency.

The U.N. helps them on their journey to the Indian town of Dharmsala where the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama lives. Hundreds of Tibetans trek into Nepal every year to visit Dalai Lama. They walk route to avoid Chinese border guards.

Himalayas (kerdowney.com)

Buddha Boy: Nepal's animal sacrifice protest

Binaj Gurubacharya (AP)

The birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, Lumbini, Southern Nepal (circa 560 BCE)

KATMANDU, Nepal – A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday. The Gadhimai Mela, celebrated every five years, is attended by many Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes, pigs, goats, chickens, and pigeons are expected to be slaughtered this year on [just before Thanksgiving Day on] November 24 and 25.

Buddha Boy Palden Dorje (Ram Bahadur Bomjon)

Organizers said they will not bow to "interference" from pro-animal and religious groups that have held protests in Katmandu and in the festival area in Bara District, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the capital.

"We will not stop this centuries-old tradition now. This is our religion, belief, and tradition. And we will continue with it no matter what," said Motilal Kushwa of the organizing committee. Kushwa said thousands of people have already arrived at the site with animals meant for sacrifice next week.

Supporters of "Buddha Boy," Ram Bahadur Bomjon (PaldenDorje.org), the Nepalese teenager revered by many as the next Buddha, carry his photograph as they protest an upcoming Hindu festival in Katmandu, Nepal, on Nov. 18, 2009. (AP/Binod Joshi).

Participants believe that animal sacrifices for the Hindu goddess Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity. Many join the festival from the state of Bihar in India, where animal sacrifices have been banned in some areas. Critics say the killings are barbaric and conducted in a cruel manner. Government administrator Taranath Gauram said hundreds of extra policemen have been sent to the area to maintain security and officials do not expect trouble during the festival.

"Buddha Boy" Ram Bahadur Bomjon, a Nepalese teenager revered by many as the next Buddha, has joined the campaign against the animal slaughter and plans to visit the festival area to appeal directly to participants to stop the sacrifices. Bomjon's followers believe he has been meditating without food and water in the jungles of southern Nepal since 2005. Believers say he spends months without moving, sitting beneath a Bo tree.

More on Nepal

• Hindu festivals
• Bardot urges end to animal sacrifice in Nepal
• Cloud cover blocks meteor showers in India, Nepal
• Peace process on hold as Nepal's Maoists protest
• World Video: China kids struggle for play time
• Nepal's Buddha boy appeal to stop animal sacrifice
• Buddhists, activists against Hindu sacrifice in Gadhimai

Miss Nepal beauty pageant to be held

Modern beauty queen butts up against adoration of traditional Living Goddess (AP).

KATHMANDU, (Xinhua) -- Nepal's most popular beauty pageant is getting ready to choose the first Miss Nepal since the Himalayan "kingdom" became a federal democratic republic last year. The Hidden Treasure, the event management company in Lalitpur, south of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, on Wednesday announced that it has begun accepting applications from Nepalese women who are over 18, are at least 5 feet 4 inches (or 162.5 cm) tall, and have completed high school to take part in the contest that will be held in September or October. More>>

(WQ Editorial) While Nepal is predominantly Buddhist, with overwhelming influence from nearby Tibet, it has on paper been considered the world's only remaining Hindu Kingdom. A periodic, biased census ensures that, by the wishes of its dominant trading partner to the south.

It is a land-locked nation that has little choice but to acquiesce to the wishes of its overbearing neighbors. China, for example, sees to it that Tibetan activism is squashed and that revered monks are arrested (even as a Miss Tibet contest is held; see right). While Buddhism and free-market capitalism might be fine with beauty contests, Maoist communists are not.

The party wishes to institute traditional values and gender equality. Their methods may be severe, but the majority of people in Nepal would probably agree. Beauty pageants are a two-edged sword. They may give contestants a sense of empowerment while subverting gender equality. Such contests are not a feminist means of progress. And Nepal realizes this to some extent:

In Birgunj, some 90 km south of Kathmandu, the contest started getting popular in 1994 and spawned dozens of other beauty contests like Miss Teen, Miss Mongol, and even pageants for men. However, out of respect for Nepal's conservative society, Miss Nepal does not have a swim suit round.

The pageant ran into controversy in 2008 when the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M), who had ended its 10-year armed revolt and signed a peace agreement with the government in 2006, returned to mainstream politics and its Women's Wing opposed the pageant.

"Miss Nepal widens the division between the haves and have-nots," said Amrita Thapa Magar, chief of the party's Women's Wing, last year, explaining why they were opposing the contest. "Only affluent women who can afford the cosmetics and wardrobes needed can take part." Magar also said the contest degraded women to "commodities" and "social inferiors" at a time when her party was trying to build a "new Nepal."

Last year, when the Maoist party headed the government, the strong opposition to Miss Nepal caused the pageant to be canceled. Now, with a new [pro-Chinese] government at the helm, the organizers are hoping that Miss Nepal can be held again.

Nepal's "Living Goddess" to lure Indians

Durga Puja (devotional ritual in honor of Goddess Durga) 2008 (about.com)

KATHMANDU (Press Trust of India) - Nepal's "Living Goddess Kumari," worshipped by millions in the country, will be one of the main attractions at a special Durga Puja celebration in Kolkata (Calcutta) in a bid to boost tourism to the Himalayan state.

The move has been welcomed by Nepal's consulate office in Kolkata as a means of strengthening the cultural and religious ties between the two countries as well as to promote tourism. This year, they will be focusing on Nepal, said Nepalese consul-general in Kolkata, Suresh Man Shrestha.

Nepal's historic, cultural, and religious features will be showcased in the Puja pandal in Kolkata for a week starting September 22, as part of the celebrations, Nepal Tourism Board said in a press release. Nepal's tourism promotion campaign aims to target one million visitors during the "Nepal Tourism Year 2011." Source

Nepal: Maoists disrupt, protest

Mt. Kangchenjunga, part of the Yaksha Kingdom (Yeti, ogres), Nepal

Gopal Sharma from Kathmandu (Reuters)
Nepal's Maoists disrupted parliament on Friday and threatened to launch street rallies to protest against the government's failure to resolve a fight triggered by the firing of the army chief, officials said. The Maoists waged a decade-long civil war until a 2006 peace deal brought them to the mainstream. They scored a surprise victory in last year's election and formed the nation's first government after the abolition of the 239-year-old monarchy.

But in May their leader Prachanda resigned as prime minister after President Ram Baran Yadav rejected his decision to fire army chief General Rookmangud Katawal, saying he had refused to take orders from the civilian government. The Maoists say Yadav's move was "unconstitutional" and are demanding that it be debated in the parliament, which the government has so far refused.

On Friday, senior Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, said his party, which dominates the parliament, will launch street protests from next week to press for their demand, stoking fresh political turmoil in the nascent Himalayan republic. More>>

BBC COVERAGE

• Nepal Maoists issue new warning Party says that if the government does not meet its demands, it will start a series of nationwide protests.
• Back to the abyss? Fears of renewed political chaos after Prachanda resigns as prime minister.
• India worries over Nepal's future The strong showing by Nepal's Maoists in the parliamentary elections has taken its influential neighbour India by surprise.
• New PM's first interview
• Symbolic exit for Nepal's King Gyanendra
• Nepal PM Prachanda - Hero or Villain?
• Rocky red road
• Why Maoists won elections
• One small detail
• Danger signals
• BACKGROUND
  Q&A: Nepal's future
  Profile: Prachanda
  Who are the rebels?
  Profile: King Gyanendra
• FROM THE ARCHIVES
  2001: The royal massacre
• BBC WORLD SERVICE
  News in Nepali

Chinese exhibit shows new Tibet

Photo tour, now in Nepal, in Mexico City on 10/21/08 (Xinhua/en.tibetculture.net).

China's Official State Media, August 5, 2009

KATHMANDU, Nepal - There is a popular saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." So it is not hard to get a one-sided view of the "development" of the Tibetan Autonomous Region from a pro-China perspective -- so long as China controls the exhibition. Therefore, a 217 photo exhibit has been launched [in a likely propaganda campaign Nepal is obliged to allow to tour through] showing Tibet's antique past and modern Chinese present.

Visitors of the exhibition entitled "Tibet of China: Past and Present" spoke of their experience after viewing the exhibit in Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Wednesday. "An exhibition of lively pictures has unveiled the bitter truth of past as well as glimpse of prosperous present of Tibet," Nepalese Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel is reported to have said after viewing the array of carefully selected images.

Adding that relations between Nepal and China, culturally and socially, has roots extending back to ancient times, Pokharel said that phases of development and modernization of Tibet could be a new strategy of development in Nepal. More>>

• New Dangers for Tibetans in Nepal
• Move to allow Dalai Lama pictures: no policy change
• China: Ensure Fair Trial for Tibetan Filmmaker
• Crackdown on lawyers: legal think-tank shut down
• US Congress legislation to fund help to Tibet
• Right Way to Help China's oppressed Uighurs
• savetibet.org

Nepal hails "Goddess" from Ab-Fab TV show

LINK: Nepal Hails "Goddess" From "Absolutely Fabulous" (Robert Mackey)

On Sunday in Nepal, Joanna Lumley, the actress who starred in “Absolutely Fabulous,” was mobbed at the airport in Katmandu -- not by fans of the sitcom but by Gurkhas, the Nepalese fighters whose cause she has championed in Britain. Gurkhas have served in the British Army for nearly two centuries, but they were not allowed to retire to Britain until Ms. Lumley helped shame the British government into changing its policy two months ago.

As The Lede reported in May, Ms. Lumley, whose father served in the British Army with Gurkha soldiers, had pummeled a representative of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government in a debate on live television over a previous plan to allow only a limited number of Gurkha veterans to settle in Britain. More>>

Nepal Tibetans mark Dalai Lama's birthday

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Hundreds of Tibetans gather-ed in the Nepalese capital to mark the Dalai Lama's 74th birthday on Monday, a day after the government said it would not tolerate anti-China activities on its soil.

More than 1,000 Tibetan exiles took part in the celebration, held under a heavy police presence at a huge Buddhist stupa on the outskirts of Kathmandu, an AFP photographer said. Nepal is home to about 20,000 exiled Tibetans who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against the Chinese.

On Sunday, Nepal's home ministry warned it would not allow any activities aimed at "undermining the friendship between the two countries."

"Nepal desires to maintain equal and friendly relations with both its neighbors," the ministry said in a statement released ahead of the Dalai Lama's birthday.

"It is also committed not to let its territory be used against any friendly country."

Sandwiched between India and China, Nepal has upheld Beijing's "one China" policy -- that Tibet is an integral part of China. It has repeatedly said it will not tolerate anti-China demonstrations as it seeks to preserve friendly ties with its northern neighbor. Last month, Nepalese police arrested 34 Tibetan exiles as they tried to stage a demonstration near the Chinese border.

Nepal fails to erase Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama holds poster of jailed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi (AP).

Nepal fails to erase Dalai Lama from Tibetan hearts
Sudeshna Sarkar (TNN, June 26, 2009)

KATHMANDU – At one time, the name plate outside the walled house proudly said "Gaden Kangsar" – the residence of the Dalai Lama. But when Nepal’s Maoist government began a fresh crackdown on supporters of the exiled Tibetan leader last year, the house in Kathmandu’s embassy enclave, once known as the office of the Dalai Lama’s representative in Nepal, chose discretion over confrontation and the sign, written both in English and the elegant Tibetan script, was tarred over.

But it is not so easy to erase the loyalty to the Dalai Lama and dreams of a free Tibet from Tibetan hearts. A group of 35 Tibetan exiles proved so on Friday when they courted arrest by trying to stage a peace march in Tibet.

As the world observed the International Day Against Torture, the exiles left Kathmandu at 4:00 am on a bus heading north. Their plan was to take the Araniko Highway, which connects Nepal with China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region, cross the Nepal-Tibet border and stage a public protest in Tibet asking for the restoration of rights and democracy in the annexed Buddhist kingdom.

However, they were prevented by the Nepal police contingent patrolling the border, who stopped the bus and took the group under control. The protesters lay down on the highway, raising slogans for a free Tibet until they were dragged away. Police said the bus had been sent back to Kathmandu where the group, including eight women, will be handed over to the immigration authorities for appropriate action.

This is the first major Tibetan protest since the formation of a coalition government led by communist Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. The protests, which had continued for almost a year mortifying China last year on the eve of the Olympic games, were stifled after a Maoist government came to power in August 2008 and ordered stronger measures, including patrolling by its cadres.

Nepal, having received an invitation to visit Beijing but is yet to set any dates, will come under fresh pressure from his northern neighbor after Friday’s resumption of protests. Though the new government adheres to the earlier administration’s foreign policy of not allowing anti-Chinese activities on Nepali soil, Beijing is bound to seek more effective measures to control the protests. It has stepped up its vigil along the border with Nepal to prevent Tibetan fugitives from heading towards Dharamshala in India via Nepal and is now asking for the regulation of the open Indo-Nepal border to cut off the entry of protesters from India. Source

Anti-Dalai Lama protesters in Germany advocating for the right to practice without politically motivated condemnation indicate the shocking fact that the beloved political leader does not in fact enjoy universal religious renown (Xinhua/Shugden).

AP: Nepal's turmoil won't stop peace

Text: Tim Sullivan (AP)

Nepalese rural Maoists (CPNM-M) and city sannyasins in Kathmandu (AFP).

KATMANDU, Nepal – The political turmoil that has roiled Nepal in recent weeks will not stop its peace process from moving forward, the country's prime minister said Saturday, adding that the former Maoist guerrillas still must prove that they are committed to negotiations.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, whose coalition government has been all but paralyzed by Maoist strikes and internal bickering since he came to power last month, said he expected the peace process and the new constitution to be completed by the May 2010 deadline.

The government "has extended its hand of cooperation to the Maoists," he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview, and the Maoists have pledged to negotiate seriously.

"If they are really honest in their words, then I hope...we will be able to take the peace process to a positive conclusion," Nepal said. More>>

• More on Nepal
  Political violence threatens peace in Nepal: UN (AFP)
  Strike shuts schools, shops in Nepal (AFP)
  Nepal's post-Maoist government falters (AFP)

U.S. concern over Nepal's peace process

(faculty.fairfield.edu)

U.S. expresses concerns over peace process
KATHMANDU, Nepal (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Middle Asia, Robert O. Blake, expressed concerns over Nepal's peace process on today.

He said that the increasing differences among the major political parties and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoists (UCPN-M) and the delay in the expansion of the government could jeopardize the already fragile peace process.

Blake, who arrived here Friday to take stock of the latest political development, voiced concerns during his meeting with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar of Nepal.

The meeting took place at the Prime Minister's office in Singha Durbar shortly after Blake's arrival in the capital.

The visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary said that the government's priority to conclude the ongoing peace process should be on drafting the new constitution, integration of the UCPN-M combatants and rehabilitation of the minors residing in the United Nations-monitored cantonments.

The discussion also dwelled on the possible extension of the United Nations' mission in Nepal, which is due to end on July 23, 2009.

Blake is the highest-ranking political official to visit Nepal after the UCPN-(M)-led government was toppled last month.

• The Marxist overthrow of the corrupt King of Nepal

Buddha Boy

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, right, believed to be a bodhisattva ("buddha-to-be") is surrounded by Buddhist monks in the town of Nijgadh, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, Nepal, 11/12/08. Bamjan, 18, has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal, attracting thousands of devotees. After retreating into the jungle for more than a year, he re-emerged on 11/10/08 (AP Photo/Binod Joshi).

Buddha Boy is Back

Buddha Boy, Ram Bahadur Bamjan, looks on as devotees seek his blessing (AP).

• Slideshow: Nepal "Buddha Reincarnation"

KATMANDU, Nepal – A Nepalese teenager revered by many as a bodhisattva (a "being bent on buddhahood") has returned to the jungle to meditate after emerging for less than two weeks, officials said Saturday.

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, reappeared on Nov. 10 after several months of meditation to bless thousands of his followers, speaking to them on at least two occasions.

He made his last appearance on Friday and then returned to the jungle to meditate, said Biswo Prakash Newpane, a government administrator in the area. It was not clear when he would return again.

His followers lined up near the jungle of Ratanpur, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, to be blessed by Bamjan. He tapped the believers on their forehead but did not speak to them individually.

The followers believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005. Believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.

Buddhism, which has about 325 million followers, teaches that beings (unless fully enlightened) are reborn after death in many forms.

Buddhist scholars would be skeptical of any claim that Bamjan is a reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, who was born in southwestern Nepal roughly 2,500 years ago.

Rakesh, a Buddhist scholar, told the Associated Press last week that being a "Buddha" means the end of suffering and the end of rebirth since it is the highest level that can be achieved. There can be no "reincarnation" of Buddha, but there can and are many rebirths for a bodhisattva such as Siddhartha Gautama and previous Buddhas.

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