The villages – part 1
We’re back, meaning back in Kathmandu. Back in the noise, crowds, filth, intensity. But ah, the hot shower, good food, phone and Internet; the little luxuries are so enjoyable after weeks without. That’s part of our experience as westerners, as visitors.
For the Nepalis, Kathmandu is family, jobs, connections at festival time. It’s Tihar time now – the Nepali version of the holiday known as ‘Diwali’ in India – the festival of lights, with candles, fireworks, dancing, and beautiful artwork on the ground before doorways. It’s a time for families to get together and mark each other’s foreheads with red ‘tika’ blessings. Tomorrow the busses will be full again, as a whole country heads back to work.
Dossai time means full busses.
Our two weeks in Helambu benefited from the relaxed holiday atmosphere – many people having time to share with us, and many English-speaking kids visiting their grandparents’ village homes. This, of course, meant enthusiastic translators helping us out.
Our ‘trek’ was a bit more like a slow migration through several towns. A half day jeep ride up a bumpy dirt road brought us to the start in Timbu, a tiny settlement along the Melamchi Khola in central Helambu. From here it was up, up, up with our two horses (Tashi and Lomsang), a horse driver named Karsen Lama, our own kids, Tim and Lia, another boy, Sonam, on his way to the school, two of the NGO’s staff (Gyamdzo and Tashi), two apprentices learning the ways with horses (and helping with our packs – Ram Prashad and Dawa), and our guide/translator, Ranu. What a group!
Rain in Bangdang
Sweaty and hot on the second day, we reached Tarkegyang, a picturesque settlement nigh up on a hillside. Here the work began, getting to know key contacts for the video documentary work that comes later in the winter. The kids enjoyed a chance to bang on some huge drums in the town’s monestary, and the next day sit in on a special celebration there (a ‘puja’), with all its loud clanging, banging, chanting, and incense. One evening was spent hearing of the founding myth stories for the village: Mountaintop monasteries struck by seven bolts of lightning; a king’s wife cured of illness; a hundred horses given as a gift and exchanged for never-ending ownership of a rich valley of rice, and a copper tablet describing it all!
Langtang and Panch Pokhari from Baruwa
The weather turned rainy as we huffed and puffed our way up over the ridge at Yangi Peak through the Langhang Monestary, and down to the new boarding school and village at Gangkharka. Over the next two days, we got to know this town and its history, prepared our work in the school (a clinic and video project) and organized housing and logistics for our next time here. We stayed in the home of Dorjee’s (VEC Director’s) parents, a sweet older couple living the traditional ‘picturebook’ Sherpa lifestyle.
Shelling beans in Gangkharka
Sadly, about 5 years ago, during the Maoist uprising, most residents took their families and left for Kathmandu, or India, or further abroad. The handful who remained are now re-building, setting up village governance structures, and preparing for a period of growth, now that the school is in place. No bombs or even bullets have fallen here, but the wounds of war are obvious.
Lia learns washing from Ranu
More rain and lots of leeches helped us down the trail to Bangdang, another nearly empty Sherpa village overlooking the steep wooded mountains. Here we lunched in the home of a retired Gurka army officer, with a beautifully tidy kitchen, a common pleasure of many Sherpa homes. Here another ‘retired’ man struggled behind a team of cows plowing in the potato field in preparation for a winter planting of wheat or barley.
On down the hill, we entered the ‘stairstep’ Tamang village of Dalegaon, where we watched people of all ages weaving ‘dokos’, large baskets used like backpacks, and sold in the market towns further down the hill.
Making dokus in Dalegaon
A few thousand more steps down, and we were in steamy hot Yangri, a compact, busy little Tamang village directly on the Indrawadi Khola, with breathtakingly beautiful traditional houses and at the confluence of two rivers. Here we discussed establishing another health post, and here Ina got the chance to give some medical treatments – a boy with a bad fever, a dog bitten by another dog, one of our staff bitten by our horse, and an infected foot (mine) from a leech bite.
Aren't leeches fun?
written October 17, 2009. Posted a few days later.