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Photographer: Emmy Schoorl
Yar tun translates from Tibetan as “summer’s end” and marks the last lazy days of
the growing season and the first laborious days of the harvest. In villages throughout Upper Mustang, yar tun is celebrated with the yar tun ten dil (more commonly known as Yartung), a three‐day festival at which the Lobas feast, drink, dance, sing, and race their sturdy Tibetan ponies.
In Lo Manthang, the region’s largest village and former capital of the Kingdom of Lo Tsu Dun, the celebrations begin with a short ceremony inside the walled city and then, depending on the day, the men, women, or monks move through the town’s gate to their horses, ride to a field to the east and spend the day eating, drinking and entertaining each other with traditional Loba and Tibetan songs
and dances. In the late afternoon, the horses are again mounted and
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raced across the fields to a straight‐ish track on the edge of the village. Here the townsfolk watch on as the riders race, throw rocks at stationary targets, and pick up khata (silken scarves) from the ground—all while galloping on their horses. As the sun sets, the revelers move back inside the city where the festivities continue.
A couple of years ago, a dirt road, the area’s first, reached Lo Manthang from the south (see page 8). This allowed for the introduction of jeeps, motorbikes, trucks, and tractors—and virtually sounded the death knell for the horse culture of Upper Mustang. As one wrangler told me, “With a motorbike I only have to pay for gas when I use it. I have to feed a horse every day, whether I use it or not!” However, the tradition of Yartung is actually growing stronger. Lo Manthang only revived the ancient festival about 15 years ago, shortly after AHF’s cultural renaissance began, and until last year was the only town in Upper Mustang to celebrate it. Now, the villages of Ghami, Ghiling, Charang, and Chhosar all celebrate their own Yartung, ensuring that, for at least three days a year, the horses of the Tibetan Plateau have their days in the sun.
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In this report …
Earthquake Damage Repair Update
5
Traffic and Weather
8
Taking Care
10
In Focus : Ghiling Day Care Center
11
Art of Faith
12
Remotely Healthy
13
In Profile : Tashi Tsering
15
In Focus : Tsarang Lekshey Choeling Chunmay Lobta
16
The Growing Problem of Shrinking Schools
18
‘Tashi Delek,’ Mustang: A First-Time Perspective
20
5
Earthquake Damage Repair Update
Following the shattering earthquakes which began in April 2015, AHF sent an engineer familiar with
traditional Loba building practices to assess our partners’ needs in Mustang. Last year, I followed up
with a visit in July, and by October 2015 we had approved all seven proposals we received. I returned to
Lo in August of this year and am pleased to report that progress has been made.
Charang Monastic School
The east block of the
Charang Monastic School
was built precariously on the
edge of a steep cliff that
dropped hundreds of yards
to the river below. The
quake dislodged part of the
cliff and sections of the east
wall collapsed. The entire
building was no longer safe
to occupy.
This year we began
rebuilding the east wing on
more stable land adjacent to
the Charang gompa. A dorm room, the monks’ dining hall, and kitchens will all be accommodated in the
new building. As of August of this year, the work is eighty percent complete, and will be nearly complete
by October.
Charang Gompa South Wall
The damage to the gompa was not able to be repaired this year, as the rebuilding of the east block took
priority. Our engineer did a second assessment this summer and couldn’t guarantee the gompa would
be safe for habitation even after a proposed buttress has been built. In addition to a place for observing
religious rites, the gompa was the sleeping quarters for the majority of students, who are now sleeping
in bunk beds in their classroom. A week or so after the engineer left, as if in support of his assessments,
another part of the roof collapsed inward (due to the heavy rain) onto what would have been the
bedroom of four young monks. The gompa management are examining a number of options for a more
permanent fix of the south wall and alternative accommodation for the monks.
Upper Chhosar Day Care Center
The day care center building in Upper Chhosar sustained some damage in the quake; its mud and stone
walls cracked in a number of places and timber beams in the ceiling broke loose. The repair work was
completed this year. However, just as the children were due to move back in, the playground flooded as
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a result of the heavy rains. The children happily returned to the day care center once the rain stopped
and the ground dried out.
Ghiling Day Care Center The day care school in Ghiling was also damaged during last year’s earthquakes, and AHF provided financial support to undertake the repairs, which were mostly completed this summer—only some final painting remains to be done.
Upper Chhosar Bridge
The quake destroyed an essential bridge in Upper
Chhosar, part of a drivable track that links the
northern villages of Chhosar and Nyamdrok to Lo
Manthang and the villages to the south. This year,
the old wooden bridge was replaced with a sturdier
cement one, so pedestrians, equestrians, and small
jeeps can cross the river with confidence.
Namgyal Community Building
The earthquake badly damaged the community
records office in Namgyal, and essential papers had
to be transferred to part of the day care center. We
offered our partners assistance to repair the
records office, but work on this could not be
started this year, because most of the villagers
were concentrating on repairing their own homes that were damaged in the quake—Namgyal and
Ghiling were the hardest‐hit villages. In addition, a shortage of materials and labor from the border
blockade earlier this year slowed things down.
Thubchen Gompa, Lo Manthang
Repairs to quake‐damaged Thubchen Gompa began
this year. The cracked 10‐foot‐high parapets on the
roof are being removed; much of the material is set
to be reused when the parapets are reconstructed
with additional supports next season. The removal
of a stone and cement buttress that dislodged
during the quake is also underway, as are repairs to
the adjoining town drainage system that fractured,
causing moisture to seep into the wall and threaten
the 15th‐century art on the other side.
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Champa Gompa, Lo Manthang
Compared to Thubchen, Champa Gompa got off lightly, with some cracked beams that need pinning and
damaged walls repaired. All the work was completed this year. Of real concern, however, is the damage
to the walls inside, behind the artwork that AHF began restoring in 1997.
When Luigi returned to Lo Manthang in September last year, he and his team thoroughly checked
Champa’s walls and found numerous spots where the wall behind the paint had cracked. With all hands
needed in Thubchen this year, Luigi wanted to wait until 2017 to address it. Next year he will divide his
team into those with restoration experience and those who are more talented artists. The former will
move to Champa and begin the reconsolidation of the walls; the latter will remain in Thubchen
extending the wall paintings.
Lo Manthang Monastic School Winter Campus Building, Kathmandu
The largest Mustang‐related earthquake rebuilding project we undertook was the repair and retrofit of
the winter campus of the Lo
Manthang Monastic School, near
Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. The
two‐wing, five‐story building becomes
home, school, and monastery to the
100 monks from Choedde Gompa for
five months during the harsh Mustang
winter. The building was so badly
damaged after the first quake that it
was condemned, but later authorities
approved a plan for extensive repair
and retrofitting.
The total cost of the project is over
$250,000, and the work that began
last year still continues. Last winter, the students were generously offered a temporary home at
another gompa in Lumbini, but it is not available this year, and all are hoping the work will be completed
by November.
Ghiling Gompa Monks’ Quarters
This year, the monks of Ghiling Gompa approached us for assistance with the reconstruction of their
living quarters that were attached to the centuries‐old gompa until damaged by the quake. They have
managed to raise considerable funds themselves, enough to demolish the old building and complete the
base and foundations of the new one, but need more to complete the two‐story building. The monks
reside there when performing lengthy pujas throughout the year and use the quarters to accommodate
visiting religious dignitaries.
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Traffic and Weather Since 2013, it has been possible, under
certain conditions, to drive from
Kathmandu to Lo with only one break:
crossing the Kali Gandaki River just
south of the village of Chele. But
construction of a bridge allowing
vehicles to cross this river has started
and looks to be completed in 2018.
This year however, the conditions were
most uncertain, and due to the
unseasonably heavy rainfalls and
mountains weakened by last year’s
earthquakes, driving to Lo was complicated and lengthy. Between Pokhara and Ghami, the road was
blocked by landslides or swollen rivers in eight places. Tourists and locals had to get out of one jeep,
cross the muddy rubble or ford waterways and get in another jeep waiting on the other side. As usual,
the AHF team rode horses, so it wasn’t as problematic for us, but there were one or two stretches
where even our horses were not happy with
the slippery sludge under hoof.
But the road, when functional, has brought
about significant change. Tourism has
increased, particularly domestic tourism, as
the journey from Jomsom to Lo Manthang
can be completed in just a ten‐hour drive,
not a four‐day trek as in the past. An AHF
team also visited Lo earlier in the year at the
time of the popular Tiji Festival, and they
estimated that of the 600 tourists that
descended on Lo over those three days,
swelling the town’s population by over sixty
percent, one‐third were Nepalese from the
south.
While some Western trekkers complain about the overcrowded guest houses, the dust kicked up by
passing vehicles, and the loss of “traditional” Loba culture, most Lobas see the road as a good thing.
Food and materials from the south are cheaper to import, their own harvests are easier to export and
fetch premium prices, it’s simpler for them to get from village to village, and should an emergency arise,
getting to the medical post or the hospital in Jomsom is much faster.
Foundations of the bridge over the Kali Gandaki beneath Chele
Landslide near the village of Samar
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A few trekking agencies are looking at new routes that avoid the road, such as the less‐explored eastern
path from Muktinath to Lo Manthang via Dhi, which would open up more villages to the benefits (and
pitfalls) of tourism.
And back to the weather… it started
raining in mid‐June and didn’t stop for
two months. Neither the terrain nor the
architecture of Upper Mustang is suited
to so much precipitation. In addition to
landslides and floods, houses, lodges,
and schools found their roofs leaking—
or worse. The newly built community
hall in Dakmar was destroyed when its
flat, thatched mud roof collapsed, and
the monks at Choedde Gompa awoke
one morning to find a new pond in their
courtyard.
The rain was good news for most
farmers no longer dependent on just
irrigation for water, with bumper crops
of wheat, maize, buckwheat, and mustard. Some of the potato crop in the south was lost to mold, but
the newly established apple orchards in Ghiling and Charang really benefited. The rain also brought
snow to the hills around Lo Manthang, dropping temperatures in the town to the mid‐fifties.
The Dakmar community hall’s collapsed roof
Bumper crops near Charang
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Taking Care
While the restoration of 15th‐century monasteries may have made AHF known globally, locally, and to
those tourists who take notice, AHF’s wider presence in Lo can be seen in the day care centers our
partners established in 14 villages—from Ghiling in the south to Nyamdrok in the north (way north); and
Tinkar in the west to Tangye in the east (way east). I vividly remember a few years ago the then country
director of UNICEF heaping immense praise on our work in early childhood development!
While the 167 little Lobas in our care this year do learn
basic math and literacy—in three languages—the
primary objective of our day cares is to keep them
safe. Toddlers by definition toddle, and an unsteady
gait is hardly an advantage when hanging out with
mum in a buckwheat field on the edge of a 200‐foot
ravine or on the soft bank of a swiftly‐flowing stream.
While they’re there, we also teach them how to brush
their teeth (a skill some of them pass up to their
parents), sing in Tibetan, Nepalese, and English, dance
traditional Loba dances, pray (school prayer: first amendment rights!), and stay between the lines when
coloring—or not.
Snug in Chhosar
Fun and games in Lo Manthang
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We also provide one healthy meal a day,
which is not so important in terms of
nourishment, as Loba children are rarely
underfed, but helps in teaching their parents
the importance of a balanced diet. The road
now allows for the importing of junk food
(from Tibet and the south); cookies, soda,
instant noodles, gum, and the like are now
readily found in stores. Parents are not yet
educated in the harm these can do, and
assume because they are imported, they must
be better. Their children then become
addicted to the sugar and throw tantrums
when denied. Parents then capitulate to pacify the kids, perpetuating a downward spiral into cavity‐
filled mouths and irritated digestive systems. A challenge we will continue to fight.
In each center the children are looked after by a head caretaker and two or three “mothers” who assist
the caretaker and manage the cooking, cleaning, and bathing. All but three of the forty staff employed in
day cares across Lo are women and the majority of these hail from the village where they now work,
making AHF’s day care network the leading employer of Lobas in the area.
In Focus : Ghiling Day Care Center
Tenzin Choezom is the day care center’s “Miss”, and this year she has 27 little Lobas to care for, making
Ghiling the largest day care center in Mustang. Fourteen of them are new, and in April of this year, four
graduated and joined the Ghiling community school, just next door. With just under half the children in
their second or third year of day care, they are proficient
(well, as much as five‐year‐olds can be) at singing and
dancing, and gleefully put on an improvised performance
for the visiting AHF team.
Health and hygiene, including dental care, are also given
priority at our day care centers throughout Mustang. In
Ghiling, the AHF‐funded health worker, Lhamo Choeden,
has her clinic based in the center and is on hand to treat
any scratched knees or tummy aches that need her
attention.
Jazz hands
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Art of Faith
Thoreau once said, “It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see,” and witnessing someone
see the art in Thubchen for the first time reminded me of just how remarkable the art really is.
This year I was accompanied by Sradha Tamrakar (see page 20), the field office’s new administrator and
my translator. She had read about Thubchen, and seen photos of it, but experiencing the sacred art was
a different story. She was, quite literally, speechless. It took more than a few minutes for her to take in
what she was seeing, and the look on her face during that time was beatific. When she did speak, she
simply commented, “amazing.”
And amazing it is. This year, Luigi and his team
continued to extend the 15th‐century wall
paintings they had worked to conserve over a
decade ago. Ninety percent of the east wall is now
complete—just the lanza (the line of mantra
script) and the story panels at the base of the wall
remain to be completed. The latter have only just
been approved by His Holiness Sakya Trinzin, the
head of the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
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The north wall still has a bit to go; some of the plaster that was applied years ago needs replacing
because of an attack by mold, and the west side of the south wall needs some extra attention now due
to a gap caused by the removal of part of the roof damaged by the
earthquake.
Some of the painting done this year was of the gold jewelry and gold
embroidered robes of the deities. Keeping true to ancient methods, Luigi
used real gold, and its luster adds an extra dimension of incredible.
Since 1998, AHF has spent over three million dollars on the restoration
and extension of art and historically significant monuments in Upper
Mustang, and the work has attracted media attention, tourists and
tourism dollars, and created training and employment opportunities for
locals.
Our primary objective has also been achieved: in 20 years we have
converted desacralized temples, used as storage sheds and infested with
rodents and pigeons, into stunning, blessed, houses of worship which
have become focal points of the Tibetan Buddhism resurgence across Lo.
Remotely Healthy
Bimala Gurung walked six hours
from the health post where she
works in Tangye to meet me in
Charang, a bustling village of some
100 homes. Sabita Thapa took only
two hours to reach me from her
health post in Surkhang. Between
them and some part‐time
government health workers, they
serve about fifty households spread
across a half‐dozen villages; for our
partners in Upper Mustang it is
important that every Loba has
access to health services. In remote
villages, babies are born, people get sick and need medicine, they have accidents and need first aid, and
they need advice on nutrition, hygiene, and healthy lifestyles.
Another health worker, Sabina (not to be confused with Sabita), is based in Charang. This is her first year
in Lo, replacing the beloved Anita who returned to live with her children in Pokhara. Sabina also comes
from near Pokhara, and had a tough time adjusting to life in Upper Mustang.
No fool’s gold in Thubchen!
Bimala (center), and Sabina at the Charang Day Care Center
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“It was the first time I traveled so far on my own [she is only 19 years old], and I cried all the way from
Pokhara to Jomsom. The jeep from Jomsom to Charang kept breaking down. It seemed to take forever
to get here.”
It is Sabita’s first year too. “The language difference makes it challenging sometimes, but I have a local
helper in the health post who translates for me. It is also a different kind of work for me. In Pokhara, I
mainly looked after inpatients in a hospital. Here there is more diagnosis and prescribing medicines. My
brother is a qualified Health Assistant, so sometimes I telephone him for help.” Sabita also has two
government health workers
working with her—one a
midwife—but more often than
not they are at the government
headquarters in Jomsom for
meetings and trainings sessions.
In Ghami, Tenzing Norbu also has
help in the form of an assistant
and two government health
workers. But up north in Chhosar
and Chhonup, Tashi and Tashi are
on their own, and both are men,
which can sometimes present a
problem. Tenzing explained, “We
all know how to treat women’s reproductive health problems, but the women are too shy to come to us.
We are friends with their sons and in small villages we
are all family and they treat us like nephews.”
Tashi from Chhosar concurred with his Ghami
colleague, “The local women are too shy to tell me
about those kinds of issues. There is a retired midwife
living in the village, so they see her when she is here.
Otherwise, they wait until winter and visit a female
doctor in Pokhara or Kathmandu. It would be really
helpful if we could do something to help them.”
Enter Sabina, Sabita, and Bimala. When I met the
three in Charang, I told them about the problem and
they readily volunteered to pitch in. They thought it
would be good for the three of them to visit initially,
with each taking turns for monthly follow‐up visits, or
Sabina could catch a jeep up if something needed urgent attention. So starting next year, women in the
north need not be shy about seeking treatment or advice too personal to discuss with their son’s best
friend!
Tenzing Norbu and the Ghami health team
Chhonup’s Tashi—the girls are on their way!
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In Profile : Tashi Tsering
We arrived into Charang a little ahead of schedule,
so I walked unannounced up the steep incline to the
Tsarang Choedhe Shredrup Dhargye Ling, a.k.a., the
Charang Monastic School. They weren’t expecting
me so there was not the usual line‐up of students
presenting khata, and the first person I ran into was
a vaguely familiar looking young man, a monk, who
smiled at me and said, “Welcome back Bruce, it’s
good to see you again, after so many years.”
Indeed, the last time I saw Tashi Tsering was in
2006, just before he went to the Sakya College in
Dehradun, India to study the equivalent of a
bachelor’s degree in Buddhist Philosophy. Back then
he was a student monk at the Lo Manthang
Monastic School, and one of the original batch of
students that were there when I first met them all in
2001. In summer 2015, Tashi returned to Lo to take
up the post of manager at the Charang Monastic
School.
The leadership of a monastic education institution is usually a triumvirate of a khenpo or lopen (a junior
khenpo) who looks after the spiritual and religious side of things, a principal who attends to pedagogical
matters, and a manager who runs things. Up until last year, the lopen and principal shared managerial
tasks, but now, as the school has grown to 40 students, they hired a manager.
“After completing my degree, I was looking for my next steps when I heard that Charang needed a
manager,” Tashi told me. “I remember visiting here when I was at Choedde Gompa and when my
seniors told me that it had a reputation as a good school, but poorly managed. I thought I would see if I
could make it better.” And he has worked hard to do so.
Tashi solicited donations from villages and the Loba diaspora, and negotiated a loan from a bank to
purchase land in Pokhara, where he hopes to build a permanent winter campus, saving them $1,500
each year in rent. He has built a green house, and with advice from the local government agriculture
agent, started growing vegetables and mushrooms, providing the students and teachers with fresh, low‐
cost vegetables. He also raised money to purchase a small truck, which saves the gompa transportation
costs, and earns money when rented out to locals. He converted a store in the center of town owned by
the gompa from a pool hall to a general store, which last year earned about $10,000 for the gompa.
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“So many things have changed since I left Lo in 2006,” he told me. “There is electricity, there is the road,
people are growing their own vegetables, fields are irrigated, and towns have drainage systems. There
are more monks now too, so people are able to better practice their religion—gompas like ours are able
to reintroduce dharma to the villagers.”
In Focus : Tsarang Lekshey Choeling Chunmay Lobta – The Charang Nunnery
“… a nun’s life is very different from other, ordinary people’s lives, it is very special … we are given an auspicious
opportunity to help other people through our prayers.”
– letter from the nuns to AHF Two weeks before we arrived in Charang,
Nhawang Lhadhopn joined the nunnery. She
is seven or eight years old, from the
neighboring district of Dolpo and a relative
of someone from Charang.
Tashi and the Charang Monastic School Community
Ani Nhawang, feeling loved at Charang Nunnery
17
Like many of the other nuns,
Nhawang comes from a desperately
poor family, and sending her to
Charang was the best way for them
to secure a healthy and happy life
for her. Nhawang is the only nun
not from Lo and speaks only her
native dialect, but the tenderness
and caring by the other 18 nuns are
all she needs to understand she is
welcome and loved.
Soon Nhawang will join the other
young nuns in the first grade, and
begin to learn Nepalese, English,
and Tibetan, as well as math. After
secular classes are over, she will
spend time with her older sisters
studying Tibetan Buddhist texts, and
learn to chant and sing Buddhist
hymns. By the time she is sixteen,
she will be able to perform private
prayer ceremonies in people’s
homes, like her seniors do now. And
as this is the only nunnery in Lo, the
nuns are much in demand and
perform rites in villages as far away
as Tangye.
Makar Bista, a Charang village leader, is the manager and also teaches Nepalese. He is assisted by two
young teachers; Pema Khando, a graduate of our hostel in Jomsom who teaches English and math, and
Pema Dolkha, who teaches Tibetan. A senior monk from the Charang Monastery visits the nunnery in
the afternoons to school the nuns in religious studies.
Pema Khando, who is a Charang native, taught the nuns previously and returned this year after a three‐
year break where she worked on a USAID‐funded women’s health project in the area. Pema Dolkha is
also from Lo, but she left to study in boarding school in India at the age of seven, fifteen years ago.
The big news is that the construction of a larger nunnery is well underway. The benefactor, a Rinpoche
who hails from Charang but now lives in Kathmandu, raised money for the new building. It will have
capacity for fifty nuns to live, learn, and pray, and it should be completed by summer 2017.
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The Growing Problem of Shrinking Schools
In a chapter titled “An Elementary Problem,”
in our 2014 report, we discussed the
problem of dwindling student numbers in
many elementary schools in Upper Mustang.
The situation continues to worsen and this
year half of the schools had only five
students or less. Two factors have created
this problem: the first is the low birth rate,
the second is the poor quality of teaching
and facilities in these small village schools.
Parents would rather have their children,
even those as young as five, living in school
dormitories attached to larger, better
schools. In Mustang, these boarding schools
are in Chhosar, Ghiling and Ghami (opened
this year).
If trends continue as they have, these three
schools will soon attract even more students
away from the smaller primary schools, at
which point the government may close them
down entirely. This would not necessarily be
a bad thing, as the larger schools do a better
job of education, but we at AHF feel that
children’s lives are better if they stay with
their families as long as possible.
As a possible compromise, we have asked our partners to try and work with the local government to see
if grade one students can stay on in the day care centers we fund, with an additional teacher provided
by the government to help the first graders transition into more formal education. This would at least
keep the little Lobas with their families until they were
seven years old, after which they could join the boarding
schools.
But meanwhile, the 218 students in Lo Manthang, Ghami,
Chhosar, Dakmar, and Ghiling who are learning Tibetan are
thriving. The day we visited the Lo Manthang school, classes
were suspended as the kids were rehearsing for a recital
celebrating the school’s 52nd anniversary, and we saw
Ghami’s new community school
Rehearsing in Lo Manthang
19
firsthand the success Kunga had there with traditional Tibetan and Loba songs and dances featured in
the program. Similarly, we were treated to an impromptu recital by the younger students at the Ghiling
school, again featuring Tibetan music, and witnessed a full‐throated presentation of Tibetan grace from
all the students, before they chowed down on their lunch of rice and lentils.
Organic Greens A new trend in Upper Mustang, possible as a result of climate change bringing more water to the area, is
the introduction of organic vegetable farming. The Lo Monastic School have had a vegetable garden for
some years, and this year’s crop was a bumper one, but veggie gardens and green houses have also
sprouted (pardon the pun) in Charang and Ghiling. Even small day care centers, like the one in Nymdrok,
have started little vegetable patches to provide fresh, organic, locally grown, sustainable, artisanal, non‐
GMO, farm‐to‐table, greens to the kids. Who needs Whole Foods?
Pick of the Pics
The Khenpo (Abbot) and a young monk share a moment
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'Tashi Delek,' Mustang: A First-Time Perspective Sradha Tamrakar, the newest addition to our team, offers her perspective on an unforgettable first visit
to the ancient
kingdom:
A visit to Upper
Mustang is not like
those one sees in
pictures. It’s beyond
that: the people, the
ancient gompas and
the preservation of
their culture, the
prayer flags, small
mud houses. They all
have different stories
for us. Mustang for the
first time is an
unforgettable experience, and I feel fortunate to witness the beauty of the “Forbidden Kingdom.”
It wasn’t easy for us to get there. Bad roads and weather dared us every time we had to travel. Never in
my life had I thought that I would ride a horse around the desert of Mustang! The first two days of riding
were fun, though I was a bit terrified seeing the stony paths from Jomsom to Mustang, loud Kali Gandaki
River flowing below and narrow uphill trails, and was very lucky as my horse balanced me well. The next
two days were difficult as I could feel pain all over my body.
It was fun to watch toddlers playing, shouting, and dancing around us at the day care centers. The
parents are grateful that their babies are in safe hands, and learning many new things. The Ghami
Mother’s Group entertained us with traditional dances and songs, and we were also invited to their
community building to celebrate the Yartung Horse Festival. The youth groups we support seemed happy
to be involved in the development of their own villages. The trained local artists at the gompa were
AMAZING. They have great patience and are very talented. I never realized that the paintings inside the
gompas are drawn by people with such dedication and talent.
I will never forget the songs the children sung for us, the horse rides and crossing some dreadful rivers, a
young monk at Charang Monastic School who had been abandoned by his parents, a mesmerizing song
from beautiful nuns, amazing landscapes everywhere, piles of khatas and so on. I feel very privileged to
be part of AHF, touching the lives of people and serving the Himalaya!
The American Himalayan Fo415
undation | 9095.288.7245 | ww
9 Montgomery Sww.himalayan‐f
St. Suite 400 | Sfoundation.org
San Francisco, CAA 94133