When Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 1953, a courier named Ten Tsewang Sherpa ran 200 miles to the British Embassy in Kathmandu to deliver the news. A few weeks later, he died. Outside's contributing editor, Peter Frick-Wright, went to Nepal to meet his family, figure out what happened, and tell his extraordinary story. [Article may be paywalled]
⚠️ Confirmed: Live network data show a disruption to multiple internet providers in #Nepal; the incident comes amidst a non-payment dispute with upstream providers in India, days after the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal warned of an impending disconnection 📉
Sumadera (須磨寺) is a unique #temple full of iconographic #arts, at the western end of Kōbe (神戸). Perhaps because it's not in Kyōto or Nara, there is little information available online about Sumadera, even in #Japanese. It was founded in 886 and has its own branch of Kūkai's #Shingon#Buddhism: Sumadera-ha (真言宗須磨寺派). It is internationally active, and a place for #religious practices rather than an outdoor museum. By the same token, it's free to enter.
Suma appears in ancient waka poetry (和歌) of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, and is associated with the Heike Monogatari (平家物語). I was determined to go, despite the rain, because I'd read an article clarifying wabi and sabi with a #waka coincidentally about Suma. The first photos show Sumadera's exchanges with #Nepal resulting in a display of Tibetan #Buddhist and #Hindu#iconography. Although there was light rain on the beach at first, later up at Sumadera the day turned bright.
I check in periodically to see things going on in @nepal - I've been hoping for an eventual conversational vibe to talk about general issues in #nepal 🤞.
#reddit r/Nepal had a good vibe in the early days for me: later - not so much.
I sometimes like chatting about things like geopolitics, random bits of history, folklore, and future possibilities, in the context of Nepal.
In 2007, Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the government to legally recognize a third gender category, audit laws to identify discriminatory ones, and explore recognition of same-sex relationships. Eight years later, a new constitution came into effect that has language specifically protecting LGBTQI people. So. Global Press Journal's Yam Kumari Kandal wonders, why are same-sex couples finding it so difficult to have their marriages recognized, and how did one couple, Adheep Pokhrel and Tobias Volz, break through the bureaucracy?
A worker paints the eye of Lord Buddha before the procession of the Samyak Mahadan festival, an alms-giving festival offering worship at the painted idol of Lord Buddha, brought from various temples, for world peace and human welfare
Wie Nepalesen und Inder wider Willen russische Söldner werden
In der Hoffnung auf einen russischen Pass und viel Geld fallen junge Männer aus Südasien auf skrupellose Vermittler herein - und landen plötzlich an der Front im Kampf gegen die Ukraine. Von Charlotte Horn.
Mt. Everest is laden with waste left by climbers — Nepal's Department of Tourism estimates that there are nearly 140,000 tons. Now, some of that material is finding its way to Tharu craftswomen who combine discarded ropes with moonj, a traditionally harvested wild grass, to make boxes and mats. NPR's Tanka Dhakal explains more about how the program works, and how its organizers hope it will grow.
Does LACMA Have a Looted Art Problem? by Gary Baum #ARTNews
"Activists and scholars believe such sacred objects lose their meaning when displayed in glass cases, separated from their cultural context. They also believe many of LACMA’s Nepalese holdings could have been illegally removed from their land of origin. In a few cases, they wield smoking-gun documentation of objects purportedly in-situ back in Nepal. In general, they note that the country allowed foreign visitors only beginning in the early 1950s, after the fall of the authoritarian Rana dynasty; soon after, the government banned the export of culturally significant historic and artistic objects".
Indigenous Gurung farmers in central Nepal are trying to revive the cultivation of an almost-forgotten, drought-resilient crop: foxtail millet.
This hardy grain was traditionally farmed as a famine crop because it grows at a time of the year when farmers are finished harvesting other crops like rice, maize and wheat.
Yadav Ghimirey, one of the pioneering clouded leopard researchers in Nepal, shares his challenges and achievements of conducting camera trap surveys, scat analysis and pelt identification of the elusive clouded leopards in different regions of Nepal, where they are very rare and poorly understood.
Mindestens 157 Menschen sind durch das Erdbeben in Nepal ums Leben gekommen. Die Überlebenden harren im Freien aus - weil ihre Häuser zerstört wurden und wegen der Angst vor Nachbeben. Von Peter Hornung.
In der Nacht hat in Nepal die Erde gebebt. Dabei kamen bisherigen Angaben zufolge mehr als 128 Menschen ums Leben, die Behörden befürchten viele weitere Tote. Viele Orte sind noch von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten.
I find the expression of religion in Nepal to be quite beautiful. It's very fluid and inviting of many expressions. Never rigid. They make room for everyone.
I am not a religious person, but I see beauty in the people of Nepal and their cultural fluidity.
Nepal becomes first South Asian country to officially register same-sex marriage ( www.tribuneindia.com )
Despite Supreme Court’s order to temporarily register same-sex marriage, Kathmandu District Court rejected the move citing lack of necessary laws