Tashi Tewa

In his last talk, a former Fulbright Director Tom Robertson discussed Tharu's agency/power. I watched few starting minutes and will share my general observation. During his presentation, he also comments on an Ojibwe scholar David Treuer's "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present," and dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." Interestingly, Robertson uses the later book to extract 'bikas' (development), not GENOCIDE though the presenter claims that those books are used as a point of motivation to build his arguments. Robertson's point of motivation seems misplaced if one knows what Truer is arguing in his book. Questioning the "dead Indian" narrative and certain thesis stressed by Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Truer emphasizes that "The year 1890 was not the end of us, our cultures, our civilizations. It was a cruel, low, painful point, yes--maybe even the lowest point since European arrived

केही दिन अघि टीकापुरको ४ वर्ष नबित्दै थरुहट थारुवान राष्ट्रिय सम्मेलनले टीकापुरमा बृहत् भेला गर्दै सत्तालाई भन्यो, थारुहरु हिंस्रक र पिपासु होइनन् र थप संविधान इतर प्रश्नहरु पनि गरे । तर ५ वर्ष पहिले डोल्पोको धो गाउँमा कालो दिनको रुपमा स्वीकारिएको एउटा अविष्मरणिय घटना घट्यो । एक रातमै २ डोल्पोहरु मारिए र धेरै स्थानिय वासिन्दाहरुलाई नै जेलनेलको सास्ती समेत भोगे । “यो देश तँ भोटेको हैन” भन्दै धम्क्याउँदै कैयौंं स्थानीयहरुलाई मानसिक तनावका साथ घाइते बनाउँदै ढोकाहरु समेत फुटाइएको थियो । लगत्तै लेखक सिके लाल र दिपक थापाले मात्र उक्त घटनाको बारे कलम चलाएनन् कान्तिपुर समेतले पत्रकारहरु उक्त स्थान मै पहिलो पल्ट आफ्नो पत्रकारहरु खटाए र केही दिन मै छापिएको थियो पहिलो हेडलाइनमा सत्ताको गैरजिम्मेवारी । तैपनि यही भदौ २४ देखि २८ सम्म उक्त स्थानमै सत्ताको प्रमुख आतिथ्यमा “डोल्पो महोत्सव” किन हुन गैरहेको छ ? अचानक “भोटे”हरु नेपाली कसरि हुन गयो ? यसकै वरिपरि रहेर यो लेख तयार पारिएको हो ।        Pic: The Dolpo protest before 5 years in Bhadrakali. Below here you can find the documentary link of

None can deny that every remote communities have become the fetishised product of 'uneven development'. Questions, such as whether they have become mere colonial subjects might not properly justify the specific political history that predate any draconian imperial imprints and projects. On the other hand, besides imperial powers claiming superiority and ordaining materialist order and subsequent foreigners including tourists and state officials generally attain high social mobility and unopposed liaison over natives land and territory , the unjust processes have allowed certain individuals mainly elite (class and social status) also from the land to neglect their vices (both in morality and praxis) that continue to exacerbate inequality across whole community. In such hybridity, unjust history can be forgotten even when certain forms of elite history are (re)created. Meanwhile, generally what both these groups tend to forget and nullify are docile bodies

                                 Photo 1: A candid moment with Ewi Tsering Bhuti Since my ‘baal-kuney’ Jai-Nepal (one of the oldest cinema halls in Kathmandu, Nepal) times watching ‘Caravan’ directed by Eric Valli, I have always remained curious on how Eric Valli saw and projected ‘Dolpo’, one of the Himalayan Indigenous community. Besides how Valli and his team economically benefited, I was (and still) more attuned in understanding how various peoples from Dolpo and the larger scattered community as a whole (socio-culturally, economically, and politically) benefited or not benefited. Thanks to some critical piece/reflection by Ken Bauer, Sara Shneiderman/Mark Turin, Puspa Damai and Gerda Pauler, we’ve alternative vantage points on how the ‘Himalaya’ project can be critically analyzed. In past, I have chosen to reflect on gender narratives and consequently, thanks to both Manjushree Thapa and Phurwa Tashi, my work on the late Tsering Yangzom (who played as a wife of

Possibly one of the oldest pictures one can see of Dolpo (the north-east side). Peoples including my grandfather (possibly in his 40s and a chief at that time; 4th on the first row starting from the right), other influential head lamas and women and children here can be seen on the ground of Takrang along with folks (2?; and might be porters for Bantawa) from lowlands (sitting in the 2nd row, from left) welcoming possibly Makar Bantawa, the first Zonal Commissioner (sitting opposite) in Dolpa during 1960s. T hakur Prasad Tulachan from Tukche, Mustang translated the message of commissioner. Tulachan was also one of the three tax collector for the region.  Zonal commissioners were the direct representatives of a King during the autocratic Panchayat regime (1961-1990) and further played an influential role in cementing the King's centralized authority. During the initial years of Panchayat, one cannot also forget the rising Khamba rebellion along the northern borders. When Bantawa

Below is the poem written by Dolpo Tulku Chimed Tshewang (link to his FB profile:  https://www.facebook.com/tulkuchimedtshewang.dolpo?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab) and its rough Nepali translation by Nyima Gyaltsen, and its rough english translation by Tashi Tewa. རྟ་ལ་བླངས་པའི་གླུ། རྩོམ་པ་པོ། དོལ་པོ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་འཆི་མེད་ཚེ་དབང་། Photo 1 Original Author/Poet Dolpo Tulku Chimed Tshewang ཡུལ་མི་ཨ་གསར་ཅན་པོས།། འཕྲུལ་རྟར་སུས་ཐོབ་རྒྱག་དུས།། འདོ་ཆེན་རྟ་ཡི་བང་རྩལ།། སྒྲོག་ལ་ཚུད་པའི་སྔ་ལྟས།། རྟ་ཕོའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཨེ་རེད།། ལྕག་གིས་ཚ་འདེད་ཇེ་ཉུང་།། ཡང་ན་བསོད་ཟད་ཨེ་རེད།། ཆག་དང་ཆུ་འདུར་ཉུང་བ།། འདོ་བ་ཟགས་ཆེན་ཟགས་ཆུང་།། རྣམ་ཤེེས་མི་ལས་སྤྱང་བ།། འཕྲུལ་རྟ་དགོངས་པ་མ་ཚོམས།། བརྩེ་བ་རྟ་ལ་བཅངས་ཡོད།། Photo 2 Bikes in Dolpo by Pema Angchung སྒ་དེ་གསེར་སྒ་གཡུ་སྒ།། ཡོབ་དེ་ཆུ་སྲིན་པ་ཏྲ།། རྨེད་ལ་དར་མཚོན་སྣ་ལྔ།། རྟ་ཕོའི་གཟབ་མཆོར་མིན་ནམ།། འགྲོས་པ་འགྲོ་སྟངས་མཛེས་པ།། སུག་བཞི་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར་སྐོར།། བང་པ་གོམ་རླབས་ཆེ་བ།། ཐང་དཀར་གཤོག་རླབས་རྡེབ་