Life in western Nepal is tough. The blood stains that remain after a goat is sacrificed are not an easy kind of pretty. But there is a beauty and richness to life in western Nepal. Pleasures are simple. Problems are real, but surmountable. The people are incredibly resilient, and a smile is never far away.
I am sitting in a comfortable café in tropical Pokhara, reeling in rich memories from my recent trek through two of the poorest regions in Nepal, Jumla and Mugu. Jumla is the 69th wealthiest of Nepal’s 75 districts. Mugu is 75th. Mugu is also home to renowned beauty spot, Rara Lake. The potential for trekking tourism through the beautiful countryside of these regions is high, but as it stands they see fewer than a hundred Bedeshi (white people) each year. Life in the area is hard. Almost all are subsistence farmers, and a bad year can mean not enough food for the family. During the sixties, the region was the marijuana growing capital of the world, but under pressure from the US, Nepal banned the plant. In Jumla you can still grow pot next to a police station without seeing any interference from the law. Nontheless, any attempt to export the stuff would be doutbless crushed.
The remoteness of the region, the difficulty of travel in and out, makes less lucrative trade an impracticality. When rice crops are poor, unable to trade surplus crops like potatoes for the rice they need, citizens of Jumla and Mugu survive on USAID rice and by leaving to find work in Northern India, many weeks trek away. The hills are a cruel environment, and growing one’s own food is a year-round occupation. In spite of this, most adults we met were vehemently opposed to child labour, and committed to education. This was not necessarily the case with the children.
Child alcoholism was a problem in Urthu, where the government school was a wreck at the hands of unruly infant-inebriates. This was not a universal problem for the region though, and the poorest village we visited, Pina, had a very smart school building, with a well organised inter-faith, cross caste village committee steering things in a progressive direction. That said, education is a problem for the region, with government attention at a minumum, and resources spread thin. Many children have to walk up to two hours, or settle in an entirely different town if they wish to receive education beyond early grades. In spite of this, I met a slew of motivated children willing to move to different districts to become doctors or businessmen. All wanted to bring these skills back to their districts, to lift their region out of poverty, and see the right kind of development come to Jumla and Mugu. And everywhere we went people smiled with an honesty that is rare in the West.
We visited the region during the festival of Dashain (pronounced Da-Sâi), one of the major Hindu festivals in Nepal. The festival is a time of homecoming, and scattered families return to their hometowns, work stops. In western Nepal, where the high castes hindus drink liquor and the marijuana plants grow tall and thick, it can also mean spirited celebration. Goats are sacrificed, and summarily consumed by the regrouped family unit. Spirits are high, and the fun-loving nature of the Nepali people is in full evidence. Even those people engaged in arduous but necessary labour met us with warm smiles and shining eyes. When life is difficult, looking out for those around you becomes a necessity. This is a kind of wealth one might have to drive into the mountains to find in Europe or the States. And here, in one of the poorest parts of the world, it lies in absolute abundance.
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- Throughout our tour of the Jumla region, we set up a small tent-village. We also carried our own kitchen and food supplies, although we bought food wherever surplus would allow. In a food and resource defficient area, the pressure of a forrty-strong expedition, even for a couple of nights, could have severe implications for a village’s food supply.
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- Access to Jumla is on foot or by light aircraft only. Consequently the region sees few travellers. Items from outside the region are also accordingly expensive. One can buy a coke in the Bajaar next to the Jumla air strip, but that’s about as far as the Western influence reaches.
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- The giving of tika forms traditional blessing in Nepali Hinduism, and we would receive just such a blessing whenever we arrived or departed a village. Around the time of Dashain, the tika is made from rice mixed with banana, milk curd, and red powder.
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- Our arrival in Jumla was heralded by a group of older men in traditional festive attire. They led a dance with drums and scarves. The traditional dance of the region wheels about, and all dancers follow a sing leader.
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- Villages in Jumla nestle against the hillside. Almost everybody in the region survives on subsistence farming. Fields are cut into the hills, and a melange of hardy grains like buckwheat, lentils, and pulses are grown, alongside potatoes. Cash crops include apples and walnuts.
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- Children run wild through Jumla, playing in the fields and streets. School is out for the Dashain festival. The region sees less than a hundred white people a year, and my group proved quite as fascinating for the local children as they were for us.
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- Amelia Heron, a member of my study group, learns a novel use for a broad-leafed indigenous plant during our journey out west. While the region may be incredibly financially poor, it abounds with such moments of joy.
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- This government school teacher sits amidst the ruins of his classroom. Students in the Urthu village often show up drunk on Raksi, a homemade rice wine. Only the top windows are open to light. Students repeatedly smashed the lower windows during fights, routine among the hundred plus students crammed into the small classroom.
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- In Preparation for the festival of Dashain, Nepali’s white-wash and decorate their homes. Dashain is a time for homecoming, and many Nepalis travel home to these hill villages for the festival.
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- Hinduism in the rural hill regions of western Nepal is a seemless blend of Bonism and very ancient Hindu practices. Bonism is one of the oldest living religions, and comprises animist and pantheistic beliefs and practices. This temple is accordingly built beneath an ancient ficus.
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- During the festival of Dashain Nepalis sacrifice goats to their gods. The goat is then butchered and almost every part eaten. For many rural Nepalis this is the only time during the year when they will have the luxury of meat in their diet. Our group
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- The Jumla villages nestle into steep hillsides. The highways that connect them are single-file donkey tracks, often on very steep grades.
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- We camped one night at Rara Lake, one of Nepal’s renowned beauty spots. The locals were evicted when the lake was declared a national park in 1976. The atmosphere was eerie, desolate, strikingly beautiful.
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- The Jumla district is known for its red rice. The rice grows in dry fields, not paddies. Even though we were there during festival time, the harvest was ready and so the women were out harvesting.
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- After meeting the mother of this family in the fields cutting rice, they took me in for a night. There were ten in their family but many of the children were in faraway villages to attend high school.
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- Some of the most interesting people we met were our expedition assistants. Ram introduced himself to me by motioning for me to give him my Banjo, which he played furiously and without much consideration for the noise it produced while singing beautifully in the local idiom.
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- Life in western Nepal is tough. The blood stains that remain after a goat is sacrificed are not an easy kind of pretty. But there is a beauty and richness to life in western Nepal. Pleasures are simple. Problems are real, but surmountable. The people are incredibly resilient, and a smile is never far away.