This is with reference to the 2016 Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon which is held every year in Nepal to commemorate the successful ascent of Mt Everest by two mountaineers.

This event is taken part in by people from different parts of the world.

Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953 scaled the highest peak on May 29. The marathon was organized in Namche Bazaar, Solukhumbu district.

In this high altitude terrain marathon, there were three winners from Nepal who showed their prowess ever since they came in for running the distance of 42.195 km.

Names of those winners who made the country as well as their districts feel proud were Bed Bahadur Sunuwar, Purnamaya Rai and Tirtha Bahadur Tamang who topped in their respective categories.

Bed Bahadur Sunuwar won in the male category, Purnamaya Rai in the female category and Tirtha Bahadur Tamang in the ultra race category.

Other winners included Robert Celinski from Poland in the foreign section whereas Tenzing Dolmas of Netherlands was the winner in the open half marathon of 21 km.

During the time of the marathon, World Everest Day was also celebrated which makes us feel proud for the fact that the highest mountain is located in Nepal. This marathon started at an altitude of 5,364 metre and is also the toughest one in the world.

Pratik Shrestha, Kathmandu

Hybrid culture

The loss of cultural diversity, stress on the growth of sameness, loss of cultural autonomy, domination of other’s culture, export of western commodities and values are called cultural imperialism.

Our world has become a global village due to advancement in information technology. We have been blaming globalization for creating ‘cultural imperialism’. But I think this has not created the problem; rather it has created another hurdle in Nepalese culture that is a hybridization of the culture.

We, the Nepalese, are looking for hybrid in culture. I want to give some examples here which are the influences of western culture to our traditional culture. Some of us put on a tie in a marriage procession ‘Janai’, Nepali cuisine like ‘Dhindo’ on a dinning able, ‘Dhaka’ tie with suit,’ Dhaka Topi’ with suit, ‘Coat with’ Daura-Suruwal’ and so on.

Even our family members are hybrids in terms of religion and faiths. Some of the mothers wake up early in the morning and pray to Lord Shiva or other Hindu gods and goddesses but their grandchildren seek a Christian cross cap or topi.

Evidently, we are running after western culture without knowing it properly. What do we call this type of culture? Is this our culture? We should not follow other’s culture this way.

Another interesting thing is that the diaspora community is very much familiar with the hybrid culture. We can enjoy Nepalese culture in the USA, the UK and other European countries.

Abhishek Kunwar, Via e-mail