Kathmandu:

The longhaired Tarkeghang woman was quite stringy and cautious as we reached her lodge after a three-day arduous climb in the mountains. She was sorting out juniper branches to be used for puja. In spite of our local Yolma friend, Pemba Sir from neighbouring Sermathang, she didn’t ask us to come in. It was only after a long conversation in local dialect with Pemba that she showed us the rooms and the warm kitchen which generally people from Helumbu take great pride in showing to their guests.

Soon after my friend Bishwa Sigdel came with the news that there were scores of Maoist cadres coming up the valley and on way to Melamchighang. They were going to have their first general assembly in the area. It soon became obvious that the Helumbu region has remained secluded from the rest of the nation. They continue to hold their distinct Yolma identity and take great pride in their past.

Even a cursory inquiry about Helumbu in Kathmandu will explain the cultural ignorance of common Nepalis about the Helumbu region. My family members wanted me to bring apples from Helambu. My wife asked for the dried apples so special in the area. Others talked about the history of Rana procurement of young women from the region in the past. Some of these women became influential Rana wives in the dark annals of Nepali history. People also talk of the lovely Helumbu women whose faces glisten as Helumbu apples.

A visit to Helumbu shatters many a myths about Helumbu. First there are no apple trees left in Helumbu. People laughed at my request for apples. Our friend Pemba Sir was quite excited about it. He blamed the then Nepali government for the loss. “There was no way we could take our apples to Kathmandu. The government didn’t assist us in getting our apples to the market or in opening related industries.”

This led to the loss of apple farming. He showed me few last dried up trees as reminiscent of the plenty that once gave the region its name as a land of apples.

As we moved up the village we found a puja being held in the monastery. Slowly we learnt that most of the young people gathered there had actually come from Kathmandu. There were hardly any young people left in the region. On the annual puja days, the elderly people have to make special request to the young people to come back to the villages to assist in the lavish and elaborate pujas. Most of the young women had gone abroad, especially Israel.

The Tarkeghang monaste-ry is quite historical and the shrine of Amma Yangi legen-dary. The legend goes that during the Malla rule, the Guru Rimpoche saved Kathmandu Valley from a plague. In lieu for this favour, the Malla king had given the area to the guru and his followers to settle. Even today the Yolma people feel proud of their Tibetan roots and their assimilation into the modern democratic set-up remains most intriguing challenge.

Also equally disturbing remains the fact that most of the Helumbu people dream of turning their idyllic landscape into another busy metropolis. We were surprised how people adored the tarred road coming menacingly into the region, with possible destruction of the delicate ecosystem. But listening to Radio Mirchi and watching other popular TV channels was quite disheartening. Everyone in Helumbu seemed ecstatic to turn their region into something like Kathmandu, without understanding what it means to be in Helumbu today, to be in a great Himalayan paradise.

The great natural splendour of Helumbu with river Melamchi seems to be a boon to save the Kathmandu one more time from the current plague of water scarcity. Furthermore, if properly conserved and managed, the region’s natural splendour might become an example to the rest of the world.

The writer can be reached at writer@yuyutsu.de