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The views are spectacular in this corner of eastern Nepal, between the world’s highest mountains and the tea estates of India’s Darjeeling district, where rare orchids grow and red pandas play on the lush hillsides. But life can be tough. Wild animals destroyed the corn and potato crops of Pasang Sherpa, a farmer born near Mount Everest. He gave up on those plants a dozen years ago and resorted to raising one that seemed to have little value: argeli, an evergreen, yellow-flowering shrub found wild in the Himalayas. Farmers grew it for fencing or firewood.

Persons: Sherpa Organizations: Pasang Sherpa, Farmers Locations: Nepal, India’s Darjeeling, Pasang, Mount Everest, Asia

☆ Nepal Is Banning TikTok Over Hate Content, Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Bhadra Sharma | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The government in Nepal said on Monday that it was banning the popular social media app TikTok, saying the platform’s refusal to curb hate content was affecting “social harmony.”TikTok has more than a billion users globally, so the ban by a Himalayan country with a population of about 30 million is unlikely to significantly affect the app, but it is another ominous sign for the Chinese-owned company of broader efforts by governments around the world to restrict its use. TikTok was among dozens of Chinese apps India banned in 2020, following a military standoff between the two countries in the Himalayas that remains unresolved. The app has also been subjected to increased scrutiny and restrictions in the United States, Europe and Canada over concerns that sensitive data for users is being shared with the Chinese government. Nepal finds itself pulled between its two giant neighbors, but the concern has been less about Chinese misuse and more about domestic harmony. Officials cited the prevalence of content that they said was stoking religious hate, violence and sexual abuse and has led to clashes offline, forcing curfews and the deployment of the police.

Persons: ” TikTok, TikTok, curfews Locations: Nepal, United States, Europe, Canada

As developing countries weigh the consequences of borrowing heavily from China for major infrastructure projects, anti-corruption officials in Nepal have begun an investigation into a flagship airport financed and built by Chinese state-owned companies. Nepal’s $216 million international airport in Pokhara, the country’s second-biggest city, opened in January. China agreed to provide loans to build the airport more than a decade ago. Nepal tapped China CAMC Engineering, the construction arm of a state-owned conglomerate, Sinomach, as the contractor. Nepali officials have asked Beijing to change the loans into a grant to ease the financial burden, but China has not agreed to do so.

Persons: CAMC Organizations: China CAMC Engineering, New York Times, Civil Aviation Authority Locations: China, Nepal, Pokhara, Beijing

Officials in Nepal were still assessing the extent of the damage on Sunday from the earthquake that struck the country’s west two nights earlier, leaving at least 150 people dead and thousands either homeless or afraid to sleep indoors. An earthquake in Nepal’s east in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people, and the toll of Friday’s temblor, which was categorized as medium in intensity, suggested the country is a long way behind in its preparations. “You cannot move the population; the entire country is seismic, the entire Nepal is seismic,” said Amod Mani Dixit, the director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology in Kathmandu, the capital. “But can we improve the building stock? The answer is yes we can, and we have demonstrated in many parts of the world, including in Nepal, that we can.”

Persons: ”, Amod Mani Dixit Organizations: National Society for Earthquake Technology Locations: Nepal, Nepal’s, Kathmandu

Shanta even marched into the Foreign and Home Ministries, clutching a plastic envelope of documents and pictures, and demanding answers. A Russian officer sent a relative a message: “Your brother was buried on 14 July at 12:50 at Navo-Talisty’s cemetery, Ivanovo, Russia. Her family is Hindu and believes the soul can be released from the body only by cremation. She wants to travel to the Russian cemetery, 200 miles from Moscow, and bring home her brother’s remains. But Nepali officials in Moscow told her the Russian Army would not allow this.

Persons: Shanta, “, ” Shanta, Thomas Gibbons, Neff Organizations: Foreign, Home Ministries, Russian Army Locations: Navo, Talisty’s, Ivanovo, Russia, Moscow, London

☆ From Rap Star to Engineer to Young Mayor Demolishing Swaths of Kathmandu
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Emily Schmall | Bhadra Sharma | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Before he aspired to Kathmandu’s highest office, Balendra Shah appeared on the city’s rooftops, a singer facing off in rap battles or filming music videos. His songs, which focused on poverty, underdevelopment and the rot he saw at the root of Nepal’s entrenched political culture, drew an avid following among the country’s youth. One song, “Balidan,” meaning “sacrifice” in Nepali, has drawn seven million views on YouTube. People supposed to protect the country are idiotsLeaders are all thieves looting the country“There’s a diss culture in hip-hop music,” he said in a recent interview. Balen, as he is known in Nepal, made an unlikely bid for mayor of Kathmandu, the Himalayan country’s capital, last May.

☆ ‘I See No Future’: Sherpas Leave the Job They Made Famous
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Bhadra Sharma | Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It’s a struggle, look at me,” Mr. Sherpa recalled telling his son there. The dangers of guiding climbers to the world’s highest peak, with the ever-present possibility of falls, avalanches and extreme weather, are evident. Nearly one-third of the 315 recorded deaths on Everest over the past century have been of Sherpa guides, according to the Himalayan Database, a mountaineering record-keeping body. Just last month, three Sherpas died when they were hit by a column of ice at a glacier near the mountain’s base camp. Sherpas early in their career make about $4,000, minus expenditures for arranging gear, for their once-a-season Everest expedition, which accounts for the bulk of their yearly income.

☆ One Climber Dies and Another Is Missing on Himalayan Mountain
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Bhadra Sharma | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An experienced alpinist from Northern Ireland was found dead and another climber from India went missing on the same mountain in central Nepal on Tuesday. The Northern Irish climber, Noel Hanna, who had scaled Mount Everest 10 times, was found dead inside his tent at Camp 4 of Annapurna after scaling the 26,545-foot-tall mountain without supplemental oxygen on Monday, officials said. Yubaraj Khatiwada, a tourism official in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, said the cause of Mr. Hanna’s death was unclear. The climber had just descended from Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest peak, according to his expedition agency, Seven Summit Treks. Mr. Khatiwada also said that two Indian mountaineers went missing on Monday after losing radio contact with the base.

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