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PROJECT

Zapping

with Solar Power

_T

he Everest Environment].,-. _s Project, ruu by Hinialayanf' mbbish expert BobMcConnell', is trying to trarisfera solar toilgt system developed in Tads, New Mexico, to therHirftaiayari Mountaineering Instituje^s train"- ^: ing camppcjrth 6f Darjeeling; .... 1

TTne project jpame 6i)i'of a' meeting between Ajit D^itt, Principal of Ht^tl and McCormell at a^raoantafneerrng conference in Las Vegas (!) last '_ year, according te the?Project's * newsletter. TalkHig to Dutt, McConnell found out that "JiMI' is host to i ,400 students a year. .

-Eacji ^tudent spends-len daySi|t^

: Afei|,6O0 ft fiighHM Base • Camp during ^training. At a" pound of poop pCTdayperste- •. aerit; the- HMIhas, tq deal *i^ * appjoxirriately Sevea-tons of» waste a year atJts Base Camp."⁸ fit September* an architect ^ frorn Ta6s; named Michael Reynold^, ariiVed at the Base Camp»and set up the ?o|ar tqilet * (prototype. It'is designed to diy> om ^ind steriiize waste usfcg "passive solar'power".'What is left isiasterilei dry powder which can be disposed of safely " and easily.

If the :tcilet woi-ks, says

! MeConnel. itjcouid "revolutionise how waste is handled, not only-in base carnps^ but ontrekkirig routesand4nv .. villages diroughoii^the Bltnalaya.¹¹

The Project a:waift feedback from HMI to confirm hpw, the *

^toilets work, as do we all.

Jan/Ffeb 1994 1HMAU

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* MUSIC & MEDIA IN LOCAL LIFE :

Music practice in a Newar neighbourhood in Nepal (Forth Comming)

• 
  ANTHROPOLOGY OF TIBET AND HIMALAYAS
  
• 
  ORDER IN PARADOX: Myth, Ritual and Exchange among Nepal's Tamang
  
• 
  HUMLA TO MT. KAILASH : A trek from Nepal Into Tibet
  
• 
  TALES OF THE TURQUISE : A Pilgrimage in Dolpo
  

_EXPRESS

LAYA METAFILE ^HIMALAYA

,^

pamelate upon a May 19^3 Lo$ Angeles times Magazins article ■by Hco Iyer, on the filiruBg of the Little Buddha in Ksthmandu In a fine essay on' how' JKathrnaridu rfcSponded\lo the Bertoluipi troupe," !*ioo l$s» delves coflstradictionfc that surround the shooting of an;expen si ve Hollywood blockbuster in an

irnpoverisijec( land,, ■{" the line

between compassion and condesc­ension, between exposing a countrji^f lo the world and alleged!y.expleating jt; is as murky as in any love affair.'') WhetherBertoi.ucciⁱsfilrriwiUbe"thc lushest tourist brochure in the kingdom's history", as Iyer thinfo, remains to be seen. At a specialise vie w arranged for him in Paris, the Dalai, lama is said to have jsaid that "everyone of us has a little Buddha in him", which might be seen as_: an endorsement. The film did not figure among the 1993 Christmas releases, Which, according to one Hollywood financier indicates that the film is in ''deep trouble". Meanwhile, there" has been no name conversion, And aecordifis; to sources the producers never had aay intention of changing the ttttst to'The Little L««ia".T>rir i assurances ro Kalhniaiidu activists and ofi&ate last year were obviqus sops to tap, them firom ruining the "shooting, schedule, (Sezflimal, N&v/Dec 1992). A Kafhrnandu paper repoYts that the Ministry of Information and Caninriunicaiioris plans to^! sue the producers, yh-huht.

In an article tilled "Himalayan Caravans'⁷ in (he National Gfogra-pti*c'& December 1992 issiie, photographer Eric Valli mi writer •Diane Summer (Honey Hwlten of fifepa/) provide a sympafctitaccount of the declining salt caravansof West Nepal — "trie bloodstream" of the ,. Himalaya;'; They follow. D61po-pa TFinley, Lhuiidrup',£ yak caravan down to' the village of Hurikpt, ^here Ibwlander(R6ng-pa)NandaLalThapa tabes over and Continues carriage of^; Tibetan saltfurther south with his 1$Q "head of sheep; "Valli and Summers share their empathy for the changing world in wMc h the Budd hi st andHindu earavanivers have to survive; tourists arrive in Dolpo, Chinese authorities ration Tibetan salt, Indian iodised ssili penetrates from the South, Villagers along the caravan trails become increasingly hostile, and bonds

between Buddhist and Hindu isiat (traditional trading'partners) slowly shift, Wtites Summers, "I woiiid like to.think lhatftpth the Dolgo-pa andthe Borig-pa 'will: fiflct a fi^fiBing ^y to _:.the future. I would fifc& to believe that caravanners such as Tileh and Nanda Laf, being_:. shrewd traders; may £ven profit from the_; c hang? s that lie ahead: ButI have riiy doubb".

Jrt August 1993-issue of Geographic, _; 2»61ogist pedrge Schaller" (Sionej: of" Silencej evokes the worW ■■■■of. the Cha ng Tang, Tibet' s ■■! northern plain " which "harboot^ awe treasure; arid undamaged ectwystera, a truly %ild land not yetcontrclledlbj' human^nd":".. However, he perceives da Rge^s ahead as arj increasingly cash- based 'Fi be tan" cbononiy, replace ssubsi stence hunting with' cpmmpjeial hantingv Wild yaks-have already been kilted in great numbers ,'"t>y thetruckload", and some pastoriaiisfcs arfc now less tolerant o£ \yold^; animalsi especially of kiartg [Ti&etan iftatelopc). "Schaller,^: well: fcnswn for.his ifne prosey writes: "The high Chang Tarig repteaeti xi life at the¹ edge, so jsrwaripas thatwilfflile'taaRet absorb (he additional pressure Sf.teay yj. hun^hg:.. ^When thelastwe(ld yak-has di^iand rodds havb been pushed to Sie rim 6f fliat Rsmdte wqrid, "fibet %ill have been denaturedilt-wfll bavejost something; vital".' ,

The FatiitistefnEftinomic Review,in ttii 1 NovembWi5sue_vhigh)ighipdthe Muslim-Buddhist divide in Ladaih.

Rather late;it wouldsecm: The 19 'Npvferribcr Fw«//ine reported on ttie rappioachmetit between tjje two communities. Ttis life- tile "pollution' ii^Kathrnandu' story, theinteriuitidfiat rnagasijiecpjiiesminiate, whieregipnal jouniais are already in tethe next storyl Buddlfist-Muslim telalions flared in July 1989,vrith the Ladafch Buddhist Association banning all social, and commercial: iritetfactioris"■..-.■with Muslirns. According lp Frontline, a new wind is-now Mdvv'ing in Latiakh. RappKiachnwh): between the 13 A and Ihe Lada^h:Muslim Association has resulted in^s joint efforts for the implementation of a hill Council sirhjlar to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Gou ncil. This was what Jed to the 9 October, agreement between representatives of the Centre, State _:and Ladakh cfti the setting Up of a Laykkh¹ Autonbmotts

.As the,indc^:Tibethighpssesbegmto opeiiwifhthe biessirigsof NewKeM and Beijiiflg, West Bengal Chief Minister lyqti Basil has been going to bat on the side of kaiimpang and Gelep Lai Again, according to Frontline-, Basii wipte to Pfime Minister Narashimha lUio'in March ~ expressirig surprise that the Sino-Indian Bcgotiatprs were only considering Slathn Iva, which passes

yiaGs ngtok in Siiiaiii-fBoth 4^e G^?P and Nathu La routes join op along the Ghumbi Valley to Gyiaitse»:th!ihcei to Lhasa); Citing the pre-l$62 iipport-ancse of the Gelep Lai B^su said'its reopening would "imrfiensely benefit" the jr^ople of Kalimpong aitd tbefepttrffi fiiiipopiuiation of Daneeliisg District. IMeanwMie* an cntagprisirig Kalim-pong busiDessi(ian named ...DiC Kha'ti said tliat he had tried trading through jjie already-open Dar^hula-Taklikot route., butthat hottiingbeatthftChumhi Valley foreasy passage to Lhasa.

Himalayan inves_vtigativejd uftiat&mis¹ slowly coming into its owiti, doing it* hotney^ork and sfawing contiecdons^ across frontiers. Aa exaii^ie is, how some i» %e^: Nepali mediae have

. followed 'ikr trail of.,.the^:'.Aru.« III hydropower project.The latest was the KaArr^usdu weeifty Deshantar, which broke the story «n 12 December that even as tjie Nepali Government, and 'She;World Bank proceeded with strident defenjpe of the project, uhkno\yn -to them, the Chinese, were

'planning to divert sigrufeant waters upinTibct This sjxanceriB the works is m: ths form of the Cfi^ngsuo Bas^s Irrigation Project in the Qornolaiigrna Nature Preserve,, In September 199 f, b

irrigation" scheme using the watersof ,.:■ the JPengu (Aiun). The jproject is to be located between Ipingri and Dingrjie counties of the $higatsePrefectus£;, will include a_;25m high dam, and will ' cost niore than U$ 10inillien_vBeyond what tjiis diversion of good aqua might meats for Arun Ill's' gener§ting potential, the n^ws brings Nepaiis to therealisation that fttey are not always ugperripanaiu In the case of the Arun III;' that pri yilege is reserved for Tibet.

Speatang of water projects in 'Fib^t, the Ihrfependetit newspaper of London reports on^ enviTonmentalfsts' coneern tjie £90.5 ''million- pump storage ,,hydropo\^er n^oject ,pn the lake of

.Tso ^ill an ecological disaster. One fear is that the 200 ^sq rrale lake will drain away completely in 50 years: Theniega-prbject mindset. of the Chi heseis reflected in what Sua Yi,aChinese'offieial,hadtosaya||out Tihetan^oppQsiifion to the Yamdrok, Tso pfogramme: "I see Tibet like Galifornia.ImegdsNewW6rldseJ;tleii to develop the, Old World people*\ llt» Dalai Lama's goyernmenf-in-exlle has asked dpnoi' governments n6t to assist, ttie .project Equipment¹ aod tethnoiogy^: contracts'have'been ■aWrdted totWo Austeian companies.

''Frotirthepdstine w hi te^ttipa, located on the edge of the property at a ate designated by the Qerman-b^m Tibetan Buddhist writer and artist Lama Govmda, you can p^r down over the valleys of KwazulUj *- to the pounding of African s;... "Ifyou expect Taraan to conk Modelling out of the hush, you'd notbc

articje.«( frecycle, which reports on the dbarnu *s sprtad in S.o«th Africa,' W,hafrole' "play as? that to shed the legacies of apartheid? According to StepheB^ Bi^tcheior, tbe writer, 'Insight into the transparertt, dependenfly emergent nature of things airtight d.ispe! pereeptiori of peo^&as endowed wigi • inherent traits of character ... The¹ . Biiddhist erttiqne of unchanging essences would help¹ in, fieedng die-minds of whites and Macks alike from the; lingering web of suspicion and reiftcalion.thal underpinned'the psychology of'apartheid**.

"Phg Himalayan Environment Trust goes too ,far in believing that the Himalayanpeoples arepurltaasvyho must be'shielded frOmvisipns-dfp^e flesbf and overt display of affection-While one caiihot quibble over the "Himalayan¹ Code of Conduct" and its call for keep ng ca mps clean and taking soloes offoutside'tetpples, what is one 'tomakeofdirectiojnsth^tteekjiersand climbers '"not wear shirts and Mss or Jtold ha«dsitipubEc"*^:Give usabreakf Nepali villagers have beeji observing palefaces trekking in,_: shorts and hofpaats for decades withou* prorniscui^ levels going up oirdown. Save the Hftrjalaya_!fkntjraiddleclass-! morality; I,say'I

r Chhstrui Palrokai

HIMA1 . 3%