Former princess, Himani Shah, makes news when she goes out of her home. On Feb. 26, 2011 she took her kids to worship the living goddess, Kumari, in Kumari Ghar located at Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu. Photo credits – Niranjan Shrestha, Kantipur.
Category: Nepal
Constitution Assembly expiry date countdown in front of CA
A cautionary sign is being displayed showing the countdown to the Constitution Assembly’s (CA) expiry date in a building in front of CA gate.
For those who find it difficult to read, I have prepared a mock-up of the sign board:
Good job
guys! I hope the CA Members will feel the heat!
Thanks Ankur Sharma, for the photo.
Let everybody use National Flag on their vehicles
Nepal is probably the only country in the world where people can’t have their national flag on their vehicles. The Nepali national flag is only allowed to be hoisted on the vehicles of high ranking leaders/officials including the President, Prime Minister, and Chief Justice among others.
Why can’t general citizens be proud of their national flag and have it decorated on their vehicles? I salute the owner of this vehicle with the Nepali flag attached to it.
Photo by – Bikash Achary (Bikash thinks it is the misuse of the flag.)
UPDATE: According to the Royal rule (1992 policy) only the following individuals can hoist flags in their residence, office and vehicles :
- Members of the general public can hoist the national flag in their private homes and offices to celebrate the coronation of a king and his birthday, and to mark national unity day and democracy day.
- The prime minister, chief justice, speaker of the House of Representatives, chairs of the upper house and the Royal Council, and chiefs of diplomatic missions may display a flag on their official residence, vehicle and office.
- A 1959 government directive allows the ministers to hoist the flag on their official vehicles while commuting to and from official ceremonies.
- In 1992, the deputy prime minister, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, assistant ministers and the deputy chair of the Upper House were given permission to affix the flag to their official vehicles for official ceremonies.
I am not aware of any changes to these rules. Please comment if you know of any government rules that make such provisions invalid.
Government Post Office – Can only happen in Nepal
This is a post office in a remote district of Nepal, Rolpa. The officers come to the office everyday. But, they don’t open the doors. They just open the letter box (hanging in the center) and take the letters and go home.
Bagh Chal – A Nepali Strategy game – Tutorial
Note: Online Bagh Chal is available for free at Google Chrome Web Store. It is also available at this location.
A simple board game Bagh Chal, was originated and is very popular in Nepal. In the two player game, one player controls four tigers and the other player controls up to twenty goats.
The tigers ‘hunt’ the goats while, the goats attempt to block the tigers’ movements.
In the name of God – Jhallu Jhalanath
Officially, oath is taken in the "name of God." Being a communist, our new Prime Minister, Jhalanath Khanal, took the oath in the "name of citizen of Nepal".
Wow! that was impressive.
Until, a photo published in Kantipur showed the "Jhallu attitude" of Jhalanath Khanal again. Worshiping the PM residence before entering it. I don’t have much expecations from such prime ministers!
One more photo:
12 scandals involving CPN Maoist leaders
A lot of internal matters, within the CPN Maoist party during it’s ‘People’s War,’ never came out in public. Some of the best kept secrets were sex abuses and scandals by the leaders at various levels. Only the cases that went out of hands were known to the general public. Journalist Netra Panthi has collected some of the well known sex scandal within CPN Maoist party and in which, the leaders involved were punished for their crime. Detailed, Nepali version, is published by Vishwanews.
1. Ram Bahadur Thapa and Pampha Bhusal
In 2053 BS a sex scandal between the top leader of CPN Maoist, Ram Bahadur Thapa (Cm. Badal) and another top leader, Pampha Bhusal caused the party to punish them. The issue was widely talked about at that time.
Central committee member Haribol Gajurel (Cm. Shitalkumar) and current CA member, Nir Kumari Darlami (Cm. Shila). Nir Kumari’s husband was killed by the army in 2061 BS.
Miss National 2011 to be held on Feb 5
The organizers of the event held a press meet on January 26 to announce the final event of the beauty contest. In the contest, girls aged between 16 and 24 and height not less than 5 feet and 1 inch were allowed to participate.
I like West! I like East!
People in the Western world spend billions of dollars on fitness instruments yet, they are more obese than people in the eastern side of the world. Thanks to Yoga, even a penniless can do it with a little knowledge. East rules here!
Miss Sherpa 2011 is Dawa Yangji
In a competition involving 17 Sherpa beauties, Dawa Yangji has won the Miss Sherpa 2011 title in an event held in Rastriya Naachghra, Jamal.
Dawa also won the Miss Talent title. The first runner-up of the contest was Pashang Lahmu Sherpa and second runner-up was Sonam Chonden Sherpa.
Miss Sherpa Dawa received a prize money of Rs. 50,000. The first and second runner ups received Rs 30,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively. Title winners also received various gift hampers from sponsors of the event.
Load shedding schedule (Jan 2011)
The latest – 12 hrs load-shedding starting Jan 18, 2011 is as follows:
Load shedding schedule starting December 29, 2010 (11 hours a day). Some say, it is the New Year’s gift from Nepal Government. 
Maghe Sankranti – ghee, chaku, yam, and bull fight
This Saturday, January 15, 2011, is the first day of the Magh month in Bikram Era calendar. The first of Magh is celebrated as Maghe Sankranti.
Maghe Sankranti, also called Magh Sakrati or Uttarayana or Makar Sankranti, is observed every year on the first of the month Magh, usually around January 15. The celebration is the end to the ill-omened month Poush in which all religious ceremonies are forbidden.
Even if Magh is considered the coldest day of the year, the celebration marks the welcoming of warmer and better days for health and fortune. The festival is popular in Nepal and in Nepali communities in India (specially in Sikkim). It also marks th
e time when the days start to become longer than the nights.
Despite of the cold, people perform holy dips in rivers all over Nepal. The special delicacy of the festival are yam, chaku (sweet prepared from boiled and hardened molasses), chaku-sesame candy, and ghee.
Kathmandu resident Newars call the festival ‘Ghyo-Chaku Sanun’, named after ghee and chaku, eaten on the day.
Nepali communities all over the world celebrate Maghe Sankranti. Attached below is the video of the celebration of the festival in Hong Kong.
Folk belief
The folk belief behind the celebration of the festival goes like:
Once a merchant from Bhadgoan (Bhaktapur) noticed that the supply of his sesame seeds didn’t diminish in spite of a very good retail business. When he looked in the sesame seed container he found an idol of Lrod Vishnu hidden deep beneath the seeds.
It is believed that the the Til Madhav idol was erected and worshipped from that day. (We are not sure why Mahadev idol was made when Vishnu was found. The worship is believed to provide generous supply of food and wealth to the community.
This day is also believed to be the day Vishmapitamaha, the elderly grandfather of the Pandava and Kaurava families, during the MahaBharat period. The tow families are famous for the battle of Mahabharat that took place in the ancient India. Vishmapitamaha was lying on the bed of arrows and was determined not to die until he wanted to.
In that bed, he got the words of wisdom on life and death and then he succumbed to death. Hence, belief goes – those who die on this day go to heaven and will be released from the burden of rebirth.
Varieties of Celebration
In one such event held in Taruka of Nuwakot district, people witness bull fights. A huge cro
wd gather to witness the bull fight in the area. (Bullfight photo credits: Rammani Adhikari).
Dirty politics – Constituent Assembly membership sold for 1.6m per year
An example on how those people could get the ticket from the political parties surfaced when one of the CA member refused to pay the agreed sum to one of the political parties.
The CA member representing Nepal Janta Dal, Prof. Dr. Bishwanath Prasad Agrawal had agreed to pay 91% of all the remuneration and bonus received from the CA to the party. Apart from that, he had also agreed to pay the party Rs. 1 million every year. Nayapatrika has published the agreement document (attached) between the party and Agrawal. The party president of Janta Dal, Haricharan Sah released the agreement letter after the relationship between Sah and Agrawal became sour.
Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu
Located on the Eastern side of Kahmandu near Gaushala and Airport, Pashupatinath Temple is on of the biggest shrine in Hindu religion.
Shiva Linga – why worship the Shiva phallus?
It really has not been that long, when I came to know, we Hindu worship a Shiva’s Linga (Shiva Lingam); Lord Shiva in the form of a phallus (penis). But, this knowledge made my skin crawl shiver in sheer disgust.
One of my friends, who is devoted to Shiva, tried to make me understand her side of story, a good side to that story. But I was so disgusted; my mind refused to understand the good-good things she was telling me. My mind simply rejected to hear her version of the worship culture. I am a Hindu by birth but, I have lost the respect for the religion due to absurd things like worshiping the Shiva Linga. Going temple every morning to worship somebody’s phallus (who cares even if belongs to a god) is just too much in the name of Dharma. Give me a break. I am not that type.
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