From: Indra Tamang

 

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Indra Tamang
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My Recent Travels' Journal

MY RECENT TRAVELS' JOURNAL

Helicopter Tour to Boulder Colorado. 

It’s been some time since I’ve made a blog post about myself, but to catch up, here are some bits and pieces:

In early April, Radhika, Zina and I went to Las Vegas, the glittering city of light! We stayed there for five nights without gambling (Well, Radhika played the nickel machines and broke even), but we took a helicopter tour all the way to Boulder Colorado. We flew over vast spaces below, with the pilot telling us how millions of years ago everything there was covered in water. The ride was one and a half hours long, and poor Radhika felt air sick, so with her eyes closed she didn’t get to see much of the view. The next day, we rented a car and drove about three/ four hours to see Cathedral Rock, nature’s big church. We thought it would be a bit more spectacular than it was, but it was interesting to look up into it, way up into the sky, the very opposite of what we saw looking down from the helicopter at the blue color of a huge dam down below. Cathedral Rock itself had the consistency of chalk to the touch. In Las Vegas, we also met my cousin Shanta Thokar, who was there for the karate tournament. We saw a little bit of him doing his refereeing for the matches. He didn’t know we were coming until I called him from the airport, so it was a bit of a surprise for him.  

At Cathedral Rock. Photo Credit: Zina Tamang

Soon after we returned to New York, on April 15^th, Nepal was hit by the monster earthquake on April 25^th, and all of our communities were plunged into sadness. Many Nepalese gathered in Jackson Heights to organize a candlelight vigil for thousands of people who died in earthquake and prayed for those who were affected. There was lots of news media presence, including Verena Dobnik of the Associated Press, who interviewed me and others in Queens about the earthquake and how we were affected. With almost 10,000 people dead and millions left homeless and devastated, everyone started fundraising efforts in whatever capacity they could, and I did the same. I arranged for American and Nepalese musical artists to come together for a fundraiser concert, Help Nepal Benefit Concert, at the Armenian Church in Manhattan on May 30th. The program was a great success in terms of turnout, with about 750 people in attendance, but it didn’t raise as much as I had expected. The operating and maintenance cost for the concert venue and securities fees for the event, all of those things took a bite out of the profits. With the concert profits and a few added donations, we managed to raise $12,000, and I am grateful to all those people who donated their time and talent to help raise these funds for Nepal Earthquake victims. 

Vigil for Nepal Earthquake Victims held at Jackson Heights. Photo Credit: Indra Tamang

At the end of July we travelled to Virginia, where we visited Luray Caverns, the largest cavern in the east coast. This was my third time visiting the cavern, and still I enjoyed the tour of the cavern. We stayed in Virginia for few days. On August 2^nd, I had to be at the picnic organized by Tamang Society of America in Connecticut. We barely made it in time, driving all the way from Virginia, but we did make it enough to taste delicious bbq and have good time. 

Luray Cavern, Virginia. Photo credit: Indra Credit

The second week of August, Radhika, Zina and I visited Cancun, “The Nest of Snakes” in Mexico. Many years ago there was nothing but crocodiles and snakes living in that place, where the water is still beautiful and crystal clear. We spent a week there, and one day we took a three-hour bus ride to El Casttilo, Chichen Itza Kukulkan Pyramid. The pyramids was build by Mayans many centuries ago and has 365 steps, one step for each day of the year. It is considered to be one of the New7Wonders of the World. We wondered how those pyramids were built by people hundreds of years ago. The Mayans seem to have worshipped snakes and birds as we saw many sculptures of those creatures everywhere. The Mayans built the pyramids to last thousands of years and they’ve made a big source of income for the people living there today. Thousands of tourists come to see the pyramid every day. I asked a guide if it is always that crowded, and he said that October and April see a few less, but the rest of the months just see rivers of tourists. Mayans were also known for their calendar which predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012, but obviously nothing happened. 

El Casttilo, Chichen Itza Kukulkan Pyramid, Mexico. Photo Credit: Indra Tamang

On our way to pyramid trip, we had a stop for food. All of the restaurants served the wild jungle Habanero hot pepper also known as ghost pepper. There is a local legend that Mayan leaders fed the peppers to the invaders as a revenge. We tried the peppers at restaurants, and I liked it. I’m used to eating hot spicy foods, but even I could only eat a little because it was too hot.

Cancun, Mexico. Photo credit: Indra Tamang

One day we took a boat ride to Isla Mujeres, which I had heard Charles talk about many times. Zina and I took a zip-line ride on the island. We also went scuba diving and sat in the sun drinking margaritas and having lunch, everything included in our tourist package. We returned back to New York on August 15th. 

Last Saturday, September 27th, I attended a reception organized by various Nepalese communities of NY for the Nepalese delegation to 70th UN Assembly leaded by Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Prakash Man Singh. Radhika’s father, Chitra Kumar Lama, was an old friend of the Deputy’s, and they were members of the same political party. Therefore Radhika came up with idea of inviting the Deputy PM and his wife for dinner at our house. I agreed and we invited the couple for private dinner at our house on Tuesday evening. It was just a personal evening to celebrate the old friendship that the deputy had with Radhika’s father. Radhika, with her aunt’s help, cooked a delicious dinner and everyone felt happy for the occasion. It is always great privilege to have such a dignitary in our house. 

With Deputy Prime minister of Nepal and his wife at my residence. Photo Credit: Zina Tamang

Next week, I am making a trip to Nepal to see for myself how things are progressing and to check on my family. It will also give me chance to personally distribute the funds raised from the concert in May 30th. I will be very busy while I am there, no doubt, and my focus will be on helping rebuild damaged schools from the funds, since there is already effort being made to building houses for people displaced by the earthquake. I will hand the money we raised to trustworthy recipients, and I will report on that when I get back.  

I wish everyone a happy and healthy autumn.

Help Nepal Benefit Concert held at May 30th.

Indra Tamang

10/02/15

Copyright Indra Tamang, 2015, all rights reserved.

On the Passing of Charles Henri Ford, Thirteen Years On

On the Passing of Charles Henri Ford, Thirteen Years On

 Young Charles Henry Ford in 1933, when he first arrived in Paris.
Photo Credit: Studio Piaz Paris 

While thinking about the 13^th anniversary of Charles’s death, I looked into the pages of an old journal he kept in Tangier in 1932. I read entries about some of the things he was doing—lunching with Claude McKay, meeting Wilfredo Lam and describing the artist’s long brown fingers and gold bracelet, swimming, eating delicious meals, enjoying the company of his exotic friend Carmita, to whom he dedicated the journal, and getting letters from Paul Bowles in which Bowles talked about Algiers being magnificent and more savage and lovely than Morocco—all the kinds of unexpected pleasures and adventures Charles loved most. In short, he was having the time of his life in 1932, and marking down in his journal countless little observations, like these:

“Gertrude Stein, like Schnitzler, drinks no wine with her meals.”

“Anna Karenina is so great, so true and all told with such calm or passionate insight.”

“Of course we are all full of fleas and there seems no avoiding them.”

“The milk woman is about six feet tall and has been found out to have been charging for eight days in a week instead of seven.”

“People are born with everything important they will discover as the years fall: character, or lack of it, genius if any, strength or weakness, a beautiful nose or misshapen mouth, even an early death or a long lifetime…Man is delivered from the womb complete as a seed; everything else is accident.”

In 1932, Charles still had 70 glorious, accidental years ahead of him. And he lived every day of those years to the fullest, right up until he passed away on this day in 2002. I know because I spent many of his later years watching him do it, taking part in his exciting life, and having experiences for which I’ll be forever grateful. 

Charles, wherever you are, your work and influence down here still live on, as strong as ever, and you will be forever remembered and missed.

Charles Henri Ford

10th February 1908 – 27th September 2002

Indra Tamang

09/27/2015

Copyright Indra Tamang, 2015, all rights reserved. 

Wishing Ruth a Happy 104!

Wishing Ruth a Happy 104!

Today, July 7^th 2015, marks the 104^th birthday of Ruth Ford. As I work my way through what feels like bottomless boxes of papers and photographs that Ruth left behind, I come across lots of little gems to remind me of Ruth’s extraordinary life. I came across this photograph for example, from 1967, in which Ruth is seated with Bobby Short, Tallulah Bankhead and Rex Reed at a table in what looked to be a restaurant. 

Ruth with Bobby Short, Tallulah Bankhead and Rex Reed, 1967.

The matchbooks on the table say “The Living Room,” and doing a little detective work online turned up a few details in an old newspaper clipping. It seems that Ruth and Rex Reed gave a party for Bobby Short, and they asked guests to come either as themselves or as a favorite movie star. This is why Tallulah Bankhead came dressed as Bette Davis. I didn’t know until now that Bette Davis was Tallulah Bankhead’s favorite movie star, but life is much better now that I know.

On the wall behind Ruth is a poster for the movie Forgotten Women, made in 1949. Ruth wasn’t in that one—I checked—but she made her share of movies, and had more than her share of fun, excitement, glamour and evenings like the one in this picture.  What I want to tell her, wherever she is, is that she’ll never be called a Forgotten Woman, not now or ever. I think she would appreciate knowing that. Being forgotten wasn’t Ruth’s style.

Happy Birthday, Ruth. May glamour always be your guide.

RUTH FORD

JULY 7, 1911 - AUGUST 12, 2011

Indra Tamang

07/07/2015

Copyright Indra Tamang, 2015, all rights reserved. 

A note on Judith’s Passing

A note on Judith’s Passing

Much has been written about Judith Malina in the short time since she left the world, and I don’t think there is anything more to be added; she was admired and beloved for what she did in the theater, and for what she wrote as a diarist and poet, and for what she achieved as a political activist, and for who she was as a person. Charles Henri Ford knew Judith (and her husband Julian Beck) since the early sixties, and he often spoke about them. The experimental aspects of the Living Theater was something that he very much liked, maybe in part because his own work was always very experimental too. 

Over the years, I saw Judith and Julian many times in New York, usually after attending one of their plays. I spoke to Judith whenever I saw her, although I no longer remember what we talked about. I just remember that it was always nice to talk with her, and I’m sure that anyone who has ever chatted with Judith knows what I mean. 

The photograph I’m including here is one that I took in 1984 of Ira Cohen, Julian, Judith, and Charles. It was taken in Paris, in Charles’s apartment on the Ile Saint Louis. I wish I could remember what all were talking about that afternoon in Paris, but I had never been one to keep a diary of who said what to whom. I wish I had been. Of course Ira was there, which probably means that he did most of the talking.

Whenever we were in Paris, Charles would invite people visiting from America or elsewhere to come and have tea. One thing he never allowed was smoking. If someone went to light up a cigarette he would stop them. But on that day he allowed Judith to smoke, and this I think was a gesture of respect for her on his part.

It always struck me that somehow, in a way, Ira, Julian and Judith all looked alike. It was something about their style—their dress and manner—it was a fashion and way of being, very specific to them. Now they are all gone. I know that until the last minute, Judith was still writing, still thinking of directing theater, still living life. She was one of the last posts standing from a whole group of luminaries. Sadly, yet happily, the torch is passed. 

Judith Malina with her husband Julian Beck at her side, Ira Cohen and Charles Henri Ford. Photo taken at Charles' Apartment in Paris sometime around 1984. Photo by: Indra Tamang

In memory of Judith Malina

June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015

May her spirit have safe, but adventurous travels

107th BIRTHDAY OF CHARLES HENRI FORD

A CELEBRATION FOR CHARLES HENRI FORD

Charles Henri Ford. Gin Beach. Montauk, NY 1995.

As February 10^th approached, I was looking through some old letters from Charles to his mother, Gertrude Cato, and in the one sent from Rome, dated 7 February 1953, Charles wrote, “Thank you, honey, for the birthday greenery. Pavlik’s ordering a cake from the Bar Tranquil in Frascati.” 

He then listed the friends he’d invited to a cocktail-buffet: Channing Hare, Stevie Hensel, Truman Capote, Stark Young, and a few others, including a French fashion illustrator who had a Rolls Royce for everyone to ride in. In the letter, he also told his mother that the night of the 10^th was Carnival in Frascati, so after going to that he was planning to celebrate his birthday again in Rome, on February 12^th. This means that in 1953 Charles had two birthday parties. 

And why not?

Charles loved birthday parties, his own and other peoples’ too. When I try to think of a favorite birthday party for Charles during my years with him, the Mudd Club comes to my mind. It’s been so long since Steve Mass threw that party for Charles that I no longer remember many details, but I do remember Kimon Friar being there. He was the man responsible for translating all the books of Nikos Kazantzakis from Greek to English, and for writing a book about him called The Spiritual Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis. Charles and I saw him many times in Greece, and for some reason he’s the only specific guest I remember from the party at the Mudd Club. I also remember Charles showing his Poem Poster movie that night, a film he made himself at the opening of his Poem Poster Show of 1965. The film “starred” Jayne Mansfield, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol.

I don’t recall too many big parties at the Dakota. Usually events at the Dakota were small. Certain people, particularly among the poets we all know, would want to come at different times in order to avoid each other. Ted Joans couldn’t stand Ira Cohen, for example, and I don’t know what Ira thought of Ted, but Charles liked both Ted and Ira. Ruth used to buy Ted’s poetry books in bulk, twenty at a time. She’d have him sign them and then give them as gifts to her friends. Sometimes Ted ran out of his own books and then he’d ask Ruth if she still had any. And if she did, she’d give them back. Nothing pleased Charles more than Ted Joans coming to the Dakota with sweet potato pie brought down from Harlem. 

Had Charles lived, he would be 107 years old today. At the end of his life his mind was sharp and clear, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded living to be 107. I don’t think either Charles or Ruth ever thought for a minute that they wouldn’t just live forever, at least that’s the impression I always had. Ruth was always thinking she’d be getting ‘better’ soon, even though there was nothing wrong with her but age. 

Thankfully, Charles never seemed the least bit frightened at the end of his life. When it came to living, he always said, “Just play it as it lays,” and that’s what he did. And he enjoyed every birthday, and every other day too, to the fullest.

Happy Birthday, Charles. I hope wherever you are, it’s a good one. 

Marcel Duchamp’s cover design for View magazine (1945). Charles was editor of the magazine.

Indra Tamang

02/10/2014

Copyright Indra Tamang, 2015, all rights reserved. 

A Memorable Trip To Nepal After Thirteen Years

A Memorable Trip To Nepal After Thirteen Years

Baudhanath Stupa. Baudha, Kathmandu, Nepal.

A big part of this past summer—June 27^th through August 21^st—I spent in Nepal with my wife Radhika and daughter Zina. They had both been to Nepal in recent years, but for me it had been 13 years since my last visit, and I am recording here some of the highlights and impressions from the trip.

Upon arriving in Kathmandu we were received by my bother Suraj, his son Nirajan,  and my cousin Shanta Thokar along with his son Samir and his friend Prakash Shrestha at the airport. After that we went directly to our house in Gyaneshwar, where my brother and his family live. Ever since I first lived in that house, which Charles Henri Ford rented in 1973 and later bought, I’ve thought of it as “Charles’s Hermitage”, since he always referred to it as The Hermitage. It is a very old house, much of it in disrepair now. Since I last saw it, the area has become more crowded and modernized, and Charles’s Hermitage looks like a real antique sitting there now, surrounded by much newer and taller buildings. 

The rice paddies around the city have all but disappeared and everywhere you look are houses, built with money mostly sent from abroad. (Many, many Nepalese people have gone to other countries to find work as laborers and they send money home.) When I was young, there were hardly any modern buildings in the country but now there are many. Kathmandu has become a concrete jungle like New York City. There are also big disparities in how people live in Kathmandu, which has a lot of shantytowns and real poverty, but a lot of very luxurious homes as well. I saw people living in tiny shacks made of paper right in the road, and if you look between or behind the new luxurious buildings, you’ll see houses made of rotten metal and tires and plastic trash bags where very poor people live. Shantytowns have existed in Kathmandu for a long time, but now there seem to be more. As the population grows, so do the classes: upper class, middle class, lower class and sadly, some people have no class at all. Most of the politicians live in luxury. I visited a few houses belonging to people I actually know that were so luxurious—with marble floors and beautiful bathrooms and expensive Western furnishings—they made our house in Queens seem like a dump in comparison. Two especially unfortunate things about Charles’s Hermitage were a shortage of water and mosquitos. There was barely enough water to flush the toilet, and the plug-in mosquito repellent only worked when we had electricity. That meant that nighttime was bad for us but good for the mosquitos!

But what mattered the most to us was seeing all of our family members who welcomed us with such happiness. We were all very glad to see each other, and the phone never stopped ringing. The very next day of or arrival we went to wedding reception party of Radhika’s niece Roshani Lama, where we met many of our friends and relatives. After few weeks, we met our good friends Penny Rana and her husband Hemadri Rana. They were our guest when they were in New York a week before we left for Nepal. I had known Penny since her childhood when she used to be our neighbor in Gyaneshowr. They took us to tour Bhaktapur and Nagarkot, and they treated us with lunch at Nagarkot. They also invited us to dinner at their house in Baluwatar some weeks later. On July 12th, I hosted a get together party for my friends and relatives at Lotus Banquet Hall, Kaldhara, Kathmandu. Many of Radhika’s family, friends and relatives came from Boudha to attend. I had invited several former diplomats from New York who now live in Kathmandu. Among them were Mr. Madhu Raman Acharya (former Nepalese Ambassador to the United Nations, NY) and his wife Dr. Geeta Acharya, and Mr. Madhuban Paudel (former Ambassador to Kuwait) and his wife. Several people I have known from New York were present at the party. The Nepalese cyclist Furtemba Sherpa came with his family, and a number of entertainers—actors, and singers whose music I’ve listened to for years—and in total, about 400 people with known and new faces were present. Also on the guest list were members of the Tamang Media Group in Nepal. I used the occasion to present them with a donation of money, raised by about half a dozen people including myself, on behalf of the Tamang Society of America. It was a very enjoyable party for all. The only sad thing was that we had planned to bring all of the relatives and neighbors from my village of Phakel, and booked three buses for that purpose, but on the day preceding the party one of our neighbors in the village died, so the people were not able to come. 

I went to visit my village four times, all four of those trips riding the back of my brother’s motorbike. How different that is from the way it used to be, when we walked on pathways and the trip from Kathmandu took almost a whole day. On the motorbike it only took an hour and a half. The village itself has changed very much since I left, starting with the fact that there is a road now. There is also electricity and running water, things that were unheard of when I was growing up. These days everyone has a decent house to live in, everyone has cellphones and many houses have televisions. 

On my third trip, I gave a party in the village and invited all my relatives and neighbors to make up for the one that they missed. This time I took my wife Radhika and daughter Zina to visit my village, which was their first visit ever. I also invited singers Prem Lopchan, Roj Moktan and Sanjeev Dong as a guest to the party and they generously performed at the party with their songs. The event was very entertaining, and all of the guests had fun. When I asked Zina what she thought of my village, the one thing Zina didn’t like were the toilets, which are squatting-style toilets flushed with water from a bucket. When I was growing up there, of course, we just went into the bushes when we had to answer a call of nature. It reminded me of something years ago in Charles’s Hermitage: we installed a Western style toilet in the house, but many of our visitors had never seen such a toilet. So they climbed on it and squatted, or they straddled it, which was not very comfortable, so I replaced it with a squatting toilet. 

Me and Radhika at the party we organized in my village of Phakel with former Member of Parliament Mr. Bir Bahadur Lama.

Radhika was not particularly impressed of my village at first, but eventually she came to like it. It is similar to the one where she grew up, Kakani, her mother’s village. Both our home-villages are in high altitude, full of nature and fresh air. Kathmandu can get very sticky, humid and hot, and the air quality isn’t good either, so going to one of our villages, where everything is dry and light, feels completely different and very pleasant. In Kakani, Radhika’s mother owns a plot of land. Radhika along with her brothers and sister-in-laws arranged for busts of her parents to be made and erect on a small plot of that land. She had invited fifty or sixty people from Kathmandu for the occasion of unveiling the busts, with a Buddhist ritual ceremony conducted by several monks. Radhika and her brothers and sister-in-laws also gave a after-party for the guests there after the ceremony.

Busts of Radhika's parents erected in Kakani 

Another nice memorial in Radhika’s family, to which she contributed, are the seven or eight water fountains in Asapuri, built in her parents’ names by her brother and uncles. People use those fountains for bathing. Traveling to Asapuri was a very frightening experience. We took a bus and the only route was very narrow and steep dirt-road. The bus seemed to be driving on the edge of the road and it really looked as if it might go straight over the cliff, and some of the passengers on the bus actually cried. Zina was one of the terrified bus passengers who cried. Had we known how scary and dangerous the ride would be, we would have brought her in one of the cars on the trip instead.

One thing that has not changed in the village is the presence of goats and chickens running around, and the attitude of the roosters is the same as their ancestor roosters who lived there when I was young. Much of the surrounding forest has not changed as well; in fact, I think it might be denser than it was years ago. The farming styles have been modernized so people don’t graze their animals in the forests anymore. Mushroom farming, as well as growing cabbage, cauliflowers, carrots and all kinds of other vegetables have replaced the corn and millet growing of the past, and now the farmers have trucks to carry their produce to the cities. I will always remember, as a kid, the way we carried our produce on our backs almost all the way to the city, walking. All the young people in the village now have motorbikes, and the paths we used to walk on are no longer used, so they have become overgrown with bushes. One of positive consequences of this is that without so many people and animals using those paths, leeches have all but disappeared. When we used those pathways, the leeches would smell us coming. They’d lie waiting on the leaves and grab on as we passed. I’m not sure if they are disappearing for that reason, but it would seem that with less blood drinking they are not reproducing as much. Even so, I did get bitten by one of the few leeches still hanging around. It itched like mad for weeks!

During my Nepal trip, I also had chance to visit Pokhara, a beautiful city approximately 200 km west of Kathmandu. One of the members and previous secretary of Tamang Society of America, Amar Tamang, who from Pokhara, had recommended me as chief guest to honor students graduating from local high school organized by Nepal Tamang Bidharthi Ghedung, Kaski, coordinated by Deepak Waiba. So we traveled there, where I had the privilege of meeting board members of Tamang Ghedung Sangh, Kaski District, and signing the certificates of appreciation for Tamang students. I also made a donation of a little sum of money as a contribution to their organization. My brother and I made the trip together, and he wrote me a fine speech in Nepali. I made another trip to Pokhara with my family and stayed three or four days. I had a good time there. I have always liked Pokhara. It is better for walking, because it is surrounded by mountain peaks and very pretty when it is not cloudy, and the city itself is less crowded than Kathmandu. It is also not as muddy or dusty. When it rains, the water runs off, it doesn’t flood, which means no mud after the rain and no dust from the mud when it dries, whereas in Kathmandu rain means lots of mud and after that, lots of dust. Many people wear masks because of the dust and pollution in Kathmandu, where the traffic is very heavy as well. I must give them credit, though, for expanding the width of the roads in Kathmandu, although it would be better if certain rules would be applied to motorcycles there. They go every which way, and I had no desire to ride one in the city.

At the ceremony organized by Nepal Tamang Bidharthi Ghedung, Kaski, as chief guest to honor and present certificates to Tamang high school graduates.
Photo by Suraj K. Tamang

I felt very humbled to receive a number of honors during my trip, including one for a contribution I made to Chhyorten Tashi Tamang Monastery in Kathmandu. They presented me with a unique certificate which was printed in a Thanka. It was handed to me by the head monk of the monastery Tulku Losang Namgel Rimpoche. I was received by the President Navaraj Lama, Vice-President Man Bahadur Lama, General Secretary Hari Bahadur Lama, Treasurer Kumari Maya Lama along with founder Karma Siddhi Lama and all of the general board members of the monastery with Khada in the ceremony. I was also invited by Nepal Tamang Ghedung at their headquarter in Putalisadak for briefing of their Tamang Cultural Building Construction Project. We had brief discussion about their prospective project of the cultural building. As I am the coordinator of Tamang Cultural and Buddhist Center, a project of Tamang Society of America, I presented them with brief introduction of our project of building a Tamang Cultural Center in USA. The meeting was very fruitful, and we exchanged ideas and views of our projects. Buddhist Monastery is something my village does not yet have, and I know that people are hoping that I will help to build one. Few years earlier, I donated money to construct a crematorium in my village, for which I was honored by the village committee on one of my visits. If the villagers initiate the construction of the monastery in future, i will be obliged to help with my ability. I was also invited at the 20th anniversary of Tamang Prasaran Diwas organized by Tamang Sanchar Samuha’s Central Committee where the president of Tamang Sanchar Samuha, Jagat Dong, presented me with Certificate of Appreciation for Tamang Society of America. At that ceremony I met Dr. Ganesh Yonjan (former ambassador to Japan), Amrit Yonjan (a Tamang Culture  and Linguistic Scholar), Kumar Yonjan (President of Nepal Tamang Ghedung) and many more popular and respected Tamang figures.

Receiving Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of Tamang Society of America presented by Tamang Sanchar Samuha. Kathmandu.
Photo by Prem Lopchan

At the end of July, I made a special trip to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, with my family, my brother, a few relatives and singer Prem Lopchan, total of ten people. We took two cars for the trip, five people on each, which were graciously provided by Sanjeep Dong and Radhika’s Uncle Bir Bahadur Lama, who were with us on the trip. Lumbini lies down in the southern flatlands, the only area where I felt a little like I was a on an American road trip with straight, long roads, but before the long roads we took a very roundabout way full of sharp turns. We had a good time in Lumbini, which is full of monasteries and tourists from all over the world. Every country has built their own monastery there, and interestingly, the best and most accurate monastery, according to Buddhist religious rules, belongs the Germans. We visited the palace in Tilaurakot that belonged to Buddha’s parents, or the site where it was supposed to have been in. Now it’s just a bare ground, but you can see bricks in the earth which imply where the rooms once were. The actual birthplace of Buddha was about 34 miles far away, where his mother gave birth to him under the trees. The local guide showed us where the gates had been in the palace, and which way the young Buddha went when he took his horse and left to seek truth and become enlightened. 

Birth Place of Lord Buddha. Kapilvastu, Lumbini, Nepal. 

After Lumbini, we stopped at a famous wildlife sanctuary, where some of us wanted to ride an elephant and some of us didn’t. It was raining nonstop. Radhika didn’t go, nor did her uncle, but Zina and I went. I was barely able to protect my camera in the heavy rain, which made riding the elephant not very enjoyable, but I caught a cold afterwards. We didn’t see a single wild animal, except one sleeping little deer. We were supposed to see rhinos and tigers, but in the pouring rain they had all gone into the bushes to sleep. 

Our visit to Nepal flew by and our many planned events took up most of our time, so we didn’t get to visit all the places we would have liked to, or visit everyone we wanted to see. But in this way, we left something to look forward to for our next trip. Meanwhile, it’s always nice to return back to New York where there is light with the touch of a button and the toilet always flushes. 

A brief journal of my visit to Nepal was written by Ngima Pakhrin and published in Everest Times, a nepalese paper of New York, on Oct 16-31, 2014 issue. I want to thank both Ngima Pakhrin for writing and the Everest Times for publishing the journal. I also want to thank Romy Ashby for helping me to translate this blog post and Samir Tamang for helping me in the final editing of this blog post. 

Finally, I want to end this by thanking all of the family, friends, well-wishers and supporters who made our home coming trip so nice with their warm welcome. We are very grateful to all of you and we look forward to seeing all of you again.

Indra Tamang

11/07/2014

Copyright Indra Tamang, 2014, all rights reserved.