Losar Tashi Delek - Tibetan New Year March 3rd, 2022 – Maoists In Nepal
TIBETAN NEW YEAR – LOSAR SHRINE WATER TIGER 2149, March 3rd, 2022
SHIVA RATRI, March 1st, 2022 BIKRAM SAMBAT 2077 PASHUPATINATH, KATHMANDU, NEPAL
In Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, the Buddhist Losar New Year season mingles with the Hindu festival Maha Shivaratri. Both are celebrated at the end of winter, during the waning of the 12th lunar month of Phalgun, in February/March.
In Kathmandu, Losar and Shivaratri often fall a few days, weeks or a month apart, once in a great while, on the same day. It is always a magical season in Nepal, as winter melts into spring, the radiant Himalayan sunlight rises through mist and smoke, tinting gold the dew and temple spires, filling the valley and the sky with a promise.
Tibetan Losar Ritual Dance at Boudhanath, a sadhu at Pashupatinath, Kathmandu
Nepal - Land of Buddha and Shiva
Nepal is the only nation in Asia that officially follows the ancient Vedic lunar calendar, the Vikram Sambat, based on twelve synodic lunar months and 365 solar days. If you wish to work in Kathmandu, you must carry a Vikram Sambat pocket calendar, and you must also follow the Newari calendar, which exists only in the Kathmandu Valley, to navigate the intricate maze of festivals and auspicious and inauspicious days, or you won’t get anything done. Today Kathmandu has ATM machines and Internet cafes, but a Brahma Bull, Symbol of Shiva, will wander into rush hour traffic and lie down for a lengthy nap, holding the World Bank motorcade hostage for as long as he wishes.
Kathmandu, 1995, watercolor by Maura Moynihan
The political delineation of Nepal is a slim slice of 147,181 square kilometers, which contains one of the world’s oldest civilizations in an ecosystem reaching from Mount Everest to the Gangetic Plains of India. Lord Buddha was born a Sakya prince in Lumbini, southwestern Nepal, in 563 BC, thus Nepal is a holy land to all Buddhists. From Nepal’s mountains flow the healing waters of the Himalaya, abode of Shiva, thus Nepal is a holy land to all Hindus. Nepal is an ancient portal to the Silk Road, linking India and Tibet, its trade routes, towns and temples weaving the distinctive culture of the Himalayan Belt, once a chain of independent kingdoms and nomad pastures encircling the southern shelf of the Tibetan plateau.
ལོ་ཐོ, Lo tho, the Tibetan lunar calendar, is a 60 cycle with 12 or 13 lunar months, is also widely used in Nepal among “paharis” the “mountain peoples” who inhabit the Himalayas valleys north of Kathmandu; the Sherpas, Tamangs, Gurungs and Manangbas, Tibetan tribes who migrated over past centuries to Nepal. Nepal and Tibet share an ancient history; in the 7th Century, Tibet’s first Emperor, Songtsen Gampo, wed the Nepali Princess Brikuti Devi, a devout Buddhist who brought to Tibet many Newari artisans and craftsmen in her dowry, and imparted the artistic lineage from Buddhist India to the emergent Tibetan Buddhist empire, which flourished for a thousand years, until the 1950’s when Tibet was sacked by Mao Zedong’s Red Guards, and Buddhism labeled; “A disease to be eradicated.”
Tibetan zodiacal calendars
The Tibetan calendar and zodiac is a unique mélange the indigenous Bon religion, India, China, and the Buddhist Kalachakratantra. From the Bon came the astrology of the Five Individual Forces; La – vitality; Sok - fortune; Lu - health; Wangthang - power, and Lungta - energy, and the ancient Losar rites propitiating local spirits, the mighty Nagas, the water deities, Lhu in Tibetan, and the Ri Lhas, the mountain gods who reside upon the high peaks of the Himalayas.
The 60-year Vṛhaspati cycle came to Tibet in 1025 CE with the Indian Buddhists, Chandranath and Tsilu Pandit. In 2027, The Kalachakratantra then transformed the Tibetan calendar and zodiac. Kalachakra – Wheel of Time – was taught by Lord Buddha, at the request of King Suchanda of Shambala, the Pure Land. The text of Kalachakratantra describes in minute detail the ancient Vedic astronomical calendar, the 27 Nakshastras, the movement of planets and solar and lunar eclipses. In 1024 Tibet also integrated the Chinese zodiac, another 60-year cycle based on Trigrams from the I Ching, the nine Magic Squares or Mewas, cycles of 12 and 60 years, the twelve Animals, the five elements.
In 1951 Communist China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded Tibet. In 1959 the Dalai Lama escaped PLA assassins and took flight to India. Mao slaughtered 1.5 million Tibetans, looted and razed 6000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. Nepal’s King Mahendra granted sanctuary to thousands of Tibetan refugees, defying the PLA, stationed at Nepal’s northern border with Chinese Occupied Tibet.King Mahendra and his son King Birendra allowed Tibetan refugees to obtain Nepali citizenship.
MAO ZEDONG CONQUERS TIBET –GENOCIDE, PERSECUTION, DESECRATION
Tibetan entrepreneurs operated hotels, boutiques and restaurants, and launched the Tibetan carpet industry that employed tens of thousands of Nepalis and earned millions in export revenue. Exiled Tibetan lamas built monasteries across Nepal, which drew pilgrims and students from across the globe and Buddhist monks from Nepal’s northern regions. The “Tibet Brand” brought millions of pilgrims and tourists to Nepal, but now Nepal is ruled by a Chinese Communist proxy Maoist government which labels Tibetans “counter revolutionary splittists.” Nepalis can sell Tibetan flags, tee shirts and posters, but Tibetan businesses are threatened with closure for hanging a photograph of the Dalai Lama in a hotel lobby.
NEPAL’S MAOBADIS – COMMUNIST INSURGENTS FUNDED BY THE CCP
In 1995 a nascent Nepali Maoist insurgency declared a “People’s War” on the Kingdom of Nepal. The Maoists targeted Tibetan families and businesses with arson and extortion. In 2008 the Shah-Rana monarchy was formally abolished, and the Kingdom of Nepal became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s proxy Maoists in charge. Without royal protection, Tibetans in Nepal who had prospered and were proud Nepali citizens, were viciously persecuted, many fled to India or the West, but some chose to stay in Nepal, where Tibetan culture is sustained by Nepal’s Sherpas, Tamangs, Gurungs and Manangbas.
TIBETAN LOSAR in KATHMANDU
In the waning of the twelfth lunar month, Buddhist monasteries throughout the Kathmandu valley perform elaborate rituals of purification to expel the decaying karma of the dying year, in preparation for Losar. People flock to monasteries in Boudhanath and Syamabunath to dispel the Nine Bad Omens, as Rinpoches adorned with the elaborate headdress and robes of a Dharmapala, a Dharma protector, encircle a huge demon effigy and shoot an arrow into the demon’s hide as it explodes in flames.
On Losar eve, Guthuk soup is served, with dough balls of auguries: if yours has salt, you are lazy, if it’s chilies, you talk too much. Wool and rice portend good fortune. As with Christmas stockings, a lump of coal is unfortunate. Alters are filled with butter sculptures and elaborate khapse cookies. Every household makes tormas, effigies of dough and sticks, carries them outside, leaves them on a street corner and races home without looking back, shouting “dhong sho ma” - “Go away!” – to expunge ill omens.
In old Tibet, Losar commenced with the Dalai Lama consulting the Nechung Oracle and propitiating the Dharmapala goddess Palden Lhamo, guardian of Tibet.The 16th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, continues these Losar rituals from his exile home in Dharamshala, India, and is worshipped throughout the Himalayan Belt; Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim Bhutan and Arunachal.
Tamang & Gurung ladies celebrate Losar in Kathmandu, Nepal
Losar begins on the New Moon, and the 15 days of the waxing moon, to Chunga Choepa, the 1st full moon, Purnima, are the most auspicious of the year. On the 1st day of Losar, Tibetans, Sherpas, Gurungs, Tamangs and Managbas, put on their finest chubas, shamos and jewels, and gather at Gompas, monasteries, monks recite scripture, lamas bestow the tsok blessing. Nepal’s Pahari Buddhists celebrate their special Losar rituals; Tamu Losar for Gurungs, Sonam Losar for Tamangs and Gyap Losar for the Sherpas.
BOUDHANATH STUPA AT LOSAR
On the 3rd day of Losar, Kathmandu’s Boudhanath Stupa, the Wish Fulfilling Jewel, the Heart of the Lotus, is swathed with strings of Lungta – Wind Horse flags, twisting in the wind above the human prayer wheel which spins, day and night, around the holy mound, with pilgrims from Tibet, and Tibetan refugee camps spread across the Indian subcontinent. At Losar, Boudha stupa fills with Tibetans, Nepalis, Indians, Americans, Europeans, Korean, Chinese and Japanese pilgrims. Wreaths of juniper smoke pour from incense cauldrons, monks chant, beat drums and blow the dungchen trumpets, hands swirling in gestures of invocation, lifting bells, daggers, conch shells. A bag of tsampa flour is passed around, everyone takes a handful, then comes the collective chant, LHA GYA LO – “Victory to the Gods” – and all hands toss tsampa into the air, where it spins and floats down onto all hats and heads and shoulders. The clouds dissolve, and the snow peaks of Ganesh Himal and Langtang Himal appear above the ring of green mountains that encircles Kathmandu Valley.
Photo shoot in Kathmandu, Losar - Shivaratri Season
MAHA SHIVA RATRI – SHIVA’S GREAT NIGHT
Maha Shiva Ratri, Shiva’s Great Night, is observed on the 14th day of the waning moon of Falgun (Feb/Mar).
On Shivaratri night, it is said that the North Pole drenches Earth with divine power, so devotees and pilgrims, many from India, fill Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath, and spend the night offering oblations to Lord Shiva, singing bhajans, dipping into the Bagmati River, giving baksheesh to the Babas.
Maha Shivaratri celebrates the night when Lord Shiva performed the Tandava, his cosmic dance of creation, preservation, and destruction, when Shiva married Parvati, and the Samundra Manthan, The Churning of the Ocean, when the Devas and Asuras, Gods and Demons, seized the head and tail of the Naga Vasuki and released the dreaded Halahala poison, which Lord Shiva drank and thereby saved the universe.
Lord Shiva drinks the poisonous Halahala, during Samudra Manthan, the Churning of the Ocean, and rescues the universe from extinction
Kathmandu expats celebrate Shivaratri with an annual excursion by the Shiva Slaves, a motorcycle convoy that heads to a picnic spot in Kathmandu Valley, and we also celebrate Losar, with an annual dance party in Boudhanath, which takes place March 5th, 2022, with live music from Kathmandu’s resident Irish rockstar Desmond, Chakra’s Gypsy Jazz and the Kathmandu Killers.
With the Babas at Shivaratri, 2002, for my Yoga Hotel music video shoot, Kathmandu
Shiva Slaves & my painting of Svayambunath, Kathmandu
Celebrating Shivaratri in Kathmandu with Dutch Bob, 2002, shopping for Losar chubas at Boudhanath, 2018
TIBETANS in NEPAL AT RISK UNDER MAOIST RULE
China is now claiming suzerainty over all Tibetan Buddhist ethnic and cultural zones, which span the Himalayan Belt of Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladhak and Arunachal Pradesh, as “Southern Tibet” and “Tibet’s 5 Fingers.” Chinese engineers in Nepal are building roads and railways to link Nepal to Chinese Occupied Tibet, as it advances its hegemonic ambitions in South and Southeast Asia with a bellicosity that could hardly be categorized as “soft power.”
Chinese security forces are well established all along the Tibet-Nepal border. Since the 2008 Lhasa Uprising, the Chinese military has sealed off the mountain passes linking Tibet and Nepal, which has drastically reduced the number of new escapees. Tibetans are at great risk of capture and refoulement at the Nepal-Tibet border with no international monitoring or protection and negligible media coverage. The former Kingdom of Nepal allowed UNHRC to operate a refugee transit camp in Kathmandu, which gave Tibetans protection and safe passage to India, but today the camp is empty.
Tibetans in Kathmandu, once a safe haven for refugees and still a nexus of Tibetan culture, endure constant harassment, random search and arrest by both Nepali police and Chinese agents. Any demonstrations on behalf of the people living in CCP Occupied Tibet are swiftly halted and the organizers punished.
Said a Tibetan businessman born in Kathmandu: “Nepal has become a second Tibet. No one is safe anymore; we have no leadership and no voice in the government. We used to have an office managed by the Dalai Lama’s exile administration and had the protection of the monarchy, but both are gone.”
TIBETAN NUNS AND MONKS ASSAULTED BY NEPALI POLICE
End of the Monarchy, End of Protection
After the assassination of King Birendra in 2001, the Tibetans refugees lost the protection of the palace. Today, a complex, multi-generational refugee community is poor, marginalized, isolated, with no legal protection.
Tibetans in Nepal have few allies to counter China’s aggressive intrusions into Nepal’s oversight of the Tibetan refugee populace. In April 2012 the BBC filmed another violent arrest of Tibetans in front of the UN offices in Kathmandu. One group scaled the walls of the UN compound and met with a UN representative, but neither the UN nor any diplomatic mission in Kathmandu has the authority to reverse Nepal’s harsh new policy towards Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamshala, India operated a legally registered Tibetan welfare office in Nepal from 1961 until 2006. The office still functions, but in a highly reduced capacity. Tibetan exile government officials from India are now fearful of travelling to Nepal. The Dalai Lama has only been to Nepal once; in 1981 he made a six-hour visit to Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha.
US State department officials who visited the old Tibetan refugee Jawalakhel camp near Syamabunath Stupa in Kathmandu and were followed by 12 armed policemen at every step, and a representative of the Dalai Lama’s office was arrested, without charges. He was later released after interventions from UNHCR and the US Embassy, but random raids from Nepali security forces have become routine, inciting fear and anxiety further isolating Tibetans refugees from allies and witnesses.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, “Prachanda” – Leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) pays homage to CCP Dictator Xi Jingping in Beijing, China
Chinese Infiltration of the Tibetan Exile Community in Nepal
The Tibetan community in Nepal is now thoroughly infiltrated with Chinese agents and spies. China maintains an espionage network of human and cyber intelligence gathering, employing Indians, Nepalis and even westerners, to collect information on Tibetans activities in exile. A large number of these agents are Tibetans from Chinese Occupied Tibet who have been trained in PLA military academies and travel on Chinese passports and receive a 10 year business visa upon arrival in Nepal.
Tibetans in Nepal describe being approached by such agents who offer enormous bribes in exchange for abandoning “The Dalai” and “joining us”. If the bribe is refused, agents become hostile, threaten retribution and in some cases attempt kidnapping.
Said a Tibetan businessman in Boudhanath; “These Tibetan spies follow us, call us and harass us on the phone. They threaten you and they mean it. A lot of Chinese agents are shaking down local businessmen and paying the cops to harass Tibetans. It’s hard to know how the Tibetans can survive in this climate, where the Chinese are treating us like they own us. In the border regions, police are making house-to-house raids looking for Dalai Lama photos. We know of people who got so many death threats that they have fled to India.”
There is a visible spike in anti-Tibetan media coverage in the media. Kantipur, Nepal’s largest selling Nepali language newspaper, regularly prints anti-Tibetan editorials and diatribes. The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan and Republica, the three leading English language papers, report on Tibetan events with a strong anti-Tibetan bias, frequently casting Tibetan protestors – who are small in number and never violent – as threats to national security and obstacles to China-Nepal relations. This negative reporting incites suspicion and paranoia about Tibetans in Nepal, which the fractured refugee community does not have the means to contest or alleviate.
Some Nepali writers have criticized the excessive use of force by police officers at Tibetan gatherings and express concerns that China’s assault on their Tibetan neighbors is a threat to Nepal’s sovereignty, but these opinion pieces are small in number.
A senior Nepali official of the Home Ministry stated, “China’s number once interest in Nepal is the Tibetan refugees: they have detailed files on all the Tibetans in Nepal.” Chinese officials insist that Dalai Lama, whom they refer to as ‘The Separatist’, has a large, well-financed network of agents operating in Nepal and Tibet who are a “threat to national security.” Anyone who has visited the Dalai Lama’s exile home in Dharamshala knows that the Tibetan refugee community is small, fragile and poor, but this propaganda is aggressively pushed by Chinese officials along with financial inducements to regard Tibetan refugees as hostile and dangerous elements.
A 28-year-old Tibetan who recently escaped to Nepal said: “I was arrested walking home from the market because I don’t have a residency permit, even though I’ve tried to get one, as a legitimate asylum seeker. The police got so violent. I was beaten with sticks on my body and the soles of my feet and called a ‘Bhote Kukkur’ – Tibetan dog. I couldn’t walk out of the jail when they released me, I had to crawl, and they kicked me and laughed.”
CHAIRMAN MAO IN NEPAL
Nepal, anchor of the Himalayan Belt, abode of Shiva and Buddha, the lone buffer state affixed between China and India, lurches towards an uncertain future, the age of kings eclipsed by the Communist Manifesto. In the 15 years of the insurgency, the Maoists did not bring food, schoolbooks or medicine to the rural poor. They brought combat fatigues, rifles and grenades, the torture techniques of the Khmer Rouge and the revolutionary hysteria of the Red Guards. The Maoists now rule Kathmandu, giving the People’s Republic of China a foothold in South Asia.
China’s expanding influence in Nepal complicates relations with India. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh recently spoke of the “China-Nepal nexus on the rise… there is a chilling in India-Nepal relations.”
In the Cold War period China was a feared and distant presence in the Himalayan Belt. India was, and still is, Nepal’s largest foreign aid donor and sole source of petrol and other essential commodities. A Treaty of Peace and Friendship, hastily enacted after India’s defeat in the 1962 war – allows Indian and Nepalese citizens to travel to each other’s countries without a passport or visa. Over 8 million Nepalis lives and work in India, yet in 2008 the Nepali Maoists have moved to revoke the terms of the treaty with India, while encouraging stronger ties with China. China was never a dominant presence in Nepal before the Jana Andolan movement in the early 1990’s. Now China’s influence in Nepal is ubiquitous; Chinese engineers are now expanding the “Friendship Highway” and developing projects along the Tibet-Nepal border. Kathmandu is filled with new organizations promoting “China-Nepal Friendship”, with trade fairs, academic conferences, cultural shows and tourism.
Integration of Tibetan refugees in Nepal is increasingly untenable with the ascendancy of the Maoists and their close ties to Beijing. A Tibetan lama in Kathmandu said, “Nepalis are beginning to wonder why the Chinese demand control over their Tibetan neighbors, and many are asking, are we next?”
FREE TIBET NOW – my music video shoot, 2008
