American Buddhist Net

Kathmandu, July 22 (IANS) After a Nepali of Indian origin representing a community that ranked at the bottom of Nepal’s social ladder became the first president of the country, the federal republic can see another astounding change in its social landscape if a debutant but powerful ethnic party manages to wrest the post of prime minister.

Bijay Kumar Gachchhedar, chief of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum parliamentary party, is laying stake to the executive post, saying his party has the support of two other major parties, whose alliance Monday succeeded in defeating the Maoists in the nation’s historic first presidential election.

If Gachchhedar has his way, he will become the first prime minister from the Tharu community, a group that was among the first inhabitants of Nepal but were displaced by migrants from India and Nepal’s hills from the fertile Terai plains along the Indo-Nepal border.

In the course of time the Tharus, who were the descendants of royal families, including the one in which Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, belonged, became landless paupers and were forced to become bonded slaves by the new migrants.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

7/2/2008

A group of 42 Tibetan protesters were detained close to Nepal's border with the Chinese-controlled Himalayan region yesterday as they tried to march back to their homeland, police said.

The group, most of them Buddhist monks and nuns, left Kathmandu seven days ago, participants said, and avoided detection on the main roads by using remote hill trails.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

June 26, 2008
By Jerry Guo

Patan, Nepal - Like any typical schoolgirl, 13-year-old Chanira Bajracharya struggles to finish hours of homework each day. That doesn't stop her from stealing away to watch TV (she enjoys HBO; her younger brothers often change it to Nickelodeon) or use the computer. She even has Barbies, but now that she's older, painting has replaced organizing tea parties as her favorite pastime.

The similarities end there. To start, no one – including her family – may scold her. Chanira eats whatever she desires, though she's yet to abuse this power by demanding an endless supply of ice cream. And don't even mention chores.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Thursday 26th June, 2008

Defying the possibility of imprisonment or even death, over three dozen Tibetan monks and nuns have begun a secret 'freedom march' to Tibet from Nepal to draw the world's attention to their demand for freedom and respect for human rights on the eve of the Olympic Games in China.

A resolute group of 23 monks, 17 nuns and two novices began the dangerous journey under secrecy Wednesday from the outskirts of Kathmandu in a bid to evade arrest by Nepal police, who have been put on high alert to stop anti-China protests in Nepal.

In the first daring deed of its kind, the 'suicide squad' will attempt to cross frozen mountain passes and untrodden routes in northern Nepal to reach the former Buddhist kingdom of Tibet that China invaded and annexed in the 50s.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

47 min - Jan 16, 2008 public television - National Geographic

Undercover in North Korea, inside a mysterious, terrifying and the most isolated country on earth. Where the leader Kim Yon Ill rules as a God king.

June 14, 2008
By Sudeshna Sarkar

Kathmandu: The northern tip of Nepal adjoining Tibet is facing a famine after China closed its border in a bid to crush protests by pro-Tibet activists.

Nepal's Mustang district, which was once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom, has been reeling under food scarcity after China virtually closed its border with Nepal to stifle protests ahead of the August Olympics.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By Simon Denyer

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - In the end, it was hard not to feel a little bit sorry for Nepal's deposed King Gyanendra.

He had seemed an impossibly distant, arrogant figure in the past, but on Wednesday, addressing the press before leaving the palace, in his first and possibly final news conference, he kept his dignity and showed a previously unseen human side.

So it was a pity his swansong -- and that of a once-cherished 239-year-old monarchy -- was surrounded by chaos, with more than 200 journalists jostling for a view in the palace's small main hall, constantly pushing and shoving each other.

As Gyanendra read from a prepared text in the palace's small main hall, two stuffed tigers behind him, people shouted aggressive questions as the former king ploughed on, his amplified voice alternately booming and then dropping out altogether.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Tibetan exiles dressed as Chinese soldiers squirted other demonstrators with red paint in Nepal's capital Tuesday in a symbolic protest against Chinese rule in their Himalayan homeland.

Dressed in green uniforms generally worn by Chinese soldiers, the half-dozen protesters carrying water pistols loaded with red paint were quickly detained by Nepalese police in Katmandu.

The demonstrators were joined by 200 others, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, in front of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in the heart of the city.

"Stop killing in Tibet," and "Free Tibet," the protesters chanted before being rounded up by police and taken away in vans and trucks. Police official Hom Chauhan said more than 200 Tibetans were detained.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

KATHMANDU (AFP) — Police on Saturday detained 450 Tibetan activists, beating some with bamboo sticks and punching others, as they staged a pro-Tibet protest in Nepal's capital, officials and witnesses said.

Police rounded up the activists as over 500 Tibetans, mostly monks and nuns, crying "Down with China" and "Free Tibet," staged a rally near the sprawling royal pink palace, an area out of bounds to demonstrators.

"We detained around 450 Tibetan exiles as they tried to march into the off-limits area for protests," police officer Bharat Lama told AFP.

"We had to beat them as they forcibly tried to enter the restricted zone despite repeated warnings," Lama said, adding all would be freed later Satuday.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Fri Jun 6, 2008
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's religious authorities picked the country's next "living goddess" or Kumari in a centuries-old tradition on Friday, priests and officials said, but the question now is who will appoint her as a deity.

Traditionally, the head priest of the now-deposed King Gyanendra appointed the "living goddess" but with the abolition of Nepal's monarchy on May 29, that position no longer exists.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA – 7 hours ago

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese police broke up an anti-China protest Thursday by more than 250 Tibetan exiles, including many Buddhist monks and nuns, detaining all of them.

The protesters managed to break past a police line and reached the gates of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in Katmandu before being pushed back by police.

"Stop killing in Tibet. Stop rights violations," the protesters chanted as they were taken away by police.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's newly elected leadership changed the country from a monarchy to a republic just before midnight Wednesday, a historic move that ended about 240 years of autocratic rule in the country.

After approving the move by an overwhelming vote, the body said it would send a letter to 60-year-old King Gyanendra and his family, informing them that they have 15 days to vacate the royal palace.

Of the 564 members of the assembly present for the vote, only four voted to keep the monarchy.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Ponder that one for a moment. ABN
______________

By Diane Smith
12:45, May 25th 2008

A Nepalese man has become the oldest person to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Officials confirmed the fact that the 77-year-old Bahadur Sherchan has reached the summit on Sunday morning.

The climber was reportedly in good health, was safely coming down the icy slopes and was set to base camp on Monday, according to Nepal's Tourism Ministry official Ramesh Chetri, The Associated Press reported.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By Sudeshna Sarkar

Kathmandu, May 24: A famed American explorer and writer, whose books on Tibet opened the forbidden former Buddhist kingdom to Western eyes, has been nailed by Nepal Police for possessing an illegal treasure trove of wildlife parts and ancient archaeological artefacts.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Press Trust of India
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 (Kathmandu)

Maoist chief Prachanda, whose outfit had waged a war to overthrow the Constitutional monarchy before joining the political mainstream in Nepal, has equated himself with the great Indian emperor Ashoka, who had renounced violence and converted to Buddhism.

He made these remarks during his first visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, where Ashoka too had gone before becoming a passionate follower of the Buddhism. The emperor had also installed the famous Ashoka Pillar there some 2,300 years ago.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

May 20, 2008

KATMANDU, Nepal---- Soldiers, police and villagers recovered another 19 bodies Tuesday from a mountain river in west Nepal where a bus crashed a day earlier, officials said. The death toll hit 36 and was expected to rise.

''There are still many more bodies trapped in the wreckage. We have been able to pull out only part of the bus from the water,'' police official Navraj Thapa said by telephone.

...The overcrowded bus was mostly carrying Buddhist pilgrims to a religious fair when it crashed Monday near Bhaluwang town, about 250 miles southwest of the capital, Katmandu, and plunged into the Rapti river.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

5/13/2008

DAKSHINKALI, Nepal • Nepal’s king put in a rare public appearance yesterday at an Hindu animal sacrifice ritual designed to preserve power, just weeks before the monarchy is due to be abolished.

King Gyanendra will likely be the last ruler of a centuries’ old dynasty, fiercely opposed by republican Maoists who scored a surprise victory in landmark elections last month.

“Panchabali (five animal sacrifice) is undertaken to get power, to get what you wish for and to ensure the well-being of the family,” Mod Raj Bhattarai, a royal priest, told AFP at the elaborate temple ceremony.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

IANS Monday 12th May, 2008

Enraged by daily protests by Tibetans in Kathmandu since March, China Monday said the Nepal government should adopt 'very severe punishment' for the ringleaders and emulate India's example in arresting them.

'The government cannot arrest them in the day and release them at night,' Chinese ambassador to Nepal Zheng Xianglin said at a press conference here, staunchly defending China's annexation of Tibet and accusing the UN, 'so-called' human rights organisations and Tibetans' exiled leader the Dalai Lama of trying to foment a separatist movement.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

May 12, 2008

Buddhist nuns were among 600 female protesters rounded up as police cracked down on anti-China demos in Nepal yesterday.

The women were herded into buses and trucks and taken to detention centres before they even began to march against Chinese repression in Tibet.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Police in Nepal have arrested more than 600 female Tibetan protesters, including many Buddhist nuns, after demonstrations in the capital Katmandu against China’s crackdown in Tibet.

The protesters held three separate rallies in the city but they were quickly broken up by Nepalese police.

Police official R.P. Dhamala confimed that more than 600 protesters were being held in detention centres in Katmandu.

The 600 arrests are the largest number of protesters detained on a single day since Tibetan exiles began almost daily protests in March against Chinese policies in Tibet. It was also the first time only women demonstrated.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

May 10, 2008

Kathmandu - Nepalese police Saturday arrested scores of Tibetan protestors who had chained themselves in small groups and tried to march towards Chinese visa and consular office in Kathmandu.

It was the third straight day the Tibetans were involved in protests in front of the building which also houses consular section and Xinhua news agency.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By: DOUG IRELAND
05/08/2008

In an historic breakthrough, the leader of Nepal's largest LGBT group, the Blue Diamond Society, has been named to a seat in the parliament following April 10 elections in that nation, home to some 30 million people.

Sunil Pant, 35, a Belarus-educated computer engineer who founded the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) in 2002 and has been its executive director ever since, was named to the parliament by the tiny Communist Party-(United). The CPN-(U) won the right to have five seats in the new constituent assembly under a complicated proportional representation system used in the elections, the first since Nepal, long an autocratic monarchy, declared itself a "People's Republic" last December following a 2006 peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Police have detained more than 200 Tibetan exiles who were trying to protest and storm a Chinese embassy building in the Nepalese capital, witnesses said.

"Over 200 Tibetans have been taken into custody from the protest. They will be released later in the day," senior police officer Hom Jung Chauhan said at the scene.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

May 1, 2008
By Sudeshna Sarkar

With Nepal's Maoists having begun an inexorable countdown for the ouster of the once all-powerful King Gyanendra, the fate of one of the oldest religious institutions of the nation - the Kumaris or "living goddesses" - also lies in jeopardy.

The culture of worshipping the Kumari, whose rituals form a key part of Hindu festivals here and draw thousands of tourists every year, was started in the 16th century by the Malla kings of Kathmandu in the belief that the deity, an incarnation of the Hindu goddess of power Durga, was the protector of the royal family.

According to legend, the last king of the dynasty, Jayprakash Malla, angered the goddess who forsook him, leading to his defeat. When he tried to woo her back, the goddess is said to have relented, saying that she would be reincarnated as a young virgin identifiable by auspicious physical and mental characteristics.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

28 Apr 2008,

KATHMANDU: Police detained 150 Tibetans who held a protest on Sunday near the Chinese Embassy visa office in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

The protesters, who were mostly Buddhist monks and nuns, were demanding the end of Chinese rule in Tibet.

"Free Tibet! We want freedom," they chanted before police blocked their march to the embassy's visa office and took them away in open trucks and vans to several detention centers in Kathmandu.

LINK TO ORIGINAL