| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 21-May-02 10:37 AM
When people discussed about some songs, they pointed out the role of 'khola' in
the romantic lives of a lot of Nepali. With those unbridgeable banks of khola, our
rural world, our past, our ancestors lived painfully,suffering not only in love, but
in a lot of everyday affairs.
The first time I saw Too-in (small rope-bridge), I was shocked. People were
crossing swishing turgid river hanging like a bat in ropes. Only two people could
cross the river at a time, and in both ends of the river, I could see a cluster
of people waiting for their turn. As a person raised in Chitwan, it was a terrible
sight for me.
It was in my venture to remote Nepal, to my ancestral land in rural Kaski, that I
started to know about all those bridges. Jholunge Pul(Hanging bridge) could be
much smaller than the one I saw in Devghat(Chitwan). When people were making
pontoon , cantilever bridges, we were living like an animal in rural Nepal. It was
a sad reality.
----
As I trudged hours to reach Baskota(name of village, yes) more than a decade
ago, I plucked and threw with disgust a lot of 'jukaa' (different moluscs) that sucked bloods in my leg and hands and , it looked, were integral part of that
land.It was a land my ancestors lived for centuries, yet I was going
there for the first time, more out of curiosity than any love, I must say.
There were some houses clustered together. There were no electricity. The
only person I knew was the son of my grand-uncle. He was a political person, a
staunch NC supporter in that Panchayat era.
"Any plan afoot on electricity, road?" There were none, I think. For the supporter
of 'glorious' days of Panchayat era, it will come as surprise.(Now, is there bijuli?)
As we walked along the village, and terraces, I looked at the slope where one
of my great grandfather perished a hundred years ago. "When our grandfather
was born, he went to do some levelling in farm. He slipped from here.. to death"
It was painful to hear that, in deed. In Chitwan, rarely have I heard anybody
dying of such accident.
Then, we talked about the family ailments. Genetic ailments like arthritis were
found occasionally. My father , in his 60s now, complains of pain in journeys.
How did they treat arthritis in the past?
"Ajingar ko boso (fat of python), they used that. " an elderly villager in Baskota
told this. In Chitwan, Tharus use Shyaal ko raksi (wine of jackals remains) Neem
was used for scabies and a lot of other ailments, and Harro, barro and Tulsi were
also major pharmaceutical herbs.
Nobody exactly knew how much of those herbs to administer for a particular
disease. The shamans wouldn't impart their knowledge with others. There was
this knowledge of applicability of those herbs to some diseases in that village, but
no statistical documentation of how many people survived by which medicine, and
how many people parished.
I remember one villager talked about leprosy and his knowledge of past. "Leprosy
was incurable, and those who suffered from it used to be ostracized to some
where in south." I wonder if that was to a mountain near Palpa. If anyone knows
about such leprosy camp near those districts, please share your information with
us. Years later, while I was watching "Ben Hur", (watch this movie , this is a great
movie) I was transported back our own world after watchin leprosy camps of
ancient Jeruselum there.
-------*****-----
Lala and Lila Poudel, rich Brahmins from somewhere in India (Maharastra?), came
to Nepal hundreds of years ago. Family story says we were their descendants.
I heard this story, there is no proof and no details, I don't know if they were really
rich or poor, if they were just some criminals who fled their homeland, or they
were members of a nomadic tribe looking for a better town to settle down. This is
the story that lived generations, that there were some Lala and Lila Poudel who
came to Nepal,and settled down in Kaski. I would probably tell my own progeny
this same story without any corroborating proofs. This knowledge is going to
live on for long.
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| NK |
Posted
on 21-May-02 12:11 PM
Biswo,
Enjoyed reading it! Oops, I'd better go back to whatever I am suppose to do and finish!
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| suna |
Posted
on 21-May-02 12:20 PM
Reminiscing those days!
Gosh that made me nostalgic!
Thanks
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 21-May-02 12:27 PM
Hi NK and Suna:
Thanks for your words.I always wanted to write something about the village
I went years ago. As soon as the exam finished, I posed it. I am glad that you
guys liked it.
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| villagevoice1 |
Posted
on 21-May-02 03:14 PM
Biswo:
with a good editor by your side, you may even want to publish these stuffs. some day. Very, very good observations. Keep going.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 21-May-02 04:24 PM
Villagevoiceji:
Thanks for your encouragement.
Re leprosy camps: I just went to read my notes regarding that. As an
undergraduate student, bored to death in the scorching heat of Shanghai, I once
tried to pen a small fiction based on leprosy in midwestern Nepal. So, I tried to
communicate with some more people regarding those unfortunate sufferrers.I
hope readers will try to contribute something to it, if they know about
it.Predictably, I never finished that small fiction, but the notes, and a part of that
unfinished fiction, I still have them.
As far as I know, anyone suffering from leprosy used to be sent to the Maalungaa
in southern Syangja. Hundreds of years ago, there was this flat plain in Syangja
where the local king (ancestors of Rishikesh Shah??) wanted to make a palace.
Plains were scarce there. But soon he found out that summer of Malunga was
unbearably torrid, so he deserted the place, commenting 'this place is for lepers'.
Lepers were sent there for numerous reasons.The major vegetables there were
yams, cucumbers etc, which helped their wounds make more septic, thus
precipitating their death.(People wanted them to die soon). Hot summer also
swiftly putrefies the wounds.This sorry tale of sufferings of lepers continued for
centuries until the Nepal Kushtharog Nibaaran Sangh emerged to help some of
the sufferers in Nepal.
---
It will be good to know about these things from people originally from Syangja,
Kaski , Baglung and vicinity.
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 03-Jun-02 05:04 AM
hey biswo, great thread. funny i never saw this before. pity i missed this great topic when you guys were talking then. dunno where i was then...but rishikesh ko ancestors were bhirkote rajas - erratic feudals from a precinct somewhere in palpa, no?
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 03-Jun-02 09:31 AM
Paschimji:
I also think Rishikesh's ancestors were Bhirkote royals, near Palpa. But Malungaa,
where I have never been, is somewhere in the border of Palpa and Syangja, so
I made the assumption.
I don't exactly know about Malungaa more, and I really wished someone
visiting Sajha.com had a better idea about the place, and would be kind to share
his info with us. "The tradition of non-documentation" made it difficult for us to
find out statistics of the lepers living there, if someone survived the disease, or
if the patients used any kind of medication rather than those exacerbating fruits
and vegetables.
Now that this thread is again in limelight for at least one day, I hope someone in
the know will share his info with us.
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| TFE/Her info |
Posted
on 03-Jun-02 04:47 PM
Hi Biswoji
I am truly touched with your sensitivity towards leprosy issues as it still hauntingly continues to be the Maha Rog. Biswoji, I have not been to Malunga but having worked with people with leprosy (PWL) and some of the descendants of the Malunga settlers in Green Pastures Hospital, Pokhara I can say in contemporary Nepal those affected by leprosy are in contrast to older times not expelled from the villages except in extreme cases. But alas, even with best treatment options available there are very few fortunate ones who can overcome the fear and strong negative connotations the disease impose. And not to forget the economic side to leprosy. Imagine narrow economic margins, spells of ill health, general weakness, a collapsed nose, damaged hand/feet and what more can one ask?
Yes, Malunga is in Syangja and used to be one of the 2 leprosariums in Nepal, the other being Khokana in Bagmati Anchal. I am not sure when Malunga came to existence but Khokana was established in 1830 and still stands tall providing shelter to people with leprosy as well as people without leprosy (children/grandchildren of PWL). Biswo, I think there were whole gamut of forces that perpetuated the deforming (physical and mental) process, including the weather and the vegetation factors. I was also informed that the settlers used chaulmoogra oil for wound treatment and though treated as outcast they were eligible for monthly ration, courtesy of the then GOVT. It seems that the settlement got dismantled when a medical mission the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) entered the country in 1952 and established another leprosarium Green Pastures in Pokhara in 1957 amidst huge outcry and protest from the local.
Biswoji, I have consciously used the term dismantle because I refuse to believe that Malunga=story of all great misfortunes, thanks to my personal experiences with the leprosy settlements resilience in Pokhara, Butwal, Mahendrangar and Ghorahi. Some of these settlements truly celebrate the indomitable spirit of human desire and hope as well as the despair of unfulfilled dreams. Yes like any human settlement, there is a symphony of corruption, cruelty, hope, desire, kindness and despair. In Butwal and Mahendra Nagar where most of the leprosy settlers were beggars even took care of my Khaja. Pampered am I? Yes, ruthlessly.
I am sure that I am not doing any justice to the issue because I know the issue involves more than “meaning” and “context” ..
Now just some factual info breaking the tradition of non-documentation…
1969: penal legislation against “lepers” was repealed, until then PWL were subject to arrest if found on the street or begging.
1975: National Leprosy Control (NLCP) was established. HMG was responsible for E.Nepal and INF/Green Pastures for W.Nepal
1975:Socio-Economic services Programme for PWL, the service was then renamed as Partnership for Rehabilitation in 1997
2000: Leprosy elimination goal but even in 1999 the unaudited national prevalence rate was about 6.4 per 10,000
Some more.. Also, I think Jane Hyland an Aussie lady had conducted a socio-cultural study of leprosy in 1993 but then I don’t have her contact address. Biswo, another excellent resource person is Prof. Ulla-Britt Engelbrektsson and her email add is U-B.Engelbrektsson@sant.gu.se. In 1999, she was involved in a 3-year social anthropological field research project focusing on “What it is like to be affected by leprosy in the context of Nepal”. I hope she must have her findings finalized by now.
Though I have digressed from the Malungaa scenario I think the issue transcends Malunga. INF as a mission organization, care, proselytize, medicine, bible, food,….. What say you?
Last but not the least the title of the thread is indeed beautiful though as a child crossing the jhulunge pool always induced a nauseating expereince. Change...
Cheers
TFE
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| LamjungKunchha |
Posted
on 03-Jun-02 05:33 PM
Biswoji,
Do you know if those Lila and Lalu have any connections to Paudels of Lamjung Kunchha area. I know quiet few of them and I am also related to them.
Lamjung, Kunchha
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| LamjungKunchha |
Posted
on 03-Jun-02 05:59 PM
Mr. Tee.
You deserve credit for detailed information about Leprosy in Nepal. I have had few experiences related to Leprosy and PWL:
1. Everytime we passed Baguwa Bazaar on our way from Kunchha to Damauli, we passed by an old lady who used to live in a little hut in the side of road. She was damai by caste but her figers were all gone. We used to drop panch paisa to her bowl as a token of our good will.
2. When I was sixth grade in my village, there were people from Green Pasture Leprosy Center visiting traing us what a Kustha rog is and how we can detect. They were very effective. I think those people treated the old lady in Baguwa bazaar. I know they were some how associated with United Mission to Nepal, a missionary social serivicing organization which has many done good deeds in the remote corners of Nepal. Although, they get blamed for proselyting but their efforts to educate people from remote area about basic health issues, specially Kushtha Rog should be aplauded.
3. Lately, I have come to hear that one of my close relatives has contracted Kustha Rog. Being from Bahun caste and the fear of getting blame for "papi" , they have kept it within family. since the disease carries physical price to it, it was very impossible to hide but hopefully they will come out and provide the patient necessary treatment.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 04-Jun-02 09:36 AM
Dear TFE/Her info:
It is so nice of you to write down those facts here. Like an average Nepali, I often
felt sorry at the state of PWL, and in the past, tried to find out how they lived in
the past, and what are the options available to them. Your new info has helped me
to corroborate the Malungaa theory which I first heard from an old villager in Kaski
more than a decade ago.
>Biswo, I think there were whole gamut of forces that perpetuated the deforming
>(physical and mental) process, including the weather and the vegetation factors.
>I was also informed that the settlers used chaulmoogra oil for wound treatment.
I am just wondering if Khokna is a torrid place like Malungaa. Though we can
conceive PWL perhaps tried to find some medication to treat themselves, mostly
they were condemned to death by sending to such (hot) camps, and by being
forced to eat (thermoparous?) vegetation, which would precipitate the decay of
their wound.
Another question in my mind is :who used to provide food for them? I thought
mostly the relatives, if the relatives were well off. Providing ration (money?)
and letting them buy was probably not viable solution. Were the shops where
they could go to buy owned by non-PWL, and were the streets of those shops
free for the PWL? Were the locals considerate enough to let them buy things, or
were they lapidated by cruel teenagers once they ventured out of the
leprosariums?
>It seems that the settlement got dismantled when a medical mission the
>International Nepal Fellowship (INF) entered the country in 1952 and established
>another leprosarium Green Pastures in Pokhara in 1957 amidst huge outcry and
>protest from the local.
I've been to Pokhara tens of times, and I think Pokhareli reaction re Green
Pastures was not unpredictable. No offense to Pokhareli friends, but Pokhara is
not a liberal city. Whenever I hear someone from Pokhara talking about issues
of gender equality, treatment of women, I feel so sad about their way of thinking.
May be our Pokhareli friends here can dispel that myth.(I really don't mean to
be regionalist, btw, and I respect a lot of Pokharelis who strive to ameliorate
women's situation in Pokhara.)
>Biswoji, I have consciously used the term dismantle because I refuse to believe
>that Malunga=story of all great misfortunes, thanks to my personal experiences
>with the leprosy settlements resilience in Pokhara, Butwal, Mahendrangar and
>Ghorahi. Some of these settlements truly celebrate the indomitable spirit of
>human desire and hope as well as the despair of unfulfilled dreams. Yes like any
>human settlement, there is a symphony of corruption, cruelty, hope, desire,
>kindness and despair. In Butwal and Mahendra Nagar where most of the leprosy
>settlers were beggars even took care of my Khaja. Pampered am I? Yes,
>ruthlessly.
I believe you are an extraordinary individual who had courage to go to PWL and
understand them, treat them, and feel a bond with them.They were the least
fortunates of all human beings, abandoned by civilization and separated by
rest of humanity by the wall of hatred and apathy.
I always thought of PWL as those who were hopeless, listless and waiting for an
inevitable instance of death. Never thought of the indomitable spirit in them that
you mentioned. That stereotype probably exists in a lot of places.
The information that you provided are so valuable, and I thank you again for
your effort to break the 'tradition of non-documentation'.
------*********
LamjungKunchhaji:
I have no idea about their relationship to the Poudels(or Paudels) of Lamjung. I
,however, know that there were two branches, one in Terai, somewhere near
Bara district, and another in Pahaad, around Kaski. Does that include Poudels of
Lamjung? We can only guess, and curse this tradition of 'non-documentation'.
|
| TFE/The Female Eunuch |
Posted
on 04-Jun-02 05:41 PM
LamjungKunchhaji, I hope your relative will brave the way to access the available teatment. Usually GPH in Pokhara is very good with confidentiality issues but one of the greatest barrier is the individual (hims/herself) and the family member's acceptance of the disease . I know it is tough and I hope your relative and family members can count on your assurance, that treatment is possible and its no work of PAAP. Everything begins with us and let us get the ferment working . I wish speedy recovery for your relative.
Biswoji
>>>I am just wondering if Khokna is a torrid place like Malungaa.
As mentioned earlier, I have not been to Malungaa and won’t be able to compare Khokna and Malungaa, though I have been to Khokana once. The leprosarium is housed in one of the palatial house of some Ranas or Shahas who was also condemned to live there because of the disease. I believe, once this Rana or Shah person passed away the residence was then established as leprosarium. In 2000, Khokna appeared to be like any non-leprosy settlement and elderly PWL continued to receive some pension and blankets annually through NELRA.
>>>Another question in my mind is :who used to provide food for them? I thought
mostly the relatives, if the relatives were well off. Providing ration (money?)
and letting them buy was probably not viable solution. Were the shops where
they could go to buy owned by non-PWL, and were the streets of those shops
free for the PWL? Were the locals considerate enough to let them buy things, or
were they lapidated by cruel teenagers once they ventured out of the
leprosariums?
Biswo ji, I have heard on several accounts of this ration provision i.e. basic amenities like rice, flour, salt etc by the government/sarkar, which means the then panchayati people. But it would be great to know how these services trickled down from central to the local because NLCP came into action only in 1975. Or was it a local devise to contain these people within the boundaries of the settlement?
Socially, even now leprosy is a stigmatized disease and manifests itself in prejudice and discrimination and possibly vice-versa as evident by Lamjung Kunchaji's posting. Above all, Biswoji the scenarios, which you have poignantly painted, is enacted, with certainty, that people are being abused even as I type these very words. And the fact that we study, discuss these onslaught, rather than endure, these abuses (not only confined to leprosy) is a reminder that we too are implicated in and benefit from the social structures that determine, to an important extent, the nature and distribution of assaults on human dignity.
>>> I've been to Pokhara tens of times, and I think Pokhareli reaction re Green
Pastures was not unpredictable. No offense to Pokhareli friends, but Pokhara is
not a liberal city. Whenever I hear someone from Pokhara talking about issues
of gender equality, treatment of women, I feel so sad about their way of thinking.
May be our Pokhareli friends here can dispel that myth.(I really don't mean to
be regionalist, btw, and I respect a lot of Pokharelis who strive to ameliorate
women's situation in Pokhara.)
Hey, I am a devout Pokhareli and take no offence with your statement. On the contrary, I am actually pleased that you have raised the issue of liberal town/ community. Let me begin with simple and straightforward question- which is the most liberal town in Nepal and why?
Hmmm! Gender Equality….. I live many worlds in a single day. Biswo, I continue to assert that gender inequality cemented and reflected by “ways of thinking” to borrow your phrase is not a myth. It is for REAL like elsewhere in Nepal and around. I can't help muself wondering when you use the term "dispel". I think male Pokhareli Sajhaities for sure are at stake now ;). I do have faith in constructive dialogue though I believe one learns and one hope to discover what is right and what needs to be righted --through work and action. But then what do I know? Ignorant I am, as Nietzsche roared, what we don’t know surpasses the imagination and what we don’t want to know is simply unbelievable.
>>>I believe you are an extraordinary individual who had courage to go to PWL and
understand them, treat them, and feel a bond with them.They were the least
fortunates of all human beings, abandoned by civilization and separated by
rest of humanity by the wall of hatred and apathy.
Biswoji, me extraordinaire come on! I am one of us with all human failings albeit I swear by my Sisyphyus-que resoluteness.
>>>The information that you provided are so valuable, and I thank you again for
your effort to break the 'tradition of non-documentation'.
It is always a pleasure to share and wish you the very best with your write-up!
Cheers
TFE
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 05-Jun-02 11:16 AM
TFEji:
Thanks for more info re leprosariums and the victims. I think what we as simple
witnesses can do is to try to disseminate the awareness regarding the plights of
these people. This should be a collective effort. I think Nepal Kushtharog Niwaran
people are also doing great job in this regard, so are the missionaries.
>Hey, I am a devout Pokhareli and take no offence with your statement. On the
>contrary, I am actually pleased that you have raised the issue of liberal town/
>community. Let me begin with simple and straightforward question- which is the
>most liberal town in Nepal and why?
Oops, did I stir a hornet's nest?
Yes, I think we don't have any liberal town. It is all a relative concept. Relatively,
KTM is the most liberal. Chitwan is comparatively liberal, I guess. Those folks
in west who once tried to deny entry into temple for the so called 'lower castes',
those in east who arbitrarily accuse some women of being witch and force faeces
to them are people of conservative area. But again, just a few years ago, there
was a case in center heart-land of KTM where a lady was killed by a witchcraft
for being (in spell of?) witch.
When it comes gender equality issue, however, I have no doubt Pokhara is one
of the most conservative town. Girls are treated like commodity there. A lot
of times, I have been there, sat with the folks who are there since centuries,
and heard them talking about women in the most pejorative terms. I really
don't want to go to detail of those discussions here. Only a good writer can
replicate those discussions, I think.
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| LamjungKunchha |
Posted
on 05-Jun-02 12:15 PM
Biswoji,
Gandaki Anchal is supposed to be more literate than most of the nation. I have had the pleasure of living in Pokhara for few years but my assessment does not quite coincide with yours regarding views towards women. I found people there not really that much of less or more liberal than in Kathmandu. Hey what do I know, I have not been there for more than few more years.
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