A high up accident spot mandates a route diversion

We have even today, many highways in India,that were essentially laid out during British Raj days or even earlier, when the main vehicular traffic on roads was mostly animal driven . This meant that the traffic on the roads moved very slowly and there was no cause or fear of accidents even on sharp or blind curves. Even though many of these roads have been now widened and straightened, number of spots still remain on highways where there is a medium or high probability of road accidents, if vehicles approach such spots at high speed.

Highways department of the Government, normally puts up signboards on both approaches to such spots, cautioning drivers to slow down as the spot is rather accident prone. Yet, many such spots remain, where the road curve is totally blind or the road passes through a busy town, which makes caution signboards prove ineffective and incapable to prevent accidents, because of the hazardous nature of the accident spot from the point of view of a motorist. In such places, there is really no choice but to either create a diversionary road or even a bye pass avoiding that entire stretch of the road.

All this is fine for a highway or a busy road but if we are told that a bypass route is needed for trekkers, who want to climb the tallest mountain on earth, the mount Everest, because of hazard or danger of an accident, would you believe it? Not many would believe this, but this is a fact and Government of Nepal has just taken corrective steps and has announced an alternate route for trekkers, who want to climb this mountain.

Nepalese officials have announced that the present route just above Everest base camp will be bypassed. The present route goes through a section on left of the treacherous Khumbu Icefall. The new route will now go through the center of the Icefall. Only last year, an avalanche had stuck the very spot, killing 16 Sherpa guides. The old route has number of ice cliffs or hanging glaciers above it, which add to risk of avalanches. The new route is supposed to be slightly more difficult to climb, but there is less danger of accidents from ice or snow falling from above and so less risky. This new route is actually not new, but rather an old one, as it was in use up to 1990 and was given up later.

Nepal will be sending highly skilled mountaineers to prepare the new route for trekkers next moth, to fix ropes along the new route, so it can be used by trekkers and mountaineers who want to climb this 8,848 meter (29,028 feet) peak.Nepal's authorised committee to set the route is known as Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. Representative of this agency, Yangee Sherpa says;

“We will set a route around the center to minimise risk of avalanche disasters. We have already prepared the equipment required to begin the season,”

There are other suggestion too, under consideration. One suggestion is to install a ladder on the famous Hillary Step, a crucial pitch just below the summit to ease congestion. Others include introducing separate fixed ropes for climbers ascending and descending near the summit to help ease the traffic and posting a team of government officials at the base camp, who would be able to prevent disputes and would have the power to cancel the climbing permit or even order the climbers to leave the mountain.

For Nepal, mountaineering and climbing of high peaks by foreigners is a lucrative business. It is a huge revenue earner for the impoverished Himalayan country, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters. Every year, hundreds from around the world attempt to scale peaks in the Himalayas when weather conditions are ideal.

Last year's accident, when 16 guides lost their lives in spring, had closed down the brief spring climbing season. This sudden and unprecedented shutdown of the climbing season to world’s highest peak had brought great revenue loss for the country. The accident had happened when dozens of guides were on the move as a huge block of ice broke off from a hanging glacier that split into smaller chunks and barreled down into the Icefall. So serious was the set back that only one successful summit climb was made after this accident with most other climbers abandoned their plans of climbing.

Guiding climbers on this treacherous mountain is a highly risky profession for Nepali Sherpas, who earn more than US$ 5000 in a season. More than 300 people, most of them local guides, have died on Everest since the first summit by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The new route would help in reducing the risk, though in a miniscule way.

24^th February 2015

Nepal's senseless religious carnage

In the Vedic religion, prevalent in India from 1200 BCE onwards, sacrificing animals at a fire altar was very common. There is no clear evidence available, whether Harrapans from Sindhu- Sarswati culture from prior periods, followed any such traditions. Later, with advent of Buddhism from the middle of the millennium before our era, Vedic ritual of sacrificing animals had continued unabated even when more popular Buddhism abhorred violence, .

In the year 2010-11, Archaeological Survey of India carried out excavations at Kondapur, a village in Andhra Pradesh state. The excavations brought to light religious practices of people living in Deccan at the beginning of our Era. The main discovery at the excavation site included some brick structures found in the western extreme of the main mound, which yielded authentic evidence of a Vedic or fire worshipping sect. It was a vast complex having a circular shrine facing south with one entrance and surrounded by rectangular chambers and fire altars , three metres in depth, having 37 courses of burnt bricks of different shapes -- triangular and sand clock-shaped, behind the chambers. The whole temple complex yielded plenty of animal bone pieces, perhaps for sacrificial purposes and related pottery articles such as bowls, sprinklers, spouted vessels and iron implements like spear heads and knives. The kings obviously performed the ‘yagnas’ at these altars and sacrificed animals to propitiate the goddess or seek a male heir.

As the idol based new Hindu religion evolved and took firm roots in India, animal sacrifices started dwindling, its place being taken by symbolic rituals. In modern India, animal sacrifices are still performed mainly at a few temples in eastern part of the country such as Kali Mandir in Kolkata or Kamakhya temple in Guwahati in Assam.

In 1960, Government of India passed an act called as Prevention of Cruelty to animals act, under which slaughtering of animals except in authorised slaughter houses was banned. Legally speaking, animal sacrifice is illegal. The act of animal sacrifice is covered under local Municipal Corporation Acts, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The courts in India have always taken a harsh view of practices such as animal sacrifice. In a judgment given in 1995, Supremne Court of India stated that Slaughtering of a cow On Muslim religious festival of Bakrid is neither essential nor necessarily required as part of religious ceremony.

The situation in Nepal; India's northerly neighbour, however remains totally different and diametrically opposite. Nepal officially considers itself a Hindu nation and allows animal sacrifices to any quantitative level. Gadhimai Temple located in Bariyapur village in Bara District of south central Nepal,( very near India's border) is a temple of a sacred goddesses of power. Here, at the Gadhimai festival, the world's biggest animal sacrifice is conducted once in every five years.

 

Gadhimai temple

Readers may find it difficult to believe but some 2.5 million worshippers from India and Nepal sacrificed 200,000 animals such as buffaloes, goats and pigeons to Gadhimai,the Hindu goddess of power here last week. There is a legend that the first sacrifices in Bariyapur were conducted several centuries ago when Goddess Gadhimai appeared to a prisoner in a dream and asked him to establish a temple to her. When he awoke, his shackles had fallen open and he was able to leave the prison and build the temple, where he sacrificed animals to give thanks.

The animals are killed by having their heads chopped off or throats slit in such a horrific way that any sensible person after having seen this would be down with terrible nausea and vomitting bouts. The animals are brought to an open field and killed with a machete. The view would be reminiscent of a battle ground of medieval periods with thousands of dead animals lying on ground instead of dead soldiers and the soil having turned red with blood of animals. The scenes from last week's carbage are so horrific that I do not even wish to publish any photos here.

It would appear that this year's figure of 200000 animals sacrificed is acutally modest compared to 2009 figure of 300000 animals. This reduction has happened because of an order by Supreme court of India to ban on Gadhimai-related animal exports of animals. The court asked the police to patrol the border and stop worshippers from taking buffalo and goats across to the temple. As a result of this, many devotees were unable to cross the border with animals for sacrifice and there was a considerable decrease in the number of sacrifices this year.

It is obvious that courts in India, having no jurisdiction in Nepal. can not not ban this slaughter. However, it is totally in the jurisdiction of the Indian courts and police to totally seal the border between Nepal and India on a few days preceding the festival and see that not a single animal or a bird is exported or sent to Nepal.

This mass carnage or culling of healthy animals, should never happen again. I can understand killing of an animal or a bird in a slaughterhouse for meat or even mass culling them to prevent spread of some deadly disease. But this senseless Gadhimai carnage, that takes us back to medieval periods, can not be justified on any basis at all.

6^th December 2014

A helicopter as a gift

We all follow a custom that if anyone invites us to their homes for a function or even for lunch or dinner, we take with us some gift as a token of our appreciation for the invitation. If the invitation is just for a meal, usually a side dish or a sweet is presented to the host.

At the recently concluded meeting of SAARC or South Asia Association for regional cooperation held in Nepal, India's prime minister took along a novel gift that would be much appreciated by the host country. The country was presented an helicopter by India as a token of good will. The helicopter that was presented was the indegeneously made- Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv.

Dhruv is an utility helicopter developed and manufactured by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bengaluru. The helicopter first flew in 1992; however, its further development was prolonged and slow due to several factors such as design changes, budget restrictions, and sanctions placed on India following the 1998 nuclear tests. It entered into service in 2002 and caters for both civil and military customers.

Besides military service, it is being used by number of civil operators like Ministry of Home Affairs,Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Chhattisgarh State Government, Jharkhand State Government and Geological Survey of India. It is also being used by a few other countries like Equador, Turkey and Surinam. For Nepal, Dhruv is no stranger because it had purchased two Dhruv helicopters in 2004 itself. Till 2014, about 200 Dhruv helicopters have been manufactured.

In 2013, Dhruv became the hero of the large-scale rescue operations led by the Armed Forces during the Uttarakhand floods. Its compact size, agility, ability to carry up to 16 people to heights of 10,000 feet, and to evacuate stranded people from inaccessible regions was much praised. It could carry more people from high-altitude helipads than the heavier Mi-17, and land where the lighter Bell 407 could not. During these operations, the total flight time put in by these helicopters was 630 hours, out of which 550 hours were dedicated to search and rescue missions.

 

Prime minister of India took the decision to present this helicopter earlier this month. It is creditable that Hindustan Aeronautics helicopter unit readied the copter at its Bengaluru unit in 14 days. The copter reached Kathmandu on November 22. The helicopter supplied is of the latest Mark III version with Fitted with Shakti engines, a modern glass cockpit and avionics. This Mk-III version with Shakti engines has very good high altitude performance operating at altitudes over 6 km. It comes with seating for 14 fully equipped troops.

The first versions of the helicopter; Mark I and Mark II were equipped with Turbomeca TM 333-2B2 turboshaft engines and were not able to fly above 5000 ft. height. The new version is capable of flying up to 8000 ft.

The 5.5-tonne helicopter will benefit Nepal with its mountainous terrain and harsh environmental conditions. A technical team is positioned in Kathmandu to help with maintenance and logistics support.

One country that must be most interested in this gift would be another SAARC member country Afghanistan. It was reported in 2013 that it was getting 3 helicopters for its army sometime in 2014, though it is not known whether it actually received them.

27^th November 2014

Have the stomach for some Gold?

There are a couple of idioms in English that relate to our liking to our stomachs. To me, they appear logical, because most of our likes and dislikes (leaving facebook aside) start and mostly co-relate to our stomachs. The first idiom that talks about Stomach says “ have the stomach for something,” which means either to be able to tolerate certain foods or to have the courage or resolution to do something. Another idiom that talks about stomach in a negative way says “ have no stomach for something,” as expected, this means not feeling brave or determined enough to do something unpleasant.
 
I had never thought before that it would be also possible to use this idiom for anything except food and maybe emotions. But as some Doctors from India's capital New Delhi have surprisingly found out recently, an old man of 63 actually had the stomach for some Gold. The old man, who is a businessman, was admitted to New Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, in the first week of April after complaining of vomiting and difficulty in defecating. He told the Doctors that he had swallowed a bottle cap in anger, after a fight with his wife. His medical history showed that the businessman was a diabetic and had undergone four stomach surgeries in the past.

After doing various scans on his body, the Surgeon treating him realised that the man indeed had some foreign metallic objects in his stomach and diagnosed him as having acute intestinal obstruction, They decided to operate upon him. He was operated on 9^th April 2014, and the Doctors, who performed the operation were most surprised to find, after they had opened his stomach, twelve bars of gold weighing nearly 400g (14oz) in his stomach instead of a bottle cap.

Dr CS Ramachandran, a senior surgeon at the hospital says: "This is the first time I have recovered gold from the stomach of a patient. I remember having taken out a bladder stone weighing 1kg from a patient. But finding gold in a patient's stomach was something unbelievable. It was a tedious three-hour-long operation. He is an old patient and we had to be careful. We found 12 gold bars lying in a stack in his stomach." The Doctor also has added: "I have been treating this patient since 1989, when he came for gall bladder removal. He is a wealthy man with a good business in Chandni Chowk and both his sons are settled abroad. It is both surprising and shocking to know that he could do something like this,"

The hospital promptly informed the police about the find and police and customs authorities have since questioned the businessman and have confiscated the gold. After investigations, truth has come out. The man had swallowed the gold biscuits, each weighing 33g, to smuggle them into the country from Singapore 10 days ago. He even managed to elude security checks at airports. The plan, however, failed as the man could not pass the bullion through his stool. He tried everything from drinking lots of fluid to using laxatives but the biscuits stayed in the small intestine causing terrible pain.

Last year, Government of India have hiked the import duty on gold three times to curb demand for Gold. Since then demand for Gold has come down in official markets, but then yellow metal is now being brought in using every legal loopholes as well as by illegal methods. Although it's impossible to calculate exactly how much gold was smuggled into the country in response to import restrictions, the Indian Finance Minister estimates that about 30 to 40 tonnes of gold must have come through unofficial channels. However World Gold Council believes this to be an underestimate and says that smugglers must have brought in around 200 tonnes throughout the year. That is a staggering number, but is likely to be realistic considering the tonnes of gold brought in by air travellers to India. 
 

Eligible passengers, (Persons of Indian Origin or an Indian returning to India after a period of six months of stay abroad.) are allowed to import gold up to 1 kg as personal baggage by paying 10 per cent customs duty in foreign currency. Between April-December 2013, customs officials seized about 200 kilos of gold from just from three airports in south India—Kochy, Trivandrum and Trichy, compared to just 10 kilos last year. Government has now realised that many unscrupulous elements are smuggling gold by hiring eligible passengers to import gold on their behalf against this 1 Kg rule.

The Government has now tightened baggage rules, requiring inbound Indian passengers to provide details such as source of funds for importing the metal as well as their air tickets. The baggage receipt issued by the Customs will now include the engraved serial number on gold bars and the item-wise list of ornaments. However, it is doubtful whether these measures would bring down the quantities of gold brought in India as smugglers can always find new ways.
The Gold smugglers found a new channel in 2013 to smuggle in Gold from Tibet via Nepal. In August 2013, a small group of Nepali sleuths belonging to Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, waited patiently in Nepali capital of Kathmandu. Their patience was rewarded when they saw a white Chinese truck arriving early morning inside the city. They have been tracking this truck for last several days as it trudged and trundles along the long drive from across the border in China on Friendship highway that connects China to Nepal. They had information that a consignment of gold was on its way from Khasa, [a border town in Tibet.] As they checked the truck, they found that it contained a seemingly innocuous cargo of Chinese-made clothes. But hidden in a cylinder inside the vehicle’s front bumper was the latest haul of gold smuggled from Tibet — bars weighing some 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and worth several million dollars on the black market. But the consignment was not destined for Nepal. Nepal’s police and inland revenue department say that the illegal shipment was ultimately destined for neighbouring India.

A total of 69 kilograms of smuggled gold was seized in Nepal in the last six months, most of it from Tibet, compared with 18 kilograms for all of 2012. But Nepal Police say that it is only the tip of the iceberg. Only 10 percent of all smuggled gold is confiscated at the most. A smuggler arrested by Nepal police in December 2012 in fact boasted that there is such an insatiable demand for gold that it was the fourth time in three months, he had smuggled gold into Nepal. Nepali police say that in a typical smuggling run, trucks transport the hidden gold overland from Tibet into Kathmandu, where the yellow metal is shifted to freight trucks that ply the roads between Nepal and India, with the Indian border town of Raxaul as a smuggling hub. Nepal has an open border with India and smuggling of gold from Nepal to India is fairly easy.
Gold smuggling is likely to continue as long as Gold prices in India, remain lucratively higher compared to International prices. Till then, we are likely to have many more persons, who are bound to have a large stomach for Gold.



19^th April 2014

Want to climb Mt. Everest? Don't forget to bring back garbage!

Starting from April 2014 climbing season, every climber, who wants to make an attempt on Mt. Everest in Himalayas, will have to bring down at least eight kilograms of garbage. Government of Nepal has introduced a law to that effect. All the climbers will be required to hand over the trash to the Government office set up at the base cam for this purpose. A tourism ministry official says that those who flout the law will be penalised but the sanction has yet to be defined.

This definitely is a much needed step as Mt.Everest: world's highest mountain is littered with oxygen cylinders, trash left behind by climbers and even bodies of dead climbers. Last tear, I had an occasion to listen to a member of the team from my home town Pune, who had scaled Mt. Everest on 16th March 2012 along with one of his team-mate. The one hour talk had turned out to be a thrilling experience for me, as climbing Mt. Everest still remains one of the most daunting and challenging task for any person. During his talk, the guest speaker had mentioned about one sore spot of the expedition. He had talked about the heaps and heaps of litter and trash lying along the entire route to top of the mountain. This litter has been generated by generations of climbers, who have been trying to climb this greatest challenge for the mankind. Because of the extremely cold conditions, this litter remains intact as left by the climbers, and does not deteriorate or decompose at all. He had mentioned about having seen even some dead bodies of the climbers and sherpas, who have died in previous expeditions. The situations has become so bad that the route to Mt. Everest has become a garbage dump at some places, where almost all climbers usually have their camps.

Mt. Everest was first scaled by Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of India in 1953. Since then, more than 4,000 people have climbed the 29,035 feet peak including the team from Pune. The mountain slopes are littered with trash which remains buried under the snow during the winter and resurfaces again in the summer when the snow melts. Government of Nepal takes a deposit of US$ 4000 from all climbing teams to ensure that the teams bring back all the garbage generated by them on the mountain. However, since physical verification is almost impossible, some amount of trash remains on the slopes.

Nepalese Government's new directive highlights the fact that times are surely changing in Nepal. Climbers from European and other nations around the world can no longer go littering around without bothering about any environmental impact of the same. This directive would certainly go a long way as a part of the drive, to clean up the garbage accumulating on the world’s highest mountain. All environmentalists around the world are bound to welcome this step from Nepal.

5^th March 2014

The controversy about the year of Buddha's birth

According to the traditional Hindu calender, the full-moon day in a month, is known as 'Purnima.' For Buddhists of the world, the full-moon day of the second Hindu calender month of Vaisakha is of special relevance and importance. It may not be wrong even to say that it is the most sacred day in the Buddhist calender, because it is connected to three important events in the life of Shakyamuni Siddhaarth Goutam Buddha, namely, his birth, his enlightenment and his Mahaparinirvana or passsing away.

Different schools of Buddhism have their independent systems of chronology, when they refer to Buddha's life span. The full-moon day or 'Purnima' of the month of May in the year 1956, was 2500^th anniversary of the Mahaparinirvana of Shakyamuni Siddhaarth Goutam Buddha. This would mean that the year of the of Mahaparinirvana was 544 BCE. This date also matches with chronicles of to Theravada Buddhism, which say that Buddha's Mahaparinirvana had occurred in 544 BC.

However, if we decide to reconstruct the year of Mahaparinirvana from the historical angle, we arrive at a year which is sixty one years later. The Sri Lankan chronicles, the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, which are considered as the primary sources for ancient South Asian chronology, say that the consecration (abhisheka) of Emperor Asoka happened 218 years after the Mahaparinirvana. Since another famous Emperor Chandragupta Mourya is believed to have ascended the throne 56 years prior to this, it must have happened 162 years after the Mahaparinirvana. The approximate date of Chandragupta's ascension is known as 321 BCE (from Megasthenes). Hence the approximate date of the Mahaparinirvana works out as 483 BCE. This is also the year mentioned in the Mahayana texts.

We therefore have two different Mahaparinirvana years, from two sects of Buddhism. Buddha's Mahaparinirvana has been described in the following words.

“ At the age of eighty he was on his way to Kusinagara, the town in which he passed into Parivartana. Taking leave of the pleasant city of Vaisali with his favourite disciple Ananda. He rested on one of the neighbouring hills and looked at the pleasant scenery with many shrines and sanctuaries. On the banks of the river Hiranyavati in a grove of Sal trees, the Buddha had a bed prepared for himself between two trees. He entered supreme Nirvana here”

We can infer from this, that since at the time of Mahaparinirvana, Buddha was 80 years old. According to the Theravada texts therefore, year of Buddha's birth works out as 624 BCE. Whereas, according to Mahayana texts, the year of birth would work out as 563 BCE.

Buddha's birth has been described as (Theravada chronicles dating):

“ It was the seventh century before the Christian era. The civilized part of India was divided into sixteen realms, eight of which were kingdoms and the remaining republics. The little Sakya republic, in modern Nepal was ruled by chief Suddhodana with his capital at Kapilavastu. In the year 624 BCE his queen Mahamaya was travelling in state from from kapilavastu to Devadadha, to her parents home. On her way, the queen gave birth to a divine son in her tent in the Lumbini grove between two Sal trees, then in their full spring blossoms. Queen Mahamaya passed away seven days after birth of her child.”

This means that there is no ambiguity whatsoever about the place where Buddha was born but Buddhist chronicles differ about exact year of his birth with Theravada sect claiming that he was born in seventh century BCE and Mahayana sect believing that it was sixth century BCE. Unfortunately for the Buddhist world, no proof of any kind is however available anywhere for either of the dates.

About two and half centuries after the death or Mahaparinirvana of Goutama Buddha, Emperor Asoka of Medieval India, went on a pilgrimage to visit all the places connected with the life of Goutama Buddha. One of the places that he visited during his pilgrimage was the village of 'Lumbini' located in the 'Terai' region of Nepal and which was believed to be the birth place of Buddha. To mark his visit there, Emperor Asoka put up a sandstone pillar with an inscription. Famous Indian historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar has translated this inscription as follows:

“Twenty years after his coronation, King Priyadasi, the beloved of god, visited Lumbini in person and offered worship there because the Buddha, the sage of the Sakyas, was born there. He built a stonewall around the place and erected the stone pillar to commemorate his visit. Because Lord Buddha was born there, he made the village of Lumbini free from taxes and subject to pay only one-eighth of the produce as land revenue instead of the usual rate.”

The stone pillar built by Asoka at Buddha’s birthplace, was lost over centuries and was overgrown by a jungle. It was rediscovered in 1896, when the presence of a third century BCE pillar bearing inscriptions allowed historians to identify its location as Lumbini. Since then, it has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site, visited by millions of Buddhists every year. A white temple stands today on a gently sloping plateau at Lumbini, 20 miles from the border with India.

New evidence however has come to light at Lumbini, that claims to prove that the seventh century year of birth as claimed by Theravada Buddhists might be the correct one after all. The man behind this new discovery is the Veteran Nepalese archaeologist Kosh Prasad Acharya, formar director general of the department of archaeology, Government of Nepal. Acharya had previously carried out excavations in Lumbini before in the early 1990s. But after his retirement, UNESCO asked him to co-direct an investigation of Lumbini’s foundations, when he made this discovery.

Working with Robin Coningham, Britain’s leading South Asian archaeologist from Scotland's Durham University, Acharya found out a brick temple located below the existing Asokan temple, and below that a sort of void, opening up the possibility of something important existing below. Over the next two years, archaeologists, geophysicists and hired workmen from Nepal and Britain worked on the site, digging in the presence of meditating monks and nuns.

The archaeologists found holes, apparently meant to secure posts, in the open void below the brick temple. The intact holes suggested that whoever had built the brick temple had taken care not to damage the ancient structure below, suggesting the site was always considered holy. Lab tests confirmed the existence of roots within the void below the brick structure, suggesting it may have been a shrine where a tree once grew, possibly the hardwood Sal tree under which many believe that the Buddha was born.

The new excavations have uncovered evidence of a much earlier timber shrine just below the brick structure that is below the present day temple that is a UNESCO World Heritage site today. Dating fragments of charcoal and grains of sand, researchers determined that the lower structures were erected as early as in the sixth century B.C. The international team of archaeologists said that the lower structures were laid out on the same design as the more recent temple. The timber shrine even had an open space in the center that suggested a link to the Buddha’s nativity tradition. Deep tree roots in the center space may even have been from the tree his mother presumably held on to.

Buddhists in Nepal and Sri Lanka, have always believed that the Buddha was born around 623 BC. The new archaeological proof more or less confirms that date.

9^th January 2013

You might also be interested in reading:

The Kapilavastu Controversy Part I 

The Kapilavastu Controversy Part II

The Kapilavastu Controversy Part III

The Kapilavastu Controversy Part IV

Garland bearers of the Buddha

Return of the Bodhi Tree
Buddha's Original Alms-Bowl 

Traces of an Empire     

From Tibet with Gold

In the year 1963, as a result of China-India war of 1962, India's foreign exchange reserves became precariously low. As a remedy, Government of India enacted the 'Gold Control Rules,' which prohibited the citizens from holding pure gold bars and coins. The old holdings in pure gold had to be compulsorily converted into jewellery and that had to be declared. Only licensed dealers were allowed to deal in pure gold bars and coins. New gold jewellery purchases were either recycled or smuggled gold. Government hoped that this would cut down the love, Indian's have for gold. This was followed by the Gold Control Act of 1968. This legislation killed the official gold market and a large unofficial market sprung up dealing in cash only. The gold was smuggled in and sold through the unofficial channel wherein, many jewelers and bullion traders traded in smuggled gold. A huge black market developed for gold.

This enacted law however failed to achieve any of the objectives because Indians have always loved gold as preferred mode of investment since it gives far better and assured returns compared to other assets such as equity, bonds or deposits. Gold price also has no effect of inflation, one of the principle concerns of Indian investors. The only other asset that can match gold in this respect is investment in real estate.

Coming back to the Gold imports, next few decades, saw smuggling of gold rising exponentially. According to Amresh Acharya, director with World Gold Council’s India office, India, is the world’s largest gold consumer, and has imported around 800 tons of gold in 2012. The precious metal is the country’s second-largest imported commodity by value, behind crude oil.

Government of India, again introduced import tax on gold in 2012, and has been increasing it in increments from 2 % to current rate of 8%. The reaction to this new tax came up immediately in form of increased smuggling. Economic Times says citing customs officials, that 9.42 billion rupees ($175 millions) worth of gold was seized between April-July 2012. This was a 272% rise from the previous year’s level. There were hardly any seizures in the previous five to six years. Now Government has again banned the import and sale of pure gold.

During hay days of gold control act, huge networks or chains of smugglers were formed or developed, who imported gold from middle east countries like Dubai on sea faring ships, transferred them to dhows on high seas and landed the gold at remote places on western sea board of India. Bollywood movies of those years always showed the villains engaged in gold smuggling. Perhaps that style of importing gold has now become old fashioned and smugglers, who again find Indian market lucrative due to new gold import tax and rules, are looking for new routes to bring smuggled gold in. Perhaps the sea route has now become too risky or expensive, as smugglers have started looking for new routes to bring the yellow metal to India.

In August 2013, a small group of Nepali sleuths belonging to Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, waited patiently in Nepali capital of Kathmandu. Their patience was rewarded when they saw a white Chinese truck arriving early morning inside the city. They have been tracking this truck for last several days as it trudged and trundles along the long drive from across the border in China on Friendship highway that connects China to Nepal. They had information that a consignment of gold was on its way from Khasa, [a border town in Tibet.]

As they checked the truck, they found that it contained a seemingly innocuous cargo of Chinese-made clothes. But hidden in a cylinder inside the vehicle’s front bumper was the latest haul of gold smuggled from Tibet — bars weighing some 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and worth several million dollars on the black market. But the consignment was not destined for Nepal. Nepal’s police and inland revenue department say that the illegal shipment was ultimately destined for neighbouring India.

A total of 69 kilograms of smuggled gold was seized in Nepal in the last six months, most of it from Tibet, compared with 18 kilograms for all of 2012. But Nepal Police say that it is only the tip of the iceberg. Only 10 percent of all smuggled gold is confiscated at the most. A smuggler arrested by Nepal police in December 2012 in fact boasted that there is such an insatiable demand for gold that it was the fourth time in three months, he had smuggled gold into Nepal.

Nepali police say that in a typical smuggling run, trucks transport the hidden gold overland from Tibet into Kathmandu, where the yellow metal is shifted to freight trucks that ply the roads between Nepal and India, with the Indian border town of Raxaul as a smuggling hub. Nepal has an open border with India and smuggling of gold from Nepal to India is fairly easy.

It is difficult to understand why Government of India is hell bent to make the same mistakes again and put controls on Gold imports, especially when the economy is facing serious trouble and value of Rupee is going downhill with rampant inflation. Besides buying gold in the form of jewellery, bars and coins as a traditional gift for brides and during Hindu festivals, for Millions of Indians gold is also a hedge against inflation, as it is traditionally regarded as an asset that is expected to maintain or increase its value. The new gold controls would simply give a boost to smuggling, now that they have found an easy route from Tibet.

6^th September 2013

Mount Everest trash converted to art-forms

Few months ago, I had an occasion to listen to a member of the team from my home town Pune, who had scaled Mt. Everest on 16^th March of this year (2012) along with one of his team-mate. The one hour talk turned out to be a thrilling experience for me, as climbing Mt. Everest still remains one of the most daunting and challenging task for any person.

During his talk, the guest speaker mentioned about one sore spot of the expedition. He talked about the heaps and heaps of litter and trash lying along the entire route to top of the mountain. This litter has been generated by generations of climbers, who have been trying to climb this greatest challenge for the mankind. Because of the extremely cold conditions, this litter remains intact as left by the climbers, and does not deteriorate or decompose at all. He mentioned about having seen even some dead bodies of the climbers and sherpas, who have died in previous expeditions. The situations has become so bad that the route to Mt. Everest has become a garbage dump at some places, where almost all climbers usually have their camps.

An art group, Da Mind Tree from Nepali capital Kathmandu, decided to do something about the garbage on the Mt. Everest and collected about 1.5 tons of garbage, which included empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, food cans, torn tents, ropes, crampons, boots, plates, twisted aluminum ladders and torn plastic bags dumped by climbers over decades on the slopes of the world’s highest mountain. The trash was picked up from the mountain by Sherpa climbers in 2011 and earlier part of 2012. It was brought down to Kathmandu by porters and trains of long-haired animals known as yaks.

After collecting the garbage, fifteen Nepali artists closeted with it for a month. When they emerged out, they had transformed the Mt. Everest garbage into art and had created 75 sculptures, including one of a yak and another of wind chimes. The art group is led by Mr. Kripa Rana Shahi. He says that the sculpting, and a recent exhibition of the sculptures in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu were all aimed at spreading awareness about keeping Mount Everest trash or garbage free. He says rightly that “Everest is our crown jewel in the world. We should not take it for granted. The amount of trash there is damaging our pride.”

The sculptures included a Tibetan mandala painting, which showed the location of Mount Everest in the universe, was made by sticking yellow, blue and white pieces of discarded beer, food cans and other metals on a round board. In an another sculpture, empty oxygen cylinders were mounted on a metal frame to make Buddhist prayer wheels.

Mt. Everest was first scaled by Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of India in 1953. Since then, more than 4,000 people have climbed the 29,035 feet peak including the team from Pune. As I have mentioned above, the climbers report that the mountain slopes are littered with trash which remains buried under the snow during the winter and resurfaces again in the summer when the snow melts.

Government of Nepal takes a deposit of US$ 4000 from all climbing teams to ensure that the teams bring back all the garbage generated by them on the mountain. However, since physical verification is almost impossible, some amount of trash remains on the slopes.

The art pieces created have been kept on sale. Parts of the proceeds would go to artists and the balance to the Everest Summiteers’ Association (ESA), which sponsored the collection of garbage from the mountain.

During the lecture about Mt. Everest expedition from Pune, the young speaker had showed us some photographs of the trash collected on the mountain slopes, which were quite disgusting. This art creation is therefore a great initiative, and might lead to some reduction at least in the trash on the slopes of the highest mountain on planet earth.

29 November 2012

Unwanted guests

After India became independent in 1947, there used to be a serious shortage of food grains and cereals all over the country, right through the first or 1950's decade. The Government was forced to continue rationing of food grains, which had started earlier in WW II years, because of the serious food grain shortages in the general markets. The situation used to be quite bad with rampant black marketing of food grains. The basic reason of the shortages obviously was that India was not growing enough food grains in the country, needed to feed the entire population. The common man had no choice but to buy whatever was offered in the rationing shops by the Government. The grains like rice and wheat, that were available for sale in these shops, used to be of extremely poor quality. Since none of us had any real choice, we just ate whatever was available.

The supply side situation was equally bad and the Government machinery found it tough to procure requisite quantities of food grain required to feed the population. The Government also did not have enough foreign exchange in the kitty to buy food grains from international markets. Pressed into such a tight situation, Government asked US Government for help. In 1954 US President Eisenhower signed a law known as PL-480, or Public Law 480. It was also known as "Food for Peace" law because it provided a funding avenue for the US Government by which US food could be used for overseas aid. With this law in place, United States agreed to supply to India, wheat under PL 480 programme, free or at zero cost. The ships carrying PL480 wheat would carry it in holds without any packing and used to be unloaded by sucking out or pouring it through big pipes on the ports. That reddish coloured wheat used to be very inferior grade wheat or Milo, as it was called then and was mostly used to feed farm animals back in US. However India had absolutely no other option and distributed same Milo through ration shops. Since Indians were fully aware that ' Beggars can’t be choosers' and consumed the wheat available in ration shops. Today in India, we consume super grade wheat like 'Sihore' or 'Lokawan' and today's young generation of India, would not even be able to imagine the quality of wheat that we all ate in those days, leave alone the idea of actually eating it. Whatever may be the quality, it was still food for the masses. Arrival of a PL-480 ship was always headline news. PL-480 made the difference between food riots and dinner for everyone. Since the PL-480 wheat or Milo was originally meant to be the farm feed, it used to be unsorted and uncleaned. There used to be quite a few foreign articles like small stones in it and it needed through sorting before use. The PL-480 ships unloaded the grains on the docks through giant pipes or ducts, like iron ore or similar mineral, and would be repacked on the docks in gunnysacks for further distribution.

Along with the grain, PL 480 ships also brought to India another seed, which created a havoc in India for next two or three decades. This seed was a grass seed known as Parthenium and originally was found in Americas. It however found Indian continent very hospitable and grew by leaps and bounds. It became known popularly as “ Congress” or “Gajar” grass and spread everywhere with equal speed and fury. India's fields, meadows, vast expanses of barren lands and even garbage dumps were soon found to be covered with Parthenium grass. This grass was a killer and it slowly eliminated the local grasses.

Parthenium grass and it's lovely little white flowers, were found by many people highly allergic. Rashes over the body, asthma and watery eyes were observed to be common symptoms. As the Parthenium menace grew, number of projects had to be taken across the country to find a suitable method of elimination. After continuous research by many agricultural scientists and organizations, India was able to control to a great extent this unwanted guest.

 

I am reminded of this Parthenium menace because of the arrival of a similar unwanted guest in Nepal. Chitwan national park is Nepal's most popular national park. This is the first national park in Nepal, established in 1973 and was granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. It covers an area of 932 Sq. Km. in the subtropical Inner Terai lowlands of south-central Nepal. This park is a natural habitat of animals like Tigers, Leopards and is considered as Nepal's sole habitat for Rhinoceros. Few years back an unwelcome weed or creeper from Brazil known as Mikenia Micrantha was first observed in this park. It is just not known how this plant arrived in Nepal. However like Parthenium in India, Mikenia Micrantha has found Chitwan national park very hospitable for it and has been growing like mad there. Almost 20% of the total area of this park is now covered by this weed. In the regions, which are normal habitats for Rhinoceros, almost 50% area is not under Mikenia Micrantha cover.

Mikenia Micrantha is sometimes called as “Mile a minute” weed indicating its high speed of growth. It can occupy entire countryside within a short time. All grasses, sgrubs as well as large trees get equally covered under its net like growth. This growth prevents any sunlight falling on the vegetation or trees under it and eventually they just die out. Animals like deer, which feed on the grasses, naturally move away and along with the deer, tigers and leopards, being the next link in the food chain, move away. The birds are unable to build any nests on the trees covered by Mikenia Micrantha and migrate from such areas.

Mikenia Micrantha was first seen in a wild life sanctuary in east Nepal, where it has caused great damage to the environment. According to some Nepali environmentalists, this creeper was imported by British from Brazil to India to cover and hide the military camps in WW II. It is not being seen in India but has now appeared in Chitwan national park area and has created a question mark about very existence of the park itself. Nepali biologists are not willing to carry out any chemical or biological measures to control the weed because of the possible danger to Nepal's eco-system itself. Measure like physically or manually removing the weed are being tried but effectiveness of such methods is unknown. The weed is now also seen at some places in west Nepal also.

If a measure is not quickly found the foliage in Nepal could be under great danger of being suffocated under Mikenia Micrantha and eventually dying out.

Just like a family, nature also seems to get unwanted guests once in a while. Perhaps, it also finds that getting rid of them is an equally daunting task!

16 October 2012

Shooting the breeze

Some people seem to derive great pleasure in shooting the breeze. They claim that they have found something new and revolutionary out of old historical events and try to create new controversies and sensations for the media. A British author Mick Conefrey, appears to be keen to join rank of such sensationalists with his unnecessary claim, made by him in his forthcoming book titled 'Everest 1953: The Epic Story of the First Ascent'.

A British expedition was planned under leadership of John Hunt in the summer of 1953. The expedition members included some great climbers of those days including Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Most of the climbers had already done some climbing on mount Everest and were quite familiar with treacherous climb. Tenzing Norgay was part of a Swiss expedition, which had attempted to reach the summit in 1952 but was turned back by bad weather and exhaustion 800 feet from the summit. Edmond Hillary was part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest in 1951 led by Eric Shipton. Hillary intended to climb with George Lowe but Hunt as the team leader, named two teams for the assault: Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary thereafter made a concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing. The Hunt expedition in all consisted of over 400 people, including 362 porters, twenty Sherpa guides and 10,000 lbs of baggage and like many such expeditions, was a total team effort.

The base camp was set up in March 1953. The team slowly made its way upwards and the final camp was set up at 25900 feet. Bourdillon and Evans were asked by Hunt to make an attempt for the peak on 26 May 1953 but had to turn back as Evans' oxygen system failed. The pair, before turning back, had reached the south summit about 300 feet below the summit. After this unsuccessful attempt, Hunt directed Hillary and Tenzing to make an attempt for the summit. The attempt had to be put off for two days because of heavy snow and wind. On 28^th May, Hillary and Tenzing ably supported by George Lowe, Alfred Gregory and Ang Nyima set out for final camp. They set it up at 27900 feet and the support trio returned back to South Col. On 28^th May, after warming his boots for 2 hours, as they were frozen solid, Hillary and Tenzing started their final attempt wearing 14 Kg packs on their backs. The last part of ascent was a 40 feet rock wall, named later as Hillary step. Hillary found a a crack in the face and team started for the final assault.

From that point the climb was well within means of the pair, and they reached the summit without any trouble. Hillary describes this last part of the climb as "A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top." It is a mystery of sorts, why Hillary was bit ambiguous and always claimed that both of them reached the top at the same time. However Tenzing has plainly stated in his narration “Dream Comes True” that Edmond Hillary had taken the first step atop Mount Everest. Hillary also took photographs of Tenzing standing on the top. Some people suggest that since Tenzing had never used a camera, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded. Hillary claims that “I just forgot.” However, this does not seem to be true. Tenzing says in his autobiography 'Man of Everest', that when he offered to take Hillary's photograph, Hillary just declined. He writes, "I motioned to Hillary that I would now take his picture. But for some reason he shook his head; he did not want it"

All these facts are in black and print for several decades and well known. I find it therefore rather strange that after so many years, British author Mick Conefrey has come out with this finding in his book, that is already well known to the world that Hillary stepped first on Everest. Conefrey tries to give a twist of conspiracy to this fact. He says that British Ambassador to Nepal Christopher Summerhayes, and John Hunt, leader of the expedition, fudged and covered up this fact to to defuse an anti-colonial backlash in India and Nepal. According to him some record in the archives of the Royal Geographical Society includes the original account of the achievement by Hillary, where in he has said that "(I) stepped on top of Everest... I quickly brought up Tensing (sic) beside me".

Perhaps Mick Conefrey might not be in the knowing of few facts. India was already an Independent nation in 1953 and the Expedition was a British expedition. Hillary was actually a New Zealand mountaineer. Tenzing was an Indian national at time of the expedition and not a Nepalese national, though he was born in Nepal. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to understand where from Conefrey has discovered his far fetched theory of anti-colonial backlash.

On the contrary, I feel that Conefrey's hypothesis is very unfair to Edmond Hillary, who comes out as a noblest and a generous soul from Tenzing's account, from where it also becomes clear that Hillary was keen, that all glory is jointly shared by the pair. He did not even allow Tenzing to take his photograph on the summit. Besides this. a mountaineering expedition on a peak like Everest is always a joint effort of the full team. It makes no difference, who steps on the summit first. It is the victory for the full team. I do not find Conefrey's attempts to colour the expedition with conspiracy theory, very appealing at all. 

(Facts and figures sourced from Wikipedia) 

18 September 2012

p.s.

After I wrote this post, I received an e-mail by the author of this book Mick Conefrey on 12 Dec. 2012, which says;

Read the book it should be out in India via Penguin next year, or read my latest blog: mickconefrey.co.uk/blog/entry/tenzing-on-the-summit-of-everest …

I wrote back to Mick on 13 Dec.2012 saying;

Thanks Mick for responding to my blog post. Obviously, I have not read the book as it is not released in India. My post is based on the reports and excerpts from your book, available on net. These give an impression that you have been trying to to say that the fact that Hillary stepped on the summit first, was purposefully hidden. However, when Tenzing  himself accepts it in his book, where is the controversy? 

I do not think that anyone in India doubts, what Tenzing said in his book and therefore there is hardly any need for a debate on this. What British press or media did, hardly concerns us here in India. For us, both Tenzing and Hillary were great heroes.

Mick has replied to this on 6th Jan 2012 and he says;

Just found this. 

Sure it is not an issue any more but mine is a historical book which looks in detail at how the expedition was covered in the media, so I tried to get to the bottom of it (or as close as I could). 

Cheers, 

Mick