Government is set to celebrate the third International Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) Day on May 29 with various programmes. The celebration is scheduled for two days — on May 28 and May 29. “We are hopeful that the celebration of Mt Everest Day will definitely help encourage Everest summiteers and promote Nepal Tourism Year 2011,” said Ranjan Krishna Aryal, secretary at Ministry of Tou-rism and Civil Aviation.

“The celebration is scheduled for May 28 and 29,” Aryal said adding that during the celebration Everest Summiteers from around the world will be invited for the Everest Summiteers Seminar that the ministry has planned. The ministry has also formed a special committee for the celebration of Sagarmatha Day that will be headed by minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Sarat Singh Bhandari.

According to Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) it has expected more than 250 Mt Everest summiteers — including renowned climbers like Chris Bonington, Peter Habelar, Apa Sherpa, Min Bahadur Serchan, Dawa Steven Sherpa, Bill Burke, David Liano to attend the programme.

The NMA has also requested the government to regard the summiteers as the Goodwill Ambassadors of Nepal to promote Nepal’s mountain tourism. Nepal has opened a total of 326 peaks for climbing. The higher 293 peaks are managed by Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation while the lower 33 peaks are managed by Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).

This Spring Season, MoTCA has already issued permits to 80 Expedition Teams for climbing various higher peaks including Mt Everest and still few more teams are in the pipeline. Similarly, NMA has already issued permits to 358 climbing teams to scale 33 Peaks of NMA and many more teams are expected to arrive before the monsoon in June. In the year 2009, NMA had issued permit to 1210 climbing teams.

Mount Everest — also called Qomolangma Peak, Mount Sagarmatha, Chajamlangma (Limbu), Zhumulangma Peak or Mount Chomolangma — is the highest mountain in the world and the highest point on the earth’s continental crust, as measured by the height above sea level of its summit, 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is a part of the Himalaya range in Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China. The highest mountain in the world attracts well-experienced mountaineers as well as novice climbers who are willing to pay substantial fees to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. By the end of 2008, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals. Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal.

This year too, we have organised a NIBL Heritage Marathon 2010, raising over Rs 7 million for the renovation of Bhai Deval Temple and Aryaghat at Pashupatinath.

What is more remarkable about this project is that while urbanites are playing blind to the mounting heaps of garbage in front of our eyes, the Sherpas have taken an initiative to clean their backyard.

Given the context that we rank among the most polluted cities, the project is laudable and exemplary and needs a global recognition. NIBL is very proud to be a partner in this noble cause sponsored by Investment Bank Limited and supported by Hulas Steel Industries Limited, Nepal Mountain Association, Surya Nepal, The Himalayan Times, Hotel Association Nepal, Everest Insurance, among others.

Various programmes are being organized to mark the beginning of the most famous and widely used New Year day among various calendars used in the country.

On the occasion, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Vice President Paramananda Jha, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Ministers, and senior leaders of the political parties have wished for happiness, peace, prosperity, and progress of all the citizens.

Extending his best wishes to the people, President underlined the need to defeat the challenges facing the nation in order to draft the new constitution within the stipulated time.

He said unity and reconciliation is the only and unimpeachable way to resolve the problems.

In his new year message, Prime Minister called on every citizens to lend their support in taking the country to its scheduled destination.

“On the occasion, I would like to wish that the New Year brings happiness, prosperity, and brighter possibilities in our lives,” said PM Nepal in his message to the Nepali people.

Noting that the only one-and-half month is left to conclude the statute-drafting and the peace process, the prime minister pointed out the need for unity and a great sense of responsibility to accomplish the tasks confronting us.

Also today, Mothers’ Day is also being marked across the country today.

On this day, people revere their mother by offering various gifts and sweets.

The nine-day festival of Bisket Jatra, coinciding with the Nepali New year, began in Bhaktapur today. Two chariots are pulled during the festival of new year celebration that falls on April 14.

A 25 meter pole is put up and set into the stone yoni at Khalna Tole, one of the squares in Bhaktapur.

The festival has been immensely popular since the Lichhavi period. According to the legend, a man who married a princess died of snake bite in Bhaktapur.

Nobody dared to marry her for the fear of bad omen. However, one day, a merchant arrived in the village and tied the knot with the princess. But contrary to what was perceived, nothing happened to him, nor to his wife and both lived a happy life. The festival is celebrated to remember the defeat of demon.

Bisket Jatra is one of the most colourful celebrations in Bhaktapur.

]]> http://waytonepal.com/nepal/bisket-jatra/feed/ 0 http://waytonepal.com/nepal/youngest-person-to-summit-mt-everest/ http://waytonepal.com/nepal/youngest-person-to-summit-mt-everest/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:20:48 +0000 admin http://waytonepal.com/?p=1526 Thirteen-year-old Jordan Romero is climbing Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, not only for himself but to inspire more young people to get outdoors.

“Obese children are the future of America the way things are going,” he tells CNN in Kathmandu Friday as he prepared to leave for the mountain on Sunday.

“I am hoping to change that by doing what I do — climbing and motivational speaking. I want to motivate children and inspire them to get outdoors.”

If he is successful, Jordan will be the youngest person to get to the top of Everest’s summit, 29,028 feet above sea level.

With a smile he is quick to add, “I am doing this a little for myself too, to do something big.”

Shangri-La Groups operates Hotel Shangri-La in Kathmandu and Shangri-La Village Resort in Pokhara.

Prasiddha Bahadur Pandey, managing director of Hotel Shangri-La, said Star Management will take over the management of the hotel once the construction completes in 2012.

The construction of the yet-to-be-named hotel is going on in full swing at Linzhi in Tibet. The hotel is being constructed by Tibetan Tourism Corporation Limited (TTCL). Shangri-La Group had signed an agreement to manage the hotel in 2009. Shangri-La Group is the first Nepali company that has entered into an agreement to manage a five star hotel outside the country.

Talking with myrepublica.com, Pandey, who is also the president of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), said they have now reached to a level of competing with international hotel chains.

Shangri-La is expanding its horizons out of national boundary at a time when other Nepali companies are warming up to celebrate year-long tourism promotional campaign – Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011.

“It is not that we are not preparing for NTY 2011. We will continue our preparation for the campaign even though we have already completed our internal expansion works,” Raju Shah, senior general manager of the hotel, told myrepublica.com.

But managing a hotel in the world´s third largest economy will not be a cakewalk for the group. They need to work very hard to upgrade their service quality. Shah said the group has already started preparation in that direction. “We will focus on trainings and producing quality manpower in a massive way,” Shah added.

The hotel is being constructed at an estimated cost of $10 to $12 million. The TTCL is also preparing to construct a deluxe resort with around 300 rooms.

Not only the project at Linzhi, Shah said other operational five star and small hotels in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, have also approached Star Management for management contract.

“We are keenly studying the performance of these hotels,” Shah, who is expected to look after the management of the hotel in Linzhi on behalf of the Star Management Pvt Ltd, told myrepublica.com.

He said the group was getting offers from across the border because of the sound management and quality service. “We were searching for new opportunities even during the period of conflict when the overall tourism business in the country was down,” he added.

Pandey said they were preparing to hire Nepali professionals in the top management in the hotel. “We might hire lower level employees locally. But I can assure you that Nepali professionals will man top managerial positions,” Pandey said. He further added that the industry should take inspiration from Shangri-La´s business expansion in the northern neighbor.

Nepal suffers a massive trade deficit with China. But the deficit can be reduced through such business to business interactions. Nepal had suffered trade deficit of Rs 30 billion with China in 2008/09, according to the Finance Ministry.

Source: myrepublica.com

With a team comprising of eleven people, Shah is attempting to climb Mt Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, for what he call his “mission for world peace”.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav handed over the national flag of Nepal to Shah for his Everest expedition at Shital Niwas, the President’s office, amid a program today morning.

He wished Shah and his team good luck for the expedition titled “Everest Peace Expedition 2010″ and bid them farewell.

Similarly, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari also handed over the national flag of Nepal with the logo of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 to Shah and wished him success in his maiden attempt to climb Mt Everest.

Shah, who is also known as ‘world cyclist’, said he will take the flags of all 151 countries that he traveled to during the last 11 years to the top of the world and pray for lasting peace and harmony in the world.

His expedition team is expected to reach the Everest Base Camp in couple of days.

After getting a snub from Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal when he asked for government’s support for his expedition, Shah decided to sell off his belongings including his bicycle, souvenirs brought from various countries and the awards and certificates he has got to raise money for the expedition.

The arrivals from South Asian region, except for the arrivals from Sri Lanka have gained overall positive growth of 35.3% with India (35.5%), Bangladesh (53.8%) and, Pakistan (3.2%). Visitor arrivals from India, which is the largest source market for Nepal, has been increasing since the very beginning of 2010. A robust growth of 21% has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first three months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.

Visitor arrivals from China, one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal, have sustained the remarkable growth of 114%, compared to the figures in March 2009.  Similarly, other Asian countries maintained the upward trend of previous months with Japan ( 6.8%), Malaysia ( 38.4%), South Korea (68.1%). However, arrivals from Thailand and Singapore witnessed negative growths of 45.9% and 5.8% respectively In aggregate, the other Asian segment has registered a growth of 32.9%. Visitor arrivals in the first three months of 2010, as compared to the same period last year, have grown by 38.6% in aggregate.

An overall growth of 42 % has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from major generating markets such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands up by 44.9%, 5.4%, 40.8%, 44% and 128.2% respectively. Visitor arrivals from all the European markets in the first three months of 2010, as compared to the same period last year, have grown by 34.1%.

The figures also show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from the United States of America with a notable growth of 6.5%. Similarly Canada, Australia and New Zealand have also maintained positive trend with 27.2%, 27.4% and 69% of growths respectively.

This is the tenth consecutive month Nepal has witnessed growth in the international tourist arrivals and this confirms the improved prospects for Nepal in the year 2010 with rising business and consumer confidence. In the first three months of 2010 a robust 29.8 % of cumulative growth has been observed in comparison to the same period last year.

A total of 39,221 foreign tourists departed from TIA in March 2010.The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 51,243 while 68,475 Nepalese departed from TIA in March 2010.

Apa, originally from the village of Thame in Nepal and living in Draper, Utah, USA since 2006 has climbed Everest for 8 straight years since May 16,2002.

Last year, mission of his expedition was to create awareness of Climate Change. This time around, he has a three fold mission to accomplish. “I will unfold a Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY-2011) flag at the top of the mountain to spread the message across the globe for the success of the upcoming national campaign,” said Apa, at a press conference organised here by the Nepal Tourism Board and NTY-2011 secretariat.

The second mission of the expedition team was to collect and bring down seven tons of garbage from the Everest. The team has set a target to collect and bring down six tons of garbage from camp 2 under the ‘cash for trash’ programme. The remaining will be brought from above camp-2 under the ‘cleaning up Everest’ programme.

The third mission of the expedition is to place the ashes of the late Sir Edmund Hillary on Mt. Everest to commemorate his death anniversary. His ashes were kept in a monastery of Khunde village, Solukhumbu for the past two years. ‘After I die, let my ashes be scattered in the two places I love the most – the harbour in Auckland and Khumbu (the Everest region); that was Sir Edmund Hillary’s last big wish,’ said Sharad Singh Bhandari, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation in the press conference.

Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sarat Singh Bhandari handed over the NTY-2011 flag to Sherpa, while, Ang Rita Sherpa, chairman of Himalayan Trust, Nepal handed over the ashes of Late Hillary to Apa on behalf of the Himalayan Trust and Sherpa Community.

Following the success of Eco Everest Expedition 2008 and 2009, the Eco Everest Expedition 2010 team under the leadership of Apa and Dawa as climbing leaders and Nanga Dorje Sherpa as Sirdar is scheduled to leave Kathmandu on April 6 and start the expedition from April 20 from the Everest base camp.

On the same occasion, Minister Bhandari handed over an ‘International Olympic Committee Award for Sports and Environment’, to Dawa Steven Sherpa. The International Olympic Committee honoured Sherpa with this award for his contribution and efforts in the field of sports and environment.

The minister said the expedition would also proclaim to the world from the summit that Nepal was ready to celebrate 2011 as its tourism year when one million visitors are expected. It would also conduct a campaign to clean the mountain of the litter left by earlier expeditions.

The festival that began with the theme of ‘our culture our identity; prosperous Mithila our campaign’ has lively showcased various aspects of glorious story, including that of history, geography, culture, art and folk life of Mithila in one place for the first time in Nepal.

The ancient incidents such as entrance of sage Nimi during build-up of Mithila, Janak-Ashtabakra dialogue, birth of legendry Sita in the land where king Janak was cultivating have been artistically presented through idols in the festival.

On the occasion, President Dr. Yadav said Mithila is the origin of four of the six prominent philosophies, adding that this is very significant civilisation among other human civilisations.

Mithila was the centre of knowledge, art and culture in the ancient time, President Dr. Yadav said, stressing the need of collective support from all sides to promote domestic and international tourism in Janakpurdham-the centre of Mithila.

The significance of pond (Pokhari Talau) of Mithila should never be relegated, he further said, calling for efforts from all sides towards its preservation.

The Mithila culture has kept the ideal of unity intact giving due importance to co-existence even in very complicated situation, President Dr. Yadav

Minister for Federal Affairs and Culture Dr. Minendra Rijal said the Mithila has ever shown the path of sacrifice, submission and truth and all country people should internalise this message.

Mithila culture is glorious in the world, he claimed, underscoring synergetic efforts from all quarters to prosper and elevate this culture.

Chairperson of Wider Janakpur Area Development Council Digambar Roy expressed confidence that the festival would help spread significance of Mithila culture across the globe.

The festival organised by the Council would last on April 6.