WHERE IS THE LIVER?

All these days I have been wondering how I have been spending my time and how productive has my routine become. I had made plan to make this vacation fruitful either helping in home with daily chores or satisfying my own inner wishes of digging through information or visiting different place of my district which obviously I have failed. The reckless tour of so called national tourist and the growing insensitiveness of foreigners visiting mustang along with this October season   kept me away from the feeling of vacation that I dreamed of. It just takes 24 hours from the capital to reach my home and everything has changed so rapidly within these past three years. The Lowas( People of upper mustang )   have got the facility of road transportation and 24 hour electricity facility, which could be seen as a horror or may be a myth to these same villagers 60 or 70 years back like the feeling of sky falling down when first helicopter landed here. These days some people don’t use water mill, ox or Dzo for ploughing, Chulo to cook food and horses or other animal for transportation. The sad part is people have started to quit animal raring and farming too. The wind of change has caught mustang quicker and in a reckless way than any other district of Himalayan region. Many creative tools made and used by our ancestors are rarely seen in use.

The day I was here in my home with my family, I just caught the path of future of mustang that many people here are letting it go on its own even though this land is filled many elites from Bistas to the landlords. It’s saddening to see this place being destroyed and it’s more saddening when foreigners and their guides talk about sad pictures of future mustang. Some sees the growing influence of china while others a seed of development of nation but I only see the end of culture, customs, tradition, way of life and mustang that I want to see. Brain drain, lack of awareness, artificial dignity of city life and attainment of formal education in places far from their own mother land has contributed to today’s picture of Mustang. I seldom see or hear some effort being made or contributed from people around the globe and these do please me but I bet it would be sufficient to tackle the growing destruction and the crisis. One fine day, I happen to move from my place to another village (Charang) for a work with some foreigner (Chinese) who were in the same jeep. I was happy that I didn’t have to pay a penny for my ride for they had reserved the jeep but I still had the sense of awareness that I’m with Chinese who tore Tibet apart. I had that generous hatred along with respect for they had let me in. It was obvious that I didn’t understand a word of their communication neither did I cared. They stopped for lunch in Ghami and I just took tour of the village. It was awesome feeling to visit the palace of GHAMI but the ruins still puts me into deep thoughts. One hour later, we left for Charang and the guide began explain about the history of mustang in English. One of them knew English and translated it into Chinese for other two. Dhakmar was in our stone’s throw and the guide began interpreting the words DAK and MAR. I paid attention to his explanation and I also knew that he was wrong for some of his information on history of mustang. Now, we were near long mane and guide began,” This is the intestine of demon which guru Padmasambava killed. It’s the longest mane wall of Nepal ….and you see that red cliff. That’s the blood of demon ….and you see that Chorten over there …its believed that the demon’s heart and lungs are under that…..hmm ….ya…ya…guru Padmasambhava…guru Rinpoche..”. The Chinese who knew English began translating and there was a laughter among them. I was curious about the cause of that laughter and the fat Chinese guy turned to his translator and questioned, “WHERE IS THE LIVER?!”