THAWANG-JALJALA WAR STUDY TOUR

 

Rolpa: Rolpa is a "hill" district some 280 km west of Kathmandu in Rapti Zone of Nepal's Mid-Western Region. Rolpa covers an area of 1,879 km² with population (2001) of 210,004. Livang is the district's administrative center. By Nepalese standards, Rolpa is an underdeveloped area plagued by low life expectancy (52 years) and poverty (averaging below $100 per capita). It was a major flashpoint in the 1996-2006 Civil War.
Adjoining districts are Dang to the south, Pyuthan to the east, Salyan to the west and Rukum to the north. Before the unification of Nepal by Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1769 Rolpa was a buffer between the Chaubisi confederation of small kingdoms to the east and the Baise confederation to the west.
Most of Rolpa is rugged highlands populated by the indigenous Kham Magar nationality. The highlands are drained southward by the Mardi Khola (stream) from a complex of 3,000 to 4,000 meter ridges about 50 kilometers south of the Dhaulagiri Himalaya. This mountainous barrier historically isolated Rolpa by encouraging travelers between India and Tibet to detour to follow easier routes to the east or west, while east-west travelers found easier routes to the north or south. Irrigated ricefields along the Mardi Khola are of limited extent because it has a narrow inner gorge. Those that exist are monopolized by Pahari Hindus and Newars, leaving the indigenous Kham with upland fields unsuited to rice cultivation. Upland harvests of maize, millet and barley are invariably insufficient and so Rolpa has chronic food deficits.
Food deficits have driven upland Kham into growing market crops better suited to the terrain than grain, although marketing fruit and vegetables beyond adjacent districts was hampered by lack of roads. Kham also make ends meet by selling their labor. They work as agricultural laborers in other districts, as porters, as soldiers and as general laborers, but their input is devalued by Rolpa's underdeveloped education infrastructure. There is no post-secondary education in the district, and students who speak more Khamkura than Nepali are disadvantaged in primary and secondary education because Nepali is the medium of instruction and the national examination system selects against students who are not proficient in it. Without educational credentials Kham lack access to the more desirable jobs.

The various grievances of Rolpa's population made the district ripe for revolt. It became a "Maoist Stronghold" of the Communist Party of Nepal. In May 2002 a major battle between Maoist guerillas and the army was fought at Lisne Lekh near the Rolpa-Pyuthan border.

Preface
Nepal is known the best destination and the best place of visit amongst the many countries. It`s because of the highest peak Mt. Everest, famous lakes, natural scenic attraction, famous religious places like birth place of lord Buddha lumbini, extinction listed animals and birds, ethnical and cultural diversities, thousand of tourist visit Nepal every years and it has significant importance in Nepalese economy to earn and advertisement . They are in shadow. After the peaceful political solution of ten years long civil wars, the tourism industry in Nepal is expanding. The hotels of major cities and the tickets of airlines are already booked and it proves the tourist are increasing in numbers. In this sense, it has become necessary to develop and expand of new travel destination with change in traditional travel policy. Encouragement for political and research travel and tours may be the next travel field in Nepalese context. It may be increase internal and external tourists.

Thawang
Not long ago, Thawang was home to another kind of clash. A civil war precipitated in the village and drowned the entire region in an overflow of change. The traffic in this hinterland rose manifold, minds traversed and collided, and the hills rumbled this time with the movement of armies and counter-armies. In a strange, inverse manner, Thawang experienced a rare centrality for perhaps the first time in its history. The village was well-nigh deserted, yet all eyes were on it. Over and over it was besieged, burned and rescued.

Now that the war is over, things are not as they used to be, but Thawang has regained some normalcy. Except, for a place like Thawang, normalcy is a quick descent  to oblivion and inconsequence, and the villagers are back to dealing with their seasonal  calamities of bad roads and bad crops. Against  the cruelties of routine existence, Thawangis continue to find meaning in the memories of the war, in the period when their efforts—conflictive and sacrificial as they may have been—were vital to the shaping of this country’s future. Evening conversations can as easily slide into wretched accounts of injury and injustice as into jaunty enumerations of war heroics.

The twofold necessity of getting along with the ordinary flow of life while resisting the normalisation of an extraordinary contribution to history is a salient feature of Thawang today. Even during the war, our rebels recognised this paradox and named the main village of Thawang a “model village”—a privileged status, an accordance of uniqueness, an exceptional enactment of commonplace development that had nonetheless eluded the Thawangis. A school was built with an alternative curriculum. A health post, a room called the library and a number of communes were set up. The ground zero of Thawang, the site of a shocking conflagration caused by the belligerent state army, was razed for the creation of a volleyball court. Once the war ended, the republican leaders made a reconciliatory gesture by bringing these endeavours under the sway of the government. The dirt lanes were laid with stone, homes rebuilt, latrines and taps erected.

This gives Thawang a brand new character that is both eerie and remarkable in equal measures. Eerie, because behind the new, the scorch marks of the old are still visible. The lanes, the squares, the schools, and everything else is a haunting reminder of the dead and the gone, of the dignity of the 200 or so martyrs Thawang sacrificed to the war. On the other hand, it is remarkable simply because it is new. That haplessly unoriginal face of poverty omnipresent in Nepali villages acquires a rooted, confident and self-reliant sheen. With the squires and the browbeaters of the erstwhile era out of the scene, it is difficult not to be impressed by the egalitarianism that flourishes on the lands and spaces that have opened up in their absence.

It used to be that the Kham-speaking Magars of this area appeared in our history lessons only once, as one of the defeated in the victory march of the Shah dynasty, relegated to this highland away from the political logic emanating from Kathmandu. The remoteness of this place had preserved their language, tradition and identity. Now it feels as if the Thawangis have surmounted the traps of their particular culture, discovered the inadequacies of their own identity and launched a critique with a truly universal dimension. Their war, they will tell you, had the weight of not only their own past oppression but also of others in our nation. Some villagers will speak with a kind of prescience, from a place in the distant future, from where they can see themselves in the current moment as the true agents and inheritors of our history.

One is likely to find in Thawang a handful of inspired travellers who have come there to actualise disapprovals of their own scattered pasts.. Beyond the usual routes of Nepal, Thawang is still a site where an alternative version of this country is possible to be imagined and reified. This is the side of Nepal that is often shunned by those who know not how to share a country with such imaginers. Trek to this hamlet, you will be congratulated for your hard work, you will be sympathised with for your agony. Perhaps a window will open up for reconciliation. 

Jaljala
Jaljala lies in western part of Nepal; The Jaljala specifically located in Thabang Village Development Committee of the Rolpa district. The Rolpa district is known as one of the main epicenter of the Maoist revolution of Nepal. The Jaljala itself a historic place in Nepalese context. This is one of the newly opened trekking areas in Nepal since October 2009. The presence area is away from the development and possibly we could see unspoiled nature, culture and tradition. The another attraction of Jaljala is we could see trans Himalayan views of Mt. Sisne, Mt. Putha, Mt. Dhaulagiri, Mt. Annapurna and many other mountains. Mainly Magar ethnic group of people live in this region, one of the indigenous people of Nepal. We could have wonderful experience by visiting their way of life style and culture.

Possibility and Challenge
Thawang and Jalajal in Rolpa had potential travel distain from different angelskin coming days political tourism maybe the one alternate beside mountaineering and travel around hilly reason. The worlds attention is centered in peace process of Nepal they have taken great concern about logical political re-solution of this peace process.Foregin tourist increasing because Nepal has proven its own capability t0o solve internal conflict, the world is looking this "new practice" with doubt, in eagerness,illusion,to find also its answer foreigners are visiting Nepal, according to the latest edition refereed by associate France press (AFP),American and European prefer Nepal, in first priority to visit to then other destination around world. If government and interested institutions jointly try to do publicity, it maybe the {"model village "which is emarginated by Nepal government. It is already informed that Nepal has cultural ,natural,biological,ethnical,religious diversity.Amongest this Rolpa district is one having all these features this is the where the government has declared thawing of Rolpa as model village and also it has significant role in Nepalese politics is the flashpoint of ten years civil war. Only the declaration is not enough to make model village. For this there should be enough prepation.Well preparation and the conservation of diversity may succeed this target otherwise it may remain only the model village. Near the thawing there is a next palace jaljala and it is call capital of national flower rhododendron. Varies type of redfoderondron are there. With the co-ordination of Nepal government jalajala festival 2065 it became only the festival. It couldn't remain for the long term as it should be. Because of geographical difficulty lack of publicity, jaljala is in shadow. So that, it is necessary to conduct research study for educational,social,ecinimical,political and tourism development of Rolpa.

ITINERARY

Day 01

Kathmandu to Bhairahawa by bus. It will take 8 hours. Stay at Bharaihawa

Day 02

Travel to lumbini 30 mint. And travel around lumbini. Same day travel for Ghorahi of Dang.It will take 7 hours by bus. Stay at lodge.

Day 03

Travel for Sworgadwari from Ghorahi of Dang.It will take 5 hours. Travel around Sworgadwri.In evening travel for Holery of Rolpa and stay there at hotel.

Day 04

Holeri up to Tila by bus 3 hours.Tila to Gharti Gaun by foot 4 hour. Stay at Gharti Gaun in public houses.

Day 05

Gharti Gaun to Sisne by foot 4 hours. Stay at Sisne in public house.

Day 06

Sisne to Kureli by foot 5 hours. Stay at Kureli.

Day 07

Kureli to Thawang 5 hours stay at Thawang.

Day 08

Rest in Thawang and collect from there.

Day 09 Thawang to Jaljala by foot 3 hours. Collect of data of Jaljala with public interaction and audio visual document. Jaljala to Jalwang 3 houirs.Stay at public house in Jailwang.
Day 10 Jailwang to Sulichaur by foot 5 hours. Move to Liwang by bus 2 hours. Stay at hotels.
Day 11 Stay in Liwang for whole day.
Day 12 Move for Palpa by bus 8 hours. Stay at Palpa in hotel.
Day 13 Visit Palpa till noon and at 1 pm move for Pokhara by bus.
Day 14 Visit Pokhara till 2 pm and move for Kathmandu.
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