Gurung girls in a welcome ceremony, Sirubari Village

In the hills around Pokhara on the slopes of the Annapurnas are many picturesque villages. The majority of the people living between 5,000 and 7,000 feet are Gurungs. Their main villages include Siklis, Tanting, Ghandruk, Landrung, Armala, Kaski, Dhamphus, Ghachok, Chomrong, Barpak and Lamjung. Sometimes there are mostly women, children and old people in these villages as the young men have left to join the army. Now many of the young men go to work in the factories or hotels of Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Brunei, Arabia, Thailand or Malaysia.

When the Annapurnas became a popular trekking destination and people began to realize the measures would have to be taken to protect the magnificent environment in this area, the Gurungs became the center of the conservation movement. The office of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project was first located at Ghandruk two days’ walk from Pokhara. Later projects were centered in Siklis and Chomrong.

The Gurungs have their own language and have kept most of their traditional customs in spite of long periods of service away from Nepal in the British or Indian armies. Their houses are generally oblong and built of stone with thatched or slate roofs and stone threshing floors in front, where they store their maize on bamboo poles. The people are generally good looking, hard working, brave and honest. Trails to the villages are often paved with large flat stones and include steps that go up a thousand feet or more. Building these trails takes a lot of hard work and it takes a great deal of energy and lung power to get to the villages. This effort keeps the local people extremely fit, as they farm on the terraced slopes and make trips to Pokhara to get provisions.

In the early days they bought cloth goods, kitchen equipment, salt and farm tools. Later as the Gurungs could afford more, they began to buy kerosene, lamps, flashlights, batteries, and sugar. They even brought heavy items such as corrugated iron for roofs, glass for windows and bathroom equipment to their villages. Many also buy radios, tape recorders, cameras and if electricity is available, TV sets up the steep trails. They earn cash, they export woolen blankets, bamboo mats, ghee (clarified butter) from their water buffaloes and sometimes sheep, goats and black working oxen.

The traditional costume for the women is a maroon velvet blouse and a large cloth which is fastened over one shoulder. A wrap around skirt, and evidence of wealth in the form of valuable jewelry of coral, turquoise, amber, gold and silver plus many yards of narrower cloth wrapped around the waist, complete the picture. Money, keys and various useful items, even eggs, may be wrapped into the waist cloth, so a slender waist is hidden under the clothing. A cotton cloth is usually tied around the head. Shoes have become common now, but in the early days most went barefoot and those who had shoes carried them so they would not get worn out on the trail, and just put them on when they arrived in Pokhara.

Gurung women in a traditional costume celebrating

Men and boys wear a white wrap-around skirt held on by a money belt. A shirt and Nepali cap are sufficient in warm weather. A cloth woven from nettle fibers crossed over the shoulders and tied, makes it possible to carry things in the resulting large pouches on each side. Every man and boy needs a felted rain cape made of goat wool to keep himself dry in the monsoon rains and warm in the winter. This cape is like an envelope sewed on two sides which can be hung over the head in the rain and lets the arms be free. More and more men are wearing western style jackets and trousers and girls may wear a full skirt and carry a shoulder bag instead of wrapping yards of cloth around their waists.

The men who joined the army used to retire after 15-20 years of service and continue their old traditional ways in the village, without running water or sanitation. Those within the influence of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project now make a special effort to get running water and latrines in their villages.

Now that communication and prospects in Pokhara have improved, it is possible to save enough money to build a house there and also invest in a business if one serves with the Gurkhas. Because of their contacts with the western world while serving in the army , Gurungs have become aware of the value of education and learning English. Most send their daughters as well as their sons to school. Many now have built new modern houses in Pokhara to take advantage of the English medium schools for the children.

When the Rana Prime Minister, Jang Bahadur, offered the services of Gurkha soldiers to Queen Victoria’s government, he could not have realized how important this source of income and contact with the outer world would become to the hill people of Nepal. The name Gurkha originally referred to the soldiers of Prithwi Narayan Shah’s army, which united the small kingdoms of Nepal. They came from the hill kingdom of Gorkha (Gurkha). Later, the British began to call all Nepalis Gurkhas and even the Nepali language was known as Gorkhali. Today Gurkha refers to professional soldiers from Nepal regardless of ethnic backgrounds who serve in the British or Indian armies.

Gurkha fought bravely in both world wars, and many lost their lives for causes not their own. With the independence of India the Gurkha regiments were divided and some became fighting unites for India. The British Gurkhas were for some years based in Malaya and later in Hong Kong from where they served in England, Brunei and the Falkland Islands. Many thousands have served but in 1997, when Hong Kong ceases to be a colony, the British Gurkhas will be reduced to some 2500 based mainly in England.

British Gurkha Soldiers

The Indian army has helped with the welfare of their exservicemen and their dependents living in Nepal in many ways. Such projects include The Soldier’s Board High School in Pokhara, as well as the original hospital in Pokhara which has since been expanded by the Nepal Government and is now the regional hospital. The British have also helped look after the welfare of those who have served them so well.

Since those who have served in the British Gurkhas are still quite young when they retire from the service, it has been necessary to retrain them for civilian life and help those who were incapacitated in the military to make a living. Lumle Agricultural Center, just north of Pokhara, for many years helped the Gurkhas to get back into farming with the best seeds and animal breeds.

Traditional gurung kitchen, no chimney so smoke preserves meat and timbers but harms the eyes

In 1968 the philanthropic Kadoorie family of Hong Kong agreed to allow Gurkhas to attend agricultural courses while still serving in Hong Kong. Over 6,000 Gurkhas have benefited from courses at the Kadoorie farm in Hong Kong and more receive added benefits from the help given by the Kadoories in Nepal. The Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA), which was founded to help destitute refugees in Hong Kong in 1951 has assisted those in need all over the world. After 1983 Lt. Col. Langlands, well known in Pokhara for his work in Lumle, became a full time representative for channeling KAAA projects to British Gurkhas in Nepal. Their policy has been to help those who are prepared to help themselves. The projects include about twelve bridges and twenty water systems a year, plus irrigation channels , schools and dispensaries. There have been many other organizations providing aid for similar things in the Annapurna Region but the amount provided by the Kadoorie brothers to the Gurkhas is exceptional. By 1994 over 7,000,000 pounds had been donated to help their communities.

Cooking rice for house warming                                                                         Barley Harvest

In the spring of 1967, when we all thought I was leaving Nepal for good, I was given a Gurung Costume as a parting gift. Before an assembled faculty and student body, I told them in my imperfect Nepali that I was now a Gurung, little realizing at that time how often I would return and how close my ties would grow with my Nepali family and friends, especially the Gurungs.

My closer experience with the Gurungs began with Chandra Prasad Gurung, my former Geography student and later College Librarian and his sister Laxmi, who started living at my house on the P.N Campus in the fall of 1973. The next year, at the end of my third term with the Peace Corps, I took Chandra to the United States, where he spent six months studying at Colorado College and traveling around the United States. He then spent another six months traveling overland back to Nepal via Europe and the Middle East. When Chandra returned to Pokhara in May of 1975, he moved in with my neighbor Shayam, then College Librarian. When I went with Chandra and Laxmi for visit to their village of Siklis, his family and all the inhabitants welcomed me as his godmother. In that way Chandra became my son, and heir. Among the Gurungs, women lacking children often adopt a son from a family that has several boys, as it is not considered good to be without a son.

Siklis villagers come to shotput contest

On Christmas of that same year, I gained a daughter too, because Laxmi told me she had decided to give herself to me. “I will never marry, but will devote my life to taking care of you”, she said.

I was amazed and assured her that she didn’t need to avoid marriage. Then I thought about what I would do if she were truly my daughter. She had been having trouble with her hearing, so I took her to an ear specialist. He found that she had an 80% hearing loss due to ruptured eardrums from childhood infections. It would be possible to restore, or at least improve her hearing, if she could have operations to give her new eardrums. My old neighbors, Mik and John, now back in England, volunteered to see that she got the operations in England, if I would get her there. In the summer of 1976, I took Laxmi to England, where we were met by Mik and John.

They persuaded the British socialized medicine authorities that Laxmi represented the Gurungs, who had been fighting as British Gurkhas and thus she deserved this treatment. It took a year and about five operations, but Laxmi regained perfect hearing in one ear. She was able to stay with a missionary family in London at the time of her operations. Between operations, she stayed with Sandra, a British volunteer who had lived with me in Pokhara, and took classes in English with other foreign students. When she returned to Nepal, she was able to speak excellent English.

Laxmi had been inspired by her experience in England to become a nurse or “barefoot doctor” so she could do something for her village. The barefoot doctor program was for those who had only a little education in high school and Laxmi had already completed a year of college work, so she was advised to take nurses’ training instead.

She and a good friend decided to start training together but they were separated and placed in different hospitals. Laxmi was assigned to the Government Hospital where classes were in Nepali, while her friend was placed in the hospital established by the missionaries where instructions was in English. Chandra and I tried in vain to get the two girls in the same hospital, where they could study and be together. Laxmi’s friend soon dropped out because she had trouble understanding English. Laxmi stuck with her studies and in her second year was assigned to work on the floor because the Government Hospital was short of trained nurses. Shortly after that she complained of a cough and of not being able to gain weight. She was told that she just had a cold. Chandra was concerned and asked the US Embassy doctor to examine her. He found that she had tuberculosis. They immediately admitted her to the Mission Hospital but she died of hemorrhage within two weeks of being diagnosed.

Totraman & his sister Laxmi celebrating brother's day / Dr. Chandra and his parents in Siklis

Sadly, Chandra was in Bangkok studying at the Asian Institute of Technology by then, and I had returned to Colorado before the seriousness of her condition became known. Her nephew Hitman had already been accepted by the British Gurkhas, and was in Hong Kong. Only her brother, Totraman, was there to care for her and arrange her cremation. She died before I could answer her sad letter to me telling of her illness.

After a number of years with the Gurkhas, Hitman by now known as my grandson, saved enough to build a house in Pokhara. He had lived with me while attending high school and now, when I returned to Nepal, he invited me to live in his house. I had stayed away two years after Laxmi died, and the college had assigned a faculty family to live in my house. When they are not busy with farm work in their village, Hitman’s parents move down to stay with me in his house. His six brothers and sisters have all lived there with me for various lengths of time, and the four younger ones now attend English medium schools within walking distance.

As a result of my “adoption“ of Chandra and Laxmi, I have become a member of a Gurung family, and as the years have passed and my stays in Nepal have became more prolonged, my family has grown. I have become a mother and grand mother in the most painless and satisfying way possible.

Article by Late Dorothy Mierow (Non Fiction)

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