{"id":7,"date":"2019-02-14T17:36:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T22:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aclawson-thesis\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2019-05-02T18:46:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T22:46:59","slug":"politics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aclawson-thesis\/politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

History, Colonization, and Development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

A Brief Political History
<\/a>Imagined Physical Boundaries
<\/a>The Internal Colonization of Nepal
<\/a>Road F042
<\/a>Stopping at the Convergence of Two Rivers
<\/a>Overlapping Boundaries<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A Brief Political History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Mustang, Nepal which exists today cannot\nbe analyzed in a vacuum. Global frictions between Mustang, Nepal, China and\nIndia, NGOs, and the globe continuously reshape the lives of people living\nthere in a constant give and take. Given its location on the northern border of\nNepal, it is important to consider both the history of Nepal as a whole, as\nwell as its interactions with Tibet and China. For the sake of clarity and\ntime, I have attempted to present only the information which is most essential\nto understanding the context of Mustang today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhism moved through Nepal towards Tibet in\nthe 8th Century by way of Guru Padmasambhava (often called Guru Rinpoche). Bon,\na folk religion with a large focus on nature and deities in the landscape, was\nalready engrained in Tibetan communities. Over time, the Buddhism brought by\nPadmasambhava merged with Tantrism from India and Bon from Tibet, creating the\ndistinct form of esoteric Buddhism that we know today as Vajrayana (or Tibetan)\nBuddhism (Crossley-Holland 1976: 51).\nAs an ethnically Tibetan group directly in the path of Padmasambhava\u2019s travels,\nthe mixture of these religions is still evident in Loba communities of Mustang\ntoday. While both Buddhist and Bon practices are still present, Buddhism,\nespecially the Sakya sect, is dominant in most of Mustang\u2019s communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a political standpoint, Mustang \u2013 the\nupper region in particular \u2013 has had a skewed relationship to Kathmandu and the\ncentral government since it joined Nepal. The region was part of the Tibetan\nkingdom Gungthang until the 1380\u2019s. After that, the Kingdom of Lo (which now\nconsists of the area known as Upper Mustang) stretched as far south as Kagbeni,\nwith the walled city of Lo Manthang as its capital (Thapa 2008: 122). While its royal family is no longer officially\nrecognized, the boundaries of Upper Mustang today follow the old borders of the\nKingdom of Lo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prithvi Narayan Shah became the first\nking of Nepal in 1768, expanding the Gorkha kingdom to encompass the area that\nis approximately the boundary of Nepal today. Previously, the region had been\ncomprised of many smaller kingdoms with their own royal lineages. Prithvi\nNarayan Shah expanded his empire by force, defeating the kingdoms\nsurrounding Gorkha in the central hills (Thapa 2008). This dynamic is apparent\nin the language dynamics of Nepal in which Nepali is the official language and\nwas the language of Gorkha originally. When the Shah rule over the new Kingdom\nof Nepal was being cemented, the Kingdom of Mustang remained untouched, seated\nnorth of the Himalayas. As one trekking guide explained to me over dinner,\nKing Prithvi Narayan Shah struck a deal with the king of Mustang, not\nwanting to invade the region. The two kings agreed that the Shahs would\nnot take over the Kingdom of Mustang by force, and in turn the Kingdom of\nMustang officially joined Nepal in 1789 (Murton: 2017). This deal remained\nintact with the two kings ruling \u201clike brothers\u201d until the end of the Nepali\nmonarchy in 2008, as the trekking guide explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shah dynasty remained until the middle of\nthe 19th<\/sup> century when it was overthrown by the Rana family, which\ninstated itself as the ruling hereditary Prime Minister. The Shahs remained\nkings, but the Prime Ministers essentially held all governing power. The Rana\ndictatorship lasted just over 100 years, from 1846 until 1951 (Gellner 1997). Many Nepalis consider\nthis the most corrupt time in their government\u2019s history. During the Shah\ndynasty the royal family of Mustang retained some authority over Lo, the\ncapital of the region, though the Nepali central government regulated revenue.\nMustang, and especially the village Kagbeni, had long held a strategic place on\nthe trade route between India and Tibet. Under the Rana dictatorship, however,\nthe communities in Mustang became increasingly impoverished and neglected by\nthe central government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1862 \u201ccontrol over the flourishing salt\ntrade along the Kali Gandaki was vested in the office of the customs collector\nin Thak,\u201d the region to the south (Thapa 2008: 122). This trend of moving power\nout of Mustang continued through 1950, when the King of Mustang lost more power\n\u201cwith the re-emergence of the Shah dynasty and the democratisation that swept\nNepal\u201d (Thapa 2008: 122). Soon after, between 1951 and 1990, the central\ngovernment became what was called the Partyless Panchayat Democracy. Elections\nwere held to place people in the National Assembly, which was meant to better\nrepresent Nepal. These changes in the central government were each accompanied\nby changing policies toward Mustang, always keeping the region to the\nperiphery.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1960s, Upper Mustang was officially closed\nto foreigners. This closure was largely due to the political tensions with\nTibet and China at the time. In 1959, the tensions between the People\u2019s\nRepublic of China and the people of Tibet boiled over, causing a rebellion and\ntightened Chinese control over the region. The Dalai Lama fled to India, and\naround 80,000 Tibetans followed close behind. Subsequent waves of people have\nsince left, moving to refugee settlements or creating a life elsewhere. Today,\nthere are members of the Tibetan diaspora living around the globe in a wide\nvariety of circumstances \u2013 including many in refugee settlements in Nepal (one\nof which is in Mustang). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a response to the Chinese control of\nTibet, a militant resistance group called the Khampas formed, with their\nactivity centered in and around Mustang. In 1960, a military base was established\nnear Jomsom, a town a few miles south of Kagbeni and the border of the\nrestricted area. Aided by the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, close to 6,000\nKhampas fought Chinese forces across the border. Members of the resistance\ngroup were even brought to Colorado for training in order to improve their\noperations in Mustang. Eventually, \u201cdesperate to appease China but unable to control\nthe Khampas, the Nepali government declared Mustang restricted, and censored\nnews of guerrilla activities\u201d (Thapa 2008: 123). The CIA eventually discontinued support for the Khampas in the early 1970s,\nwhen the United States officially recognized the People\u2019s Republic of China.\nAround the same time, the central government opened the lower region of Mustang\nto tourism, and made plans to deliver services like schools, health posts, and\nimproved infrastructure (Thapa 2008). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the height of the Khampa activity,\noutsiders were not allowed into Mustang for nearly 30 years. In the time that\nthe region was closed to outside travel, state services were hardly delivered. With the closing of the region, \u201clivelihoods based\non transborder pastoralism and trade were severely disrupted, resulting in\nthe suspension of historical exchange patterns and curtailment of\nlong-standing kinship practices between Mustang and Tibet\u201d (Murton 2017:\n538). This disruption is still felt today in the people who live in Mustang. On\nvarious occasions, the adults I met would mention that they missed being able\nto travel to Tibet as they had when they were younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1990 brought\nanother shift in the central government of Nepal. This time, the Shahs were\nback in power under a Constitutional Monarchy. In 1992, nearly 30\nyears after Mustang was closed, the restrictions on the area were lifted.\nMustang was integrated into the Annapurna Conservation Protected Area (ACAP) in\nthe name of conservation, though Upper Mustang still requires an extra permit\nand a hefty fee in addition to the regular ACAP permit (Thapa 2008: 128). At\nfirst, only 200 tourists were allowed into the region each year, and they were\nrequired to be in organized groups with recognized companies (Thapa 2008: 129).\nOver time, the number of tourists in the region has increased to more than 4000\npeople in 2014. The\nflow of tourists to the region were also impacted by the People\u2019s War, which\nbegan in 1996 and lasted until 2006. Mustang was not as involved in\nthe war as other rural regions were to the south, but the dip in tourist\nactivity between 1999 and 2006 reminds us that politics and tourism are linked\non many scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state Monarchy\nofficially ended in 2008. No longer the \u201cLast Hindu Kingdom,\u201d Nepal became a\n\u201cFederal Democratic Republic.\u201d This title is somewhat of a joke among some of\nthe Nepali people I spoke with, because it is unclear what the title actually\nmeans in the context of Nepal\u2019s past governmental experiments. One friend from\nKathmandu even asked me \u201cdo you know what that means, Abracadabra? If\nyou do, let us know because we also do not know.\u201d With Nepal\u2019s shift to a Federal Democratic Republic, the monarchy of\nMustang officially ended as well. Among Mustang\u2019s communities, however, many\npeople still recognize and respect the authority of the royal family even if\nthe central government does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Imagined Physical Boundaries<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Image
Figure 6: Sign in Eklohbhatti, the cluster of hotels south of Kagbeni, welcoming people to the Annapurna Conservation Area and setting expectations <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whenever I mentioned\nthat I was going to be living in Mustang for a month, Nepali people from other\nparts of the country reacted in one of two ways. The first way was to be\nsurprised and worried about the length of time I would be there alone, and to\ngive me a warning the Mustang is very \u201cwindy\u201d and \u201ccold.\u201d No matter how well my\nfriends in Kathmandu and Pokhara knew Mustang, they knew about the strong\nwinds. These conversations were usually punctuated with laughter, as if they\ncould not believe that I would want to go to such a place that was so far from\neverything and where the weather was unappealing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other reaction that\nsome of my acquaintances had when we talked about my trip to Mustang was a sort\nof awe-filled jealousy. Almost everyone, even those who had laughed about the\nwind, said that they would like to go to Mustang someday. Mustang is known for its\ndistinct high-altitude desert, endangered animals, and the important pilgrimage\nsite Muktinath, which sits just south of the border demarcating the restricted\nzone. Muktinath is one of a series of sites that people go to when family\nmembers die, and is primarily visited by Hindus from central and southern Nepal\nas well as from India. It considered by many a place everyone in Nepal should\ngo at some point in their life. As a result, some of my friends had been to\nMustang in order to visit Muktinath, but they did not know much else about the\nregion. Whether they had been or not, it was clear that they understood\nMustang to be a special place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This view of Mustang as\nspecial in Nepal came out in many of my conversations with people who were from\nother regions of the country. This was made especially clear to me in my first\nfew days in the country, when I was staying with two friends and their\nfamilies. Both families used much of the same rhetoric when they talked about\nMustang and how nice it was that I would be going there, always reiterating how\nwindy it was, and how every Nepali person should go there at some point in\ntheir life. The younger generations added another element to these\nconversations, saying that the landscape was beautiful and good for hiking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This perception of\nMustang also extended to Nepalis no longer living in Nepal. The Nepali waiter\nin Burlington, Vermont called Mustang a \u201cdream place,\u201d saying that it is a\nplace that everyone should go before they die. Rajan, a Nepali man now living in London, recommended that I go to\nthe Jomsom area of Nepal because it was a \u201cspecial\u201d place. What surprised me\nabout this was that he said it without my mentioning that I would be living in\nMustang for a month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both of these reactions lies the idea that Mustang is different from the rest of Nepal. Not only is it colder and windier, the people and landscape are often described as being different from everywhere else in the country. It would be a mistake, however, to think of Mustang as the only place in Nepal that is \u201cdifferent,\u201d since there is such a diversity of landscapes and people across the nation. Nepal has three distinct geographic areas (the Himalaya, the Hills, and the Terai), and over 120 ethnic groups and languages. Each valley has a distinct personality. Yet it remains true that this region north of the Himalayas has historically been set apart from the rest of the country for political reasons, accentuated by differences in culture, and in recent years the vocabulary of separation has been used to attract tourists as well. This divide has certainly made an impact on the perception of the region to outsiders, both in Nepal and abroad.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Topographic<\/a>
Figure 7: Map of Mustang, Nepal<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One factor contributing to this mental distancing of Mustang is the physical border of the area, and the permit required for foreigners. Most maps of the area represent Upper Mustang as separate from the rest of ACAP with a different color or by placing a line around the area. The map shown in Figures 5 and 7, for example, has the words \u201crestricted area boundary\u201d floating just north of Kagbeni. The extra permit needed to enter Upper Mustang in addition to the ACAP permit demarcates the area as different and somehow more special. Not only this, it applies a barrier between Mustang and the rest of Nepal, somewhere between physical and imagined. Looking at the landscape, there is no physical difference between one side of the border or the other, but a single sign marks where the line lays. This imagined physical boundary continues to reinforce the belief that Mustang is different in the minds of Nepalis and foreigners alike, even though Nepalis do not need to pay the same extra fee as foreigners to enter the area. Most Nepali citizens do not go north of Muktinath in any case, staying below the border of the restricted area. With this imagined boundary, Mustang becomes an idea and an ideal in addition to a physical reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Internal Colonization of Nepal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Map


Figure 8: “Ethnographic Map.” Harka’s Maps. Nepali Times<\/em>. Accessed March 25, 2019.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, there are 103\nofficially recognized ethnic groups and 93 officially recognized languages in\nNepal (Turin 2007). This diversity is celebrated by foreigners who applaud\nNepal for having religious tolerance and diverse communities that coexist\npeacefully. It can be seen in the new Nepali national anthem that highlights\nthe landscapes and communities present, and in many current projects that aim\nto show the diversity of Nepal while building pride in the Nepali identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernist attitudes\nobsessed with defining people as a specific caste or ethnicity have resulted in\nreligions being defined the same way ethnic groups or nations are: by building\nboundaries between them. In Nepal, this means that religious practices or\nbeliefs were designated by their relationship to Hinduism, and tied to caste\nand ethnicity. This movement to define people as different from others in Nepal\ncan be seen beginning under the Rana dictatorship as a result of internal colonialization,\nin which the Rana regime designated its own status and defined social units\n(Gellner 2005). Thus, minority groups were labeled as \u201cethnicities,\u201d while the\nmajority or ruling group continued to be normalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This labeling of\nsmaller distinct groupings in combination with acknowledgement of their\ndiffering religious practices has resulted in a gradual \u201cHinduization\u201d over\ntime (Gellner 1997). While the norm is set by the ruling class (or caste), each\nethnic group played into this Hinduization in order to make themselves be seen\nas more legitimately Nepali. As we saw above, the Loba of Mustang were pushed\nto the side by the Rana regime and the Panchayat system following it, along\nwith other groups that did not appear to be \u201cNepali\u201d enough. Out of this\nongoing process of Hinduization has come the desire for those who are\nmarginalized in some way to express themselves in a way which is both true to\ntheir tradition and acceptable in the larger Hindu nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Panchayat\nsystem of government arose in the 1950s, it promoted a strongly Hindu vision of\nwhat it means to be Nepali. Under the Hindu state, Buddhism, Christianity,\nIslam, and folk religions were each seen as branches of Hinduism. In this\nhierarchy, they were thus accepted as lesser forms of the dominating belief system\n(Gellner 2005). As a result, the 20% of the population that does not identify\nas Hindu \u2013 whether they are Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise \u2013 had to\nshift their own outward identities in order to better fit with the national\nvision. For example, the Loba were seen as not legitimately \u201cNepali,\u201d and did\nnot fit into the Hindu caste system (along with many other groups in the\nmountains). In order to increase their authority, many started using names of\nother ethnic groups which were considered more legitimate, such as Gurung. The\nroyal family of Mustang took the name Bista, which is associated with\nhigh-caste Hindu groups to the south. While the obvious marker of difference\nhere is that the mountain communities are primarily Buddhist, ethnicity stands\nin for religion in this context; because religion and ethnicity have come to be\nclosely linked in Nepal, taking a name of a Hindu ethnic group means taking a\nmore Hindu name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the end of the\nmonarchy, Nepal is no longer a Hindu Kingdom. Under a secular government\nHinduism is still the preferred religion, and people who assimilate with\nHinduism more are seen as more desirable. The Hindu state and unified Nepali\nidentity promoted first by the Ranas and later by the Panchayat system of\ngovernment led to an internal colonization of the castes otherwise ignored by\nthe central government. As Manjushree Thapa observed in her travels to Mustang,\nthe Loba \u201chad discovered that identifying themselves as members of a\nlegitimately Nepali ethnic group facilitated dealings with the government\u201d\n(Thapa 2008: 64). With a name like Gurung or Bista, Loba people gained\nvisibility in the Nepali system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This internal\ncolonization is important in the discourse surrounding Mustang because it is an\nexpression of the separation of Mustang from the rest of Nepal. For example,\npeople who aren\u2019t from Mustang consistently bring up how different it is, but\nLoba who live there almost never mention how Mustang has been separated, with\nthe exception of their connection to their Tibetan heritage. People who have\nnever been to Mustang know very little about the people who live there, and\nmostly know the region for the temple of Muktinath. In her travelogue of\nMustang, Journalist Manjushree Thapa said that the region held little of what\nshe considered \u2018Nepali.\u2019 For her, this vision of Nepal “was exemplified\u2026\nby the hillside villages and lush terraced fields of the Himalayan area\u2026 the\npeople I saw [in Mustang] were just as far removed from mainstream Nepal as I\nwas\u201d (Thapa 2008: 25). Her final comment alludes to her upbringing, as Thapa is\nNepali by birth, but grew up largely in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Road F042<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Image
Figure 9: Jeep parked on top of the hill directly north of Kagbeni <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When traveling through Mustang, it is impossible to ignore the impacts of the road that runs along the Kali Gandaki. The dirt road winds along the walls of the gorge, occasionally passing back and forth through the river itself. Construction crews work by day to make the existing road wider and to build new bridges across the river. Man-made rock walls diverge the river in places where the road dips low to help protect it from erosion when the path of the river shifts. The sounds of large machinery carries through the gorge, reaching the ears of nearby towns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the road has now been in place for over 10 years, it is still closed for months of the year due to water levels in Upper Mustang. Landslides are common in the spring and summer, and even when the road is open, there can be hours of delays due to construction and improvements. When I took the bus from Jomsom to Pokhara in early July, for instance, we were stopped for hours at multiple places where landslides were being cleared, or where improvements to the road were being made, or where lines of cars needed to reverse so that others could pass. A group of us in the back of the bus calculated that we traveled an average of six miles per hour over 16 hours (though that does include time for eating lunch and dinner along the way). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mustang has historically been an important stop along the salt trade moving between India and China. As Galen Murton states, \u201cthe former Kingdom of Mustang has long bridged the ecological, cultural, and economic worlds of both Nepal and China\u201d (2017: 536). With the restriction of the region in the 1960s, however, Mustang received very little attention from the Nepali government for many years, and trade was constrained. Under each of Nepal\u2019s governments, the region has long been perceived as a \u201cmarginal borderland,\u201d not fully a part of Nepal (537). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the building of a road through the region was in no way a priority for the Nepali government. Residents of Mustang have been appealing to the central government for this road since the mid-twentieth century. This request came from a desire for connections between their communities and the rest of the country, and to facilitate improvements in commerce, education, medicine, and opportunities (Thapa 2008). A road was promised, but never delivered by the government. In the end, the Loba community did the majority of the work, taking it into their own hands to construct the first road from Lo Manthang to the Chinese border in the early 2000s (Murton 2017: 538). Notice that the first road built in the region was not to connect Mustang to the rest of Nepal, but to Tibet in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building of road F042 through Mustang has produced three interdependent outcomes, according to Murton:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. new consumer subjectivities supported by transborder trade; <\/li>
  2. new mobilities that reinscribe long-standing social hierarchies;<\/li>
  3. new political economies that make space for the Nepali state to take shape (537)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    People were eager for the road, hoping it would bring new economic opportunities with the shift towards a tourism-based economy. Although the community asked for the road, the infrastructure accentuates old patterns of social division.For those who have money, roads are a faster means of transportation, and travel by vehicle comes easily. For those without cash, however, the roads make mobility much more difficult as they must rely on unreliable public transportation (541). As the economy of Mustang has shifted from barter-based to cash-based, the road has played a major role in limiting new mobilities. In addition, many people with homes near the road complain that the only thing it brings is dust, since tourists now travel more quickly and stop for tea less frequently. Even though the road opens access to the region, bringing in goods and tourists, it also controls the movements of those who live in Upper Mustang, especially the people without a vehicle.  <\/strong>The road is thus a location of friction. It increases opportunity for some while limiting options for others, conveying the unequal power dynamics between Loba communities and the world driving or trekking through them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Friction is not just about less powerful communities at the mercy of global forces. It enables and excludes (Tsing 2005: 6), but it also allows space for the agency of these communities. Remember, the community in Mustang took charge of building the first segment of the road towards Tibet by themselves. Another place this agency can be seen is in the pathways weaving across the region. All along the new road, there are smaller trails and shortcuts used by the residents of Mustang. Whenever possible, people walking from one town to the next choose to take these trails rather than walk on the wider road. This does not negate the impacts of the road, but it does complicate the idea that Mustang must accommodate global forces entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Stopping at the Convergence of Two Rivers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \"Image
    Figure 10: Prayer flags stretched across the Kali Gandaki river at the point where it converges with the Dzar-Dzong river <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Until this point, I\nhave been discussing the factors affecting Mustang as a region, especially the\nrestricted Upper Mustang. Now I turn towards Kagbeni, the final town before the\nborder of the restricted area. On the southern border of restricted Upper\nMustang, Kagbeni is the last town that foreigners can travel to without paying\na hefty daily permit fee. Approximately 300 people live there, surrounded by\nterraced fields growing barley and buckwheat. The town is positioned at a\nnarrow part of the Kali Gandaki gorge, the deepest gorge in the world, and the\nKali Gandaki and Dzar-Dzong rivers flow together at its center. One road\nbranches to the east, following the valley to Muktinath, while another\nstretches north into Upper Mustang. Tiri village can be seen across the river,\nabout a half hour\u2019s walk north. The Annapurna mountain range is visible to the\nsouth, and Dhaulagiri lays visible beyond the next bend. This narrow part of\nthe gorge has historically been a stopping point for trade moving back and\nforth between India and China, allowing Kagbeni the strategic position to\ncollect taxes on the goods moving through. At the convergence of two rivers,\nthe town gets its name. Kag<\/em>, a \u201cstopping point,\u201d and beni<\/em>,\nwhere two rivers come together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Manjushree Thapa chronicles her travel through Mustang in her monograph Mustang Bhot in Fragments<\/em>, describing Kagbeni as \u201cthe southernmost of the Bhotia villages of Mustang; [there were] fixtures of Tibetan culture in the houses and ch\u00f6rtens<\/em>, and in the gomba<\/em> that had been closed to tourists since a theft a few years back\u201d (Thapa 2008: 26). The Bhot, or Tibetan highland, begins at Kagbeni and stretches north (29). Since Thapa\u2019s travels in the early 2000s, the Kag Chode monastery (the gompa<\/em> she refers to) has since been reopened to tourists and made into a monastic school for boys from Mustang and Dolpa. Today, 64 students between the ages of 5 and 18 attend school there. Five other monks also live there, overseeing the grounds keeping, business needs, and education. In addition to taking classes in the dharma<\/em> (teachings of the Buddha) and Tibetan, the students also receive a secular education in math, science, English, and Nepali. This is a common feature in monastic schools in Nepal today, as it makes it easier for students to disrobe and reenter lay life successfully as an adult after their schooling. This is also representative of the intersection between Tibetan and Nepali culture, one of the many overlapping intersections overlaid on the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Kagbeni is divided down the center, with the old section on a peninsula between the two rivers, ending with the Kag Chode monastery right at its point. These older houses are all connected, with narrow streets weaving their way between the mud walls and under low tunnels. At the northernmost tip of the town sits \u201ccaf\u00e9 Applebee\u2019s,\u201d across from the government checkpoint for people continuing north. The newer buildings reside over a bridge on the other side of the smaller river, extending towards Muktinath to the east. Brightly painted hotels and tourist shops line the streets, sporting names like \u201cShangri-La Inn,\u201d \u201cNilgiri View,\u201d or \u201cHotel Dragon,\u201d \u201cYac Donalds,\u201d or \u201cHotel Show Boat.\u201d These names are representative of the discourse used in the tourism industry in Nepal. Names are choesn which refer to popular western brands, or which play up the mystical or exotic nature of the destination. In addition, the bright bubblegum-pink and sky blue colors of some of the hotels and restaurants makes them stand out among the older earthen buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n
    \"Image
    Figure 11: Kagbeni street in the old part of town <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"Image
    Figure 13: Courtyard in the old part of Kagbeni <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \"Image
    Figure 12: Kagbeni street with cow <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"Image
    Figure 14: The rooftops of Tiri, with Kagbeni in the distance <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    When looking at the houses in Kagbeni and Upper Mustang, the older ones all have piles of firewood stacked around the edges of their roofs. Today this is mostly for show, but the piles themselves have been sitting on the houses for around fifty years, once used to provide heat in the winter months. One day I asked a friend why they don\u2019t use the wood anymore and he just turned to me and said \u201cdeforestation, man\u201d and laughed. This friend, Mama, was constantly joking with me and the people he traveled with. I encountered him with his group for the first time as they were passing through Kagbeni on a business trip, scouting for possible locations to build renewable energy projects. The group returned a few days later, inviting me to tag along as they visited Tiri and other potential sites across the river. From his joke about deforestation, Mama went on to add that there are other methods of heating now, including the solar heating of water that is used in most of the hotels. While the people of Upper Mustang have moved on to newer heating technologies, the remnants of the firewood on their homes points to a connection to and full use of the land around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\ncolors of the older buildings, too, point to a respect and reflections of the\nland surrounding Kagbeni. While the new hotels are built with concrete shipped\nup from Pokhara, older buildings were made from mud and clay and wood. Even the\nKag Chode monastery, which was built in the 1400s, is stained red with natural\ndye. The khenpo<\/em> of the gompa<\/em> complained to me that the paint on\nthe new dorm buildings for the students is much too bright. While they are\nstill painted in the yellows and reds and browns of the older buildings, they\nare jarring to look at. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Figure 15: Looking out over the old part of Kagbeni <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Figure 16: Kag Chode Monastery, weeks before the consecration of the new building <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    This summer, Kag Chode monastery consecrated a new building. In preparation for the ceremony, construction work was underway every day to finish the new building and bridge leading across the river to it (pictured in Figure 2). As a result, construction sounds often mingled with the normal sounds of the gompa<\/em>. Children screaming and running around during their breaks between class, the ringing of the meal-time bell and the class-time bell, and the low rumble of locals repeating Om mani padme hum<\/em> as they walked along the prayer walls met ever-present rushing wind and water, interspersed with music and car horns. The sounds of the gompa<\/em> are just like the rest of Kagbeni, just with the addition of occasional pujas<\/em> and instruments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n