Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

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Part 1 of 2

Gyalo Thondup
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/26/19

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When the United States learned that the Dalai Lama had gotten permission in early November to attend the Buddha Jayanti celebrations, the CIA scrambled to bypass Sikkim and establish direct links with Tibetan sources close to the monarch.

None were closer than the Dalai Lama's two brothers in exile. The eldest, Thubten Norbu, already had a history of indirect contact with the agency via the Committee for a Free Asia… Settling in New Jersey, Norbu began to earn a modest income teaching Tibetan to a handful of students as part of a noncredited course at Columbia University.

The other brother, Gyalo Thondup, was residing in Darjeeling. Six years Norbu's junior, Gyalo was the proverbial prodigal son… As a teen, he had befriended members of the Chinese mission in Lhasa and yearned to study in China… Gyalo got his wish in 1947 when he and a brother-in-law arrived at the Kuomintang capital of Nanking and enrolled in college.

Two years later, Gyalo, then twenty-one, veered further toward China when he married fellow student Zhu Dan. Not only was his wife ethnic Chinese, but her father, retired General Chu Shi- kuei, had been a key Kuomintang officer during the early days of the republic. Because of both his relationship to General Chu and the fact that he was the Dalai Lama's brother, Gyalo was feted in Nanking by no less than Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek…

With the communists closing in on Nanking during the final months of China's civil war, Gyalo and his wife fled in mid-1949 to the safer climes of India. Once again because of his relationship to the Dalai Lama, he was added to the invitation list for various diplomatic events and even got an audience with Prime Minister Nehru.

That October, Gyalo briefly ventured to the Tibetan enclave at Kalimpong before settling for seven months in Calcutta. While there, his father-in-law, General Chu, attempted to make contact with the Tibetan government. With the retreat of the Kuomintang to Taiwan, Chu had astutely shifted loyalty to the People's Republic and was now tasked by Beijing to arrange a meeting between Tibetan and PRC officials at a neutral site, possibly Hong Kong.

Conversant in Chinese and linked to both the Dalai Lama and General Chu, Gyalo was a logical intermediary for the Hong Kong talks… Unable to gain quick entry to the crown colony, Gyalo made what he intended to be a brief diversion to the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. But Chiang Kai- shek, no doubt anxious to keep Gyalo away from General Chu and the PRC, had other plans. Smothering the royal sibling with largesse, Chiang kept Gyalo in Taipei for the next sixteen months. Only after a desperate letter to U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson requesting American diplomatic intervention did the ROC relent and give Gyalo an exit permit.

After arriving in Washington in September 1951, Gyalo continued to dabble in diplomacy. Within a month of his arrival, he was called to a meeting at the State Department. Significantly, Gyalo's Chinese wife was at his side during the encounter. Because of the couple's close ties to Chiang, department representatives assumed that details of their talk would quickly be passed to the Kuomintang Nationalists…

Despite State Department efforts to secure him a scholarship at Stanford University, he hurriedly departed the United States in February 1952 for the Indian subcontinent. Leaving his wife behind, he then trekked back to Lhasa after a six-year absence.

By that time, Beijing had a secure foothold in the Tibetan capital. Upon meeting this wayward member of the royal family, the local PRC representatives were pleased. As a Chinese speaker married to one of their own, Gyalo was perceived as a natural ally. Yet again, however, he would prove a disappointment. After showing some interest in promoting a bold land reform program championed by the Dalai Lama, Gyalo once more grew restive. In late spring, he secretly met with the Indian consul in Lhasa, and after promising to refrain from politicking, he was given permission to resettle in India…

Noting his recent return to Darjeeling, the U.S. embassy in early August 1952 cautiously considered establishing contact. Calcutta's Consul General Gary Soulen saw an opportunity in early September while returning from his Sikkim trek with Princess Kukula. Pausing in Darjeeling, Soulen stayed long enough for Gyalo to pass on the latest information from his contacts within the Tibetan merchant community.

Although he had promised to refrain from exile politics, Gyalo saw no conflict in courting senior Indian officials. In particular, he sought a meeting with India's spymaster Bhola Nath Mullik. As head of Indian intelligence, Mullik presided over an organization with deep colonial roots. Established in 1887 as the central Special Branch, it had been organized by the British to keep tabs on the rising tide of Indian nationalism. Despite several redesignations before arriving at the title Intelligence Bureau, anticolonialists remained its primary target for the next sixty years.

Upon independence in 1947, Prime Minister Nehru appointed the bureau's first Indian director…

Three years later, Mullik became the bureau's second director. A police officer since the age of twenty-two, the taciturn Mullik was known for his boundless energy (he often worked sixteen-hour days), close ties to Nehru, healthy suspicion of China, and (rare for a senior Indian official) predisposition against communism. Almost immediately, the Tibetan frontier became his top concern. This followed Beijing's invasion of Kham that October, which meant that India's military planners now had to contend with a hypothetical front besides Pakistan. Moreover, the tribal regions of northeastern India were far from integrated, and revolutionaries in those areas could now easily receive Chinese support. The previous year, in fact, the bureau had held a conference on risks associated with Chinese infiltration.

Despite Mullik's concerns, Nehru was prone to downplay the potential Chinese threat. Not only did he think it ludicrous to prepare for a full-scale Chinese attack, but he saw real benefits in cultivating Beijing to offset Pakistan's emerging strategy of anticommunist cooperation with the West. "It was Nehru's idealism against hard-headed Chinese realism," said one Intelligence Bureau official. "Mullik injected healthy suspicions."

Astute enough to hedge his bets, Nehru allowed Mullik some leeway in improving security along the border and collecting intelligence on Chinese forces in Tibet. To accomplish this, Mullik expanded the number of Indian frontier posts strung across the Himalayas. In addition, he sought contact with Tibetans living in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong enclaves. Not only could these Tibetans be tapped for information, but a symbolic visit by a senior official like Mullik would lift morale at a time when their homeland was being subjugated. Such contact, moreover, could give New Delhi advance warning of any subversive activity in Tibet being staged from Indian soil.

Of all the Tibetan expatriates, Mullik had his eye on Gyalo Thondup. Besides having an insider's perspective of the high offices in Lhasa, Gyalo had already passed word of his desire for a meeting. Prior to his departure for his first visit to Darjeeling in the spring of 1953, Mullik asked for -- and quickly received -- permission from the prime minister to include the Dalai Lama's brother on his itinerary. Their subsequent exchange of views went well, as did their tete-a-tete during Mullik's second visit to Darjeeling in 1954…

To earn a living, [Gyalo] ironically began exporting Indian tea and whiskey to Chinese troops and administrators in Tibet. For leisure, he and his family were frequent guests at the Gymkhana Club. Part of an exclusive resort chain that was once a playpen for the subcontinent's colonial elite, the Gymkhana's Darjeeling branch was situated amid terraced gardens against the picturesque backdrop of Kanchenjunga. A regular on the tennis courts, the Dalai Lama 's brother was the local champion.

In the summer of 1956, Gyalo's respite came to an abrupt end. The senior abbot and governor from the Tibetan town of Gyantse had recently made his escape to India and in July wrote a short report about China's excesses. Gyalo repackaged the letter in English and mailed copies to the Indian media, several diplomatic missions, and selected world leaders. One of these arrived in early September at the U.S. embassy in the Pakistani capital of Karachi, and from there was disseminated to the American mission in New Delhi and consulate in Calcutta…

Once word reached India in early November that the Dalai Lama would be attending the Buddha Jayanti, John Hoskins got an urgent cable from headquarters. Put aside your efforts against the Chinese community, he was told, and make immediate contact with Gyalo. A quick check indicated Gyalo's predilection for tennis, so Hoskins got a racket and headed north to Darjeeling. After arranging to get paired with Gyalo for a doubles match, the CIA officer wasted no time in quietly introducing himself…

Hoskins was not exactly wowed by Gyalo's persona. "There was a lot of submissiveness rather than dynamism," he noted. At their first meeting, little was discussed apart from reaching an understanding that, to avoid Indian intelligence coverage in Darjeeling, future contact would be made in Calcutta using proper countersurveillance measures.

Later that same month, the Dalai Lama and a fifty-strong delegation departed Lhasa by car. Switching to horses at the Sikkimese border, the royal entourage was met on the other side by both Gyalo and Norbu, who had rushed to India from his teaching assignment in New York. The party was whisked through Gangtok and down to the closest Indian airfield near the town of Siliguri, and by 25 November the monarch was being met by Nehru on the tarmac of New Delhi's Palam Airport.

By coincidence, three days after the Dalai Lama's arrival in New Delhi, Chinese premier Zhou En-Lai began a twelve-day stop in India as part of a five-country South Asian tour. Keeping with diplomatic protocol, the young Tibetan leader was on hand to greet Zhou at the airport. The two then held a private meeting, at which time the elderly Chinese statesman lectured the Dalai Lama on the necessity of returning to his homeland.

Zhou was not alone in his appeal. As eager as Nehru was to offset Chinese influence in Tibet, he, too, was against the Dalai Lama's seeking asylum -- especially on Indian soil. This was partly because India wanted to maintain good relations with China. This was also because New Delhi did not want to go it alone, and not a single country to date had recognized Tibetan independence. Fearing that the monarch's brothers would have an unhealthy effect on any decision, Indian officials in the capital did all in their power to keep Gyalo and Norbu segregated from their royal sibling.

The Dalai Lama hardly needed convincing from his brothers, however. During his first private session with Nehru, he openly hinted about not going back to Lhasa. He also requested that the issue of Tibetan independence be taken up by Nehru and President Dwight Eisenhower at their upcoming summit in Washington in December. Nehru was not entirely surprised by all this: Gyalo had already sought out Mullik and told the Indian intelligence chief in no uncertain terms that his brother would opt for exile.

As India's leadership digested these developments, the Dalai Lama departed the capital for an exhausting schedule of Buddha Jayanti festivities. He was still in the midst of this tour when Zhou returned to New Delhi for an encore visit on 30 December. In the interim, Nehru had had his Washington meeting with Eisenhower, and the Chinese premier had scheduled the stop specifically to discuss the outcome of that summit. As it turned out, however, Tibet was a major topic of conversation. In particular, Nehru used the opportunity to press Zhou about tempering China's harsh military and agrarian policies on the Tibetan plateau…

Anxious to broker a deal that would assuage both Lhasa and Beijing, Nehru summoned the Dalai Lama from his pilgrimage and underscored to the Tibetan leader that Indian asylum was not in the cards. But if that was bitter news, Zhou had earlier proposed a sweetener. While noting that China was ready to use force to stamp out resistance, he claimed that Mao now recognized the folly of rapid collectivization and pledged to delay further revolutionary reforms in Tibet.

Zhou and his senior comrades were by now gravely concerned over permanently losing the Dalai Lama. Leaving nothing to chance, Zhou was back in New Delhi on 24 January 1957 for his third visit in as many months.

Despite Beijing's lobbying, Gyalo and Norbu were still insistent that their brother choose exile. Torn over his future, the twenty-one-year-old monarch had already departed Calcutta on 22 January for Kalimpong, which by then was home to a growing number of disaffected Tibetan elite. Once there, he did what Tibet's leaders had done countless other times when confronted with a hard decision: he consulted the state oracle. Two official soothsayers happened to be traveling with his delegation; using time-honored -- if unscientific -- methods, the pair went into a trance on cue and recited their sagely advice. Return to Lhasa, they channeled.

As far as the Dalai Lama was concerned, the ruling of his oracles was incontrovertible, and the decision was made all the easier by the fact that nobody seemed anxious to give him refuge. Flouting the suggestions of his brothers, he declared his intention to go home. He crossed into Sikkim in early March and was compelled to remain in Gangtok until heavy snows melted from the mountain passes. There, he finalized plans to set out for Lhasa by month's end…

[A]s soon as the Dalai Lama received permission to attend the Buddha Jayanti, [William] Broe [CIA China Branch] felt it prudent to show heightened interest. Looking for a junior officer to spare, he soon settled on John Reagan. Twenty-eight years old, Reagan had joined the agency upon graduation from Boston College in 1951. He was soon in Asia, where he spent the next twenty-four months working on paramilitary projects in Korea. Switching to China Branch, he served two more years in Japan as part of the CIA's penetration effort against the PRC. Returning to the United States in 1955, Reagan divided the next twelve months between Chinese language training and trips to New York City to practice tradecraft against United Nations delegates.

As the branch's new man on Tibet, Reagan initially did little more than forward instructions for John Hoskins to make contact with Gyalo. He was silent on further guidance, primarily because senior U.S. policy makers had not yet ironed out a coherent framework for dealing with Lhasa. In earlier meetings between CIA and State Department officials during the summer of 1956, there had been those who felt that the Dalai Lama should flee to another Buddhist nation to offer a rallying cry for anticommunist Buddhists across Asia. Others, primarily inside the agency, believed that he could play a more important role as a rallying symbol in Lhasa among his fellow Tibetans. This was still the CIA's operating assumption in late 1956: once the Dalai Lama was in India, the prevailing mood at agency headquarters was that he should eventually go home.

Gyalo, meantime, was telling Hoskins that his brother had every intention of seeking asylum. With the Dalai Lama apparently intent on staying away from his homeland -- and therefore not conforming to the agency's preferred scenario of rallying his people from Lhasa -- Reagan was largely idle during most of the Dalai Lama's four-month absence from Tibet.

Eventually, however, the CIA looked to hedge its bets. Since the second half of 1956, a band of twenty-seven young Khampa men -- some still in their late teens -- had been growing restive in the enclave of Kalimpong. Most came from relatively wealthy trading families and had been spirited to India to protect them from the instability in their native province. Full of vigor, the entire group had ventured to New Delhi shortly before the Dalai Lama's Buddha Jayanti pilgrimage to conduct street protests. Once the Dalai Lama arrived, they sought a brief audience to make an impassioned plea for Lhasa's intercession against the Chinese offensive in Kham.

To their disappointment, the Dalai Lama counseled patience. "His Holiness only said things would settle down," recalls one of the Khampas. Undaunted, the twenty-seven young men shadowed the monarch during several of the Buddha Jayanti commemorative events. By early January 1957, this took them to Bodh Gaya, the city in eastern India where the historical Buddha was said to have attained enlightenment. While there, the Dalai Lama's older brother, Thubten Norbu, approached the Khampas and asked if he could take their individual photographs as a souvenir. Although it was an odd request, they complied.

For the next few weeks, nothing happened. Frustrated by the Dalai Lama's repeated rebuffs, the Khampas sulked back to Kalimpong. Several Chinese traders were in town, some of whom were rumored to have links to the Nationalist regime on Taiwan. Desperate, the Khampas sounded them out on the possibility of covert assistance from Taipei. It was at that point that Gyalo Thondup arrived and requested a meeting with all twenty-seven. For most of the young Khampas, it was the first time they had spoken with the Dalai Lama's lay brother. As they listened attentively, Gyalo lectured them to steer clear of the Kuomintang. "The United States," he told them cryptically, "is a better choice."

Less than a week later, the Dalai Lama arrived in Kalimpong, the oracles had their channeling session, and things changed dramatically. With the monarch's return journey now imminent, John Reagan in Washington scrambled to script a program of action. At its core, the plan called for a unilateral capability to determine how much armed resistance activity really existed in Tibet; further commitments could then be weighed accordingly.

The CIA had good reason to act with prudence. It already had a long and growing list of embarrassing failures while working with resistance groups behind communist lines. Perhaps none had been more painful than its experience against the PRC. There the agency's efforts had taken two tracks. The first was a collaborative effort with the Kuomintang government on Taiwan. Clinging to its dream of reconquering the mainland, the ROC in 1950 claimed to control a million guerrillas inside the People's Republic. Although a February 1951 Pentagon study placed the figure at no more than 600,000 -- only half of which were thought to be nominally loyal to the ROC -- Washington saw fit to support these insurgents as a means of appeasing a key Asian ally while at the same time possibly diverting Beijing's attention from the conflict on the Korean peninsula.

To funnel covert American assistance to the ROC, the CIA established a shell company in Pittsburgh known as Western Enterprises (WE). In September 1951, WE's newly appointed chief, Raymond Peers, arrived on Taiwan with a planeload of advisers. A U.S. Army colonel who had earned accolades during World War II as chief of the famed OSS Detachment 101 in Burma, Peers quickly initiated a number of paramilitary efforts. A large portion of his resources was directed toward airborne operations, including retraining the ROC's 1,500-man parachute regiment. Other WE advisers, meanwhile, were tasked with putting ROC action and intelligence teams through an airborne course.

To deploy these operatives, WE turned to the agency's Far East air proprietary, Civil Air Transport (CAT). By the spring of 1952, CAT planes were dropping teams and singletons on the mainland, as well as supplies to resistance groups that the ROC claimed were already active on the ground. Some of the penetrations ranged as far as Tibet's Amdo region, where the ROC alleged it had contact with Muslim insurgents.

Concurrently, the agency in April 1951 initiated a unilateral third-force effort using anticommunist Chinese unaffiliated with the ROC. Allocated enough arms and ammunition for 200,000 guerrillas, the CIA recruited many of these third-force operatives from Hong Kong, trained them in Japan and Saipan, and inserted them in CAT planes via air bases in South Korea…

That summer, an armistice sent the Korean conflict into remission. This provided the CIA with convenient cover to reassess its third-force track. Although it elected to maintain a China Base at Yokosuka, Japan, this unit was to handle primarily agent penetrations and low-level destabilization efforts; support for broader unilateral resistance got the ax.

Cooperative ventures with the ROC were not so easily nixed. Although Taipei had tempered its claims somewhat, it still pegged loyal mainland guerrilla strength at 650,000 insurgents. By contrast, a November 1953 estimate by the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) put the figure closer to 50,000. Despite this huge discrepancy, the NSC still advocated continued covert assistance to the ROC in order to develop anticommunist guerrillas for resistance and intelligence. Even temporary guerrilla successes, the council reasoned, might set off waves of defections and stiffen passive resistance.

Chiang Kai-shek could not have agreed more. Eager to vastly increase the scope of guerrilla support, the generalissimo in 1954 asked Washington for some 30,000 parachutes. Turned down the first time, he made further high-priority appeals over the next two years. These parachutes were needed for an ambitious plan to drop 100-man units near major PRC population centers. Hoping to set off a chain of uprisings, Chiang optimistically talked in terms of uprooting Chinese communism in as little as two years.

Hearing these plans, Washington patiently counseled against the proposed airborne blitz. On a more modest level, however, the CIA's assistance program continued unabated. In this, success was more elusive than ever. Despite inserting an average of two Nationalist agents a month through the mid-1950s, the ROC operatives were still being killed or captured in short order.

Although these reasons might have made covert operations against the PRC a study in frustration, Tibet appeared to be different. Unlike many of Taipei's wishful claims about other areas of the mainland, Tibet had a resistance movement corroborated by multiple, albeit dated, sources. What the CIA needed was timely data that could give a current and accurate picture of this resistance. And given the historical animosity between Tibetans and lowland Chinese, the agency needed to gather this information without resort to ROC assistance.

In February 1957, John Hoskins was ordered by Washington to immediately identify eight Tibetan candidates for external training as a pilot team that would infiltrate their homeland and assess the state of resistance. Gyalo, who had been in Kalimpong making an eleventh-hour bid to convince his brother to seek asylum, was given responsibility for screening candidates among the Tibetan refugees already in India. Although the twenty-seven Khampas did not know it, Gyalo intended to make the selection from their ranks. Using the photographs taken by Norbu at Bodh Gaya, he sought guidance from two senior Khampas in town, both of whom hailed from the extended family of Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang, a prominent trader of Tibetan wool, deer horns, and musk.

With their assistance, Gyalo soon settled on his first pick. Wangdu Gyato-tsang, age twenty-seven, had been born to an affluent Khampa family from the town of Lithang. He was well connected: Gompo Tashi was his uncle, as was one of the senior Khampas helping Gyalo with the selection. Wangdu also had the right disposition for the task at hand. Despite being schooled at the Lithang monastery from the age of ten, he did not exactly conform to monastic life. "He was hot tempered from childhood," recalls younger brother Kalsang...

When approached by Gyalo, Wangdu immediately volunteered for the mission. Within days, five other Khampas were singled out (Washington now wanted a total of six trainees, not eight), but only Wangdu was given any hint of the impending assignment. Four were from Lithang; of these, three were Wangdu's close acquaintances, and one was his family servant. The fifth was a friend from the nearby town of Bathang (also spelled Batang). All were still on hand to attend the Dalai Lama's final open-air blessing in a Kalimpong soccer field shortly before the monarch headed back toward Tibet.

-- The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, by Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison

Gyalo Thondup


Gyalo Thondup in 1948 or 1949, standing in front of a large window of the Dalai Lama's family house, Yabshi Taktser, in Lhasa. He is wearing a woollen robe and felt boots. The bottom part of a bird cage can be seen at the top of the image.

Gyalo Thondup (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ལོ་དོན་འགྲུབ, Wylie: rgyal lo don 'grub; Chinese: 嘉乐顿珠; pinyin: Jiālè Dùnzhū), born c.1927,[1] is the second-eldest brother of the 14th Dalai Lama. He often acted as the Dalai Lama's unofficial envoy, and was involved in various political controversies around the Tibetan diaspora.[2]

Early life

In late fall of 1927,[1] Gyalo Thondup was born in the village of Taktser[3] Ping'an District, Qinghai province. In 1939, he moved with his family to Lhasa.

In 1942, at the age of 14, Thondup went to Nanjing, the capital of Republican China, to study Standard Chinese and the history of China. He often visited Chiang Kai-shek at his home and ate dinner with him.[4] "In fact, young Gyalo Thondup ate his meals at the Chiang family table, from April 1947 until the summer of 1949, and tutors selected by Chiang educated the boy."[5] In 1948, he married Zhu Dan, the daughter of a Guomindang general.

Political involvement

In 1949, before the Communist revolution of that year in China, Thondup left Nanjing for India via British Hong Kong. "Gyalo Thondup... was the first officially acknowledged Tibetan to visit Taiwan since 1949. Taipei Radio announced the meeting between President Chang Kai-shek on 21 May 1950."[6] Fluent in Chinese, Tibetan and English,[5] he "later facilitated semi-official contacts between the Tibetan-government-in-exile and the Republic of China (ROC) as well as with the People's Republic of China (PRC) government in 1979."[6]

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Part 2 of 2

United States activities

In 1951, he traveled to America and became the main source of information on Tibet for the United States Department of State.[7] America's Central Intelligence Agency promised to make Tibet independent from China in exchange for Thondup's support in organizing guerrilla units to fight against the People's Liberation Army, an offer which Thondup accepted.[4][8][9] Thondup maintains that he did not inform the 14th Dalai Lama about the CIA's actions,[10] and this support ended after the 1972 Nixon visit to China [February 21 to 28, 1972].

The Dalai Lama and Major General Uban, the inspector general of the SFF [Special Frontier Force], review the SFF at Chakrata, June 1972

Not until 17 March, during the third channeling session in a week, did the oracle buckle. "Leave tonight," was his entranced message. The dice, too, cooperated, giving identical advice. [20]

The Dalai Lama hardly needed prompting. At nightfall, he stole out of Lhasa on the back of a pony while disguised as a peasant. With him were his mother, younger brother, sister, and a coterie of tutors and counsels. Just prior to this, the lord chamberlain had composed a message for the Indian consul general broaching the possibility of exile. He also dispatched a courier to Yarlung with a note for the NVDA to prepare a reception committee. Although that message had yet to reach Yarlung, Phala had arranged for a small band of rebel escorts to wait on the riverbank opposite Lhasa as the Dalai Lama's party crossed in a yak-skin coracle. Pausing briefly for a final glimpse of the lights flickering in his capital, the Tibetan leader pressed south. [21]

Back in Lhasa, neither the Chinese nor the crowds outside the Norbulingka were yet aware of the Dalai Lama's flight. His departure proved timely, for within a day after his departure, the citizenry broke into full-scale rioting. In this they were supported by the Tibetan army, which had belatedly thrown off its gloves and was attempting to seize strategic points around the capital. Responding in kind, the PLA dropped the last vestiges of restraint and on 20 March started shelling the Norbulingka. Just four days later, the resisters were in full flight from the city.

For the better part of a week, the location of the Dalai Lama and his escape party was a mystery to the outside world. The first to get a hint of his fate was the CIA; this came after the lord chamberlain's message to Yarlung was forwarded by courier on horseback to Tom and Lou at the NVDA rear base in Lhuntse Dzong. [22] Upon reading this, Tom took his radio set and, together with a small band of guerrillas, sprinted to intercept the Dalai Lama near the Chongye valley, thirty kilometers north of the Drigu Tso. Lou followed in his wake with another group hauling the bulk of the weapons received during the second weapons drop.

On 25 March, eight days after he departed Lhasa, the Dalai Lama and his followers arrived at Chongye and linked up with Tom's advance NVDA party. While there, the Tibetan leader was enlightened about the CIA supply drops and the RS-1 radio, which was kept hidden. Discreetly taking his leave, Tom returned to the radio and keyed a message to Okinawa. Tibet's god-king, he informed the agency, was alive and well....

By 27 March, Washington time, the U.S. president knew that the Dalai Lama had already reached the NVDA rear base at Lhuntse Dzong. The monarch initially intended to wait there and negotiate his return to Lhasa, just as he had done from Yatung in 1951. But when he turned on his transistor that morning and heard that Beijing had formally dissolved the Tibetan government, chances for a temporary in-country exile began wafting away.

Defiant, the Dalai Lama gathered his entourage inside the village's hilltop fort. Repudiating the seventeen-point agreement, he cut orders for the reestablishment of the Tibetan government just disbanded by China. Though largely hollow, the move lifted spirits. Looking to celebrate with what means were at hand, Lou promptly unveiled a 57mm recoilless rifle (from the second airdrop) and fired three rounds into a nearby cliff. [23]....

The Dalai Lama's move was not unexpected, and the agency already had an inkling that India would give its nod. Two days earlier, CIA Director Dulles had informed the rest of the NSC that Prime Minister Nehru had privately hinted his support of asylum for the Dalai Lama, but not for the fleeing armed rebels, for fear of provoking incursions by the PLA. [25]

At the same time, policy makers in Washington had come to the conclusion that the Dalai Lama's exile was in the United States' interest. [26] Given its radio link at the scene, the CIA was the logical intermediary to facilitate Indian approval. No time was wasted; at 1:00 in the morning on Sunday, 29 March, a message was sent from Washington to the CIA's New Delhi station asking that it relay the plea directly to Nehru.

Back in Tibet, the Dalai Lama and his entourage had not waited for an answer. Leaving Lhuntse Dzong and riding for a day, they reached a village just four hours from the Indian frontier. Huddling that night inside their tent during a torrential downpour, the CIA agents turned on their radio and learned of New Delhi's official consent via Washington. [27]....

The Dalai Lama, though haggard after almost two weeks on the road and weakened by a bout of dysentery, was visibly elated.....

The following day, 31 March, some of the fittest members of the Dalai Lama's party went forward toward the border. In one of his last acts on Tibetan soil, the monarch penned a document conveying the rank of general to Gompo Tashi. The next morning, after bidding farewell to his NVDA escorts and the CIA radiomen, he and the rest of his eighty-person entourage worked their way south over the final stretch to India's lush, steaming Assam lowlands. [29]....

By the end of the second week of April, the Dalai Lama had reached Bomdila and made immediate contact with [P. N.] Menon and Dave. Just as quickly, their talks grew heated. Counseling moderation, Menon urged the monarch to refrain from any mention of an independent government in exile during his initial public statement, which he would presumably make upon confronting the mob of newsmen at Tezpur. At this, the Dalai Lama bristled. His press announcement had already been penned, he said, and he was determined to push for independence. The monarch told Menon defiantly that if New Delhi insisted that he accept the limited role of prominent religious leader, perhaps he should not accept Nehru's offer of asylum.

Parappil-Narayana Menon (1920-22 June 1975), also known as P.N. Menon, was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. Like his father-in-law, he undertook an overland journey to Lhasa in 1956, on foot and on horseback through the formidable Nathula Pass, to take up his post as India's Consul-General in Tibet.

He was married to Malini, the daughter of first Foreign Secretary of India, K.P.S. Menon.[3] His son is Shivshankar Menon, who as of 2011 was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.

P.N. Menon first joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1947. At one point, he served as Consul-General of India in Lhasa, and later served as intermediary to the young Dalai Lama during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

-- P.N. Menon (Diplomat), by Wikipedia

Clearly unsatisfied, the Dalai Lama departed Bomdila by jeep on 18 April and was finally able to meet Gyalo and relay his early frustration with New Delhi. The Dalai Lama also used the opportunity to pass his brother a verbal message to the U.S. government, reaffirming his determination to support the resistance of his people and asking Washington to recognize his exiled government and supply those who were continuing the resistance.

***

With this second guerrilla network running by the start of 1959, at long last the task force was beginning to hit its stride.

On the diplomatic front, too, the struggle for Tibet was heating up. Back on 23 April [1959], the Dalai Lama had sent his oral message to the U.S. government through Gyalo Thondup, reaffirming his determination to support the resistance of his people. He made two requests of Washington at that time: recognize his soon-to-be-formed government in exile, and continue to supply the resistance. He reiterated these themes in a formal scroll, a summary of which reached the White House by 16 June.

***

By mid-1962, however, India's military leaders began wondering whether they were overextended. Their fears seemed justified when Dalvi's report about the Towang attack reached New Delhi. But to the shock and dismay of the field commanders in NEFA [Northeast Frontier Agency], [Parappil-Narayana] Menon, preoccupied with preparations for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session later in September, was keen to dismiss the incident as nothing more serious than the minor incursions of previous years.

One month later, there could be no mistaking Chinese intent. On 20 October, PLA troops rolled down from the Himalayas and smashed Indian outposts across a wide front. Better acclimated to the altitude, properly stocked from nearby roads, and outnumbering the Indians eight to one, the PLA held every key advantage and showed it. "We were flabbergasted," said one National Security Council staffer, "when the Chinese wiped the floor with the Indians." [17]

***

No two Indian officials felt the heat from the losses more than Defense Minister Menon and the chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General B. M. Kaul. Both were inextricably linked: Menon had been instrumental in getting Kaul his senior post, catapulting him over better-qualified generals in the process. This was partly because Kaul was regarded as less pro-Western than many of his peers, lending him the same political mind-set as the defense minister. Menon was also well aware that Kaul shared Kashmiri roots with Nehru, who viewed the general as a protege and trusted confidant.

Stung by the resultant whispers of nepotism, Kaul had tried to bolster his image by taking personal charge of a newly created corps set to expel the Chinese from NEFA. Not only had this fallen apart during the third week of October, but Kaul had earlier been stricken with a lung infection and sat out the bleakest days in bed in New Delhi. Humiliated and ill, the general sought out Menon to brainstorm ways of salvaging the desperate situation in the Himalayas -- and their careers.

One solution, they felt, was to create a guerrilla force that could strike deep behind Chinese lines. Because the Chinese were coming from Tibet, members of that ethnic group were the logical guerrillas of choice. Finding volunteers would not be a problem; both knew that there was no shortage of Tibetans on Indian soil, and virtually all were vehemently anti-Chinese and would not hesitate to take up arms for their own patriotic reasons.

But who would lead such a force? They needed a senior Indian officer who could win the confidence of the Tibetans, embracing their independent nature and promoting a semblance of discipline without resort to a rigid army code. And he would need to have a bent for the unconventional -- something that was in short supply in the Indian military, as the trench mentality in the Himalayas had dramatically proved. [18]

As they scoured the roster of available officers, one name caught their eye. Brigadier Sujan Singh Uban, until recently the commander of the 26th Artillery Brigade in Kashmir, was in New Delhi after having just processed his retirement papers. Forty-eight years old, he had been an artilleryman all his career, first under the British colonial system and then with the Indian military after independence. Normally, this would have provided little room for innovation, but Uban had spent much time with mountain units and was familiar with fighting at high altitudes. And during a stint as an artillery instructor for jungle warfare units, he had earned the nickname "Mad Sikh" for his flair and drive. That small detail was enough for Menon and Kaul, who flashed an urgent message summoning the brigadier.

On 26 October, Uban was sitting in the defense minister's office. The situation on the border -- and the status of Menon and Kaul -- had already reached a critical point. With the Chinese still inside Indian territory, Uban was given sketchy details of the proposed behind-the-lines guerrilla mission. Working with the Tibetans would not be easy, warned Kaul. Disciplining them, he said, would be like taming wild tigers. As a sweetener, the brigadier was promised a second star in due course. Uban was hooked; he grabbed the assignment without hesitation. [19]

Now that the guerrilla force had a leader, there remained the job of signing on Tibetan volunteers. To help, the Indians sent an emissary from the Intelligence Bureau to Darjeeling to fetch the Dalai Lama's brother, Gyalo Thondup. After years of attempting to court the Indians -- who were often sympathetic but never committal -- Gyalo relished the moment as he sat in front of a select group of senior intelligence and military officials in the capital. Speaking in theoretical terms, his hosts asked whether he could organize the needed volunteers. Of course, replied Gyalo. When asked how many, he conjured a robust, round figure. Five thousand, he said. [20]

Next came a key question. Would Gyalo prefer that the Intelligence Bureau or the Ministry of Defense be involved? Based on his earlier contact with Mullik and his current cooperation with the CIA (through Lhamo Tsering), the decision was easy. "Not Defense," was his indirect answer. [21]

Despite India's woes -- and its newfound interest in the Tibetans -- most of Washington took little notice. Half a world away in the waters around Cuba, nuclear brinkmanship was being taken to the limit as President Kennedy demanded a withdrawal of Soviet missiles from that island. Not until 28 October did the world breathe a sigh of relief when Moscow agreed to withdraw its weaponry. With that crisis over, the Sino-Indian conflict belatedly leapfrogged to the top of Washington's foreign policy agenda.

The very next day, Prime Minister Nehru made an unequivocal request for U.S. military assistance. For the tired, beaten leader, it was a humbling overture. It was an admission not only that his central belief in peaceful coexistence with the PRC was irrevocably shattered but also that his cordial relationship with the Soviet Union had proved hollow. Due to the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets had been forced to side with China vis-a-vis India so as not to alienate a needed communist ally in their moment of danger. Not only did Moscow backpedal on its earlier promise to sell MiG-21 jets to India, but on 29 October it openly declared that it would recognize Chinese territorial claims and extend no arms at all to India. [22]

Immediately, Washington stepped into the fray and responded generously to Nehru's appeal for assistance. By 2 November, the USAF was using Europe-based Boeing 707 transports to fly eight missions into India every day for a week. Each plane was packed with basic infantry equipment to refit the soldiers streaming off the Himalayas, who in most cases were outfitted with more primitive gear than had been afforded the CIA's Tibetan guerrillas. These supplies were later ferried by USAF C-130 transports to smaller airfields near the frontier battle lines. [23]

Still, the aid did not turn the tide. On 14 November, an Indian counterattack in NEFA was soundly routed. Three days later, the entire NEFA line collapsed, giving China virtual control over 64,000 square kilometers of territory. By 19 November, leaders in New Delhi genuinely feared an attack on Calcutta, prompting Nehru to take the extraordinary step of sending two secret back-channel messages to Kennedy pleading for a pair of bomber squadrons flown by U.S. pilots.

India's infantrymen and Nehru's pride were not the only casualties of the conflict. Back on 28 October, America's bete noire, the discredited Krishna Menon, had tendered his resignation. With him out of the way and the situation on the frontier critical, Kennedy gathered some of his best and brightest on 19 November to discuss the war in the Himalayas. Among those present were secretary of Defense McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Averell Harriman. At seventy-two, Harriman was one of America's most respected diplomats and politicians. The former governor had worked closely with the Indians in the past, having appealed to Nehru the previous year to assist in formulating a negotiated end to the looming superpower rivalry in Laos. Significantly, too, throughout the summer of 1962, Harriman had been a lone senior voice in the State Department supporting the CIA's argument for ongoing paramilitary operations out of Mustang.

Discussed at the 19 November meeting was increased U.S. military assistance to India and options for a show of force in the region. Also mentioned was the possibility of using the CIA's Tibetan guerrillas. John McCone, a wealthy and opinionated Republican chosen by Kennedy to replace CIA Director Dulles after the Bay of Pigs, was on hand to brief the president on such covert matters. Joining McCone was Des FitzGerald, the Far East chief; James Critchfield, head of the Near East Division, was touring Beirut at the time. [24]

By meeting's end, it was decided that Harriman would lead a high-powered delegation to New Delhi to more fully assess India's needs. General Paul Adams, chief of the U.S. Strike Command, was to head the military component. From the CIA, Des FitzGerald won a seat on the mission, as did the head of the Tibet Task Force, Ken Knaus. Rendezvousing with them in India would be Critchfield, who received an emergency cable to depart Lebanon immediately for the subcontinent.

On 21 November, Harriman's entourage departed Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Although the Chinese declared a unilateral cease-fire while the group was en route, the situation was still tense when it reached New Delhi the following day. Without pause, Ambassador Galbraith ushered Harriman into the first of four meetings with Nehru. The end results of these discussions were plans for a major three-phase military aid package encompassing material support, help with domestic defense production, and possible assistance with air defenses.

As a covert aside to Harriman's talks, the CIA representatives on the delegation held their own sessions with Indian intelligence czar Mullik. This was a first, as Galbraith had previously taken great pains to downscale the agency's activities inside India to all but benign reporting functions. As recently as 5 November, he had objected to projected CIA plans due to the risk of exposure. But in a 13 November letter to Kennedy, the ambassador had a qualified change of heart, noting that Menon's departure was a turning point to begin working with the Indians on "sensitive matters." [25]

Both the CIA and the Intelligence Bureau were quick to seize the opportunity. "I went into a huddle with Mullik and Des," recalls Critchfield, "and we started coming up with all these schemes against the Chinese." Most of their ideas centered around use of the Tibetans. "The Indians were interested in the Tibet program because of its intelligence collection value," said station chief David Blee, who sat in on some of the meetings. "Mullik was particularly interested in paramilitary operations." [26] There was good reason for this: following Menon's resignation, and Gyalo Thondup's stated preference, the Intelligence Bureau had been placed in charge of the 5,000 Tibetan guerrillas forming under Brigadier Uban.

Mullik was cautious as well. Although he was well connected to the Nehru family and had the prime minister's full approval to talk with the CIA, he knew that the Indian populace was fickle, and until recently, anti-Americanism had been a popular mantra. It was perhaps only a matter of time before the barometer would swing back and make open Indo-U.S. cooperation political suicide. To offer some protection against this, Mullik and one of his close deputies, M. I. Hooja, made a special request during a session with FitzGerald and Blee. "They made us promise that our involvement," said Blee, "would remain secret forever." [27]

By the end of the Harriman mission, the CIA and Intelligence Bureau had arrived at a rough division of labor. The Indians, with CIA support from the Near East Division, would work together in developing Uban's 5,000-strong tactical guerrilla force. The CIA's Far East Division, meantime, would unilaterally create a strategic long-range resistance movement inside Tibet. The Mustang contingent would also remain under the CIA's unilateral control.

All this would depend on final approval by the highest levels of the Kennedy administration. Meanwhile, the CIA arranged for a sign of good faith. A single crew was selected from the agency's air proprietaries in Taiwan and Japan, then dispatched to Takhli aboard a DC-6 transport. Loaded with an assortment of military aid, the plane made three shuttles between Thailand and the Charbatia airfield near the city of Bhubaneswar in India's eastern state of Orissa. A relic of World War II, Charbatia had fallen into a severe state of disrepair. More remarkable than its poor condition were the precautions taken to keep the CIA's largesse a secret from the die-hard Soviet supporters among New Delhi's political elite. "We flew the last few miles just fifty feet above the ground to avoid radar," said pilot Neese Hicks. "We would land at dawn, eat a fast breakfast, and be back in the air toward Takhli." [28]

By the last week of November, the CIA representatives from the Harriman delegation were back in Washington and making their pitch before the Special Group. Though they could now count on Indian participation -- which had been a prerequisite for future support to the Mustang group -- they had a tough sell. CIA Director McCone, for one, was a pronounced skeptic with relatively little interest in covert paramilitary operations. Citing the example of Mustang (which had done precious little over the past year), he was dubious about the utility of developing a tactical guerrilla force that the United States could not ultimately control. And although officials in New Delhi believed that limited war with China might continue intermittently over a number of years, he questioned what would happen in the event of Sino-Indian rapprochement. Would the CIA have to cut its support to the guerrillas and the resistance in midstream? [29]

There was also sharp criticism from the Pentagon, but for a different reason. General Maxwell Taylor, the president's military adviser who had recently taken over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tore into Critchfield for not informing the Department of Defense about the ongoing paramilitary program at Mustang. Many upcoming contingencies might hinge on the Mustang guerrillas, chided Taylor, and the Pentagon's representatives on the Harriman mission had only belatedly found out about Mustang's existence while in India. Many suspected that Taylor's umbrage was because he had lobbied hard over the past year to have CIA paramilitary operations revert to Defense Department control, and he was livid at finding a holdout.

Despite the comments from the likes of McCone and Taylor, the chance of making significant inroads with the Indians -- and giving a bigger headache to Beijing -- was too good to pass up. On 13 December, the Kennedy administration approved training assistance to Uban's tactical guerrilla force. At the same time, the Tibet Task Force drew up plans to reopen Hale and school at least 125 candidates for the long-range resistance movement. Commented task force chief Knaus, "We had suddenly gone from stepchild to favored son." [30]

***

For intelligence chief Mullik, the Chakrata project signaled a new sense of militancy regarding Tibet. This was communicated in strong fashion on 29 December when Mullik -- through Gyalo Thondup -- told the Dalai Lama that New Delhi had now adopted a covert policy of supporting the eventual liberation of his homeland.

Although the U.S. government did not match this with a similar pledge, the CIA wasted no time making good on its promise to help with the various Tibetan paramilitary schemes. As a start, Jim McElroy -- the same logistics expert who had been involved with ST CIRCUS since its inception, overseeing the air supply process from Okinawa and later helping with similar requirements at Camp Hale -- was dispatched to India in early January 1963. He was escorted by Intelligence Bureau representatives to the Paratroopers Training School at Agra, just a few kilometers from the breathtaking Taj Mahal palace. Because aerial methods would be the likely method of supporting behind-the-lines operations against the PLA, McElroy began an assessment of the school's parachute inventory to fully understand India's air delivery capabilities. He also started preliminary training of some Tibetan riggers drawn from Chakrata....

....

[T]he CIA's Near East Division was forging ahead with assistance for the Tibetans at Chakrata. Initially, the Pentagon also muscled its way into the act and in February 1963 penned plans to send a 106-man U.S. Army Special Forces detachment that would offer "overt, but hopefully unpublicized" training in guerrilla tactics and unconventional warfare. The CIA, meanwhile, came up with a competing plan that involved no more than eight of its advisers on a six-month temporary duty assignment. Significantly, the CIA envisioned its officers living and messing alongside the Tibetans, minimizing the need for logistical support. Given Indian sensitivities and the unlikely prospect of keeping an overt U.S. military detachment unpublicized, the CIA scheme won. [4]

Heading the CIA team would be forty-five-year-old Wayne Sanford.....

By now a marine colonel, Sanford was still in London when the Chinese attack materialized and CIA paramilitary support for India was approved in principle in December 1962. Early the following year, after the CIA received specific approval to send eight advisers to Chakrata, Sanford was selected to oversee the effort. He would do so from an office at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi while acting under the official title of special assistant to Ambassador Galbraith. As this would be an overt posting with the full knowledge of the Indian government, both he and the seven other paramilitary advisers would remain segregated from David Blee's CIA station.

Back in Washington, the rest of the team took shape. Another former marine, John Magerowski, was fast to grab a berth. So was Harry Mustakos, who had worked with the Tibetans on Saipan in 1957 and served with Sanford on Da Chen. Former smoke jumper and Intermountain Aviation (a CIA proprietary) rigger Thomas "T. J." Thompson was to replace Jim McElroy at Agra. Two other training officers were selected from the United States, and a third was diverted from an assignment in Turkey. The last slot went to former U.S. Army airborne officer Charles "Ken" Seifarth, who had been in South Vietnam conducting jump class for agents destined to infiltrate the communist north. [7]

By mid-April, the eight had assembled in New Delhi. If they expected war greetings from their CIA colleagues in the embassy, it did not happen. "We were neither welcomed nor wanted by the station chief," recalls Mustakos. For Sanford, this was eventually seen as a plus. "Blee gave me a free hand," he remembered, "but Galbraith wanted detailed weekly briefings on everything we did." [8]

At the outset, there was little for Sanford to report. Waiting for their gear to arrive (they had ordered plenty of cold-weather clothing), the team members spent their first days agreeing on a syllabus for the upcoming six months. One week later, their supplies arrived, and six of the advisers left Sanford in New Delhi for the chilled air of Chakrata. The last member, Thompson, alone went to Agra.

Once the CIA advisers arrived at the mountain training site, Brigadier Uban gave them a fast tour. A ridgeline ran east to west, with Chakrata occupying saddle in the middle. Centered in the saddle was a polo field that fell off sharp to the south for 600 meters, then less sharply for another 300 meters. North of the field was a scattering of stone houses and shops, all remnants of the colonial era and now home to a handful of hill tribesmen who populated the village.

To the immediate west of the saddle was an old but sound stone Anglican church. Farther west were stone bungalows previously used by British officers and their dependents. Most of the bungalows were similar, differing only in the number of bedrooms. Each had eighteen-inch stone walls, narrow windows, fireplaces in each room, stone floors, and a solarium facing south to trap the heat on cold days and warm the rest of the drafty house. Each CIA adviser and India officer took a bungalow, with the largest going to Brigadier Uban. [9]

East of the saddle was a series of stone barracks built by the British a century earlier and more recently used by the two Gurkha regiments. These were now holding the Tibetan recruits. There was also a longer stone building once used as a hospital, a firing range, and a walled cemetery overgrown by cedar....

Once fully settled, the CIA team was introduced to its guerrilla students. By that time, the Chakrata project had been given an official name. A decade earlier, Brigadier Uban had had a posting in command of the 22nd Mountain Regiment in Assam. Borrowing that number, he gave his Tibetans the ambiguous title of "Establishment 22."

In reviewing Establishment 22, the Americans were immediately struck by the age of the Tibetans. Although there was a sprinkling of younger recruits, nearly half were older than forty-five; some were even approaching sixty. Jamba Kalden, the chief political leader, was practically a child at forty-three. As had happened with the Mustang guerrillas, the older generation, itching for a final swing at the Chinese, had used its seniority to edge out younger candidates during the recruitment drive in the refugee camps. [11]

With much material to cover, the CIA advisers reviewed what the Indian staff had accomplished over the previous few months. Uban had initially focused his efforts on instilling a modicum of discipline, which he feared might be an impossible task. To his relief, this fear proved unfounded. The Tibetans immediately controlled their propensity for drinking and gambling at his behest; the brigadier encouraged dancing and chanting as preferable substitutes to fill their leisure time. [12]

The Indians had also started a strict regimen of physical exercise, including extended marches across the nearby hills. Because the weather varied widely -- snow blanketed the northern slopes, but the spring sun was starting to bake the south -- special care was taken to avoid pneumonia. In addition to exercise, the Indians had offered a sampling of tactical instruction. But most of it, the CIA team found, reflected a conventional mind-set. "We had to unteach quite a bit," said Mustakos. [13]

This combination -- strict exercise and a crash course in guerrilla tactics -- continued through the first week of May. At that point, classes were put on temporary hold in order to initiate airborne training. Plans called for nearly all members of Establishment 22 to be qualified as paratroopers. This made tactical sense: if the Tibetans were to operate behind Chinese lines, the logical means of infiltrating them to the other side of the Himalayas would be by parachute.

When told of the news, the Tibetans were extremely enthusiastic about the prospect of jumping. There was a major problem, however. Establishment 22 remained a secret not only from the general Indian public but also from the bulk of the Indian military. The only airborne training facilities in India were at Agra, where the CIA's T. J. Thompson was discreetly training a dozen Tibetan riggers. Because the Agra school ran jump training for the Indian army's airborne brigade, Thompson had been forced to keep the twelve well concealed. But doing the same for thousands of Tibetans would be impossible; unless careful steps were taken, the project could be exposed.

Part of the CIA's dilemma was solved by the season. The weather in the Indian lowlands during May was starting to get oppressively hot, making the dusty Agra drop zones less than popular with the airborne brigade. Most of the Tibetan jumps were intentionally scheduled around noon -- the least popular time slot, because the sun was directly overhead. The Intelligence Bureau also arranged for the Tibetans to use crude barracks in a distant corner of the air base, further reducing the chance of an encounter with inquisitive paratroopers.

As an added precaution, a member of Brigadier Uban's staff went to an insignia shop and placed an order for cap badges. Each badge featured crossed kukri knife blades with the number 12 above. The reason: after independence from the British, the Indian army had inherited seven regiments of famed Gurkhas recruited from neighboring Nepal. Along with four more regiments that transferred to the British army, the regiments were numbered sequentially, with the last being the 11th Gorkha (the Indian spelling of Gurkha) Rifles. On the assumption that most lowland Indians would be unable to differentiate between the Asian features of a Gurkha and those of a Tibetan, Establishment 22 was given the fictitious cover designation "12th Gorkha Rifles" for the duration of its stay at Agra. [14]

To oversee the airborne phase of instruction, Ken Seifarth relocated to Agra. Five jumps were planned for each candidate, including one performed at night. Because of the limited size of the barracks at the air base, the Tibetans would rotate down to the lowlands in 100-man cycles. With up to three jumps conducted each day, the entire qualification process was expected to stretch through the summer.

All was going according to plan until the evening before the first contingent was scheduled to jump. At that point, a message arrived reminding Uban that the Indian military would not accept liability for anyone older than thirty-five parachuting; in the event of death or injury, the government would not pay compensation. This put Uban in a major fix. It was vital for his staff to share training hazards with their students, and he had assumed that his officers -- none of whom were airborne qualified -- would jump alongside the Tibetans. But although they had all completed the ground phase of instruction (which had intentionally been kept simple, such as leaping off ledges into piles of hay), his men had been under the impression that they would not have to jump from an aircraft. Their lack of enthusiasm was now reinforced by the government's denial of compensation. When Uban asked for volunteers to accompany the guerrilla trainees, not a single Indian officer stepped forward. [15]

For Uban, it was now a question of retaining the confidence of the Tibetans or relinquishing his command. Looking to get special permission for government risk coverage, he phoned Mullik that evening. The intelligence director, however, was not at home. Taking what he considered the only other option, Uban gathered his officers for an emergency session. Although he had no prior parachute training, he told his men that he intended to be the first one out of the lead aircraft. This challenge proved hard to ignore. When the brigadier again asked for volunteers, every officer stepped forward.

Uban now faced a new problem. With the first jump set for early the next morning, he had a single evening to learn the basics. He summoned a pair of CIA advisers to his room in Agra's Clarkes Shiraz Hotel. Using the limited resources at hand, they put the tea table in the middle of the room and watched as the brigadier rolled uncomfortably across the floor.

Imaging the likely result of an actual jump, Seifarth spoke his mind. At forty-seven years old, he was a generation older than his CIA teammates and just a year younger than Uban. Drawing on the close rapport they had developed over the previous weeks, he implored the brigadier to reconsider. [16]

The next morning, 11 May, a C-119 Flying Boxcar crossed the skies over Agra. As the twin-tailed transport aircraft came over the drop zone, Uban was the first out the door, Seifarth the second. Landing without incident, the brigadier belatedly received a return call from Mullik. "Don't jump," said the intelligence chief. "Too late," was the response. [17]

In the weeks that followed, the rest of Establishment 22 clamored for their opportunity to leap from an aircraft. "Even cooks and drivers demanded to go," recalled Uban. Nobody was rejected for age or health reasons, including one Tibetan who had lost an eye and another who was so small that he had to strap a sandbag to his chest to deploy the chute properly. [18]

Nehru, meanwhile, was receiving regular updates on the progress at Chakrata. During autumn, with the deployment of the eight-man CIA team almost finished, he was invited to make an inspection visit to the hill camp. The Intelligence Bureau also passed a request asking the prime minister to use the opportunity to address the guerrillas directly. Nehru was sympathetic but cautious. The thought of the prime minister addressing Tibetan combatants on Indian soil had the makings of a diplomatic disaster if word leaked. Afraid of adverse publicity, he agreed to visit the camp but refused to give a speech.

Hearing this news, Uban had the men of Establishment 22 undergo a fast lesson in parade drill. The effort paid off. Though stiff and formal when he arrived on 14 November, Nehru was visibly moved when he saw the Tibetans in formation. And knowing that the prime minister was soft for roses, Uban presented him with a brilliant red blossom plucked from a garden he had planted on the side of his stone bungalow. Nehru buckled. Asking for a microphone, the prime minister poured forth some ad hoc and heartfelt comments to the guerrillas. "He said that India backed them," said Uban, "and vowed they would one day return to an independent country." [19]

***

At the beginning of the second week of November, the SFF [the Special Frontier Force] began Operation EAGLE. Taking leave of Demagiri, the guerrillas used nineteen canoes to shuttle across the Karnaphuli River and steal into East Pakistan. Coming upon an outpost that night, the Tibetans overran the position while the Pakistanis were eating. Boosted by their swift victory, they made plans to hit the next post the following morning.

Listening over the radio, General Uban was anxious. As he moved into Demagiri to coordinate both the SFF and his Bangladeshi force, he had few qualms about the Bangladeshis -- they were native boys and could live off the land -- but he knew that the Tibetans were untested under battle conditions and careless in open march.

Very quickly, his fears were confirmed. On 14 November, the lead element of Tibetans came running back toward the Indian border. Dhondup Gyatotsang, Uban learned, had been shot dead. The cousin of Mustang commander Wangdu and a Hale graduate, Dhondup had been one of the most senior political leaders in the force. Realizing that he could lose momentum, Uban got on the radio and barked at the Tibetans to resume their advance. "I told them not to come back until the position was taken," he said. [26]

The strong words had an effect. Reversing course, the SFF split into small teams and curled behind the Pakistanis in classic guerrilla fashion. Using both their Bulgarian assault rifles and native knives, they smashed through the outpost. "After that," remembers Uban, "they were unstoppable." [27]

By the time all-out war was officially declared early the following month, the SFF had been inside East Pakistan for three weeks. Multiple Indian corps blitzed from all directions on 3 December, forcing Pakistani capitulation within two weeks; Bangladesh's independence would soon follow. [28]

At the time of the ceasefire, the Tibetans were within forty kilometers of Chittagong port and had successfully pinned down the Pakistani brigade in the border hills. Taking leave of their normal anonymity, the SFF paraded through Chittagong to ecstatic Bangladeshi masses. A total of twenty- three Indian officers and forty-five Tibetans would be awarded for their gallantry; 580 Tibetans received cash bonuses. Their victory had had a cost, however. Forty-nine Tibetans had paid with their lives for the birth of a nation not their own.

Fallout from the Bangladeshi operation was swift. The CIA lodged a protest against the RAW [Intentionally patterned after the CIA, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was officially unveiled on 2 September; both the foreign intelligence desk of the Intelligence Bureau (now downgraded to domestic activities) and the paramilitary projects of the director general of security would fall under RAW's control; selected as the first RAW director was New Delhi Veteran intelligence officer Rameshwar Nath Kao] over the use of the Tibetans in Operation EAGLE. Director Kao hardly lost any sleep over the matter; with U.S. financial and advisory support to the SFF all but evaporated, the agency's leverage was nil. Bolstering his indifference was the diplomatic furor over deployment of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal during the brief war. Although Washington claimed that the vessel was there for the potential evacuation of U.S. citizens from Dacca, New Delhi suspected that it had been sent as a show of support for the Pakistanis. Bilateral ties, never good during the Nixon presidency, ebbed even lower.

More serious were the protests against Operation EAGLE from within the Tibetan refugee community. In this instance, it was Dharamsala that was under fire, not the RAW. Facing mounting criticism for having approved the deployment, the Dalai Lama made a secret journey to Chakrata on 3 June 1972. After three days of blessings, most ill feelings had wafted away.

As this was taking place, John Bellingham was approaching the end of his tour at the Special Center. He had just delivered the second installment of rehabilitation funds, which arrived in Nepal without complication. With this money, two Pokhara carpet factories had been established, and construction of a hotel in the same town was progressing according to plan. Another carpet factory was operating in Kathmandu, as was a taxi and trucking company.

By the summer of 1973, with one-third of the funds still to be distributed, the CIA opted not to deploy a new representative to the Special Center. Because Bellingham had moved next door as the CIA's chief of station in Kathmandu, and because he was already intimately familiar with the demobilization program, it was decided to send him the Indian rupees in a diplomatic pouch for direct handover to designated Tibetans in Nepal. Although this violated the agency's previous taboo against involving the Kathmandu station, an exception was deemed suitable in this case, given the humanitarian nature of the project.

The money was well spent. That November, ex-guerrillas formally opened their Pokhara hotel, the Annapurna Guest House. Bellingham and his wife were among its first patrons. [1]

***

Although all the promised funds had been distributed, the CIA was not celebrating. Wangdu had dipped into extra money saved over previous years, defied orders to completely close the project, and retained six companies -- 600 men -- spread across Mustang. Worst of all, not a single weapon had been handed back.

All this was happening as a new set of geopolitical realities was conspiring against the Tibetans. President Nixon, besides having frosty relations with India, was dedicated to normalizing ties with the PRC. In February 1972, he traveled to Beijing and discussed this possibility with Chinese leaders, who were slowly distancing themselves from the self-inflicted wounds of their Cultural Revolution. Although the phaseout of Mustang was not directly linked to this visit -- as many Tibetans have incorrectly speculated -- it is equally true that Washington had little patience for a continued Mustang sideshow, given the massive stakes involved with Sino-U.S. rapprochement.

-- The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, by Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison

Later career

With the permission of the Dalai Lama, Thondup met Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 for open political talks, which Thondup terminated in 1993, feeling them to be useless.[4] In the 1990s, Thondup made several official visits to China, acting as the Dalai Lama's unofficial envoy.[2] In recent years, Thondup has repeatedly stated that dialogue is the only way to achieve progress with China.[11] In 1998, the Central Tibetan Administration (the political arm of the Dalai Lama's anti-China diaspora faction) criticized Thondup for not letting the Dalai Lama know about the CIA's involvement in Tibet.[10] Over a decade later, Thondup accused his sister-in-law's father of embezzling money from the Central Tibetan Administration.[12]

See also

• Thubten Norbu

Publications

• (with Anne F. Thurston), The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of the Dalai Lama and the Secret Struggle for Tibet, PublicAffairs, 2015

References

1. Thurston, Anne F. (2015). The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet (1st ed.). Gurgaon: Random House India. p. 16. ISBN 978-81-8400-387-1.
2. "Dalai Lama's Older Brother Visits China". Voice of America. October 26, 2009.
3. Thurston, Anne F. (2015). The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle Tibet (1st ed.). Gurgaon: Random House India. p. 11. ISBN 978-81-8400-387-1.
4. "Gyalo Thondup: Interview Excerpts". The Wall Street Journal. Feb 20, 2009.
5. 1953-, Laird, Thomas, (2006). The story of Tibet : conversations with the Dalai Lama. Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, 1935- (1st ed.). New York: Grove Press. p. 288. ISBN 9780802143273. OCLC 63165009. "From the 1950's until today, Gyalo Thondup, who speaks fluent Chinese, Tibetan, and English, has occasionally been sought out by Taiwanese, Chinese, British, and American officials in an attempt to contact the Dalai Lama. Beginning in 1946, Chiang Kai-shel groomed him for this role. In fact, young Gyalo Thondup ate his meals at the Chiang family table, from April 1947 until the summer of 1949, and tutors selected by Chiang educated the boy.
6. Dotson, Brandon; Gurung, Kalsang Norbu; Halkias, Georgios; Myatt, Tim, eds. (2009). Contemporary visions in Tibetan studies: Proceedings of the First International Seminar of Young Tibetologists. Chicago: Serindia Publications. p. 158. ISBN 9781932476453.
7. Goldstein, Melvyn (2007). A History of Modern Tibet: The Calm Before the Storm, 1951-1955. University of California Press. pp. 236–240.
8. On the CIA's links to the Dalai Lama and his family and entourage, see Loren Coleman, Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti (London: Faber and Faber, 1989).
9. Sautman, Barry (1 March 2010). "Tibet's Putative Statehood and International Law". Chinese Journal of International Law. Oxford University Press. 9 (1): 127–142. Indeed, after the 1962 war, B.N. Mullik, India's Intelligence Bureau Chief, told Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama's brother and a top CIA asset, that India supported Tibet's “eventual liberation”.
10. "Tibet rules out Lama links with CIA". The Indian Express. October 3, 1998. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013.
11. "Former Minister Gyalo Thondup Says Weiqun Ignorant of Deng's statement on Tibet". Voice of America. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
12. Mishra, Pankaj (2015-12-01). "The Last Dalai Lama?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-12-15.

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P. N. [Parappil-Narayana] Menon (diplomat)
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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Parappil-Narayana Menon (1920- 22 June 1975),[1] also known as P.N. Menon, was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. Like his father-in-law, he undertook an overland journey to Lhasa in 1956, on foot and on horseback through the formidable Nathula Pass, to take up his post as India's Consult-General in Tibet. [2]

Personal life

He was married to Malini, the daughter of first Foreign Secretary of India, K.P.S. Menon.[3] His son is Shivshankar Menon, who as of 2011 was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.

Kumara Padma Sivasankara Menon Sr. CIE ICS (18 October 1898 – 22 November 1982), usually known as K. P. S. Menon, was a diplomat and diarist, a career member of the Indian Civil Service. He was appointed independent India's first Foreign Secretary, serving from 1948 to 1952.

He was Dewan (Prime Minister) of Bharatpur State, Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1961, and finally Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. In 1948, preceding events of the Korean War, the United Nations appointed him the Chairman of the UN Commission on Korea (UNCOK).

Menon's overland trip from Delhi to Chungking across the Himalayas, the Karakorams and the Pamirs during the Second World War was recorded in his book Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary (1947). He was a signatory on behalf of India at the formation of the United Nations. He was a member of the Royal Central Asian Society....

Menon married Saraswathi Amma, the daughter of C. Sankaran Nair. His son, who bore the same name as him, served as envoy to China and his maternal grandson Shivshankar Menon was the Foreign Secretary and later the National Security Advisor.

Menon was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Lenin Peace Prize.

-- K. P. S. [Kumara Padma Sivasankara] Menon, by Wikipedia

The International Lenin Peace Prize (Russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira) was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among comrades". It was founded as the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples, but was renamed the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples (Russian: Международная Ленинская премия «За укрепление мира между народами», Mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya «za ukrepleniye mira mezhdu narodami») as a result of de-Stalinization. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize was usually awarded to several people a year rather than to just one individual. The prize was mainly awarded to prominent Communists and supporters of the Soviet Union who were not Soviet citizens. Notable recipients include: W. E. B. Du Bois, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Mikis Theodorakis, Seán MacBride, Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Niemeyer, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Abdul Sattar Edhi and Nelson Mandela.

-- Lenin Peace Prize, by Wikipedia

Maternal Grandchild: the child of a woman's daughter: a grandchild to whom one is the maternal grandmother.

-- Maternal-Grandchild, by YourDictionary.com

Civil service

P.N. Menon first joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1947.[4] At one point, he served as Consul-General of India in Lhasa, and later served as intermediary to the young Dalai Lama during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.[5][6][7][8] He died while serving as ambassador to Greece and Yugoslavia in Belgrade.[9]

Posts held

• War Service Officer, 1947
• Consul-General of India, Lhasa, October 1954-November 1956
• First Secretary, Indian Embassy, Rome, April 1957-May 1958
• Consul-General of India, Damascus, June 1958-February 1959
• Director (External Publicity), MEA, 1959–62
• Consul-General, San Francisco, 1962–65
• Ambassador to Cambodia, 1965–68
• Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary, MEA, 1968–72
• Ambassador to Yugoslavia and Greece -1975

References

1. Almanac of Current World Leaders Biography & News: ii. September 1975. Missing or empty |title= (help)
2. K.P.S. Menon, Sr (1979). Memories and Musings. p. 310.
3. K.P.S. Menon (1981). Many Worlds Revisited. p. 276.
4. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Series II Volume 33, p. 479, footnote 16
5. Roger E. McCarthy (1997). Tears of the Lotus. p. 208.
6. Tséring Shakya (1999). The dragon in the land of snows: a history of modern Tibet since 1947. p. 215.
7. John Kenneth Knaus (1999). Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan struggle for survival. p. 172.
8. Raja Hutheesing (1960). Tibet fights for freedom: the story of the March 1959 uprising as recorded in documents, despatches [sic] eye-witness accounts and world-wide reactions. p. 84.
9. K.P.S. Menon, Sr (1979). Memories and Musings. p. 310.

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K. P. S. [Kumar Padma Sivasankara] Menon
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Kumar Padma Sivasankara Menon
CIE
Foreign Secretary
In office: 1948–1952
Monarch: George VI
Preceded by: Sir Hugh Weightman
Succeeded by: R. K. Nehru
Preceded by: Sir Olaf Caroe

TIBETAN REFUGEES

Sir. – Recent devastating events in Tibet caused over 15,000 Tibetans to cross the perilous Himalayas into India. It may be a long time before these unfortunate people can safely return to their overrun country. Our own consciences should allow us neither to neglect nor forget them.

The Indian Government has manfully coped with this addition to its own problems at home. In this country we are bound in honour to help relieve needs of the Tibetan refugees, because from 1905 to 1947 there was a special relationship between Tibet and the United Kingdom – a relationship handed on to the new India.

On balance we think it wisest to concentrate chiefly on collecting money which can be used for the benefit of the refugees, not least in the purchase of necessary antibiotics and other medicaments. The Tibet Society has opened a Tibet Relief Fund for which we now appeal in the hope of a generous response. Donations should be sent to the address below or direct to the National Bank Ltd. (Belgravia Branch), 21 Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.I.

Yours faithfully,

... [Indian Foreign Secretary Sir] Olaf Caroe ... The Tibet Relief Fund, 58 Eccleston Square, S.W. I., Letter to the Times, July 31, 1959, p.7.

-- Tibet Society, by tibetsociety.com

Preceded by: Lt-Gen Thomas Jacomb Hutton
Personal details
Born: Kumara Padma Sivasankara Menon, 18 October 1898, Travancore, British India
Died: 22 November 1982 (aged 84), Ottapalam, Kerala, India
Spouse(s) Saraswathi Amma
Occupation: Diplomat

Kumara Padma Sivasankara Menon Sr. CIE ICS (18 October 1898 – 22 November 1982), usually known as K. P. S. Menon, was a diplomat and diarist, a career member of the Indian Civil Service. He was appointed independent India's first Foreign Secretary, serving from 1948 to 1952.

He was Dewan (Prime Minister) of Bharatpur State, Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1961, and finally Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. In 1948, preceding events of the Korean War, the United Nations appointed him the Chairman of the UN Commission on Korea (UNCOK).[1]

Menon's overland trip from Delhi to Chungking across the Himalayas, the Karakorams and the Pamirs during the Second World War was recorded in his book Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary (1947).[2] He was a signatory on behalf of India at the formation of the United Nations. He was a member of the Royal Central Asian Society.[3]

Early life

K. P. S. Menon was born in Travancore, British India, in 1898 in a distinguished aristocratic family. His father Kumara Menon was a lawyer from Ottapalam. His mother Janaki Amma came from Vellayani near Thiruvananthapuram in Travancore, a niece of Kesava Pillai of Kandamath and cousin of Neyyattinkara N. K. Padmanabha Pillai. Upon her marriage to Kumara Menon,in a previously unprecedented manner (see Matrilineality in Kerala society), she moved to Kottayam to set up house with Kumara Menon who himself had moved away from his family in Ottapalam.[4] The children were also given titles from their father's side and not from the mother's side. He attended Madras Christian College and then Christ Church, University of Oxford,[5] where he was a contemporary of the future Prime Minister Anthony Eden and served as co-officers of the Asiatic Society. He served as the president of the Oxford Majlis Asian Society.[6][page needed] He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 30 November 1918,[7] but withdrew without being Called to the Bar on 15 March 1928.

Public service career

In 1922, Menon secured the first rank in the combined Civil Services Examination and joined the ICS.[8] He served as Sub-Collector of Tirupattur, Vellore District, then as District Magistrate in Trichy, Agent of the Government of India in the North West Frontier Province and Ceylon, then as Resident General of India in Hyderabad State. In 1934, he was sent as Crown Representative to investigate the state of Indians in Zanzibar, Kenya and Uganda. As Dewan of Bharatpur State, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in the New Year Honours of 1943.[9] After independence, he was India's first Foreign Secretary from 1948 to 1952, then Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, Hungary and Poland from 1952 to 1961 and Ambassador to China.[10] [11]

Menon married Saraswathi Amma, the daughter of C. Sankaran Nair.[12] His son, who bore the same name as him, served as envoy to China and his maternal grandson Shivshankar Menon was the Foreign Secretary and later the National Security Advisor.[13][10]

Menon was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958[14] and the Lenin Peace Prize.[5]

The International Lenin Peace Prize (Russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira) was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among comrades". It was founded as the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples, but was renamed the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples (Russian: Международная Ленинская премия «За укрепление мира между народами», Mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya «za ukrepleniye mira mezhdu narodami») as a result of de-Stalinization. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize was usually awarded to several people a year rather than to just one individual. The prize was mainly awarded to prominent Communists and supporters of the Soviet Union who were not Soviet citizens. Notable recipients include: W. E. B. Du Bois, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Mikis Theodorakis, Seán MacBride, Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Niemeyer, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Abdul Sattar Edhi and Nelson Mandela.

-- Lenin Peace Prize, by Wikipedia

Works

Menon's published writings include:[15]

• Many Worlds: An Autobiography
• Many Worlds Revisited - updated autobiography
• Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary (1947)
• Russian Panorama
• The Friendship of Great Peoples (1962)
• The Flying Troika (1963)
• The Resurgence of India: Reformation Or Revolution? Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lectures (1963)
• India & the Cold War (1966)
• Journey Round the World (1966)
• Biography of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair
• Lenin through Indian Eyes (1970)
• Russia Revisited (1971)
• The Lamp and the Lampstand
• Twilight in China (1972)
• The Indo-Soviet Treaty: Setting & Sequel (1972)
• A Diplomat Speaks (1974)
• Yesterday and Today (1975) - a collection of articles, illustrated by Abu Abraham
• Changing Patterns of Diplomacy- Dr. Saiyidain Memorial Lectures (1977)
• Memories and Musings (1979)
• One Thousand Full Moons (Published posthumously in 1987)

References

1. http://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/det ... 87646.html
2. Menon, K. P. S. Delhi Chungking.
3. Menon, K. P. S. Many Worlds.
4. K. P. S. Menon in K.P.S. Menon, Sr (1979). Memories and Musings. p. 310.
5. "K. P. S. Menon". Mahatma Gandhi University. Archived from the original on 2 November 2011.
6. Menon in Many World Revisited, Bhavan, Bombay,1981
7. Sturgess, H. A. C. (1949). Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple(PDF). 3. Butterworth. p. 830.
8. "No. 32763". The London Gazette. 3 November 1922. p. 7802.
9. "No. 35841". The London Gazette. 29 December 1942. p. 7.
10. "Menon is next NSA". The Hindu. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
11. See Introduction in Patel Memorial Lectures, Publications Division Government of India March 1963
12. "Succession of diplomats from Palat family". The Hindu. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
13. "S S Menon, who served in Israel, China and Pak, is new Foreign Secy". Indian Express. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
14. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
15. Front Cover of Title Page, Memories and Musings, last work written. See K. P. S. Menon,Memories and Musings, Allied Publishers, New Delhi 1979

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Lenin Peace Prize
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

The back of the Lenin Peace Prize Medal

The International Lenin Peace Prize (Russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira) was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among comrades". It was founded as the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples, but was renamed the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples (Russian: Международная Ленинская премия «За укрепление мира между народами», Mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya «za ukrepleniye mira mezhdu narodami») as a result of de-Stalinization. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize was usually awarded to several people a year rather than to just one individual. The prize was mainly awarded to prominent Communists and supporters of the Soviet Union who were not Soviet citizens. Notable recipients include: W. E. B. Du Bois, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Mikis Theodorakis, Seán MacBride, Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Niemeyer, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Abdul Sattar Edhi and Nelson Mandela.

History

The prize was created as the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples on December 21, 1949 by executive order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in honor of Joseph Stalin's seventieth birthday (although this was after his seventy-first).

Following Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956 during the Twentieth Party Congress, the prize was renamed on September 6 as the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples. All previous recipients were asked to return their Stalin Prizes so they could be replaced by the renamed Lenin Prize. By a decision of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 11, 1989, the prize was renamed the International Lenin Peace Prize.[1] Two years later, after the collapse of USSR in 1991, the Russian government, as the successor state to the defunct Soviet Union, ended the award program. The Lenin Peace Prize is regarded as a counterpart to the existing Nobel Peace Prize.

The International Lenin Prize should not be confused with the International Peace Prize, awarded by the World Peace Council. In 1941 the Soviet Union created the Stalin Prize (later renamed the USSR State Prize), which was awarded annually to accomplished Soviet writers, composers, artists and scientists.

Stalin Prize recipients

Year / Name / Occupation / Country / Notes
1950 / Eugénie Cotton[2][3] (1881–1967) / Scientist, President of the Women's International Democratic Federation / France / Awarded 6 April 1951
1950 / Heriberto Jara Corona[2][3] (1879–1968) / Politician, revolutionary / Mexico / Awarded 6 April 1951
1950 / Hewlett Johnson[2][3] (1874–1966) / Priest, Dean of Manchester (1924–1931), Dean of Canterbury (1931–1963) / United Kingdom / Awarded 6 April 1951
1950 / Frédéric Joliot-Curie[2][3] (1900–1958) / Physicist, Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Professor at the Collège de France, President of the World Peace Council (1950–1958), Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1935) / France / Awarded 6 April 1951
1950 / Arthur Moulton[2][3] (1873–1962) / Episcopal bishop / United States / Declined
1950 / Pak Chong-ae[2][3] (1907–?) / Politician, Chairwoman of the Korean Democratic Women's League (1945–1965) / North Korea / Awarded 6 April 1951
1950 / Soong Ching-ling[2][3] (1893–1981) / Politician, Vice President of China (1949–1954; 1959–1975) / China / Awarded 6 April 1951
1951 / Jorge Amado[4][5][6] (1912–2001) / Writer, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (1961–2001) / Brazil / Awarded 20 December 1951
1951 / Monica Felton[4][5] (1906–1970) / Town planner, feminist, politician / United Kingdom / Awarded 20 December 1951
1951 / Guo Moruo[7][4] (1892–1978) / Writer, scientist, politician, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1949–1978) / China / Awarded 20 December 1951
1951 / Pietro Nenni[4][5] (1891–1980) / Politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy (1946–1947; 1968–1969), Deputy Prime Minister of Italy (1963–1968) / Italy / Awarded 20 December 1951
1951 / Oyama Ikuo[4][5] (1889–1955) / Politician, Member of the House of Councillors of Japan / Japan / Awarded 20 December 1951
1951 / Anna Seghers[4][5] (1900–1983) / Writer / East Germany / Awarded 20 December 1951
1952 / Johannes R. Becher[5][8] (1891–1958) / Writer / East Germany / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Elisa Branco [pt][5][8] (1912–2001) / Politician, Vice President of the Council of Brazilian Advocates for Peace (1949–1960) / Brazil / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Ilya Ehrenburg[5][8] (1891–1967) / Writer, journalist / Soviet Union / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / James Gareth Endicott[5][8] (1898–1993) / Clergyman / Canada / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Yves Farge[5][8] (1899–1953) / Journalist, politician / France / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Halldór Laxness[9] (1902–1998) / Writer, Nobel laureate in Literature (1955) / Iceland / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Saifuddin Kitchlew[5][8] (1888–1963) / Barrister, politician, Vice President of the World Peace Council (1955–1959), President of the All-India Peace Council / India / Awarded 20 December 1952
1952 / Paul Robeson[5][8] (1898–1976) / Singer, actor / United States / Awarded 20 December 1952
1953 / Andrea Andreen[5][10] (1888–1972) / Physician, educator, Chairman of the Swedish Women's Left-Wing Association (1946–1964), Vice President of the Women's International Democratic Federation / Sweden / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / John Desmond Bernal[7][10] (1901–1971) / Scientist, Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, Fellow of the Royal Society (1937), President of the World Peace Council (1959–1965) / United Kingdom / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Isabelle Blume[7][10] (1892–1975) / Politician, Member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (1936–1954), President of the World Peace Council (1965–1969) / Belgium / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Pierre Cot[10] (1895–1977) / Politician, Member of the National Assembly of France (1928–1940) / France / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Howard Fast[5][10] (1914–2003) / Writer / United States / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Andrea Gaggiero [it][5][10] (1916–1988) / Priest / Italy / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Leon Kruczkowski[5][10] (1900–1962) / Writer / Poland / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Pablo Neruda[5][6][10] (1904–1973) / Poet, diplomat, Nobel laureate in Literature (1971) / Chile / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Nina Popova [ru][5][10] (1908–1994) / Politician, Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (1945–1957) / Soviet Union / Awarded 12 December 1953
1953 / Sahib Singh Sokhey[5][10] (1887–1971) / Biochemist, Member of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization (1949–1952) / India / Awarded 12 December 1953
1954 / André Bonnard [fr][11][12] (1888–1959) / Scholar, writer, Professor at the University of Lausanne / Switzerland / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Bertolt Brecht[11][12] (1898–1956) / Playwright, poet, theatre director / Austria (citizenship)
East Germany (residence) / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Nicolás Guillén[6][11][13] (1902–1989) / Poet / Cuba / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Felix Iversen[11][12] (1887–1973) / Mathematician, Professor at the University of Helsinki, Chairman of the Peace Union of Finland / Finland / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Thakin Kodaw Hmaing[11][12] (1876–1964) / Poet / Burma / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Alain Le Léap [fr][11] (1905–1986) / Trade unionist, General Secretary of the General Confederation of Labour (1948–1957) / France / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Prijono[11][12] (1907–1969) / Academic, politician, Minister of Culture and Education of Indonesia (1957–1966) / Indonesia / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Denis Pritt[11][14] (1887–1972) / Barrister, politician, Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom (1935–1950) / United Kingdom / Awarded 18 December 1954
1954 / Baldomero Sanín Cano[6][11] (1861–1957) / Essayist, linguist, journalist / Colombia / Awarded 18 December 1954
1955 / Muhammad al-Ashmar[15][16] (1892–1960) / Rebel commander, politician / Syria / Awarded 9 December 1955
1955 / Lázaro Cárdenas[15][16] (1895–1970) / General, politician, President of Mexico (1934–1940) / Mexico / Awarded 9 December 1955
1955 / Ragnar Forbech [no][15][16] (1894–1975) / Priest, Chaplain of Oslo Cathedral (1947–1964) / Norway / Awarded 9 December 1955
1955 / Seki Akiko[15][16] (1899–1973) / Singer / Japan / Awarded 9 December 1955
1955 / Tôn Đức Thắng[15][16] (1888–1980) / Politician, President of North Vietnam (1969–1976), President of Vietnam (1976–1980) / North Vietnam / Awarded 9 December 1955
1955 / Karl Joseph Wirth[15][16] (1879–1956) / Politician, Chancellor of Germany (1921–1922) / West Germany / Awarded 9 December 1955
Unknown year (before 1953) / Martin Andersen Nexø[17] (1869–1954) / Writer / Denmark

Lenin Prize recipients

Year / Name / Occupation / Country / Notes

1957 / Louis Aragon[14] (1897–1982) / Poet / France
1957 / Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie[14] (1900–1969) / Journalist, politician, Member of the National Assembly of France (1945–1958) / France
1957 / Heinrich Brandweiner [de][14] (1910–1997) / Jurist, Chairman of the Peace Council of Austria / Austria
1957 / Danilo Dolci[14][18] (1924–1997) / Social activist, educator, sociologist / Italy
1957 / María Rosa Oliver[6][14] (1898–1977) / Writer, essayist / Argentina
1957 / C. V. Raman[14] (1888–1970) / Physicist, Professor at the University of Calcutta, President of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1934–1970) / India
1957 / Udakendawala Siri Saranankara Thero [nl][14] (1902–1966) / Buddhist monk / Ceylon
1957 / Nikolai Tikhonov[14] (1896–1979) / Writer, Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee (1949–1979) / Soviet Union
1958 / Josef Hromádka[7][19] (1889–1969) / Protestant theologian, founder of the Christian Peace Conference / Czechoslovakia
1958 / Artur Lundkvist[7][20] (1906–1991) / Writer, literary critic, Member of the Swedish Academy (1968–1991) / Sweden
1958 / Louis Saillant[7] (1906–1991) / Trade unionist, General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (1945–1969) / France
1958 / Kaoru Yasui [ja][7][21] (1907–1980) / Jurist, scholar, Professor at the University of Tokyo, Chairman of the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (1954–1965) / Japan
1958 / Arnold Zweig[7][22] (1887–1968) / Writer / East Germany
1959 / Otto Buchwitz [de][23][24] (1879–1964) / Politician, Member of the Reichstag (1924–1933), Member of the Volkskammer (1946–1964) / East Germany / Awarded 30 April 1959
1959 / W. E. B. Du Bois[23][24] (1868–1963) / Sociologist, historian, civil rights activist / United States / Awarded 30 April 1959
1959 / Nikita Khrushchev[23][24] (1894–1971) / Politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953–1964) / Soviet Union / Awarded 30 April 1959
1959 / Ivor Montagu[23][24] (1904–1984) / Filmmaker, critic / United Kingdom / Awarded 30 April 1959
1959 / Kostas Varnalis[23][24] (1884–1974) / Poet / Greece / Awarded 30 April 1959
1960 / Laurent Casanova[25][26] (1906–1972) / Politician, Member of the National Assembly of France (1945–1958) / France / Awarded 3 May 1960
1960 / Cyrus S. Eaton[25][26] (1883–1979) / Industrialist / Canada, United States / Awarded 3 May 1960
1960 / Oleksandr Korniychuk (1905–1972) / Playwright / Soviet Union / Awarded 3 May 1960
1960 / Aziz Sharif [ar][26][27] (1904–1990) / Politician, Chairman of the Peace Partisans Organization of Iraq[28] / Iraq / Awarded 3 May 1960
1960 / Sukarno[25][26] (1901–1970) / Politician, President of Indonesia (1945–1967) / Indonesia / Awarded 3 May 1960
1961 / Fidel Castro[29][30] (1926–2016) / Politician, revolutionary, Prime Minister of Cuba (1959–1976), President of Cuba (1976–2008) / Cuba / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Ostap Dłuski [pl][29][30] (1892–1964) / Politician, Member of the Sejm (1961–1964) / Poland / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Bill Morrow[29][30] (1888–1980) / Politician, Member of the Australian Senate (1947–1953) / Australia / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Rameshwari Nehru[29][30] (1886–1966) / Social worker, founder of the All India Women's Conference / India / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Mihail Sadoveanu[29][30] (1880–1961) / Writer / Romania / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Antoine Tabet[29][30] (1907–1964) / Architect, Chairman of the Lebanese National Peace Council[31] / Lebanon / Awarded 30 April 1961
1961 / Ahmed Sékou Touré[29][30] (1922–1984) / Politician, President of Guinea (1958–1984) / Guinea / Awarded 30 April 1961
1962 / István Dobi[32][33][34] (1898–1968) / Politician, Prime Minister of Hungary (1948–1952) / Hungary / Awarded 30 April 1962
1962 / Faiz Ahmad Faiz[32][33][34] (1911–1984) / Poet / Pakistan / Awarded 30 April 1962
1962 / Kwame Nkrumah[32][33][34][35] (1909–1972) / Politician, Prime Minister of Ghana (1957–1960), President of Ghana (1960–1966) / Ghana / Awarded 30 April 1962
1962 / Pablo Picasso[32][33][34] (1881–1973) / Painter, sculptor / Spain / Awarded 30 April 1962
1962 / Olga Poblete[32][34] (1908–1999) / Teacher, feminist, Professor at the University of Chile, President of the Chilean Movement of Advocates for Peace / Chile / Awarded 30 April 1962
1963 / Manolis Glezos[36][37] (born 1922) Politician, guerilla / Greece / Awarded 1 May 1963
1963 / Modibo Keïta[35][38][36] (1915–1977) / Politician, President of Mali (1960–1968) / Mali / Awarded 1 May 1963
1963 / Oscar Niemeyer[36][37] (1907–2012) / Architect / Brazil / Awarded 1 May 1963
1963 / Georgi Traykov[36][39] (1898–1975) / Politician, Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria (1964–1971) / Bulgaria / Awarded 1 May 1963
1964 / Rafael Alberti[40] (1902–1999) / Poet / Spain / Awarded 1 May 1964
1964 / Aruna Asaf Ali[40][41] (1909–1996) / Politician, independence activist, Vice President of the Women's International Democratic Federation / India / Presented 14 August 1965
1964 / Ahmed Ben Bella[42] (1916–2012) / Politician, revolutionary, President of Algeria (1963–1965) / Algeria / Awarded 1 May 1964
1964 / Herluf Bidstrup[42] (1912–1988) / Cartoonist, illustrator / Denmark / Awarded 1 May 1964
1964 / Dolores Ibárruri[13][42] (1895–1989) / Politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (1942–1960) / Spain / Awarded 1 May 1964
1964 / Ota Kaoru [ja][40] (1912–1988) / Trade unionist, Chairman of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (1955–1966) / Japan / Awarded 1 May 1964
1965 / Peter Ayodele Curtis Joseph[35][43] (1920–2006) / Politician / Nigeria
1965 / Jamsrangiin Sambuu[40] (1895–1972) / Politician, Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Great Khural (1954–1972) / Mongolia
1965 / Mirjam Vire-Tuominen [fi][43] (1919–2011) / Politician, General Secretary of the Finnish Peace Committee (1949–1975), General Secretary of the Women's International Democratic Federation (1978–1987), Member of the Parliament of Finland (1970–1979) / Finland
1966 / David Alfaro Siqueiros[44][45] (1896–1974) / Painter / Mexico / Awarded 1 May 1967
1966 / Miguel Ángel Asturias[6][43][46] (1899–1974) / Writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate in Literature (1967) / Guatemala
1966 / Bram Fischer[44][45] (1908–1975) / Advocate, anti-apartheid activist / South Africa / Awarded 1 May 1967
1966 / Rockwell Kent[44][45] (1882–1971) / Painter, printmaker, adventurer / United States / Awarded 1 May 1967
1966 / Ivan Málek [cs][44][45] (1909–1994) / Microbiologist, Professor at Charles University, Member of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia (1960–1968) / Czechoslovakia / Awarded 1 May 1967
1966 / Giacomo Manzù[43][47] (1908–1991) / Sculptor / Italy
1966 / Martin Niemöller[44][45] (1892–1984) / Lutheran pastor, theologian, President of the World Council of Churches (1961–1968) / West Germany / Awarded 1 May 1967
1966 / Herbert Warnke [de][44][45] (1902–1975) / Trade unionist, Chairman of the Free German Trade Union Federation (1946–1975) / East Germany / Awarded 1 May 1967
1967 / Romesh Chandra[48] (1919–2016) / Politician, President of the World Peace Council (1977–1990) / India
1967 / Jean Effel[48] (1908–1982) / Illustrator, journalist / France
1967 / Joris Ivens[48] (1898–1989) / Documentary filmmaker / Netherlands
1967 / Nguyễn Thị Định[48] (1920–1992) / General, politician, Vice President of Vietnam (1987–1992) / South Vietnam
1967 / Endre Sík[48] (1891–1978) / Politician, historian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary (1958–1961) / Hungary
1967 / Jorge Zalamea Borda[48] (1905–1969) / Writer, politician / Colombia
1968–1969 / Akira Iwai [ja][12] (1922–1997) / Trade unionist, General Secretary of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan / Japan / Awarded 16 April 1970
1968–1969 / Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.jpg Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz[12] (1894–1980) / Writer / Poland / Awarded 16 April 1970
1968–1969 / Khaled Mohieddin[12] (1922–2018) / Major, politician, Chairman of the Egyptian Peace Council / UAR / Awarded 16 April 1970
1968–1969 / Linus Pauling[12] (1901–1994) / Chemist, educator, Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1954), Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1962) / United States / Awarded 16 April 1970
1968–1969 S/ hafie Ahmed el Sheikh[12] (1924–1971) / Trade unionist, politician / Sudan / Awarded 16 April 1970
1968–1969 / Bertil Svahnström [sv][12] (1907–1972) / Journalist, writer / Sweden / Awarded 16 April 1970
1970–1971 / Hikmat Abu Zayd[49] (1922/1923–2011) / Politician, academic, Minister of Social Affairs of the United Arab Republic (1962–1965) / UAR
1970–1971 / Eric Burhop[50][51] (1911–1980) / Physicist, Professor at University College London, Fellow of the Royal Society (1963) / Australia, United Kingdom
1970–1971 / Ernst Busch[50] (1900–1980) / Singer, actor / East Germany
1970–1971 / Tsola Dragoycheva[50] (1898–1993) / Politician, Member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria (1946–1990) / Bulgaria
1970–1971 / Renato Guttuso[50][52] (1912–1987) / Painter / Italy
1970–1971 / Kamal Jumblatt[50][53] (1917–1977) / Politician, Member of the Parliament of Lebanon (1947–1977) / Lebanon
1970–1971 / Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti[54][55] (1900–1978) / Teacher, women's rights activist / Nigeria
1970–1971 / Alfredo Varela [es][6][50] (1914–1984) / Writer / Argentina
1972 / James Aldridge[56][57] (1918–2015) / Writer / Australia, United Kingdom , Awarded 1 May 1973
1972 / Salvador Allende[56][57] (1908–1973) / Politician, physician, President of Chile (1970–1973) / Chile / Awarded 1 May 1973
1972 / Leonid Brezhnev[56][57] (1906–1982) / Politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1964–1982) / Soviet Union / Awarded 1 May 1973
1972 / Enrique Pastorino[56][57] (1918–1995) / Trade unionist, politician, President of the World Federation of Trade Unions (1969–1975) / Uruguay / Awarded 1 May 1973
1973–1974 / Luis Corvalán[58] (1916–2010) / Politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile (1958–1990) / Chile
1973–1974 / Raymond Goor[58] (1908–1996) / Priest / Belgium
1973–1974 / Jeanne Martin Cissé[58] (1926–2017) / Politician, teacher / Guinea
1973–1974 / Sam Nujoma[35] (born 1929) / Politician, anti-apartheid activist, President of Namibia (1990–2005) / South Africa (before 1990), Namibia (after 1990)
1975–1976 / Hortensia Bussi de Allende[59][60] (1913–2009) / Educator, librarian, First Lady of Chile (1970–1973) / Chile W/ idow of Salvador Allende (recipient in 1972) / Awarded May 1977
1975–1976 / János Kádár[59][60] (1912–1989) / Politician, General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (1956–1988) / Hungary / Awarded May 1977
1975–1976 / Seán MacBride[59][60] (1904–1988) / Politician, barrister, International chairman of Amnesty International (1965–1974), Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1974)
/ Ireland, France / Awarded May 1977
1975–1976 / Samora Machel[35][59][60] (1933–1986) / Politician, revolutionary, President of Mozambique (1975–1986) / Mozambique A/ warded May 1977
1975–1976 / Agostinho Neto[35][59][60] (1922–1979) / Politician, revolutionary, President of Angola (1975–1979) / Angola / Awarded May 1977
1975–1976 / Pierre Pouyade[59][60] (1911–1979) / Brigadier general, Chairman of the Franco-Soviet Friendship Association / France / Awarded May 1977
1975–1976 / Yiannis Ritsos[59][60] (1909–1990) / Poet / Greece / Awarded May 1977
1977–1978 / Kurt Bachmann [de][61][62] (1909–1997) / Politician, Chairman of the German Communist Party (1969–1973) / West Germany / Awarded 1 May 1979
1977–1978 / Freda Brown[59][60] (1919–2009) / Politician, President of the Women's International Democratic Federation (1975–1989) / Australia / Awarded 1 May 1979
1977–1978 / Vilma Espín[59][60] (1930–2007) / Revolutionary, politician, President of the Federation of Cuban Women (1960–2007) / Cuba / Awarded 1 May 1979
1977–1978 / K. P. S. Menon[59][60] (1898–1982) Diplomat, Foreign Secretary of India (1948–1952) / India / Awarded 1 May 1979
1977–1978 / Halina Skibniewska[59][60] (1921–2011) / Architect, politician, Deputy Marshal of the Sejm (1971–1985) / Poland / Awarded 1 May 1979
1979 / Hervé Bazin[63][64] (1911–1996) / Writer / France A/ warded 30 April 1980
1979 / Angela Davis[61][62] (born 1944) / Activist, academic, Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz / United States / Awarded 30 April 1980
1979 / Urho Kekkonen[63][64][65][66] (1900–1986) / Politician, lawyer, President of Finland (1956–1982) / Finland / Awarded 30 April 1980
1979 / Abd al-Rahman al-Khamisi [ar][63][64] (1920–1987) / Poet, composer / Egypt / Awarded 30 April 1980
1979 / Lê Duẩn[63][64] (1907–1986) / Politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1960–1986) / Vietnam / Awarded 30 April 1980
1979 / Miguel Otero Silva[63][64] (1908–1985) / Writer, journalist / Venezuela / Awarded 30 April 1980
1980–1982 / Mahmoud Darwish[67][68] (1941–2008) / Poet / Palestine / Awarded May 1983
1980–1982 / John Hanly Morgan[67][68] (1918–2018) / Unitarian minister / United States, Canada / Awarded May 1983
1980–1982 / Líber Seregni[67][68] (1916–2004) / Politician, military officer / Uruguay / Awarded May 1983
1980–1982 / Mikis Theodorakis[67][68] (born 1925) / Composer / Greece / Awarded May 1983
1983–1984 / Charilaos Florakis (1914–2005) / Politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (1972–1989) / Greece / Awarded 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Indira Gandhi[69][70][71] (1917–1984) / Politician, Prime Minister of India (1980–1984) / India / Awarded posthumously on 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Jean-Marie Legay[69][70][71] (1925–2012) / Academic / France / Awarded 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Nguyễn Hữu Thọ[69][70][71] (1910–1996) / Politician, Chairman of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (1969–1976), Acting President of Vietnam (1980–1981) / Vietnam / Awarded 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Eva Palmær [se][69][70][71] (1904–1995) / Writer, chemist, Chairwoman of the Sweden-Soviet Union Association (1979–1987) / Sweden / Awarded 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Luis Vidales[69][70][71] (1904–1990) / Poet / Colombia / Awarded 1 May 1985
1983–1984 / Josef Weber [de][69][70][71] (1908–1985) / Politician, peace activist / West Germany / Awarded 1 May 1985
1985–1986/ Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann[72][73] (1933–2017) / Politician, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua (1979–1990), President of the United Nations General Assembly (2008–2009) / Nicaragua
1985–1986 / Dorothy Hodgkin[72] (1910–1994) / Chemist, Fellow of the Royal Society (1947), Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1964) / United Kingdom
1985–1986/ Herbert Mies[72] (1929–2017) / Politician, Chairman of the German Communist Party (1973–1989) / West Germany
1985–1986 / Julius Nyerere[72][74] (1922–1999) / Politician, anti-colonial activist, President of Tanzania (1964–1985) / Tanzania
1985–1986 / Petur Tanchev[72] (1920–1992) / Politician, Member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria (1950–1990) / Bulgaria
1988 / Abdul Sattar Edhi[75] (1928–2016) / Philanthropist, ascetic / Pakistan
1989 / Álvaro Cunhal (1913–2005) / Politician, Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party (1961–1992) / Portugal
1990 / Nelson Mandela[35][76][77] (1918–2013) / Politician, anti-apartheid activist, President of South Africa (1994–1999), Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1993) / South Africa / Unable to accept the prize until 2002 due to his trial and imprisonment in South Africa
Unknown year / Martti Ahtisaari[78] (born 1937) / Politician, diplomat, President of Finland (1994–2000), Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2008) / Finland
Unknown year / Valerie Goulding[78] (1918–2003) / Campaigner I/ reland

See also

• Atoms for Peace Award

References

1. "ПОСТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ПРЕЗИДИУМА ВС СССР ОТ 11.12.1989 N 905-1 О МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ ЛЕНИНСКОЙ ПРЕМИИ МИРА" (in Russian). 2006-10-12.
2. О присуждении международных Сталинских премий "За укрепление мира между народами" за 1950 год. Pravda. Apr 6, 1951 [1]
3. The Deseret News – Apr 7, 1951
4. The Miami News – Dec 21, 1951
5. Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian) (2nd ed.). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1953. vol. 24, p. 366.
6. El Tiempo – Jun 10, 1980
7. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1959.
8. Eugene Register-Guard – Dec 22, 1952
9. Sontag, Susan (20 February 2005). "A Report on the Journey". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
10. Reading Eagle – Dec 21, 1953
11. St. Petersburg Times – Dec 21, 1954
12. Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian) (3rd ed.). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. In some cases in GSE's 3rd edition the year is that, "in which" the Prize was awarded, in other cases – "for which". Hence, the year "1970" there seems to be the Prize "for 1969" or "for 1968–1969"
13. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1989.
14. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1958.
15. О присуждении международных Сталинских премий "За укрепление мира между народами" за 1955 год. Pravda. Dec 21, 1955, page 1 [2]
16. Toledo Blade – Dec 21, 1955
17. "Lenin Peace Prize". NNDB. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
18. The Telegraph – Apr 8, 1965
19. Toledo Blade – Dec 29, 1969
20. Eugene Register-Guard – Oct 8, 1983
21. Reading Eagle – Apr 11, 1965
22. Vochenblatt – Nov 27, 1958
23. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1960.
24. The Deseret News – May 1, 1959
25. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1961.
26. The Spokesman-Review – May 4, 1960
27. Yitzhak Oron, ed. (1960). Middle East Record Volume 1.
28. Sharif, Issam. "Abstract: Aziz Sharif (1904-1990)" (PDF). http://www.issamsharif.com. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
29. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1962.
30. Schenectady Gazette – May 1, 1961
31. "Tabet, Antoine Georges". The Free Dictionary. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
32. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1963.
33. The Milwaukee Journal – Apr 30, 1962
34. Daytona Beach Morning Journal – May 1, 1962
35. Meddlesome Medals?
36. Toledo Blade – Apr 30, 1963
37. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1964.
38. "Modibo Keita." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
39. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1965.
40. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1966.
41. The Sumter Daily Item – Aug 14, 1965
42. Toledo Blade – Apr 30, 1964
43. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1967. p. 623.
44. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1968. p. 622.
45. The Miami News – May 1, 1967
46. The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 10, 1974
47. Lodi News-Sentinel – Jan 19, 1991
48. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1969. p. 607.
49. Shukri, Sabin M. (1984). The International Who's Who of the Arab World (2nd ed.). London: International Who's Who of the Arab World. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-9506122-1-8.
50. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1972. p. 618.
51. Toledo Blade – Jan 23, 1980
52. The Palm Beach Post – Jan 19, 1987
53. Lewiston Evening Journal – Mar 16, 1977
54. Sansom, Ian (11 December 2010). "Great Dynasties: The Ransome-Kutis". The Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
55. Johnson-Odim, Cheryl (January–February 2009). "'For their freedoms': The anti-imperialist and international feminist activity of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria". Women's Studies International Forum. 32 (1): 58. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2009.01.004. Pdf.[permanent dead link]
56. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1973. p. 634.
57. The Milwaukee Journal – May 1, 1973
58. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1975. p. 653.
59. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1977. p. 633.
60. Lakeland Ledger – May 2, 1977
61. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1979. p. 573.
62. The Spokesman-Review – May 1, 1979
63. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1980. p. 577.
64. Toledo Blade – Apr 30, 1980
65. The Evening Independent, October 27, 1981
66. Star-News – Nov 14, 1980
67. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1983.
68. Reading Eagle – May 4, 1983
69. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1985. p. 571.
70. El Tiempo – May 1, 1985
71. LENIN PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO INDIRA GANDHI
72. Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1987. p. 599.
73. Herald-Journal – Jan 15, 1988
74. The Telegraph – Sep 9, 1987
75. Daily Times, January 30th 2008
76. The Great Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya. 1991. vol. 1, p. 759.
77. MANDELA FINALLY PICKS UP PRIZE
78. "Lenin Peace Prize Recipients". Research History. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

External links

• Thoughts on winning the Stalin Peace Prize by Paul Robeson
• On Receiving the Stalin Peace Award by Howard Fast
• Soviet Prize Medals pictures of the medals and accompanying certificates
• (in Russian) PDF-version of issue of Pravda with ukaz about creation of prize.

[admin]

The Kamalashila Institute
by Kamalashila Institute for Buddhist Studies and Meditation
https://www.kamalashila.de/en/institute/
Accessed: 11/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

The Peace Stupa in the garden of Kamalashila Institute

Kamalashila Institute was founded in 1981. It is one of the first Tibetan Buddhist centres in Europe and is the European seat of the Karmapa. The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage. The 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is one of the highest ranking lamas of Tibetan Buddhism. The spiritual director of Kamalashila Institute is Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche, who himself grew up under the care of the 16th Karmapa. Although he lives in the USA and runs his own centre in Seattle, Rinpoche still visits us on a regular basis.

Focus of Kamalashila Institute’s Programme

Langenfeld, a small village in the Eifel region, has been the home of Kamalashila Institute since 1999. The cities of Cologne, Bonn, and Koblenz are only a short distance away. Kamalashila Institute is a part of Karma Kagyü Gemeinschaft Deutschland e.V., which is a German association and the German branch of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Our meditation courses and Buddhist studies programmes are therefore centered around the Kagyu tradition. In addition to the many Tibetan Buddhist teachers who give teachings, practice instructions, and who lead retreats in Kamalashila, Kamalashila also hosts a large number of American and European teachers who teach on different kinds of meditation practices and Buddhist philosophies. Those courses that deal with the further development of Tibetan Buddhism in the West are very popular. These include seminars on things such as stress reduction, mindfulness training, relaxation techniques, Buddhist end of life care, and various body therapies. Even teachers from other Buddhist schools and traditions in Europe and North America are regular guests in Kamalashila Institute. These teachers teach on other Buddhist meditation practices and views.

Kamalashila Institut is at Buddhistisches Institut Karma Tengyal Ling

Daily Meditation Practices at Kamalashila Institute

At the heart of the activities of Kamalashila Institute is the work of our two resident lamas. Both of them live permanently in Kamalashila and preside over the daily meditation practices, normally in the form of pujas of various Tibetan Buddhist meditations or silent sitting-meditation practices. Our resident lamas also guide retreats and teach a variety of courses on topics such as meditation and Buddhism, the Medicine Buddha, or guru yoga. They are also very open to personal meetings with you to discuss your spiritual practice. Our current resident lamas are Acharya Lama Sönam Rabgye from Nepal and Acharya Lama Kelzang Wangdi from Bhutan..

Other Facilities in Kamalashila Institute

Kamalashila is well-known for its extensive library. It also has a Dharmashop where you can purchase Tibetan prayer texts, Buddhist literature, audio recordings, calendars, and authentic Tibetan arts and crafts such as handmade Buddhist thangkas and statues. Directly beside the shop is our Café Stupa (Link), which is open on weekends. The café is a popular meeting place for relaxing and chatting during the seminar breaks. It is also popular among outside guests as well. Kamalashila’s facilities are also available for one’s own meditation practices or for retreats. Just give us a call if you are interested.

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Part 1 of 2

Mustang District
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Mustang District
मुस्ताङ जिल्ला
གློ་སྨོན་ཐང་།
District
A scene of Mustang

Location of Mustang

Divisions of Mustang
Country Nepal
Province Gandaki Pradesh
Admin HQ. Jomsom
Government
• Type Coordination committee
• Body DCC, Mustang
• Head Mrs. Chhiring Lhamo Gurung
• Deputy-Head Mr. Rajendra Sherchan
• Parliamentary constituencies 1
• Provincial constituencies 2
Area[1]
• Total 3,573 km2 (1,380 sq mi)
[1]
Highest elevation 8,167 m (26,795 ft)
Lowest elevation 2,010 m (6,590 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
• Total 13,452
• Density 3.8/km2 (9.8/sq mi)
• Households 3,305
Time zone UTC+05:45 (NPT)
Postal Codes
33100, 33102, 33103... 33109
Telephone Code 069
Main Language(s) Nepali and Tibetan
Website ddcmustang.gov.np

Mustang District (Nepali: मुस्ताङ जिल्लाAbout this soundListen (help·info)) is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. It covers an area of 3,573 km2 (1,380 sq mi) and has a population (2011) of 13,452.[2] The headquarters is Jomsom.

The district is in Dhawalagiri Zone and part of Gandaki Pradesh in northern Nepal, straddles the Himalayas and extends northward onto the Tibetan Plateau. The district is one of the remotest areas in Nepal and is second in terms of the sparsity of population.[3] The elevation ranges from 1,372 to 8,167 meters (Mount Dhaulagiri, the 7th highest mountain in the world), with several peaks above 7,000 meters.

Mustang is an ancient forbidden kingdom, bordered by the Tibetan Plateau and sheltered by some of world's tallest peaks, including 8000-meter tall Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. Strict regulations of tourists here have aided in maintaining Tibetan traditions.[4] Upper Mustang was a restricted demilitarized area until 1992, which makes it one of the most preserved regions in the world due to its relative isolation from the outside world, with a majority of the population still speaking traditional Tibetic languages.[5] The name "Mustang" is derived from the Tibetan word meaning, "Plain of Aspiration."[6] Upper Mustang was only opened to foreigners in 1992 (annual quota at present of 1,000 people). It is a popular area for trekking and can be visited year round (regardless of season).[7]

Agriculture and animal husbandry are the main occupations. The entire district is included within the Annapurna Conservation Area, the largest protected area of Nepal. Development programmes, tourism management, and so on are primarily overseen by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), a division of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC).[3] The kingdom of Mustang was a dependency of the Kingdom of Nepal since 1795,[8] but was abolished by the republican Government of Nepal on October 7, 2008. The monarchy in Mustang ceased to exist on October 7, 2008, by order of the Government of Nepal, after Nepal became a federal democratic republic.[9] According to the Human Development Index, Mustang is a relatively wealthy district with a GDP per capita of US $2,466.[7]

Geography

Climate zone[10] / Elevation Range / % of Area
Temperate / 2,000 to 3,000 meters; 6,400 to 9,800 ft. / 4.0%
Subalpine / 3,000 to 4,000 meters; 9,800 to 13,100 ft. / 4.7%
Alpine / 4,000 to 5,000 meters; 13,100 to 16,400 ft. / 2.7%
Nival / above 5,000 meters / 8.8%
Trans-Himalayan[11][12] / 3,000 to 6,400 meters; 9,800 to 21,000 ft. / 79.8%

Mustang has a semi-arid climate


Himalayas in Mustang


Kali Gandaki Gorge near Ghassa village


Kali Gandaki riverbed in Upper Mustang. View from Thsele village down to the Kali Gandaki river and the fields of Chhusang, with Nilgiri mountains's steep north face.

Description[13] / Area covered (km2) / % of Area

Total area of the district / 3639.6 / 100%
Total forest area / 123.2 / 3.38%
Total cultivable land / 40.3 / 1.10%
Irrigated cultivable land / 32.5 / 0.89%
Rain-fed cultivable land / 7.83 / 0.21%
Pasture land / 1476.8 / 40.57%
River, stream, cliff, mountain, stone etc. / 1505.7 / 41.36%
Area covered by residence and buildings / 3.20 / 0.08%
Area covered by snow / 305.9 / 8.40%
Area covered by lakes / 0.92 / 0.02%
Other / 183.5 / 5.04%

Mustang, the second least populated district of Nepal, is flanked by the Nepalese districts of Manang, the least populated, to the east and Dolpa, the third least populated, to the west. The Tibetan frontier stretches north from Mustang's borders.[3][13] This is a high-altitude trans-Himalayan region spread over 3,640 square kilometres in area barely north of the main Himalayan mountain range.[13][14] Geographically this cold high-altitude steppe is a part of the Tibetan highlands.[3][14] This boot-shaped piece of land thrusts north into western Tibet is caught in the rain shadow of Dhaulagiri to the south and west and the Annapurna Massif to the north and east.[3]

Average elevation of Mustang is 13,200 ft (2,500m), coming to a peak at 8,167m — the summit of Dhaulagiri.[14][3] It is a vast and arid valley, distinguished by eroded canyons, vividly coloured stratified rock formations and barren high-altitude deserts.[14] The area receives an average annual rainfall of less than 260 mm at Jomsom in the Lower Mustang. Spring and autumn are generally dry, but some precipitation is brought by summer monsoons, which averaged 133 mm at Jomsom between 1973 and 2000. The mean minimum monthly air temperature falls to -2.7 °C in winter while the maximum monthly air temperature reaches 23.1 °C in summer. Both diurnal and annual variations in temperature are large. Only about 40.3 square kilometers, about 1 percent of the total land area, is cultivated and 1,477 square kilometers, about 40%, is pasture land.[13] Kora La at 4,660 metres (15,290 ft) in elevation is been considered the lowest drivable path between Tibetan Plateau and Indian subcontinent.[15]

The elevation of the district range from 1640m in nearby Kopchepani under Kunjo VDC to 7061m in Nilgiri North above from the sea level. The peaks above 6000m in Mustang District are Tukuche peak (6920m), Nilgiri South (6839m), Yakwakang Peak (6462m), and Damodar Himal (6004m). Thorung Pass (5416m), arguably the world's highest and busiest pass, is located in this district. This district share 134.16 km (83.36 mi) long international border with Tibet Autonomous Region of China where 16 boundary pillars are in existence from pillar no. 18-33.[16]

The Kali Gandaki River is a highly important feature of the district. Its source located near the Tibetan border coincides with the Tibetan border and Ganges-Brahmaputra watershed divide.[3] From there, it flows south towards the northern Indian plains through the ancient kingdom of Mustang.[3] It flows through a sheer-sided, deep canyon immediately south of the Mustang capital of Lo Manthang, then widens as it approaches Kagbeni where high Himalayan ranges begin to close in. The river continues southward past Jomsom, Marpha, and Tukuche to the deepest part of the gorge about 7 km (4.3 mi) south of Tukuche in the area of Lete. The gorge then broadens past the border of Mustang and Myagdi districts. Geographically, Lower Mustang lies between the Tibetan Plateau in the North and high Himalayan Mountains in the South. The region between the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Mountain is called Trans-Himalaya.[17]

The Kali Gandaki Gorge or Andha Galchi, measured by the difference between the river height and the heights of the highest peaks on either side, is the world's deepest canyon. The portion of the river directly between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna I (7 km downstream from Tukuche) is at an elevation of 2,520 m or 8,270 ft, 5,571 m or 18,278 ft lower than Annapurna I.[18] Major peaks along the gorge include Dhaulagiri (8,167 m or 26,795 ft) and Tukuche (6,920 m or 22,703 ft) on the west and Nilgiri Central (6,940 m or 22,769 ft) and Annapurna (8,091 m or 26,545 ft) on the east.

History


Flag of the Mustang Kingdom, founded by Ame Pal in 1380


Portrait of King Prithvi Narayan Shah who annexed the kingdom in 1769


The last king Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista before the kingdom was abolished in 2008

Much of the history of Mustang is about legends rather than documented facts. However, it is believed that Mustang or the Kingdom of Lo was once a part of Ngari area of Tibet and a loose collection of feudal estates.[14] Though the people of Mustang live within the geographic boundaries of Nepal, their history is also tied to Tibetan religion and culture, geography, and politics.[3] It was often closely linked to adjoining kingdoms of Western Tibet and, during other periods of history, politically linked to Lhasa, the capital of Central Tibet.[19] Lo was incorporated into the Tibetan Empire by Songtsen Gampo, the most famous Tibetan king.[14]

Much of Ngari became a part of the Malla empire (capital Sinja in western Nepal) by the 14th Century. From the 15th century to the 17th century, Mustang had control over the trade between the Himalayas and India because of its strategic location.[20] In 1380, Lo became an independent kingdom under Ame Pal. The last royal family traced its lineage for 25 generations, all the way back to Ame Pal.[14] Ame Pal oversaw the founding and building of much of the Lo and Mustang capital of Lo Manthang, a walled city surprisingly little changed in appearance from that time period.[21] The only remnant of these kingdoms is the still-intact Kingdom of Lo, an area corresponding to the northern third of Mustang District.[3]

In 1769, the army of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first King the Gorkha Kingdom and the Shah dynasty, unified what was a land of many small kingdoms to forge the kingdom of Nepal. Before that much of present-day Mustang was ruled by kings from Jumla, a region to the southwest, and independent kings and feudal lords.[3] At the end of the 18th century the kingdom was annexed by Nepal and became a dependency of the Kingdom of Nepal since 1795.[20] Swedish explorer Sven Hedin's visited the pass at the head of the Kali Gandaki Gorge in 1904.[22] British Tibetologist David Snellgrove visited and researched Mustang's Buddhist temples and monasteries in 1956, 1960–61 and 1978.[23]

The Kingdom of Lo supported Tibet and therefore, the Qing Empire during the Sino-Nepalese War.

During the late 1950s and 60s, Mustang became the centre for Tibetan guerrillas engaged in small operations against the incorporation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China in 1959.[14] Tibetan guerrilla group Chushi Gangdruk operated out of Upper Mustang with the intention of raiding PLA positions in Tibet,[24] which led to a border incident that caused the killing of a Nepalese officer who was mistaken as a Tibetan rebel.[25][26] These guerrillas were aided by CIA and Tibetan Khampas. In the 1970s, after US president Richard Nixon had visited China, CIA withdrew its support and the Nepalese government disbanded Tibetan fighters.[14] In the book Merlins Keep, a novel by Madeleine Brent (alias of Peter O'Donnell) published 1977, Mustang is the setting for the heroine's youth and later adventures. In 1961, People's Republic of China and Kingdom of Nepal officially signed a border agreement .[27] setting the border between Mustang and TAR set slightly north of the traditional boundary marker demarcated by a stupa at 29°18′14″N 83°58′7″E.[24]

Up until 2008, the Kingdom of Lo or Upper Mustang was an ethnic Tibetan kingdom and a suzerainty of Kingdom of Nepal. The suzerainty allowed for a certain level of independence in local governance from the Nepalese central government.[24] Though still recognized by many Mustang residents, the monarchy ceased to exist on October 7, 2008, by order of the Government of Nepal.[28] After the civil war that overthrew the Nepalese monarchy, it became a republic. Mustang became another district of Nepal losing its status of a tributary kingdom it enjoyed since the late eighteenth century.[4] Mustang is the setting for a large part of the book The Kingdom, a novel by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood published in 2011. In December 1999, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th claimant Karmapa fled Tibet through this area.[29][30] In response, China built a border fence immediately after.[31] There is a PLA border outpost a few miles on Chinese side, it is the western most border outpost in Tibet Military District. The outpost was renovated in 2009 to have a modern facility.[32]

The last official and later unofficial king (raja or gyelpo) of Mustang was Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista (1930–2016), Bista succeeded his father Angun Tenzing Tandul in 1964, and whose lineage dates back to Ame Pal, who founded the Kingdom of Lo six and half century earlier,[33][34] He died in 16 December 2016 after living a retired life largely in Kathmandu since 2008 when Nepal abolished its own monarchy.[33][4][35]

Sky caves


Sky caves in Chhusang


Sky caves at Chhoser village, Lo Manthang

One fascinating feature of the district are thousands of cliff dwellings, some highly inaccessible.[14] These Mustang Caves or Sky Caves of Nepal are a collection of some 10,000 man-made caves dug into the sides of valleys in the Mustang.[36][37] Several groups of archaeologists and researchers have explored these stacked caves and found partially mummified human bodies and skeletons that are at least 2,000–3,000 years old.[38] Explorations of these caves by conservators and archaeologists have also led to the discovery of valuable Buddhist paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and numerous artefacts belonging to the 12th to 14th century.[39][40] The caves lie on the steep valley walls near the Kali Gandaki River in Upper Mustang.

In 2007, explorers from the United States, Italy and Nepal discovered ancient Buddhist decorative art and paintings, manuscripts and pottery in the Mustang caves near Lo Manthang, dating back to the 13th century.[39] In 2008, a number of 600-year-old human skeletons were discovered by a second expedition. They also recovered reams of invaluable manuscripts containing writings from both the Bon religion and Buddhism, some of which were illuminated.[41] Research groups have continue to investigate these caves, as it is not clear who built the caves and why were they built. According to theory, they may date back to 8–10,000 BCE when Mustang was much greener.[14]

In 2007, a shepherd discovered a collection of 55 cave paintings near the village depicting the life of the Buddha.[42] A series of at least twelve caves were discovered north of Annapurna and near the village of Lo Manthang, decorated with ancient Buddhist paintings and set in sheer cliffs at 14,000 feet (4,300 m) elevation. The paintings show Newari influence, dating to approximately the 13th century, and also contain Tibetan scripts executed in ink, silver and gold and pre-Christian era pottery shards. Explorers found stupas, decorative art and paintings depicting various forms of the Buddha, often with disciples, supplicants and attendants, with some mural paintings showing sub-tropical themes containing palm trees, billowing Indian textiles and birds.[43]

Administration


5 Gaunpalikas: Gharpajhong, Thasang, Barhagaun Muktichhetra, Lomanthang, Dalome
16 Village Development Committees (VDCs): Charang • Chhonhup • Chhoser • Chhusang • Dhami • Jhong • Jomsom • Kagbeni • Kowang • Kunjo • Lete • Lo Manthang • Marpha • Muktinath • Surkhang • Tukuche

Mustang District is part of Dhaulagiri Zone in Nepal's Western Development Region.[16] In 2017, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (Nepal) re-structured the area into five Gaunpalikas or rural municipalities with five areas each, which are different from old VDCs.[44][45][46][47] Since establishment of Kingdom of Mustang until restructuring of local governance of Nepal, the area of this district was divided into one parliamentary constituency, nine Ilakas, and 16 Village Development Committees (VDCs).[16] While an Ilaka functioned as the local development unit, the VDCs functioned as local political units.[3][13]

Before the VDCs there was the system of village community councils from 1960 to 1990, which forms the lowest strata of local administration.[48] To be entitled to common property resources like pastures, forests and water for irrigation, it was necessary for a household to become a member and participate in the community council. Any endowment of such entitlement was the council's prerogative. All households of the village had representation in the council. A gemba (council leader), chosen from any male member of the council between 18 and 60 years of age, was appointed on yearly rotation. The council settled disputes, called for community work when needed, and distributed rights and responsibilities to community members.[49]

Individual households managed their private farms, while the council managed the community farm-system.[50][51] The pastures and forests were exclusive to each community, where every household had an entitlement graze or collect wood, though collecting leaves and wood from trees in private ownership were more common.[49]

Gaunpalika / Population 2011 / /Area / Population density / Villages / Center

Gharpajhong (घरपझोङ) / 3,029 / 316 / 10 S/ yang (स्याङ), Jomsom (जोमसोम), Chhairo (छैरो), Marpha (मार्फा), Thini (ठिनी), Chimang (चिमाङ) / Jomsom
Thasang (थासाङ) / 2,912 / 289 / 10 / Lete (लेते), Tukuche (टुकुचे), Kunjo (कुञ्जो), Kobang (कोवाङ) / Kobang
Barhagaun Muktichhetra (बाह्रगाउँ मुक्तिक्षेत्र) / 2,330 / 886 / 3 / Kagbeni (कागवेनी), Khinga (खिङ्गा), Jhong (झोङ), Chhusang (छुसाङ) / Kagbeni
Lomanthang (लोमन्थाङ) / 1,899 / 727 / 3 / Chhoser (छोसेर), Lo Manthang (लोमन्थाङ), Chhonhup (छोन्हुप) / Lo Manthang
Dalome (दालोमे) / 1,423 / 1,344 / 1 / Ghami (घमी), Surkhang (सुर्खाङ), Charang (चराङ) / Charang

Divisions

Traditionally, Mustang District has been divided into four social and geographical regions. From south to north they are: Thak Satsae (also known as lower Thak Khola), Panchgaon (upper Thak Khola) and Baragaon (mostly considered part of Thak Khola, sometime called lower Lo) in Lower Mustang and Lo Tsho Dyun or (also known simply as Lo) in Upper Mustang,[3][52][17] though it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between areas along social lines as different castes and ethnic people started to live all over the region.[17]

Thak Khola


Lupra village in Thak Khola

Along the Kali Gandaki River in Lower Mustang, the Thakali are the dominant ethnic group. The area, extending from Ghasa in south to district headquarter Jomsom in the north, is known as Thak Khola ("Thak River"). The area was ruled by a Tibetan ruler till 1786, when it was included in Nepal.[17] Historically, the region was under Tibetan ruler, but after 1786, it was included in Nepal.[17] Ethnically, Thakalis are categorized as Tamang Thakalis from Thak Satsae, and Mawatan Thakali and Yhulkasompaimhi Thakalis from Panchgaon. The languages spoken by Thakalis fall in Tibeto-Burman category, and they believe in Buddhism.[17]

Thak Satsae


Tsampa gompa at Tukuche

Thak Satsae (“Seven Hundred Thak”) is the most southerly sub-region of Mustang.[52][16] The sub-region extends from the village of Ghasa in the south to the trading town of Tukuche in the north, bordering Jomsom (the district headquarter).[52][53] Traditionally believed to have 700 households, the sub-region encompasses 13 villages along Thak Khaki, a segment of the Kali Gandaki located south of Jomsom (also called Tehragaon or "thirteen villages"):[3][16][52] Ghasa, Taglung, Dhamphu, Kunjo, Titi, Sauru Khanti, Lete, Kobang, Nakung, Naurikot, Bhurjungkot, Larjung and Tukuche. They were distributed across four VDCs: Lete, Kowang, Kunjo and Tukuche[16][52][53][17]

Thak Satsae Area or Thak Khola is home to Tamang people, the largest group of Thakalis in Mustang, who are known to outsiders as just Thakkalis.[52] The Thakkalis of Mustang, known for their enterprising skills as traders, innkeepers and hoteliers, are divided into four clans: Khuki (Bhattachan), Choki (Gauchan), Dinjen (Sherchan) and Salki (Tulachan).[16][53] The introduction of horticulture and tourism has made this region prosperous. Various kinds of liquor, Jam and Jelly made up of apple, apricot and plum are very popular commodities of this area.[16][53]

Panchgaon


Jomsom main street, near the airport

Panchgaon ("five villages") lies between the trading town of Tukche and the pilgrimage site of Muktinath.[3][52] Beyond the five villages — Marpha, Chhairo, Chimang, Syang and Thini — this area also includes more recent settlements such as Jomsom, Drumpa and Samle.[16][52] All these settlements were distributed across two VDCs: Jomsom and Marpha.[16] Jomsom is the district headquarter, Thini is historically one of the most significant sites in the entire district, and Marpha is very popular for the apple orchards and apple brandy.[16] Panchgaon was once ruled by the king of Sum (or Sumpo) Garabdzong (near present-day Thini) and the bem-chag deal mainly with the foundation and boundaries of that kingdom. One of the indispensable sources for the study of the history of the Mustang are the village records or bem-chag kept in the five original villages including Thini, Syang, Marpha, Chairo and Cimang.[54]

The dominant ethnic group is Thakali, also known as Panchgaonle (“people of Panchgaon”).[16][52] People from Marpha, Chhairo and Chimang write clan names as their surname. The four clans are Hirachan, Lalchan, Jwarchan and Pannachan. But the people from Thini and Syang write their surname as only Thakali to identify by themselves.[16] Among the villages of Panchgaon, Mawatan Thankalis are from Marpha and Yhulkasompaimhi, Yhulgasummi or Yhulgasumpa Thakalis are from Thini, Syang and Chimang.[52][17] While more than 80 per cent of the Tamang Thakali are found outside Thak Khola, nearly half of the total Mawatan Thakali population still live in Marpha village.[55] Thini village, one of the oldest Thakali villages in Thak Khola region does not categorize itself within Panchgaonle (people from Panchgaon), instead they categorize themselves within Tingaonle Thakali (people from three villages) which includes Thini, Syang and Chimang. According to the informants from Thini, they do not categorize those people who are originated from Marpha and Chhairo as original Thakali. They even do not have socio-religious relationships such as marriage and other local religious activities with Marpha and Chhairo.[17]

Baragaon


Ruins of ancient fortress in Tangbe village, Chhusang


Muktinath temple

Baragaon (“Twelve Villages”) is a northerly sub-region lying between Jomsom and the region of Lo, in and around the Muktinath Valley, extending from south of Ghilling to Lubra lying north of Jomsom.[3][52][17][56] It is sometimes called Glo Bosmad (“Lower Lo”), as it shares many geographical features of Lo proper, with some parts falling inside Upper Mustang.[52][56] The people who live are not categorized as Thakali.[17] They are known to outsider as Bhotia (“Tibetan”) or Baragaonle (“People of Baragaon”) and they share cultural similarities with Lo, though they often use Gurung, Bista or Thakuri as their surname for purposes of status emulation.[3][16][52]

This sub-region now consists of 19 main villages — Kagbeni, Khinga, Dakardzong, Jharkot, Muktinath, Chongur, Jhong, Putak, Purong, Lubra, Pagling, Phalek, Tiri, Chhusang, Tetang, Tangbe, Tsele, Ghyaga and Sammar. These villages were spread across four VDCs south of Lochhoden: Kagbeni, Muktinath, Jhong and Chhusang.[16] The central town of Baragaon is Kagbeni, at the confluence of Muktinath or Dzong (Jhong) River and Kali Gandaki River. Kagbeni is on the well-traveled route to the pilgrimage site of Muktinath.[52] Tibetan dialect (Pheke) prevails here, though the people of Tangbe, Chhusang, Tetang, Tsaile and Ghyaker also speak Seke, a language closely related to Thakali.[56]

The Muktinath temple is located at an altitude of 3,710 meters near Ranipauwa village at the foot of the Thorong La mountain pass in Muktinath Valley. It is considered to be 106th among the available 108 Divya Desam (premium temples) considered sacred by the Sri Vaishnava sect. The ancient name of this place in Sri Vaishnava literature is Thiru Saligramam. The temple houses the Saligram shila, considered to be the naturally available form of the Hindu Godhead Sriman Narayan.[57] It is also one of the 51 Shakti peeth.[58] The Buddhists call it Chumig Gyatsa, which in Tibetan means "Hundred Waters". Although the temple has a Vaishnav origin, it is also revered in Buddhism.[59] For Tibetan Buddhists, Muktinath is a very important place of dakinis, goddesses known as Sky Dancers, and one of the 24 Tantric places. They understand the murti to be a manifestation of Avalokiteśvara, who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas.[60]

Lo Tsho Dyun

The people of restricted northern areas of Mustang are known as Lopa. But, they use surname like Bista and Gurung outside their lands. The restricted area, lying between Tibetan border and Ghemi village, encompasses the historic kingdom of Lo Tsho Dyun ("seven districts of Lo" in local Tibetan dialect of Loke).[17][56] Lo Manthang is the only walled city of Nepal and it is also known as the cultural capital of this area. The palace and other structures within the wall were built by Ame Pal, the first king of Lo, during the period of 15th century. His lineage is recognized as the royal family of Mustang. Lo Tsho Dyun area consists of Ghiling, Ghemi, Dhakmar, Marang, Tsarang, Dhi, Surkhang, Yara, Ghara, Tangya, Dhea, Lo Monthang, Nhenyol, Chhoser, Nyamdo, Kimaling, Thinkar, Phuwa and Namgyal villages. They were spread across six VDCs: Dhami, Charang, Lo Manthang, Chhoser, Chhonhup and Surkhang.[16]

Lo Manthang

Walled city of Lo Manthang


Surrounding terrain


From outside


From inside


From rooftop


The Royal Palace

Lo Manthang, a Village Development Committee with 876 people living in 178 households,[61] is the capital of the old kingdom of Lo, which encompasses the northern two thirds of the district and known as Upper Mustang. Though the capital of the district is Jomsom, the traditional Tibetan-style locales lie north of Kagbeni. The old capital Lo Manthang, a square-walled town on the Plain of Prayers, is the residence of the present king.[14]


Tiji festival

Lo Monthang features the King’s Palace and many monasteries that are being restored by art historians Europe.[62] The village is noted for its tall white washed mud brick walls, gompas and the Raja's or Royal or King's Palace, a nine-cornered, five story structure built around 1400.[63] There are four major temples: Jampa Lhakhang or Jampa Gompa, the oldest, built in the early 15th century and also known as the "God house"; Thubchen Gompa, a huge, red assembly hall and gompa built in the late 15th century and located just southwest of Jampa Gompa; Chodey Gompa, now the main city gompa; and the Choprang Gompa, which is popularly known as the "New Gompa".[64] It is noted by scholars as one the most well preserved medieval fortress and a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status.[4] The windswept and arid land around Lo Manthang, lying at an altitude between 3000m and 3500m, is not suitable for agriculture at all. However, there are a number of small streams, where willows grow along with wheat, potatoes and barley. The most famous festival here is Tiji, which generally happens in April/May, with costumed lamas dancing in the village square for three days.[62]

Lopa people


Lopa men at Yartung, the biggest festival in Nepal’s trans-Himalayan region that happens every September. Apart from the festivities it features popular horse-riding competitions that attract competitors from even the Nepalese Army.[65]

Lo Manthang is the socio-cultural and political center of the ethnic Lopa people, the original inhabitants of Mustang.[4][43] Their mud-brick homes are much like Tibetan homes, whitewashed outside and decorated inside.[62] They build their homes out of stone, making the roofs out of thinly chiseled stone squares. The roofs are extremely uniform and smooth; and on each corner, a small square is constructed so that prayer flags may be hung there. Most houses are built close together and have no windows, only holes in the walls to protect against the high speed winds that race up the mountains. A Lopa home almost never built toward the South because of the fierceness of these winds. This is a drawback in summertime as the houses grow very hot due to a lack of appropriate ventilation. Hence, people often sleep on the terraces during the summer to escape the heat.[6]

The Lopa are primarily farmers, shepherds, or merchants.[6] Tibet traditionally traded with Lopas, but in mid-18th century salt-trade monopoly was awarded to the Thakali people to the south, stripping the Lopa of much income. In 1959, Tibetans started crossing the border and encroaching on the small plots of pastureland Lopas used to feed their sheep, yaks, donkeys and mules, causing Lopa wealth to deteriorate further.[62]

Socially, the They are divided into three groups, one of which contains those of royal heritage. Rules of society are based on the values of respect and honour. The structure of their families is also based on these and other traditions.[6] They practice Tibetan Buddhism. Sometimes marriages are made by parental agreement, other times by capture or elopement. Like other people who live in harsh terrains, they are generous and kind, and also are shrewd businesspersons.[62] One tradition says that the eldest son will inherit the family's property. When he does, the next son must become a Buddhist monk.[6]

Nature

Lower Kali Gandaki valley forms the border to demarcate east and west for the distribution of flora and fauna of Mustang. It is rich in both temperate and trans-Himalayan biodiversity with flora and fauna that are most common to those that are highly rare.[16] Though biodiversity of Upper Mustang is comparatively well studied and documented, only limited information is available on biodiversity of Lower Mustang.[16]

Fauna


Celastrina huegeli specimen from Mustang

Mustang is rich in trans-Himalayan biodiversity, where five species of zooplankton, seven nematode species, two mollusc species, one annelid species, 25 insect species (seven aquatic insects and 18 butterfly species), one spider species, 11 amphibian species, eight lizard species, five snake species, 105 bird species and 29 mammal species have been recorded. Five butterfly species, extinct mollusk species (shaligram), two frog species, one reptile species, two bird species (Tibetan sandgrouse and Eurasian eagle-owl), and seven mammal species have only been recorded in Mustang in Nepal.[16] Out of the 18 butterfly species recorded in Mustang, two are new and three are endemic to the area. Mustang is the habitat for snow leopard, musk deer, Tibetan wild ass and Tibetan gazelle. The only native fish species, recorded at 3475m above sea level at Ghami Khola stream in Dhami, has been identified as the highest elevation fish in Nepal. Six of the mammal species recorded from Mustang area are protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act (1973), while seven of the mammal species are included in different threat categories of IUCN Red Data Book.[16]

Flora


Rhododendrons in front of Annapurna South


Terraced fields in Tetang village, Chhusang

Vegetation of Mustang District is of the steppe type and consists of grasslands interspersed with scrub. Cold desiccating winds, a short growing season, low precipitation and cold air temperatures limit the standing biomass produced from the steppe vegetation. Scrub is dominated by Juniperus squamata on gentle slopes, whereas steeper slopes are dominated by Caragana gerardiana, Chrysosphaerella brevispina, and Rosa sericea, as well various species of Ephedra and Lonicera. Vegetation above 5,000 metres consists mainly of Rhododendron anthopogon, as well as Potentilla biflora and various species of Saxifraga. Little or no vegetation is found above 5,800 metres.[13]

Forest covers 3.24 percent of Mustang’s total landmass. Forest cover ends near Jomsom and is very limited in Upper Mustang, which falls in the Alpine climatic area. It is distributed over one small patch each in Lo Manthang and Dhami VDCs, and seven patches in Chhuksang VDC.[16] The vegetation of the district can be categorized into some eight types, including six types of mixed forest identified by the dominant species — Pinus wallichiana, Betula utilis, Hippophae salicifolia, Caragana gerardiana, Lonicera spinosa and Caragana gerardiana, Juniperus — and grasslands/rangelands covered with Poaceae.[66] Lower Mustang offers mixed broad leaved forest such as Acer species, conifers (mainly pine) and rhododendrons (Nepali: लालीगुँरास), and at the higher elevation conifers with birch Betula utilis.[16]

Mustang is rich in medicinal and aromatic plants with very high economic and ethnomedicinal values. Local people use a number of plants for food, spices, fibre, medicine, fuel, dye, tannin, gum, resin, religious purposes, roofing materials, handicrafts, etc.[16] Medicinal use of 121 plant species was recorded in a study. These 121 plants included 49 vascular plants and 2 fungi species from 92 genera. These plants, including different parts of the same plant, were used to treat 116 different ailments. The most common type of medicinal plants were herbs (73%), which was followed by shrubs, trees, and, finally, climbers.[66] Over 200 species of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) and medicinal and aromatic herbs (MAP) have been identified in Mustang.[16] These plants were found to be used as medicine (50 species), food (33), fuel (27), fencing (24), fodder (19), ritual object (19), decoration (8), manure (7), dye/soap (3), psychoactive (3), and construction material (2 species).[66]

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Part 2 of 2

Demographics


Distribution of people by age:
00-04 Yrs. 864, 05-09 Yrs. 1,004, 10-14 Yrs. 1,148, 15-19 Yrs. 1,101, 20-24 Yrs. 1,112, 25-29 Yrs. 1,456, 30-34 Yrs. 1,086, 35-39 Yrs. 1,024, 40-44 Yrs. 942, 45-49 Yrs. 770, 50-54 Yrs. 750, 55-59 Yrs. 604, 60-64 Yrs. 519, 65-69 Yrs. 432, 70-74 Yrs. 353, 75-79 Yrs. 162, 80 Yrs.+ 125[67]

The district is divided into Upper and Lower Mustang. The northern two-thirds of the district (Upper Mustang or former Lo Kingdom), Tibetan language and culture prevails, is home to the Lopa, a Bhotiya people. The southern third or the Thak is the homeland of Thakali people who speak Thakali dialects and have a synthesis of Tibetan and Nepalese culture. The main languages spoken are Bhote, Sherpa, and Nepali.[7] The main caste/ ethnic groups are Gurung (45%) and Thakali (17%).[7]

As one moves southward, the Tibetan culture becomes less evident. Inhabitants of Lo in Upper Mustang are Tibetan in language and culture, whereas inhabitants from Panchgaon and Thak Satsae in Lower Mustang speak Thakali, a Tibeto-Burman language. Inhabitants of mid-Mustang of Baragaon speak both Tibetan and a language similar to Thakali.

There are 3,305 households in the district. The distribution of households by ethnic/caste group shows that about 59.3 percent are Gurung, 24.5 percent Thakali and 8.2 percent Kami/Damai. Magar, Thakuri and other account 3.1, 2.9 and 2.1 percent population respectively. Gurung and Thakali are the dominant ethnic groups in Mustang District's population.[16] In the district as a whole, Janajati population constitutes 86.8 percent of the total population whereas Dalit accounts for 8.2 percent and the remaining are 5.0 percent.[16]

According to demographic data published by Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report),[67] 13,452 people lives in Mustang spread across an area of 3,573 km2 (1,380 sq mi). Which makes it the second least populated district, and with a population density of 4 per km2, also the second least densely populated district. 7,093 or them were male, and 6,359 were female. Age of first marriage for Mustang people are varied — 15–19 Years 1,603, 20–24 Years 3,016, 25–29 Years 1,677, and others 1,030 (Total married 7,326).[67] According to the 1992 Census, the total population of the district was 14,319, not including area residents such as government and army officials, police, development workers, and Tibetan refugees.[3]

Language

At the time of the 2011 Nepal census 40.3% of the population in the district spoke Nepali, 21.7% Lhopa, 19.4% Gurung, 12.1% Thakali, 2.3% Magar, 1.0% Tamang, 0.6% Sherpa and 0.5% Rai as their first language.[68]

Ethnicity

Among the Gurung, Thakkali and Bhote people, there also were 33 foreigners — 13 Indians, 3 Chinese, and 17 from other countries.

Religion

In 2011, The population of Mustang was divided between 60.17% Buddhists (8,095 people) and 37.46% Hindus (5,040 people). There also were 152 Christians, 98 Böns, 19 Kiratis, 5 animist or Prakritis and 3 Muslims.[67]

According to Aita Bahadur Thakali (District Livestock Service Office, Jomsom) 75 percent of the population is Buddhist and 25 percent is Hindu.[13]

Health


Drying medicinal plants in Jharkot, Muktinath

For 14,981 people Mustang District had a total of 17 health posts, with a health post to population ration of 1:881. While that is better than the national average of 1:5663, these posts cannot be easily accessed because of the remoteness of locations and ruggedness of terrain.[66] There are 10 health posts and five sub health posts scattered throughout Lete, Kobang, Tukche, Marpha, Eklebhatti, Jarkot, Kagbeni and Chame. Jomsom has the only hospital.[7]

Because of low access to facilities and other socio-cultural factors, for most people in Mustang, traditional herbal medicines are the popular mode of medical care and Amchis (traditional Tibetan healers) are the local medical experts.[66] Local Amchis use 72 species of medicinal plants to treat 43 human ailments.[16] They use different forms of medication including pastes (60 species), powders (48), decoctions (35), tablets (7), pills (5), cold infusions (5), and others means, administered through oral, nasal, topical and other routes. Most people here have deep faith in the Amchis.[66]

Amchis have a unique method of maintaining quality of the medicine. They collect medicinal plants always on their own, because only they have experience extensive enough to identify the right plants. Also, only an Amchi knows when to collect the plants, as the timing, while very important in capturing active principles of the plants, varies by days, even months.[66]

Then they store their herbs in bags made from the skin of Moschus chrysogaster (Himalayan musk deer), tied twice with a thread. Tying a herb in musk deer skin helps it, according to Amchis, to remain effective for a couple of years. Horn and urine of musk deer and tortoise bones, as well as parts of other animal are also used along with plant parts.[66]

They use a stone slab to grind their medicine, because they believe the heat created by an electric grinder would degrade the active principles of the plant powder, reducing its quality. Powdered ingredients are then mixed with water. Sufficient amount of additives are also added. Plant parts are commonly prepared using water, hot or cold, as the solvent (100 species), but occasionally remedies are prepared with milk (14 species), honey (2), jaggery or Indian cane sugar (2), ghee or Indian clarified butter (2) and oil (1) in preparing pills in round or rectangular shapes. The mix is then boiled until water is completely evaporated making it easy to shape the pills.[66]

Education

The literacy rate in Mustang District is high. The pace of development started late in Mustang District, including The communication and transportation.[16] Schools in the district are operated largely by non-government groups on private support, with negligible state involvement. Text books are transported by mules to reach remote villages, which as a result arrive late. Most teachers, hired on contract, are unable to hold a conversation in the supposed language of instruction, the mother tongue of the students. The curricula developed with European funding is largely unfamiliar to government teachers. The district school superintendent also does not visit these areas regularly because of their remoteness.[69] The total population aged 5 years & above in Mustang is 12,588, of whom 8,334 (66.20%) can read & write, 305 (2.42%) can read only 305, 3,945 (31.33%) can neither read nor write.[67]

Out of a total 8,451 literate people 275 were beginners, 3,650 primary (1-5), 1,631 lower secondary (6 -8), 721 secondary (9 -10), 836 SLC & equivalent, 509 intermediate & equivalent, graduate & equivalent 208, post graduate equivalent & above 51, Others 73, Non-formal education 471, Not stated 26.[67] In 2017, Most of the students in Mustang were not in an age-appropriate class and did not progress to higher education.[69] It is to be noted that education has improved dramatically in the past two decades in Upper Mustang, and some schools supported by international charities are better than many public schools in rural Nepal, although it is uncertain if the schools can sustainable.[69]

A total of 768 people had SLC or higher education in 2011. Of them 164 studied Humanities and Arts, 170 studied Business and Administration, 167 Education, 43 Social & Behavioral Science, 47 Science, 13 Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, 12 Health, 11 Agriculture, Forestry & Fishery, 9 Mathematics and Statistics, 8 Law, 3 Computing, and 1 Journalism and Information. 120 did not state their academic stream in the 2011 census.[67] In 2017, Nepal Fine Arts Academy recently organised an art workshop for students of Mustang District in Jomsom.[70]

Economy


Goats in Marpha


Yaks in Mustang


Chaffing grain in Kagbeni


Loom in Muktinath


Pani ghatta in Jomsom

Mustang was an important route of crossing the Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal. Many salt caravans travelled through Mustang in the old times.[14] Once a major thoroughfare for the trade of salt and grain between Tibet and Nepal's southern hills, the Mustang District in Nepal's western Himalayas remains a trading route to this day.[3] For centuries, caravans travelled along the Kali Gandaki river trading salt, yak wool, cereals, dried meat spices and more in Tibet, China and India.[4] and the Kali Gandaki gorge was used as a trade route between India and Tibet for centuries.[71] The mountain pass of Kora La is one of the oldest routes between the two regions. It was historically used for salt trade between Tibet and Nepalese kingdoms.[31]

The border has been closed since the 1960s. However, there is a semiannual cross-border trade fair during which the border is open to local traders.[31] In 2012, Nepal and China agreed to open 6 more official border crossings, Kora La being one of them.[72] In July 2016, Nepalese government announced that they expected the border crossing to be open within and year to become the third most important crossing between the two countries.[73]

Kora La is currently being planned as vehicle border crossing between China and Nepal.[74] Nepal is expecting to regain some of the strategic importance of Mustang with the construction of the road to connect China with Nepal through Mustang. Once completed the road is expected to become a highly accessible Himalayan corridor and the district is expected to change significantly. There also is a fear of losing the culture and identity of the region.[4]

Agriculture is the dominant economic activity in the district in which 80.65 percent people are engaged in the district.[16] People of Mustang are engaged in a traditional form of agro-pastoralist economy common to the mountainous regions of Nepal.[49] Business (6.82%), government service (1.91%), house work (3.50%), foreign employment (3.97%) and others (3.14%) are others occupation types besides agriculture.[16]

Many people in Mustang depend on sheep and mountain goat rearing for livelihood. Some of the points of attraction of animal husbandry are: access to pastureland, proximity to the Kora La border pass, and favourable market prices, as well as and technical help and subsidy from District Livestock Services Office.[75] Yak-cow hybrids (called jhopa, or dzo) are employed as draft animals. Horses are reared largely for transport.[49] In 2016, Mustang earned Nepalese rupee 270 million by exporting 13,000 sheep and 9,000 mountain goats. In 2017, the district supplied at least 25,000 sheep and mountain goats to different markets of Nepal during the Dashain festival. An estimated number of 9,000 mountain goats assumed as imported from Tibet in 2017, though traditional Tibetan traders are increasingly prioritizing Chinese markets.[75]

In the summer, goats, cows and sheep are grazed daily in herds in local alpine meadows. During the winter they are stall-fed with leaves, grass and crop wastes, cut and stored in the growing season as preparation for winter. The livestock provides the manure essential to maintain soil fertility, and thus is an significant link in the local agro-pastoral farming-system. Inorganic fertilisers or pesticides are not used.[49]


Mustang Apple at Marpha

Mustang is sometimes called the capital of apples in Nepal. District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) reports that despite the fact that a total of 1,115 hectares of land is considered suitable for apple-farming in Mustang, apple is planted in only 415 hectares of land. Mustang produced 5,300 tons of apples in 2017, an increase by 800 tons over 2016. Price of apples also increased in 2017. In 2016, apples were sold at Nepalese rupee 80 which had reached रु 100 in 2017.[76] Barley, wheat and buckwheat are grown in terraced farms, while vegetables and fruits are grown in orchards.[49] At Mebrak and Phudzeling sites of Upper Mustang, there is evidence of cultivation of buckwheat, naked barley, cannabis, lentils and other crops dated between 1000 and 400 BCE. In Kohla, there is evidence of cultivation of barley, free-threshing wheat, foxtail millet, buckwheat and oats dated 1385–780 BCE.[77]

Though agro-pastoralism still provides the socio-economic backbone of Msutang,[78] alternative livelihood like tourism, transport and labour migration are now emerging along agro-pastoralism. As a result, many has abandoned agriculture or animal husbandry as source of livelihood generally in Mustang and neighbouring district of Manag, and specifically in Jharkot, over the last couple of decades.[79][78] Both number of people living in the district, their animal herds and the number of large households in a village are down from before. In Muktinath VDC the number of households came down to 169 from a high of 216 in 2001.[79] Though agro-pastoralism still provides the economic and social backbone of Msutang. Many of the terraced fields are now abandoned.[78]

Living and lifestyle

Building material

Building material

Following are distribution of households by building material:

• By foundation material: Mud bonded bricks/stone 3,097, Cement bonded bricks/stone 146, RCC with pillar 3, Wooden pillar 31, Others 7, Not stated 21
• By inner wall material: Mud bonded bricks/stone 2,366, Cement bonded bricks/stone 303, Wood/planks 29, Bamboo 9, Unbaked brick 565, Others 10, Not stated 23
• By roof material: Thatch/straw 31, Galvanized iron 192, Tile/slate 83, RCC 26, Wood/planks 20, Mud 2,902, Others 23, Not stated 28
• By toilet type: Without toilet 1,211, Flush toilet 1,382, Ordinary toilet 696, Not stated 16
National Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report)

Tenancy and ownership

Following are distribution of households by amenities:

• By tenancy: Owned 2,278, Rented 706, Institutional 182, Others 139)
• By ownership: Both house & land 266, Land only 118, Neither house nor land 2,911
• By size: One person 465, Two persons 610, Three persons 744, Four persons 602, Five persons 434, Six persons 280, Seven/eight persons 120; Nine or more persons 99
National Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report)

People in the district are mostly holds small housing units for dwelling.[16] According to demographic data published by Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report), Mustang had 3,305 households in the district, second lowest in Nepal, with an average household size of 4.01.[67]

Improved transportation has brought many changes to Upper Mustang. According to GMA News Online, "Kerosene lamps have given way to solar panels, denim sneakers have replaced hand-stitched cowhide boots and satellite dishes are taking over the rooftops of homes," and the local Lopa people are "swapping handspun Tibetan robes for made-in-China jeans."[80]

When government-owned Nepal Television first came to Upper Mustang in 2007, people used to pay 20 rupees (18 cents) for a three-hour sitting in someone's house.[80] In 2011, 1,033 households had cable television, 1,237 households had radio, and 451 had television without a cable connection. 101 households had computers, 48 had internet, 240 had telephones, and 2,353 households had mobile phones. 89 households had motor vehicles, 224 had motorcycles, 9 had bicycles, and 455 had other vehicle (i.e. animal-drawn or human-drawn vehicles). 202 households had refrigerators.[67] There are seven police stations established in Nechung, Thinkar, Kagbeni, Phedi, Jomsom, Ghasa and Lete. Jharkot and Jhong has post offices, while there is a bank, an airport and Nepalese Army's High Altitude and Mountain Warfare School in Jomsom.[7]

More than 91.65 percent population of the district is benefited by secured drinking water supply whereas 8.35 percent population of the district is unsecured. Tap/pipe water are considered as secured system of water supply. In Mustang District 3029 households use tap/pipes, 174 using river/streams, 76 households use spout water, and 9 households using wells/kuwas.[67][16]

Energy

Mustang District is not much facilitated by the National Electricity Grid. So, alternate sources of energy are mostly used in this district. In the past, diyalo (heartwood) and pine wood were mostly used for illuminating homes, but now other methods like iron stoves, solar water heating systems, back-boilers, smoke water heaters, etc. have taken increasingly being popular. Fire wood, Cow dung, LP gas are the main fuel used as domestic source of energy in rural areas of Mustang District. About 54.01 percent households apply wood/firewood as the domestic energy for cooking purposes. Cow dung is used by 24.99 percent households. Most of the businesses and hotels of the district use LP gas (18.12%) as cooking fuel. Local people collect firewood mostly from the forest.[67][16]

1,785 households in Mustang use wood or firewood as cooking fuel, 52 households use kerosene, 599 households use LP gas, 826 households use cow dung, 24 use electricity, while cooking fuel of 19 households are unknown. As lighting fuel, 3,177 use electricity (including 824 solar electricity using households), 71 use kerosene, while 39 households did not report their lighting fuel.[67] The lower part of Mustang has recently been connected to the National Electricity Grid. This project is attempting to connect Upper Mustang too. Right now, most of the households of Upper Mustang benefit from micro-hydro projects. But, these projects can only be operated for about 6–7 months due to freezing of rivers in winter. The VDCs facilitated with electricity from National grid are Kunjo, Lete, Kobang, Tukuchhe, Marpha, Jomsom, Kagbeni, Mukthinath and Jhong. A sub-station of 504 Kilowatts has been established in Kobang.[16]

For lighting, hydro-electricity is widely used by the rural population. Nearly 71.20 percent households depend on electricity for light. Areas within southern VDCs - Kunjo, Lete, Kobang, Tukuche, Marpha and Jomsom- are connected with national grid for electricity supply. Still more than 25.48 percent household use solar systems for light, kerosene (2.15%) and other sources of energy (1.18%).[67][16] The Hydro Power Project of Chokhopani generates 744 KW of electrical energy. There are two micro-hydro plants currently working and two are under construction.[16] Despite significant potential, solar and wind power generation have not been met with much success in Mustang as of 2017,[81][82] though Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) maintained that, together with neighboring Manang District, Mustang has a potential of 2500 MW of wind electricity.[83] 853 households have solar home systems for lighting in 10 VDCs.[16]

Transport and Himalayan trade


Jomsom Airport


Jeep going from Jomsom to Muktinath


Horse caravan in Upper Mustang

Upper Mustang of Nepal is on an ancient trade route between Nepal and Tibet exploiting the lowest 4,660 metres (15,300 ft) pass Kora La through the Himalaya west of Sikkim. This route remained in use until China's annexation of Tibet in 1950. China eventually decided to revitalize trade and in 2001 completed a 20 kilometres (12 mi) road from the international border to Lo Manthang.[84] Across the TAR border is Zhongba County of Shigatse Prefecture. China National Highway 219 follows the valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo River some 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of the border. Till today Manang and Humde are accessible only on feet or on horseback.[7]

Meanwhile, Nepal is building a road north along the Kali Gandaki River, to within 9 kilometres (6 mi) of Lo Manthang as of 2010. But, road-building from the south was inhibited by difficulties along the Kali Gandaki Gorge, and proceeded incrementally. In 2010, a 9 kilometres (6 mi) gap remained but the road was completed before 2015 and is suitable for high clearance and four-wheel drive vehicles. Currently, the easiest and only widely used road corridor, from Kathmandu to Lhasa—named Arniko Highway in Nepal and China National Highway 318 in the TAR—traverses a 5,125 metres (16,810 ft) pass. This is some 465 metres (1,530 ft) higher than Kora La. Lo Manthang is served 20 kilometres (12 mi) by unpaved road from a border crossing into Zhongba County of Shigatse Prefecture, TAR. This road continues about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the border to China National Highway 219, which follows the valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo River.

Airlines / Destinations

Gorkha Airlines / Pokhara[85]
Nepal Airlines / Pokhara[86]
Simrik Airlines / Pokhara[87]
Sita Air / Kathmandu, Pokhara[88]
Tara Air / Pokhara[89]

Mustang is accessed by air through Jomsom Airport at Jomsom which is operating 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of China at the approximate boundary between the southern Thak and northern Lo sections of the valley since 1960s. Jomsom Airport is a STOL airport located on the bank of the Kali Gandaki River serving Jomsom and the Mustang District.[90][91][92] The airport resides at an elevation of 8,976 feet (2,736 m) above mean sea level.[90][92] It serves as the gateway to the Mustang District that includes Jomsom, Kagbeni, Tangbe, and Lo Manthang, and to Muktinath temple, which is a popular pilgrimage for Nepalis and Indians.[93]

The airport is capable of handling aircraft from the Nepalese Army Air Service. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 06/24 which measures 2,424 by 66 feet (739 m × 20 m).[91][92] There is a down slope of 1.75% up to about 418 feet (127 m) from the threshold of runway 06.[92] There are also scheduled flights from Kathmandu and daily flights between Pokhara and Jomsom during daylight hours in good weather.

The airport is available throughout the year but visibility is not adequate for visual flight rules (VFR) flight about 15% of the time. As the wind often prevents airport operation after midday, airlines schedule flights to Jomsom for the early morning when wind speeds are low.[94] In the 2013 movie Planes produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures one of the stops in Wings Across the World race is Nepal where the Planes land in Mustang. There also are 5 helipads in Muktinath, Thotong Phedi, Ghermu, and Bahundanda.[7]

Tourism


The sign says, "Now you are entering the restricted area of “Upper Mustang”. It is not allowed to proceed further from here without holding special trekking permit issues by the department of immigration, Kathmandu. You must have to register yourself at ACAP’S check-post and visitor’s information centre. Illegal entry to Upper Mustang will be illegal. Thank you. -- NTNC/ACAP" (Kagbeni)


Guest House in Marpha

The kingdom was closed to foreigners, with rare exceptions, until 1992.[3] Professor David Snellgrove and Italian scholars Giuseppe Tucci and Michel Peissel travelled to Mustang in the 1950s. Their tales of a Tibetan kingdom in an arid and locked off from the rest of the world ignited the interest in Mustang District.[14] The first westerner in Mustang was Toni Hagen, Swiss explorer and geologist, who visited the Kingdom in 1952 during one of his travels across the Himalayas. French Michel Peissel is considered the first westerner to stay in Lo Manthang, during the first authorised exploration of Mustang in 1964.[95]

Lo was out-of-bounds for foreigners until 1992.[4] Although it is now open on a restricted basis to foreign travellers, tourism to the region is still strictly restricted and hard to access. The Nepalese government have introduced a surcharge for anyone trekking past Kagbeni, which marks the border of Upper Mustang.[14] Foreign tourists are required by the Nepalese Department of Immigration to acquire special permits, pay fairly steep fees of US$50 per day per person, and be accompanied by a liaison (guide) to protect local tradition and environment from outside influence.[4][3][96] Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) check post/info posts are spread along the trails in Jomsom, Muktinath, Kagbeni and Lo Manthang.[7]

The ancestral isolation of Mustang helped to retain its ancient culture largely unviolated, and it survives as one of the last bastion of traditional Tibetan life.[4] In this ancient forbidden kingdom traditions have survived longer than in Tibet proper following its annexation by China.[4] The lower Mustang areas (much of Baragaon, Panchgaon, and Thak Sat Sae along the Annapurna Circuit) are among the most heavily trekked routes in Nepal.[3] The scenery of the trail ranges from forests of bright rhododendron fields to rocky cliffs and desert. The culture along the trekk is a rich combination of Hindu and Tibetan Buddhism. The trail's highest point is Muktinath at 3800 m, (a popular Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site for centuries. The Kali Gandaki Gorge is part of the popular trekking route from Pokhara to Muktinath. The gorge is within the Annapurna Conservation Area.[71]

Drinks, smokes and food


Tea-house on Thorong La pass that serves butter tea


Brandy from Marpha


Canabis plants in Lete, in front of Dhaulagiri


Momo and local beer served at a guest house in Kagbeni

Some of the top tourist attractions are Lomanthang, Muktinath, the Mustangi royal palace, Tibetan art and culture, and trekking in the Annapurna Circuit.[97] In addition to trekking routes through the Lo Kingdom (Upper Mustang) and along the Annapurna Circuit (lower Mustang), the district is also famous for the springs and village of Muktinath (a popular Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site), apples, and Marpha brandy made from a variety of fruits (pear, apricot, apple) produced on a farm managed by the Pasang Sherpa. There are safe water stations in Ghasa, Near Lete at ACAP museum, Kobang, Tukche, Marpha, between Jomsom and Dhapus Peak, Kagbeni and Muktinath. Thorung, Phedi, Letdar, Manang, Humde, Pisang, Chame, Bagarchhap, and Tal has the most famous view points in the district.[7]

Most tourists travel by foot over largely the same trade route used in the 15th century. Over a thousand western trekkers now visit each year, with just over 2000 foreign tourists in 2008.[43] August and October are the peak visiting months. On August 27, 2010, local youth leaders in Mustang threatened to bar tourists beginning October 1, 2010 due to the refusal of the Nepalese government to provide any of the $50 per day fee to the local economy. Visitation, however, continued uninterrupted beyond that date.[98] Now that upper Mustang is open to foreigners on a restricted basis, the Lopa have increased the number of horses kept in the hopes of benefiting from tourism. Trekkers in this and other restricted areas of Nepal are required by government regulation to porter in all food and fuel, thereby minimising environmental impact.[3]

According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), a total of 39,017 tourists visited Mustang District in 2016. According to Tulasi Dahal, the Jomsom Chief of ACAP, 15,478 of these visitors were from India alone. It shows a considerable rise in the number of tourists over the 23,272 who visited in the previous year. The highest number of tourists arrived in the month of May with 6,816 visitors and the lowest was recorded in January with 365.[97]

External links

• Traditional Political Systems of Mustang, Nepal
• Facts about mustang district
• Mustang - Central Bureau of Statistics
• Early travels & explorations in Mustang
• Last ruler of remote Buddhist kingdom dies in Nepal

Sky caves

• New Death Ritual Found in Himalaya—27 De-fleshed Humans
• The ancient mysteries of Mustang Caves
• A fortress in the sky, the last forbidden kingdom of Tibetan culture

Cultural transformation

• Modernizing Mustang: A Hidden Tibetan Kingdom Meets Its Future
• Mustang: A Kingdom on the Edge
• Road brings jeans, satellite TV to Himalayan Shangri-La
• Inside Nepal’s forgotten medieval kingdom

Languages

• Loke
• Bote
• Nepal Languages

References

1. http://ddcmustang.gov.np/ne-brief-introduction/
2. "National Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report)" (PDF). Central Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-25.
3. Pasture Management, Indigenous Veterinary Care and the Role of the Horse in Mustang, Nepal
4. Mustang: The Last Lost Kingdom
5. Kaushik. "The mysterious caves of Mustang, Nepal". Amusing Planet. Retrieved 29 December2016.
6. Loba, Mustang in Nepal
7. Great Himalayan Trail: Preparatory Study
8. Principality of Mustang, Nepal
9. Xinhua News Agency. "Nepali deputy PM asks district "king" to step down". China View News. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
10. The Map of Potential Vegetation of Nepal - a forestry/agroecological/biodiversity classification system (PDF), Forest & Landscape Development and Environment Series 2-2005 and CFC-TIS Document Series, No.110., 2005, ISBN 87-7903-210-9, retrieved 22 November 2013
11. Shrestha, Mani R.; Rokaya, Maan B.; Ghimire, Suresh K. (2005). "Vegetation pattern of Trans-Himalayan zone in the North-West Nepal". Nepal Journal of Plant Sciences. 1: 129–135. Retrieved Feb 7, 2014.
12. Banerji, Gargi; Basu, Sejuti. "Climate Change and Himalayan Cold Deserts: Mapping vulnerability and threat to ecology and indigenous livelihoods" (PDF). Pragya. Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
13. Transhumant Pastoralism in Yak Production in The Lower Mustang District of Nepal
14. Kingdom of Mustang
15. Peissel, Michel (October 1965). "Mustang, Nepal's Lost Kingdom". National Geographic. Retrieved 2017-02-10. high point of 4660 m at Kora La on the Mustang-TAR border, the lowest drivable corridor through the Himalayas linking the Tibetan Plateau via Nepal to the tropical Indian plains
16. Resource Mapping Report–2014, District Development Committee Mustang
17. Dilli Prasad Poudel, Livelihood and Common-Pool Resources, University of Bergen
18. Annapurna (1:100,000 map), Nepal-Kartenwerk der Arbeitgemeinschaft für vergleichende Hochgebirgsforschung Nr. 9, Nelles Verlag, Munich, 1993. Also see Google Earth
19. The Raja of La, for instance, continued to pay tithes to Lhasa until the 1950s. For more information about the historical connections between Tibet and Mustang, see Jackson 1978, Vinding 1988, and Ramble 1993 a and b.
20. Flagspot
21. Peissel, Michel (1992) [1967]. Mustang - A Lost TIbetan Kingdom (2nd ed.). Book Faith India, Delhi. pp. 227–31.
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23. Snellgrove, David (1989). Himalayan Pilgrimage, a Study of Tibetan Religion by a Traveller through Western Nepal (Second ed.). Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala.
24. Cowan, Sam (17 January 2016). "The curious case of the Mustang incident". The Record. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
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26. Elleman, Bruce; Kotkin, Stephen; Schofield, Clive (2014). "China-Nepal Border". Beijing's Power and China's Borders: Twenty Neighbors in Asia. Routledge. p. 211. ISBN 9781317515654. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
27. 中华人民共和国和尼泊尔王国边界条约 [China-Nepal Border Agreement] (in Chinese). 1961-10-05 – via Wikisource.
28. China View news
29. "The Karmapa's Great Escape (December 28, 1999 – January 5, 2000)". Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa. Retrieved 2017-02-10. we were not discovered and arrived in Mustang, Nepal, on the morning of December 30, 1999
30. Crossette, Barbara (31 January 2000). "Buddhist's Escape From Tibet, by Car, Horse and Plane". New York Times. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
31. Murton, Galen (March 2016). "A Himalayan Border Trilogy: The Political Economies of Transport Infrastructure and Disaster Relief between China and Nepal". Cross-Currents E-Journal. ISSN 2158-9674. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
32. "中国边海防巡礼之昆木加哨所" [Tour of Chinese Border Guards and Coast Guards - Kunmuja Border Outpost]. chinamil.com.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 2017-02-11. 西藏军区最西边的哨所——昆木加哨所
33. Last ruler of remote Buddhist kingdom dies in Nepal, The Star Online
34. Wild, windy and harsh, yet stunningly beautiful; The Sunday Tribune; April 21, 2002
35. Royal Ark
36. Finkel, Michael. "Sky Caves of Nepal". National Geographic. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
37. Bond, Anthony. "Mystery of the ancient kingdom discovered in Nepal where thousands of caves are carved 155ft off the ground". Daily Mail. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
38. BBC. "The ancient mysteries of Mustang's caves". BBC. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
39. Sharma, Gopal. "Explorers find ancient caves and paintings in Nepal". Reuters. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
40. Rahman, Maseeh. "Shepherd leads experts to ancient Buddha cave paintings". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
41. Owen, James. ""Shangri-La" caves yield treasures, skeletons". National Geographic. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
42. Shepherd leads experts to ancient Buddha cave paintings; Guardian Unlimited; May 4, 2007.
43. Gopal Sharma, Explorers find ancient caves and paintings in Nepal, Reuters, May 3, 2007, Accessed October 28, 2012
44. "Final District 1-75 Corrected Last for RAJPATRA" (PDF). Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development. MoFALD. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
45. "हेर्नुहोस्, तपाईं कुन गाउँपालिका वा नगरपालिकामा पर्नुभयो?". Setopati. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
46. "यी हुन् थपिएका गाउँपालिका र नगरपालिका (सूचीसहित)". Online Khabar. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
47. "स्थानीय निकाय भङ्ग, अधिकारसम्पन्न ७४४ स्थानीय तह क्रियाशील". सेतोपाटी. २८ फाल्गुण २०७३. Retrieved २८ फाल्गुण २०७३. Check date values in: |accessdate=, |date= (help)
48. "The Panchayat System under King Mahendra".
49. Flexibility of Scope, Type and Temporality in Mustang, Nepal. Opportunities for Adaptation in a Farming System Facing Climatic and Market Uncertainty
50. J. Dixon and A. Gulliver, Farming Systems and Poverty: Improving Farmers' Livelihoods in a Changing World, FAO and World Bank, Rome and Washington DC, Italy and USA, 2001
51. A farming system is defined as "any level of unit(s) engaged in agricultural production as it is wedded in a social, political, economic, and environmental context". Ref: B.L. Turner and S.B. Brush, Comparative Farming Systems, p. 13, The Guildford Press, New York, USA, 1987
52. Donald A Messerschmidt, The Thakkali of Nepal
53. Who are the Thakkali, Indigenous Voice
54. The Bem-chag Village Record and the Early History of Mustang
55. Michael Vinding, The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography, page 359, Serindia Publications, Inc., 1998, ISBN 0906026504
56. Mustang District, Caravan Himalaya Adventure
57. http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archi ... /0045.html
58. "General Information about Muktinath".
59. Mittal, Sushil (2004). The Hindu World. New York: Routledge. p. 499. ISBN 0-203-67414-6.
60. Zurick, David (2006). Illustrated Atlas of the Himalayas. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 153.
61. "Nepal Census 2001". Nepal's Village Development Committees. Digital Himalaya. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2009..
62. People of Nepal
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64. Upper Mustang Trek Archived 2013-06-02 at the Wayback Machine, Osho World Adventure Pvt. Ltd., Accessed June 2, 2013.
65. Rajan Kathet, Yarlung, Nepali Times
66.The use of medicinal plants in the trans-himalayan arid zone of Mustang district, Nepal, BioMed
67. National Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report)
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69. Pawan Dhakal, Education is the most neglected service in two of Nepal’s most neglected districts, Nepali Times, 28 April 2017
70. Nepali art could benefit from Mustang, The Kathmandu Post
71. Nepal Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation website Archived 2009-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
72. Prithvi Man Shrestha; Jaya Bahadur Rokaya (24 March 2016). "Nepal, China rush to open Hilsa border". Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 2017-02-10. Nepal has also given priority to opening this border point along with Kimathanka and Korala in Mustang.
73. Tripathi, Binod (8 July 2016). "'Korala border to open within a year'". Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
74. Tripathi, Binod (19 Jun 2016). "China extends road up to Korala border". Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
75. Mustang to supply 25,000 sheep and mountain goats for Dashain, my Republica
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98. Mustang to Bar Tourists

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Chen Li-an [Lu-an/Lu an]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/29/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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The Taiwan Connection

Soon after leaving Rumtek, Situ found that his ambition would take him far. Outside of the stuffy atmosphere of the Karmapa's cloister, Situ made friends easily. In the days when Tibetan lamas were still considered exotic by outsiders, Situ connected on a human level with spiritual seekers from both East and West. Former Rumtek Abbot Thrangu became Situ's mentor after the two left the Karmapa's monastery. Thrangu introduced his protege to people such as Taiwanese minister Chen Lu An who would provide valuable support to Situ to achieve his vision for his own palatial monastery and later, for the Karma Kagyu.

During the 1980s, Thrangu made several visits to Taiwan, a Buddhist stronghold where interest in Tibetan teachers was growing as rapidly as this Asian Tiger's booming export economy. It was well known among Tibetan lamas that the best fund-raising was to be had in the overseas Chinese communities of East and Southeast Asia and North America.

"In 1984, Thrangu Rinpoche came up with an idea to get money in Taiwan," said Jigme Rinpoche, Shamar's brother, a lama in his own right and the director of two large monasteries in France since the mid-seventies. Like Shamar, Jigme lived at Rumtek in the sixties and seventies. Now in his late fifties, the soft-spoken, baby-faced Jigme exudes an air of motherly care that seems ill-suited to controversy; Yet, he has been the most outspoken of Shamar's supporters in criticizing Thrangu's role.

"Thrangu Rinpoche chose a monk, he was called Tendar," Jigme said. "He left Rumtek with Thrangu Rinpoche in 1975 and followed him to his retreat place Namo Buddha in Kathmandu. Thrangu Rinpoche had the idea to present this Tendar as a high lama."

With specific instructions from Thrangu, the new "Tendar Tulku Rinpoche" went to Taipei with the credentials of a spiritual master, in order to teach and raise funds for Thrangu's work in Nepal and elsewhere. Jigme told me that "Thrangu Rinpoche asked his own monks in Taiwan, who knew that Tendar was merely an ordinary monk, to keep his secret and pretend that Tendar was a high lama." The monks in Taiwan went along with Tendar's masquerade until the following year when Tendar himself, apparently fearful of discovery, backed out of the scheme, but not before raising enough money to demonstrate the potential of this approach to his boss Thrangu Rinpoche.

Thrangu later elaborated on this strategy and reportedly went on to promote dozens of undistinguished lamas to rinpoches. "These lamas owed their new status and loyalty to Thrangu Rinpoche personally," Jigme explained. "Later, Situ Rinpoche followed his lead, recognizing more than two hundred tulkus in just four months during 1991, as we learned from our contacts in Tibet."

In 1988, while traveling in Taiwan, Thrangu met with Chen Lu An. "Mr. Chen approached Thrangu Rinpoche with a plan to raise millions of dollars for the Karma Kagyu in Taiwan," explained Jigme Rinpoche. In exchange for a percentage of donations, a kind of sales commission that would go to his own Guomindang party, Chen offered to conduct a large-scale fund-raising campaign. Chen asked Thrangu to convey his proposal to the four high lamas of the Karma Kagyu: Shamar, Situ, Jamgon, and Gyaltsab Rinpoches.

Together, according to Jigme -- who said the Rumtek administration received reports from a dozen loyal monks in Taiwan who heard about this plan from their devotees and other Tibetans on the island -- Thrangu and Chen worked out the details of a plan to raise as much as one hundred million dollars by finding a Karmapa and then touring him around Taiwan.

Beforehand, they would create interest with a publicity campaign announcing the imminent arrival of a "Living Buddha" and promising that whoever had the chance to see the Karmapa and offer him donations would be enlightened in one lifetime. On his arrival, the tulku would perform the Black Crown ceremony at dozens of Tibetan Buddhist centers and other venues on the island.

"With such a plan," Jigme said, "according to our monks on Taiwan, Mr. Chen assured Thrangu Rinpoche that he would be able to get between fifty and a hundred people to donate one million dollars each, along with hundreds of others who would give smaller amounts."

According to Jigme's sources, Thrangu asked Chen to keep the plan to himself. He promised Chen he would personally inform the Karma Kagyu rinpoches of their plan and Chen's offer to carry it out. However, when Thrangu returned to India, he did not share the plan with Shamar, Jamgon, or Gyaltsab, but only with Tai Situ. Situ was reportedly excited by the plan. "Soon after," Jigme explained, "Thrangu Rinpoche took Situ Rinpoche on a secret trip to Taiwan to meet with Mr. Chen."

"Together, the three worked out the details of a fund-raising tour for their future Karmapa. The plan was worked out at least four years before they announced Ogyen Trinley. Situ Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche wanted to bring Gyaltsab Rinpoche into their plans, but they didn't think they could trust Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche." In any event, they were apparently certain that Shamar would not agree to participate and would spoil the plan, probably exposing it as he had exposed an earlier idea of Thrangu's, to take over the Karmapa's Kaolung Temple in Bhutan.

By 1973, the dozens of monks that Thrangu had brought into exile in 1959 still lingered at a refugee camp in northern India, in uncomfortable conditions. Thrangu had long sought his own cloister in which to house them. He set his eye on one of the Karmapa's monasteries in Bhutan for this purpose. Originally a gift of the grandmother of the current king, the Kaolung Temple was located within the campus of a large secondary school in eastern Bhutan.

Abbot Thrangu must have known that the sixteenth Karmapa would not willingly grant him control of the temple. But Thrangu apparently thought that if he offered his monks as "caretakers," that he could quietly place more and more monks there, eventually making control of the temple a fait accompli. Thrangu shared the whole scheme with Shamar, asking for his help. Thrangu must have thought that he could trust his former student. But he was wrong in this. Shamar immediately shared his former teacher's plan with with Topga, who had no choice but to inform the sixteenth Karmapa, thus earning Thrangu a rebuke from the sixteenth Karmapa.

"Soon afterwards, the abbot resigned his duties at Rumtek," Jigme said. "Ever since that, Thrangu Rinpoche behaved coldly towards Shamar Rinpoche. Therefore, according to our monks in Taiwan, Thrangu told Mr. Chen that under no circumstances should Shamar Rinpoche hear of their dealings."

Khenpo Chodrak and other lamas who managed Rumtek before Situ and Gyaltsab took over the monastery in 1993 have confirmed that they received similar information from monks in Taiwan at the time. Of course, even if Chen and Thrangu were planning to tour the Karmapa around Taiwan as a fund-raiser, we cannot know what they would have done with the donations. It is possible that they would have subsidized expanded Buddhist missionary work. It is also possible, as Jigme has suggested, that the money would have been used to build support for Situ and his allies among local politicians in Sikkim and elsewhere.

***

By mid-morning, a total crowd of more than a thousand of Tai Situ's supporters had assembled in the monastery's courtyard. A tense standoff began outside the main temple. The Rumtek monks responsible for the shrine room locked the entrance and refused to hand over the keys. Situ and Gyaltsab led a crowd to the temple, and sat down in front of the locked doors. They held incense and chanted Karmapa chenno (Karmapa hear me), the mantra of the Karmapas. Their followers clamored for action from behind them.

The Rumtek monks began to lose control over the situation. Soon, officers sent by the Sikkim chief of police began to intervene on the side of the aggressors. "This was crossing the line between church and state, which broke India's constitution," Shamar said. "We can only guess that Mr. Bhandari must have had a very strong incentive to take such a risk." Bhandari knew that New Delhi could have taken strong measures against him for breaching the constitutional wall between church and state, up to dissolving his government and putting him in prison. As it turned out, after the Rumtek takeover, the central government did initiate an investigation into Bhandari's role to determine if his Sikkim administration had unlawfully interfered in religious affairs.

Shamar's supporters have claimed that Bhandari probably received a payment as high as one million dollars from Situ and Gyaltsab, to send state police and security forces into Rumtek in response to an incident that the two rinpoches would provoke. The money came, allegedly, from Situ's Taiwanese supporter, former government official Chen Lu An. But the only evidence for this payment, aside from hearsay. is inferential: Shamar's followers theorize that for Bhandari to openly defy India's constitution by invading a religious center, and thus risk punishment from New Delhi, the chief minister must have been well rewarded. However, both newspaper reports and government investigators have documented that Chen Lu An delivered a payment of $1.5 million to Bhandari a few weeks after the Rumtek takeover.

According to Indian journalist Anil Maheshwari, Chen visited India between November 28 and December 4, 1993 to attend a meeting organized by Karma Topden. As we have seen Topden was a leader of Situ's Joint Action Committee in Sikkim and the father of the would-be Gyathon Tulku, rejected by the Rumtek administration in the eighties. Situ Rinpoche was also present at this meeting, and Shamar's supporters claim that this meeting was connected to Bhandari receiving a second payment from Chen for the chief minister's role in the takeover of Rumtek four months earlier, in August.2 The Indian government launched an investigation, and in January 1994, the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi banned Chen from re-entering India. [3]

***

In November 1999, Thaye Dorje accepted an invitation to make a tour of Southeast Asia. This would be his first trip abroad. He met with thousands of devotees at dharma centers in Singapore and Malaysia. But he almost did not make it into Taiwan, according to Ngedon Tenzin. Earlier, we encountered him as the senior monk-official at Rumtek who had his monk's robe wrapped around his neck by angry local supporters of Situ when he and Gyaltsab took over the Karmapa's cloister in August 1993. Since 2004, as we have seen, Ngedon has served as the general secretary of Thaye Dorje's labrang, the post held by Topga Rinpoche until his death from cancer in 1997.

"Our staff obtained a Taiwanese visa for Gyalwa Karmapa Thaye Dorje weeks before he was supposed to enter Taiwan. We used the diplomatic passport issued to him by the Bhutanese government," Ngedon said. "But the day before he was due to fly into Taipei airport, officials in the Foreign Ministry tried to stop His Holiness Karmapa from coming in because of a technicality."

Immigration officials noticed that his passport said that Thaye Dorje was born in Tibet. As a result of its strained relations with Beijing, the Taiwanese government required travelers born in China to obtain a special permit to enter the island nation. Only the timely intervention of one of Thaye Dorje's supporters in Taipei saved the trip. This devotee used his influence in the Foreign Ministry to convince the manager of the relevant office to remain open after normal closing time at five o'clock to process an emergency permit for Thaye Dorje. The tulku was able to obtain clearance and fly into Taipei the next day.

Ngedon suspects that Chen Lu An, who by this time was a former government official but one who still enjoyed influence in the tight-knit administration of the island nation, tried to block Thaye Dorje's entry into Taiwan. "Through our devotees in Taiwan" we heard that Mr. Chen had already lined up perhaps fifty people willing to pay one million dollars each to carry the box for the Black Crown and hand it to Ogyen Trinley during the Black Crown ceremony," Ngedon said.

Here we might recall that Jigme Rinpoche accused former Rumtek Abbot Thrangu of planning with Chen to tour the next Karmapa around the island to raise funds, as we saw in chapter 8. Now, it appeared that Chen had started to put a similar plan into action with Tai Situ.

According to Ngedon, Chen had even more Taiwanese pledged to pay five hundred thousand dollars each to hand Ogyen Trinley the so-called Body, Speech, and Mind Objects during the ceremony -- a stupa or sacred pagoda, a statue of the Buddha, and a text of Buddhist scriptures. "Mr. Chen had made commitments to Karma Kagyu lamas in Taiwan, as well as monasteries around the world, from Kathmandu to New York, to distribute these funds. If His Holiness Thaye Dorje came to Taiwan, Mr. Chen's plan would be spoiled. We heard that he was practically sleeping in front of the Foreign Ministry office to stop Karmapa Thaye Dorje from getting into Taiwan."

-- Buddha's Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today, by Erik D. Curren

Chen Li-an (Chinese: 陳履安; pinyin: Chén Lǚ'ān; born 22 June 1937 in Qingtian, Zhejiang, Republic of China), sometimes spelled Chen Lu-an, is an electrical engineer, mathematician and former Taiwanese politician.

Early life

The son of former Vice President Chen Tsyr-shiou, he earned his masters' and Ph.D. in mathematics from New York University. He had a close friendship with Wang Yung-ching, a respected businessman. Wang later appointed Chen the headmaster of the private Ming-chi Technology College which Wang owned; Chen held the position from July 1970 to February 1972.

Political career

Chen served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1988 to 1991, Minister of National Defense from 1991 to 1993, and President of the Control Yuan from 1993 to 1995. He resigned his post, left the Kuomintang, and declared his candidacy for the presidency in September 1995 to express his open criticism of Lee Teng-hui's Mainland policy.

Lin Yang-kang originally considered Chen as his vice-presidential running-mate in the 1996 ROC presidential election. However, Chen chose to run for president himself (with Wang Ching-feng as his vice-presidential candidate). As Chen is a devoted convert to Tibetan Buddhism (he is ethnically Han), his campaign tour of the island featured a strong spiritual theme, projecting an image that some commented to be like an "ascetic monk". After losing his bid in the presidential election with the lowest vote among the four candidates, Chen announced that he would retire from politics.

1996 Republic of China Presidential Election Result
President Candidate / Vice President Candidate / Party / Votes / %
Lee Teng-hui / Lien Chan / Kuomintang / 5,813,699 / 54.0
Peng Ming-min / Frank Hsieh / Democratic Progressive Party / 2,274,586 / 21.1
Lin Yang-kang / Hau Pei-tsun / Independent / 1,603,790 / 14.9
Chen Li-an / /Wang Ching-feng / Independent / 1,074,044 / 9.9
Invalid/blank votes / 117,160
Total / 10,883,279 /100

Later, as part of his efforts to promote Tibetan Buddhism, he founded the Hwa-yu Foundation (化育基金會), of which he serves as president and his eldest son, Chen Yu-ting (陳宇廷), serves as director. Chen also organized charities to financially assist ethnic minorities in mainland China and Nepal. From 1996 to 1998, he visited the Mainland China three times, meeting once with Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.

While he still considered the Kuomintang a "rotten party",[1] Chen endorsed the KMT candidate Lien Chan in the 2000 ROC presidential election, believing that Lien was unlike the rest of the Kuomintang.

In January 2001, Chen re-joined the Kuomintang, because he thought both the party and Taiwan needed him.[2] Since 2002 Chen and his family have been investing and running various business in mainland China, Nepal and Macau.

Chen's last public appearance was in the Pan-Blue Coalition's protests shortly after the 2004 ROC presidential election. He showed his support for Lien Chan and James Soong.

Personal life

He is married to Tsao Chin (曹倩). His daughter, Chen Yu-hui, is a businesswoman (director of ABN AMRO) and wuxia novelist ("Duō qíng làng zǐ chī qíng xiá";多情浪子痴情侠).

See also

• Politics of the Republic of China

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 January 2004. Retrieved 6 December 2003.
2. Lin, Chieh-yu (4 January 2001). "KMT exodus could cost party its majority". Taipei Times. p. 3. Retrieved 29 January 2015.

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The prince who wanted to save his kingdom: Jigme Singh Palbar Bista, Heir to a Himalayan dynasty
by Vanessa Dougnac
La Croix
November 29, 2917

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

For the villagers of Mustang, Nepal, Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista remains their king. It is heir to a lineage that goes back to the XIV th century, at a time when the former Buddhist kingdom opens to the world.

The Crown Prince Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista, whom the villagers call "the King", savored in his palace a cup of po Cha, Tibetan tea salted with yak butter. Wearing an anorak and cap screwed on his head, he is the direct descendant of the great warrior Ame Pal who founded the kingdom of Mustang in 1380 and erected the fortress of Lo Manthang, in this Nepalese enclave of the high Tibetan plateau.

Nestled in a grandiose labyrinth of desert mountains, the last fortified capital of the Himalayas has passed through the centuries out of sight. Annexed by Nepal in 1790 for 100 pieces of silver and a horse, the Mustang kept the right to keep its monarchy and remained banned from foreigners until 1992. Since then, only a few hundred tourists visit the legendary country each summer, subject to a permit of 500 dollars (420 €). The kingdom has emerged at the dawn of XXIth century as an open-air museum, a medieval unspoiled Tibetan culture.

Today, "Jigme" is a king without a crown, in a valley upset by modernity. In 2008, a democratic regime overthrew the monarchy in Kathmandu. In Mustang, his uncle and adoptive father, King Jigme Dorje Balpar [Palbar] Bista, had to abdicate to limit himself to play a cultural role. Added to this is the first road built from the Chinese border, which will soon close the Mustang to the rest of the world. In the villages, jeeps and motorcycles make their appearance and men's dresses are bartered for jeans "made in China".

With the broad smile that often illuminates his face, Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista defines himself as "a simple Mustang man". And he finishes his tea, in a kitchen with cracked walls, in the heart of a crumbling and deserted palace. His father, the last king, died last December at the age of 86, leaving him as a legacy his palaces in ruins. And the blows of the spell did not help. The earthquake that devastated Nepal in 2015 damaged Lo Manthang's palace, and the large herd of royal yaks was decimated in an avalanche.

Residing in Kathmandu, Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista embodies the transition. Father of two, he married a noble of Tibetan origin after completing studies in political science. Breaking with the paternal style, he became both entrepreneur and Mustang cultural spokesperson. It still does justice in inheritance cases or land disputes. Because if some communist graffiti are drawn on the walls of Lo Manthang, the villagers maintain a great respect towards the royalty, guardian of their traditions.

Jigme learned to ride at the age of 7, but he also willingly accompanies his guests by helicopter to try to attract investment. He has just built a beautiful hotel in Lo Manthang. "I see all the villagers leaving the Mustang looking for work," he says. I would like the hotel to help create local jobs. "

In the meantime, he tries to promote education among a poor and rural population. Thanks to donations, he has set up 16 reception centers and an institution that supports 65 children. "My dream would be to see the new generation in school," he says. He also hopes to save his palaces. Two of them are abandoned and that of Lo Manthang has been consolidated in extremis thanks to the intervention of a German foundation. As for the monasteries, archaeological treasures, their restoration is faithfully ensured by the American Himalayan Foundation.

"But since 1992, the government has collected a lot of money on our backs by taxing tourists," says Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista. Where are bridges, hospitals, schools? Finally, the authorities build a road. It's good for development, but it's not good. "

In the immediate future, foreign trekkers who crisscross the steep paths with impressive teams of mules, porters, tents and cooks, are a little confused by discovering bulldozers in the heart of the mythical kingdom. "We must rethink our future, while having the fear of seeing modernity crumble our culture, admits the king. But I want to try, until my death, to help the Mustang. "