Maitriaya Guru

Today, I was surfing through my inbox and came across an interesting news. This news was not of politics or other social events that are usual. Instead, this is about much awaited Maitriya Guru Maha Sambodhi Dharma Sangha. I am of an opinion that we are witnessing a phenomenon of Dharma revival in Nepal. We need to listen what Maitriya Guru has to say fellow sentient beings. This is a glorious time for us. Recently, Dharma Sangha Puja was held in Vulvule, Khudi of Lamjung district in Gandaki on 25th Feb, 2014. This is so good to hear of this puja because Maitriya Guru himself  was amidst people of Lamjung. His message is simple - love and compassion. i would again like to say that we are happy and expect more of Maitrya Guru's visit all over Nepal. The youtube video is attached for you to listen at Mitriya Guru's blessing.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSgeJxDaWnM&feature=youtu.be

Random thoughts

For few days, I am playing with an idea, "what does it mean to be judged based on his / her background?" The background could be anything from family, color, race or nationality and so on. I am bound to think about it, when someone has to face such a situation, when we notice a clear distinction in behavior towards you based on your color or language or nationality. I am sorry, I am ruminating such thoughts, which you may think - waste of time. But, you may come across such subtle incident and unknowingly you feel pinched. This happens many times within your country or outside mostly in immigration. 

Few days back, a friend of mine from Africa had to face such an incident. I also vividly remember one such incident in a popular TV show where singing star Mr. Tamang had to face !! I ask again why such irritation should take place? Uhhmm.. when you start think about it in retrospective, you may get answer and start to develop conviction. I feel , such incidents happen, when people fail to recognize core value of love and kindness. And such people may not be exposed to real life situation of how others feels or go through. In simple word, we may lack EMPATHY. In addition, this kind of cold behavior could be the outcome of environment or his/ her nascent personality. As an example, it could be just because you grew up in wealthy community, where you do not have to think of daily necessities and mostly, pampered. In some cases, it could be his / her cold temperament. Whatever may be the reason, I feel there is strong need for induction of social values such as respect for diversity among people of different faith / color / languages / nationalities and have compassion towards fellow beings. We also know that this starts from your school, home and community. There lies answer for all these happenings so, solution for this behavior could be education and cross - cultural dialogue. 

For today, I feel a bit lighter and relieved. At least i managed to vomit out and write my feeling so i can be creative instead of suffering to myself in negative spiral of anxiety and boiling anger. I also like to look into this kind of happening in perspective before coming into any conclusion. First thing we can do is ignore, or if you cannot do so, then have compassion towards his / her ignorance, smile and forget it. If you are brave enough to tackle the situation then face it and explain it. Here i would like to share a pictorial story of blind men and an elephant. In short, message of the story is in one word: PERSPECTIVE

Chure vs. Lure

Source: http://nagarikplus.nagariknews.com/component/flippingbook/book/1696-nagarik-24-feb-2014/2-nagarik.html

NOTE: This is one political caricature that i liked so much !! Sometime, words are futile when people lose hope. At such juncture, only thing that can save us is only through ACTION, not NATO ( no action, only TALK TALK). In contrary, this picture tells volume of Nepalese politics and bureaucracy.

RANDOM THOUGHT

I never thought, i would be working in various institutions as salaried person. I have a family background with my grandparents as farmers and parents as hotelier. My exposure was therefore in the field of hospitality, so I sometime feel i have a knack for such business venture and play with an idea of starting such project such as that i could observe and learn from online hotel business in Japan (see: http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/). I am certain i can do it. Only thing necessary is "time commitment and dedication". I am firm believer on exploring any innovative idea and putting it into action, if this fall under priority 1. When I see the history of Toyoko Inn network of hotels which caters budget travelers in Japan and some oversea countries, I praise their innovative use of space and resources. In Toyoko, everything seems to be taken care to make one's stay economical in expensive cities. Therefore, anybody from low income countries wishing to visit Japan can afford to travel cheap. Now, I think anyone can travel provided he / she has interest for travelling and seeing new places and learn from histories, culture and geography. Another very essential preparation for travelling would be budgeting and extensive research of the places that you plan to travel including GOOGLE MAP (https://www.google.com/maps/preview)  and GOOGPLE EARTH (http://www.google.com/earth/). Of course, do not forget to go through immigartion entry requirement to those countries you plan to travel and notably, the best resource would be WIKI TRAVEL (http://www.google.com/earth/).

So, I would like to read books on writing business plan and travel more to learn how business are done. Another very important point that i observe travelling in few countries is "value creation". This is very so important that we need to work together so we create "value" for what we have in our community through writing, documentary and "story telling". I feel, we lack these aspect of promotional exercise. So, one idea i am playing with is "how to develop BUSINESS PLAN and put it into ACTION?"

Some reading:

"A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan

A business plan is a written description of your business's future. That's all there is to it--a document that desribes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. If you jot down a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you've written a plan, or at least the germ of a plan.

Business plans can help perform a number of tasks for those who write and read them. They're used by investment-seeking entrepreneurs to convey their vision to potential investors. They may also be used by firms that are trying to attract key employees, prospect for new business, deal with suppliers or simply to understand how to manage their companies better.

So what's included in a business plan, and how do you put one together? Simply stated, a business plan conveys your business goals, the strategies you'll use to meet them, potential problems that may confront your business and ways to solve them, the organizational structure of your business (including titles and responsibilities), and finally, the amount of capital required to finance your venture and keep it going until it breaks even.

Sound impressive? It can be, if put together properly. A good business plan follows generally accepted guidelines for both form and content. There are three primary parts to a business plan:

• The first is the business concept, where you discuss the industry, your business structure, your particular product or service, and how you plan to make your business a success.
• The second is the marketplace section, in which you describe and analyze potential customers: who and where they are, what makes them buy and so on. Here, you also describe the competition and how you'll position yourself to beat it.
• Finally, the financial section contains your income and cash flow statement, balance sheet and other financial ratios, such as break-even analyses. This part may require help from your accountant and a good spreadsheet software program.

Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of seven key components:

1. Executive summary
2. Business description
3. Market strategies
4. Competitive analysis
5. Design and development plan
6. Operations and management plan
7. Financial factors

In addition to these sections, a business plan should also have a cover, title page and table of contents.

How Long Should Your Business Plan Be?

Depending on what you're using it for, a useful business plan can be any length, from a scrawl on the back of an envelope to, in the case of an especially detailed plan describing a complex enterprise, more than 100 pages. A typical business plan runs 15 to 20 pages, but there's room for wide variation from that norm.

Much will depend on the nature of your business. If you have a simple concept, you may be able to express it in very few words. On the other hand, if you're proposing a new kind of business or even a new industry, it may require quite a bit of explanation to get the message across.

The purpose of your plan also determines its length. If you want to use your plan to seek millions of dollars in seed capital to start a risky venture, you may have to do a lot of explaining and convincing. If you're just going to use your plan for internal purposes to manage an ongoing business, a much more abbreviated version should be fine.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/38290#ixzz2u6p1YFMB

Presentation Skill

Thakali: A brief Introduction

Note: The source of this article is a blog - http://thakalis.blogspot.kr/

Introduction 
Thakalis are an ethnic group in Nepal originally from Thak Khola on the banks of River Kaligandaki in Mustang District. They are now spread all over Nepal and beyond. Numerically, it is a very small group. According to the 2001 Census, total population of Thakalis in Nepal was only 12,973 (or 0.06% of the total). If their population grew at the same rate as Nepal's (1.12x), then by 2009 Thakalis would number around 14,500.

The ancestral home of Thakalis is Thaksatse in Thak Khola. It consists of 13 villages (tehra gaun): Tukuche, Khanti, Kobang, Larjung, Bhurjungkot, Nakhung, Naprungkhung, Titi, Dhumpu, Taglung, Kunjo, Lete and Ghasa. The most important among them is Tukuche.

Thakalis are divided into four clans: Bhurki, Choki, Dinjen and Salki. These indigenous names were Nepalicized into Bhattachan (Bhurki), Gauchan (Choki), Sherchan (Dinjen) and Tulachan (Salgi) in the early 1920s, probably to facilitate the group's assimilation into larger Nepali state. The common last syllable "chan" probably came from "Chand", the ruling clans of western Himalaya and was probably incorporated to associate Thakalis with a higher caste group. In numerical terms, Sherchan is the most numerous and Tulachan the least.

The principal function of the division into clans is to organize the group's marriage customs. Thakalis as a rule cannot marry within the same clan. The clans are further divided into sub-clans called phobe/gyuba/gyu which is based on patriarchal lineage. There are no hard and fast rules governing the formation of gyu, but generally speaking, once a particular gyu becomes too large it fragments. Currently, there are 39 ghu (Bhattachan 9, Gauchan 11, Sherchan 13 and Tulachan 6). Within each phobe/gyu there are number of groups around a common baje (translates to "grandfather" but it means "a common acestor") that share a ossuary (khimi).

History of Thakalis
"Thak" in Tibetan means a "distant country" and that term may have been coined because historically Thak region was at the edge of Tibetan influence. For most of the period until the mid-eighteenth century, the region was ruled by the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo. In circa 1764, Kingdom of Jumla conquered Lo and made it a vassal state. During that century, Lo was divided into northern Lo centered around its historical capital Monthang and Southern Lo ruled by decedents of Jampa Thobgyal. In 1786 the Lo Kingdoms came under Gurkha rule, and in 1789 they helped Gurkhas conquer the formidable Kingdom of Jumla. For their aid, Lo Kings retained their positions with provisions that they pay tributary to rulers in Kathmandu.

Thakalis do not have a written history. They have preserved their oral history, a mixture of historical facts and mythical stories in their religious textbook, cyogi rhab, written in Tibetan script. Obviously, there is no reference to dates. Each clan has its own rhab which describes the journey of its ancestor. The most interesting rhab belong to Gauchan and Tulachan.

According to Gauchan legend, (Choki rhab), Ani Airam the ancestor of Gauchan clan left western Tibet for Sinja, the capital of Jumla. At Sinja, Ani Airam met Samledhen Samlecyang, the ancestor of Tulachan clan and Dhakpa Ghyalsang, the patriarch of Sherchan clan who himself came from Ladhak area. All three headed to Kathmandu valley, then called Nepal. They passed through Phalla, west of Kagbeni and then down the Kaligandaki to Thini. In Ghyatobra, opposite to present-day Tukuche, they met Paw Kuti, the ancestor of Bhattachan clan. They continued on to Ghorepani. At Phallante they lost their way. They turned back and decided to settle in present day Thak Khola.

According to Tulachan legend (Salgi rhab), Tulachan clan was the most powerful and others were jealous of its power. They conspired to kill them all - all eighteen of them. Tulachan brothers were invited to a lha chuwa ritual and given poisoned food. The brothers had been forewarned by their grandmother, Lhasarphi. So before eating they fed a dog which died, and thus avoiding the poisoned food. Tulachan brothers were again invited to help others cut a wooden log. Lhasarphi pleaded them not to go because she suspected conspiracy but the brothers went anyway because they felt invincible. At the site, the brothers were asked to put their hands in the cleft of a half-cut log. When they did, the wedge was closed trapping their hands. The log was rolled down the hill killing all. After hearing the news, Lhasarphi and her grandson Bhum fled. The other Thakalis wanted to find out the reason for the clan's power and they found Lha Chyurin Galmo, the Tulachan's deity. Unable to destroy it, they threw it into Kaligandaki. At a gorge near Ghasa, it blocked the river and lake started to form. This caused a panic. A lama told Thakalis that Lha Chyurin Galmo was blocking the river and only Tulachan clan's prayer would make him undo it. Discovering that Lhasarphi was still alive, they selected Khe Pau Kuti to search for her. He found a fireplace in a nearby forest and looked around for her. Lhasarphi suspecting that Khe Pau Kuti was there kill them hid with her grandson inside a tree trunk. When Khe Pau Kuti put his hand in that tree trunk to check it out, tears from Lhasarphi fell on it. She refused to come out but eventually Khe Pau Kuti convinced her that he was not there to kill her but to seek her help. He asked her to pray. As per his request,Lhasarphi prayed with her hand holding an open shawl. Lha Chyurin Galmo came flying onto her shawl and Kaligandaki river was un-blocked.

The legends end and history begins when Thak Khola becomes part of emerging Nepali state. According to Michael Vinding, Thak Khola's inclusion in the Nepalese state in 1786 meant an end to the wars that ravaged the area in the previous centuries. The Thakalis could now cultivate their fields, raise their animals, and engage in peacetime trade. As there no longer was a need to live in fortified settlements, the Thakalis could establish settlements closer to the water sources, the fields and the caravan route.

In the early years of modern Nepali state, Thakalis suffered through heavy homestead taxes. Until 1802 taxes were collected by the government-appointed non-local contractor (ijaradar), and thereafter, by village heads (mukiya or budhas). Tax burden was significant. By 1811, those contractors were assigned to raise Rs. 13,000 from about 700 households in the region. As a result significant number of Thakalis emigrated out of Thak Khola.

In the nineteenth century Thakalis migrated to Baglung and Myagdi districts partly because of exorbitant taxes in Thak Khola and partly because of better opportunities there. A region called Khani Khuwa (bais khani) centered around Galkot in Baglung district produced high quality copper. Myagdi district had fertile agricultural land along the eponymous river. Copper from Khani Khuwa went into making coins used in Nepal as well as parts of northern India. Thakalis were quite successful businessmen and some even became ijaradar collecting taxes from mines on behalf of the central government. By the late nineteenth century, lack of investment and cheap imports of copper from India led to decline of mining activities, and by 1930s, most of the mines in Khani Khuwa were closed.

Back in Thak Khola, Thakalis prospered facilitating trade in goods from Nepal/India and Tibet. During summer, traders from Tibet ventured south but trails south of Ghasa were dangerous especially during Monsoon. During winter, traders from the south headed north but could not go too far because of snow. Thak Khola at the junction of two climatic zones became a natural entreport to store and exchange goods. Tibetan brought salt, collected from lakes in Western Tibet, wools and animals. Traders from the south brought grains and manufactured goods.

In 1862 a significant change took place in the political economy of Thak region. Hitherto, there was free trade in grains and salt and the government collected revenue/duties through ijara. In 1862, Jang Bahadur Rana government decided to give the monopoly over salt trade to the custom collector in Dana (subba), and that position was auctioned off to the highest bidder. The competition to get the contract was intense because the position came with significant political and economic power. For instance, the contract size in 1876 was Rs. 82,000 and in early twentieth century reached as high as Rs. 150,000 (at Rs. 31 per tola gold in 1911, it amounted to 56 kg of gold). To get the contract, Thakalis competed against each other and against Gurungs. Historical accounts suggest that until the end of salt monopoly in 1928, the custom collectors were mostly Thakalis, specifically Thakalis who were descendents of Balbir Thakali (great-grandfather of famous poet Bhupi Sherchan). In the post-monopoly period, the significance of Tibetan salt declined as cheap Indian imports flooded the market. In 1959 China annexed Tibet and in 1962 India and China went to war. This ended the centuries old trans-Himalayan trade. Thak Khola lost its primal role as an entreport. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Thakalis started to leave the region in significant numbers to other parts of Nepal - Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butwal and Bhairawa.

Bibliography

Fisher, William, 2001. Fluid Boundaries: Forming and Transforming Identity in Nepal

Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1985. Tribal populations and cultures of the Indian Subcontinent

Ramble, Charles, 2008. The navel of the demoness: Tibetan Buddhism and civil religion in highland Nepal

Schuh, Dieter, 1988. The Political Organisation of Southern Mustang During the 17th and 18th Century

Vinding, Michael, 1998. The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography