The locals of Halji village in Humla district of western Nepal practise the Drikung Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism which has an 11th century monastery at its heart.
They are very worried that the Rinchenling monastery - one of the oldest in Nepal and highly revered in Tibet - could be swept away or damaged by floods and mudslides caused by the outburst of a glacial lake on the mountain overlooking their village.
For the past five years, Halji has been hit by glacial lake floods almost every summer and the last one nearly two months ago damaged two
Several crop fields were washed away and many remain covered with sands, rendering them barren for many years to come.
Villagers say the historic monastery now stands only around 15m away from the river bank that has been eroded by flood waters.
They fear the next time the Tak Tsho lake bursts out like it did this year, it may hit the 1,000 year-old sacred site.
"It is our identity," says Kojuk Objang Tamang, the head of Halji village. "We cannot even imagine about our community without the monastery which is the base of our religious culture," he told the BBC.
So strong is the community's creed on the monastery that they are convinced that it has saved them from the floods and mudslides so far.
"It is because of the blessings of the monastery that the village is hit by floods at day time only and so there is no loss of human lives because we can run to safety during daylight," says Tamang. "Had it happened in the night when we are asleep, god knows how many of us would have been dead by now.
Astrid Hovden of the University of Oslo, who has been conducting her PhD research in Halji, has witnessed how central the monastery is to the community of around 100 households.
"At the night of the flood (last June), after the water level in the river started to get back to normal, the monks performed an elaborate ritual in the monastery to pray for the safety of their village.
"Since the villagers got aware of the problem they have invited important lamas (priests) from outside to perform rituals to protect their village
Prayers apart, the villagers have also done whatever they could to save the monastery and their settlement.
Although almost all of them are uneducated, they have knocked on the doors of the prime minister's office in the capital Kathmandu, the local authority and the national planning commission.
Those efforts had secured some funding which they used to build defences using rocks and gabion wires to tame the flood waters.
"Every family in our village worked free of cost for the constructions of those infrastructures," says Tamang.
But villagers say every year the floods and mudslides hurtling down from the glacial lake at the height of around 5,300m on the Gurla Mandhata mountain become increasingly dangerous.
"Our effort to save the village is proving to be no match for the force of the floods," said Mangal Lama, a social worker from the region
Lama and other locals said they hiked up to the area where the Tak Tsho glacial lake is located and found that it is hidden behind a hanging glacier.
"And we saw huge cracks on the glacier, and that explained why we used to hear big sounds around the same time in June every year before we were hit by floods.
"Apparently, it appears that the huge pieces of ice sheet from the cracked parts of the glacier might have fallen into the glacial lake which then overflowed, causing floods and mudslides downstream."
Some scientists say climate change has accelerated glacial meltdown in the Himalayas, creating many new glacial lakes and filling up existing ones to dangerous levels.
Most of the 4,000 or so glaciers and their lakes in the Nepalese Himalayas are not monitored, like the one above Halji in Humla district.
The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) Nepal has prepared under the United Nations climate convention has rated the district's vulnerability to glacial lake outburst flood as "very low" - something which has been disputed.
Social worker Lama said some villagers are so frustrated that they are considering going to Tibet across the border to become refugees.
"Because it takes five days walk to reach the nearest local authority of Nepal while Taklakot (the nearest Tibetan market) is only 12 hours away and moreover the villagers speak the Tibetan language and follow all traditions of Tibet."
Locals say they cannot also move the monastery and their settlement to a safe place.
"The moment we move the monastery, its religious and historic value will drop to zero," says Tamang. "And that, in turn, means our century old intact religious and cultural community will break and it will all be over"
Nice piece, I think many cultures are seeing cultural sites and destinations threatened by nature or development. It's important for the government and the people of Nepal to work together to find whats in the best interest of all the stakeholders.
ReplyDeleteDENDA RM40,000 PALSUKAN TANDATANGAN [METROTV]
ReplyDeleteJurutera didenda RM40,000 palsu tandatangan berhubung pembinaan bangle
KUALA LUMPUR: Seorang jurutera sebuah syarikat perunding pembinaan didenda RM40,000 oleh Mahkamah Sesyen di sini hari ini selepas mengaku bersalah atas pertuduhan memalsukan tandatangan pada sebuah dokumen berhubung cadangan pembinaan sebuah banglo.
Hakim Azura Alwi menjatuhkan hukuman itu ke atas Toh Hwee Sheng, 46, dan memerintahkannya dipenjara enam bulan jika gagal membayar denda itu.
Toh didakwa dengan curangnya menggunakan suatu dokumen sebagai tulen iaitu sebuah buku ‘Structure Design Calculation’ bertarikh 2 Ogos 2014 berhubung kiraan dan pelan struktur bagi cadangan membina sebuah banglo dua setengah tingkat di atas Lot PT 1, No 1, Jalan 5, Selayang Baru, Mukim Batu, Gombak, Selangor daripada Lieng Consult kepada Datuk Yip Kum Fook iaitu pemilik tanah yang mempunyai sebab untuk mempercayai dokumen itu adalah palsu.
Tertuduh didakwa melakukan kesalahan itu antara 2 hingga 12 Ogos 2014, di No 2A & B, Jalan 53, Desa Jaya Kepong di sini, mengikut Seksyen 471 Kanun Keseksaan yang boleh dihukum di bawah Seksyen 465 kanun sama yang memperuntukkan hukuman penjara maksimum dua tahun atau denda atau kedua-duanya.
Pegawai Pendakwa Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) Mohd Aliff Shaharuzaman memohon hukuman setimpal bagi memberi pengajaran kepada tertuduh kerana amalan pemalsuan dan meniru tandatangan pemilik syarikat adalah kesalahan serius dan menjadi barah dalam masyarakat jika tidak ditangani.
Tertuduh yang tidak diwakili peguam merayu hukuman denda dikenakan ke atasnya dengan jumlah yang minimum kerana dia mempunyai tanggungan termasuk ibu yang berumur 76 tahun.
“Ini adalah kesalahan pertama dan saya tiada rekod jenayah. Saya amat kesal dan insaf atas kesalahan ini dan berjanji tidak akan mengulanginya lagi, jadi saya mohon hukuman denda minimum tanpa hukuman penjara,” katanya.
Mengikut fakta kes, pada 2013, Yip Kum Fook iaitu bekas Ahli Majlis Perbandaran Selayang mengarahkan syarikat tertuduh bekerja iaitu Lieng Consult menyediakan Borang A, Kiraan Struktur dan Pelan Struktur bagi cadangan membina sebuah banglo dua setengah tingkat di atas lot tersebut, namun penyediaan dokumen itu tanpa pengetahuan Lieng Wei Ming selaku pemilik syarikat.
Lieng memaklumkan semua dokumen itu tidak dikeluarkan oleh syarikatnya dan mengesahkan tandatangan pada dokumen itu juga bukan miliknya.
Selain itu, tertuduh juga menerima wang RM10,000 daripada Yip atas pembayaran kerja yang dilakukan iaitu menyediakan semua dokumen itu dan hasil semakan Bahagian Forensik SPRM mengesahkan tandatangan pada dokumen ‘Structure Design Calculation’ adalah berbeza dengan spesimen tandatangan diambil daripada Lieng. -Bernama
Kerajaan Malaysia akan memeriksa Yip Kum Fook (peguam dan presiden Samnak Sambodhi atau persatuan Buddha, Taman Desa Jaya, kepong) kerana peguam ini menipu orang di mana-mana......Yip Kum Fook & Associates, Kuala Lumpur... No. 2A & B, Jalan 53, Desa Jaya, Kepong, 52100, Kuala Lumpur, WP Kuala Lumpur
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ReplyDeleteWe would like to inform everyone about YIP KUM FOOK, president of SAMNAK SAMBODHI BUDDHIST TEMPLE, Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, YIP KUM FOOK has never embarrassed people about him always lying, cheating, insulting Buddhist teachings, etc.
Recently, many people talked about his character, before this he was a truck driver who sent furniture everywhere, then he studied law courses at several universities but we did not know he study courses or not because he did not know the law, he cheated people everywhere. and how lawyers can deceive people without fear of the law
Hope everyone should care about this name YIP KUM FOOK (LAWYER OR MCA GOMBAK CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT OF SAMNAK SAMBODHI BUDDHIST TEMPLE), also need to share and forward to all. If you make a mistake, you will lose everything, this man or YIP KUM FOOK is very dangerous and his son (YIP JIUN HANN) is also the most dangerous.
By KOK MENG, KEPONG
Sila kongsi dan majukan kepada semua rakan-rakan
Kami ingin memaklumkan kepada semua tentang YIP KUM FOOK, presiden KUIL BUDDHA SAMNAK SAMBODHI, Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, YIP KUM FOOK tidak pernah memalukan orang ramai tentang beliau selalu berbohong, menipu, menghina ajaran Buddha, dll.
Baru-baru ini ramai yang memperkatakan tentang perwatakannya, sebelum ini dia seorang pemandu lori yang menghantar perabot ke mana-mana, kemudian dia belajar kursus undang-undang di beberapa universiti tetapi kita tidak tahu dia belajar kursus atau tidak kerana dia tidak tahu undang-undang, dia menipu orang. dimana - mana. dan bagaimana peguam boleh menipu orang tanpa rasa takut pada undang-undang
Harap semua orang harus mengambil berat tentang nama ini YIP KUM FOOK (PEGUAM ATAU MCA GOMBAK PENGERUSI DAN PRESIDEN KUIL BUDDHA SAMNAK SAMBODHI), juga perlu dikongsi dan dimajukan kepada semua. Jika tersilap langkah, anda akan kehilangan segala-galanya, lelaki atau YIP KUM FOOK ini sangat bahaya dan anaknya (YIP JIUN HANN) juga yang paling bahaya.
Oleh KOK MENG, KEPONG