Nepali Times on 11 October
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# 12 4 - 10 October 2000 20 pages Rs 20 9 DASAIN AYO Nepals bird diversity10 NOTICE TO READERS - Because of the Dasain Festival there will be no issue of Nepali Times on 11 October. After the holidays, Nepali Times will come out on Fridays every week and not Wednesdays as it does presently. The next issue will be on Friday, 20 October. See you then. –Editor EXCLUSIVE C.K. LAL Swaha, Mata, Lokmata, Shanti, ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Kosi High Dam orce has masculine connotations in Pushti, Dhriti and Swosti. societies that struggled against Women may have been Secretary-level talks began secre- FNature for their survival. Nature had beaten down by centuries tively in Kathmandu this week to to be subdued and tamed so that Man of supression in our discuss the proposal to build a flood- could be said to have conquered it. society, but they are control high dam on the Kosi River. A In societies that grew in her bosom, still the ones who team led by the Indian water re- Nature was regarded as feminine in both bestow power sources secretary Jafar Hasan was in her gentle and fierce avatars. Nature was upon their Kathmandu for the 1-3 October the complete woman: the mother, the men. So, who meeting, but few in Nepal seemed to lover, the sister, the daughter, all rolled is empowering know about it. Why all the secrecy? into one. All life forces emanated from whom? Officially, this meeting is a follow- her, and behind the Supreme Beings Matrikas up to the prime minister’s visit to every move there was the cycle of became even Delhi in August when India and Nepal creation, sustenance and destruction. God more im- agreed to streamline bilateral water was a she. And she was called the Mother portant when consultations. But India seems to Earth, the Mother Goddess. She made Vedic want to bring up the issue of the Kosi the moon and the earth go around the Hindus (and and the Bagmati High Dam projects. sun. She made us do what we do, and later even New Delhi is keen to placate fears in later enjoy or suffer the consequences. Buddhists to Bihar that it is not doing enough to When the Aryans came face to face some extent) push the mammoth projects which with the splendours of the Harappan fused with many Biharis see as a solution to civilisation in the early part of the second animism in the their annual flood woes. For the first millennium BC they must have been awe- mountainous regions of time, the Indian team included a struck by the power of the female deity Kashmir, Kumaon, Nepal, Bihari official, Radha Singh, the that bestowed such opulence, even on a Tibet and Assam. A faith state’s commissioner for water people so unwilling to go to war. The emerged celebrating the primal union resources, and also Patna-based Aryans established their hegemony by of the linga (the phallus, standing for male media. torching Harappan cities, and then force) with the yoni (the vagina, Why was Ghimire fired? The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Director General Nagendra Prasad Ghimire was summarily sacked last week. And that would Mother of all festivals have been that. But word has come that Ghimire was punished for For a society that has a strong matrilineal heritage garland of skulls around her neck Astamatrika, Mother Nature at her opposing a government decision Indrani rides an elephant and looks a bewitching best. It is said that one night granting licences to seven new and a pantheon of goddesses in heaven, it is little more reassuring, notwithstanding a she appeared in the dreams of King airlines, one of which wanted to surprising how strongly patriarchial practices whip in one of her hands Pratap Malla and directed him to create operate a single-engine passenger dominate Nepali society today. Chamunda is a skeleton, with two an image of her and enshrine her. So there aircraft. teeth protruding like Dracula she looks she is at the Mohan Chowk of Hanuman establishing their own set of goddesses. symbolising female force). Linga was the like somone who can send a chill down Dhokaembodying all the forces of Brahmans called them Shodash-Matrika seed, yoni the groundtogether they the spine of sinners creation, sustenance and destruction. The Beeb bends over the 16 mother goddesses. assured fertility, prosperity and peace. Kumari is the virgin goddess, her Ashtamatrika is also revered as Kali, the The BBC backtracked and altered Perhaps the 16 originated from escorts Nava Durga is another latter-day blessings bestow upon kings the right to seductive destroyer. Other faiths ask the subject of its South Asia Debate of famous patriarchal Aryan chiefs, or from variation on the theme of matrikas. The rule followers to be perfect like the Father in on its World Today programme after the women that took care of the home and nine goddesses are worshipped, one on Baishnabi appears riding an airborne heaven. All Kali asks for is love: ecstatic the Foreign Ministry sent a sharply children when the men went to war. The each of the nine nights of Dasain this eagle that has a snake in its beak and she love, elevating love, menacing love, worded statement denouncing it. But goddesses could have been wives of various week. Priests have taken a shortcut and has one hand raised in a gesture of punishing love. the emails in the Internet debate, saints revered by traditional Hindus who simplified the nine into just three main blessing. For those who worship the female parts of which were also broadcast, trace their ancestry to them through gotras ones: Maheshwari, Mahalaxmi and These Seven Mothers are revered as form, the Mother Nature, rather than the turned out to be overwhelmingly in named after famous rishis. It is equally likely Mahasarswati. They are symmetrical to symbols of primal forces that constitute Father in heaven, there is creation in Nepal’s favour. that these remarkable women were chiefs or the holy Hindu trinity of Shiva, Vishnu the universe. In addition to them (are you passion. Unison is the rule of the Nepali Times brings a selected saints in their own right. After all, they have and Brahmathe destroyer, the keeper following me here?) there is Mahalaxmi, universe. And that is the Tantric link to transcript of the debate on pg 7. See survived millennia of patriarchy and are and the creator of the universe. the great goddess of Dasain herself. Dasain: perfection in union. This also State of the State on pg 2. worshipped to this day at pre-ceremony rites The original Tantric saptamatrika are Heavily armed with a lethal-looking universal interface of creation that is (purbanga) and ritual initiations and made up of: trident, a bow, an arrow, an axe, a whip, a possible only by submission, a submission marriages. Brahmi, who sits astride a swan, and snake, a sword and a chakra (rotary blade) to the partner and submission to the When they are solemnly recited, the bears a striking similarity to Sarswati, the in her 10 hands and riding a tiger, Supreme Source that leads to salvation. names of these 16 mother goddesses have a traditional goddess of learning Mahalaxmi is the very embodiment of The Astamatrika mother is thus the hypnotic cadence, a poetry of sound Maheshwari is a female Shiva, replete power. She is also worshipped as Durga source of all forces: hell and heaven and connecting us to our unknown maternal with serpent, mini-drum and trident, and the slayer of evil and protector of the everything in between rolled into one. ancestors: Gauri, Padma, Shachi, Medha, riding a bull good and noble. She is the woman who makes it all Sabitri, Bijaya, Jaya, Devsena, Swadha, Barahi is boar-faced, ferocious with a Last, but not least, there is possible. t 2 EDITORIAL 4 - 10 OCTOBER 2000 NEPALI TIMES Clauses 118 and 119 Autumn is here, and Nepali peasantry is taking a break from back-breaking work. Planting and weeding over, the golden terraces sway with a heavy harvest. The sun ripens next year’s food. It is time to hang things out to dry, do some Dasain cleaning, and stock up for the winter ahead. It is time to celebrate, thank Mother Nature for a good harvest. It is also time to appease the gods with sacrifices. No one in Nepal we have talked to remembers being less in a mood for Dasain than this year. The sacrifices so far have not been goats, they have been humans. At least 22 killed in the last week in Maoist violence. It does not matter who they were, what uniforms they wore. They were Nepalis, and Nepalis killed them. As the high priests of politics bicker in Kathmandu, blood is spilt on the soil of our country. Our feckless civilian leaders can’t get a handle on this conflict, that much is clear. Self-serving, inept, venal, narrow-minded, immersed in their internal intrigues, and incapable of grasping the seriousness of the crisis confronting the nation—that about sums up the track record of politicians on whom people have put their trust for the past 10 years. Even those who spout peace are playing politics with it. Policemen are being killed by Maoists or vice versa. Innocent sons and daughters of Nepali peasants die. And the leaders on both sides? All that matters to STATE OF THE STATE by C.K.LAL them is power. While the killing fields of Dunai and Bhorletar reverberated with the thunder of pipe bombs and guns, politicians in the capital were jockeying shamelessly to ensure a position in the post-Dasain reshuffle.