Observation Tour | Gati Women and Mother Group

Introduction:

Gati Women’s Group and Mother’s Group are our project implementation partner organizations in Gati for community development and education enhancement in Gati village. Namaste Nepal has been working in Gati in collaboration with the mother group since its inception.

 Namaste Nepal has been providing various skill development and income generation training to the mother for their capacity building and improvement of their lifestyle. Mother Group and Women group are directly associated with our organization which has been involved in several activities in the village for the improvement of education.

Observation is an important means of understanding and learning about community development activities. In this context, we have organized an observation tour for the Gati Women and Mothers Group to Sermathang village of Helambu Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchok.

Representatives of the Gati mother group, women’s group, and youth club participated in a three-day observation tour to Sermathang, Helambu. Groups are pleased to observe closely the well-functioning group and their bonding in the village for the community development, keeping a clean and better environment, preservation of culture and tradition, learning informal education at the learning center, skill development and capacity building, income generation and promotion of the village and lifestyle of the Hyolmo community people. Visiting various religious shrines and tourist destinations are the additional attraction of the tour.

General Activities:

• Meeting with Mother Group,
• Homestay runs by Mother Group
• Village Observation Tour
• Cultural Dance observation presented by Mother Group.
• Visit the Museum run by Mother Group.
  • Visited Monasteries & Shrines 
• Yangrima School Visit
• Friendship House visit
• Visit the Himalayan Great trail
• KIWI farm Observation
• Hindu Temple Visit
• Trout Farm Visit
• Melamnchi Drinking Water Project sites visit

Day 1:

The observation tour group left from Gati at 7:30 and after about 3 hour drive the group reached Melamchi Bazar and stopped for lunch. Melamchi bazaar is one of the famous places of Melamchi Municipality of Sindupalchwok district located in Bagamati province. Melamchi is the main market of Melamchi Municipality, Helambu Rural Municipality & Panchpokhari Rural Municipality. It is also one of the main entrances for all three municipalities. The Melamchi bazaar is typically a narrow, steep Himalayan River-Valley. On 15 June 2021, the Melamchi Bazaar was hit by a heavy flash flood from two tributaries – the Melamchi and Indrawati rivers – which result into heavy damage to the Melamchi Bazar. All participants were surprised to see the huge devastation caused by the massive flood in the Melamchi River 2021 from Helambu.

After lunch at Melamchi, the group made a Melamchi Bazar tour for a while then moved forward to Sermathang. On the way, the group stopped at the Palchoki Bhagawati Mai Temple to visit the most popular Hindu shrine in the region. This temple is one of the famous religious and tourist places of Sindhupalchok district. It is located in Helambu Rural Municipality Ward No-03 Palchok. This temple is among the oldest temples of Hindus. Devotees visiting the temple worship Palchoki Mai as a powerful God. Therefore, this temple is a center of faith and belief. Palchok is a historical and beautiful place associated with the naming of Sindhupalchok district. Since Sindhupalchok is made up of “Sindhu ” and “Palchok”, there are sayings that Palchok is derived from this place. Locals say that Palchoki Mai temple has a special significance as it has been worshiped by kings and queens since time immemorial. It is believed to be a very old temple as there are legends from a long time ago.

After visiting the Palchoki Mai temple, the group entered the Buddhist region where several stupas, monasteries, and Buddhist statues are found everywhere in the village and on the way.  From this point, we could find only the Hyolmo Ethnic community people, who are considered one of the 59th distinct indigenous groups recognized by the government of Nepal for having a distinct culture, and identity including their own language and cultural traditions. 

On the way, the group visited a huge kiwi farm which was started by a youth team from a Kakani village for the production and promotion of kiwi cultivation in Helambu. We found that they received grants for this particular farm from provincial and local governments for agriculture development in the region. 

Then the group stopped at Nagi Danda to visit the Himalayan Great Trail, one of Helambu’s most popular tourist destinations in the region. The Himalayan Great Trail, a trekking route that is under construction in Helambu in Sindhupalchok district, has been the tourist attraction of the district. The three meters width and 60 kilometers long project trail starts from Nagidada Buddha Park and ends in Ghopteghang or vice-versa. The ‘Helambu Great Trail’ which is still in its nascent phase has only seen a few hundred meters of construction in the villages of Sermathang, Nagidanda, and Ghopteghyang. The project is expected to help promote religion and develop tourism and bring reforms to the living standards of the local people in Helambu.

After spending about an hour at the Himalayan great trail by capturing beautiful pictures for memories and enjoying pleasant nature, the group moved towards another beautiful place, the Golden Statue of Guru Padmasambhava and Monastery named Palri Padma Odsal Ling founded by Mr. Kheba Sonam Lama at Ningale village. Guru Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche (the Precious Guru), is an important figure in Buddhism who was instrumental in establishing Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet around the 8th century. From this place, we could easily see almost all the villages of Helambu Valley and the wide range of mountains that covered the area of Helambu Valley as well as many pilgrimage sites of Buddhists. Guru Padmasambhava is said to have walked through the area and the spaces he meditated in are often considered holy by his followers. Some believed that meditating in these sacred spaces will help them to reach enlightenment quicker. 

After spending an hour at a very clean and well-managed place with a pleasant environment we move toward the final destination. The group reached Sermathang village at four o’clock in the afternoon where the mother group welcomed the group with flowers and garlands. Sermathang is a village in northeastern Nepal situated at an altitude of 2500 meters from sea level. It lies southeast of the Helambu Rural Municipality in Sindhupalchowk district. It is said that Sermathang, Tarkegyang, and Melamchi Gyang are the largest and oldest cultural villages inhabited by the Hyolmo Community people, a culturally rich ethnic group in the Langtang Conservation area.

Women group and the mother group of Sermathang welcome at the Sermathang folk high school, which has a big one-­roomed building located in the highest part of Sermathang. The folk high school is used mainly for the women in Sermathang, but also as a meeting hall for meetings and celebrations. Every day, around 6:30 PM Mother and Women group are learning English, besides the weekend, the women are taught Tibetan at 3 PM. The teacher is a local lama and the form of teaching is mostly recitation and repetition.  

After introductions and briefing, the group splits into 13 groups for food and accommodation to stay at 13 homestays, the group then departs to their host family. It comes to know that around 25 homestays are in operation in Sermathang and Tahongsa villages run by the women group for their income generation. They could start homestay after the proper training received with support from an organization called Just Nepal Foundation.

The groups were scheduled to meet at Snowfall Mountain Resort with their host family for a cultural event to observe the traditional cultural program by the mother group of Sermathang to promote and preserve their cultural songs and dances. All the guests who were present at the program made a contribution to the mother group for their fund. From this event, Gati could learn about concepts of performing cultural programs to the guest which can be one of the best ways to do fundraising events locally for the organization by performing their cultural program. After the cultural program, all get back to their respective homestay with the host informing them that all will gather in front of Sermathang Folk High School by 8 AM the next morning.

Day 2:

All participants were gathered at the pre-assigned place at 8 AM and everyone was sharing their observations and experience of staying at the homestay.  Basically, their lifestyle, variety of hygienic food, beautiful room decoration, etc. In every house, its culture decorates the room with a complete furniture rack and clean dishes.

After a while, the group moves to visit the Tahongsa Monastery, which was temporarily built after a massive earthquake. This place is also an excellent viewpoint from where we can see almost all the villages of Panchpokhari Rural Municipality covered by a wide range of hills.

The group then moved to visit a Yangrima boarding school, passing a section of the newly constructed great trail at Sermathang. The school is about a 15-minute walk from Sermathang village. Children from the whole area go to this school. There is also a hostel facility for children who are from other regions and some might have to walk for hours every day to attend the classes. Namaste Nepal previously used to support two additional teachers’ salaries in this school for quality education and improvement of education. It took a while to visit and observe the infrastructure, clean and healthy environment of the school. Different types of vegetables are grown in the kitchen garden for the school kitchen which is also practical vegetable farming in school.

Then the group got back to homestay for lunch and after lunch, the group gathered to make a village tour, which was about a 2-hour walk through a stone paved trail in the village. The group visited the under-construction monastery and entered the museum in the village and observed the various antiquities kept in the museum which was established by the mother group of Sermathang.

During the village tour, the group visited the Friendship House; an eco-friendly wooden house constructed by volunteers from the Sermathang­Brenderup Friendship Association in 2007 and survived the earthquake without major damage. The Friendship House is a house for volunteers who are from Sermathang-Brenderup Friendship Association. It is only a 3-minute walk from Sermathang.   

After the whole day’s activities, the group held a reflection session where everyone from the observation team shared their key observations, their findings and knowledge, and hospitality to the guest from the women and mothers group in Sermathang.

In addition, the mother group and women group of Sermathang were very pleased to host the program with the participants of the observation tour and share their activities, knowledge on the effectiveness of group management, responsibilities, and potential of the mother’s group and women group in the society for the village development.

Day 3:

The next morning after breakfast, the group gathered with their backpack in front of Sermathang folk high school with their host family for farewell. President of Namaste Nepal remarks with heartfelt thanks to all women and mother groups of Sermathang for the wonderful hospitality and also thanks to Dhindup Sir, the teacher of Sermathang folk high school for his kind assistance to the group for a wonderful arrangement. 

Last, but not least, our President, Mohan Lal Shrestha expressed heartfelt thanks to everyone for this with a sentimental song. Then the group returned to Gati after visiting trout farming in Helambu and the Melamchi Water Project dam from where water was taken through tunnels.

                         Thank you!                                                               See you Again!