SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF GLORIOUS HIMALAYAS

SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF

 GLORIOUS HIMALAYAS

(Published in the Rising Nepal Friday Supplement, June 6th, 2014)

                                                                                              (Sandhya Regmi)

Sir Edmund Hillary had extreme emotional attachment to Nepal, Nepalese, and the Himalayas. Hillary considered Sagarmatha as the holy shrine of Lord Shiva, so he believed that stepping on Mount Everest with their feet would amount to an act of disrespect to the holy land, so both Edmund and Tenzing Norgay bowed down their heads very low, soon after reaching the summit and planting Nepal’s ‘sun and moon’ embodied flag.   I was moved and blown away emotionally while reading these lines, thinking how high and pious our Himalayas were considered by these climbers. The glorious Himalayas appeared to me an embodiment of spiritualism. I got inspired to celebrate the glory of the great Himalayas and thus plunged into the world of mountains with my  colours and canvas. I literally felt as if I were travelling far away from the sufferings of materialistic word and reaching a spiritual world of utmost happiness and serenity.

After the success of my seventh solo painting exhibition entitled “Faces of Buddha”- a collection of 32 diverse faces of Buddha as seen all around the world - in August 2013, my eighth solo painting exhibition entitled “My Motherland Nepal Gloriously Stretched Amidst The Endless Sky” was recently accomplished at Nepal Art Council Babarmahal, Kathmandu. A series of 15 Himalaya paintings of Nepal fascinated myriads of visitors including art connoisseurs with an unprecedented enthusiasm to travel from the painful materialistic world into a heavenly spiritual one since the day of its inauguration jointly graced by prominent poet Prof. Tulasi Diwasa and senior writer, poet, artist, art critic and dramatist Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi, chaired by Mrs. Greta Rana and specially attended by the Seven Summit Women Team led by the coordinator Mrs. Shailee Basnet. 

The Great Himalayas series of paintings are the measures of deep expressions of my extreme emotional attachment to my nation and its soil. Through them, I have literally poured out my sentiments of sincere love, affection, respect, and gratitude to my motherland. These paintings are 'Gitanjali' to my prideful country and the people. I have indeed got literally too nostalgic to paint my country's most precious natural gift, the crowns of Nepal- that provide link between the earth and the heaven.   

Through the series of my Himalaya paintings, I have sung the songs out of my patriotic heart, as in my patriotic poem 'A Letter To My Motherland Nepal’. It is never in the house of God that our country lives, and sure never in the spreading scaffold, but in work illumined with songs of praise and hymns, in the open space and in the temples of our heart that our country lives. Our motherland is not an idol but honour, is faith and not festivity. Our country is not lost in labyrinth of aphorisms, of religion and philosophy; it is not lost in the bitter war of doctrines and dogmas. It dwells in the enlightenment of clean thoughts and lofty ideals, not in the magic wand of witchcraft of politics and diplomacy, but is alive in cordiality of wisdom and intelligence.

That blending of my patriotic feelings of dedication and devotion towards my country with my skills have produced some landscape masterpieces of Nepal. Sunset and full-moon night scenes are part of this series where I paint 'Glorious Sunset Over Mt. Everest', 'Sunset Celebration In The Mountains' and 'Nuptse At Moonlit Night'. The attraction of the beautiful Pokhara has been painted entitled 'The Fusion of Fishtail, Fewa & Flower'. With my inner eyes I see the mountains as charming Angels and love to name them as the 3 sisters: 'Ganga', 'Jamuna', and 'Yamuna'. I see the accomplished Kanchanjangha as a source of enthusiasm and challenge in life. My poetic heart melts as the snow of the Himalayas and flows in the charismatic 'Phoksomodo' and 'Tilicho' - which I name 'The Lake Of Ambrosia' ('Ammritkunda').

I admit that at the tender age of 16, when I had to leave my country and go overseas for higher education and professional life, continuously living over two and a half decade-long stay abroad in “Paradesh” in isolation, my love for my land, culture, society, nation welled-up. Nepal rolled down the edges of my eyes, not tears for sure. It was not heart that pulsated, but Nepal deep inside my chest. While missing my home country, I continued to live in my own imaginative world of Himalayas, Yeti, and the Sherpas, the rivers and the lakes, and got literally lost in the virtual mists- growing even more nostalgic. Understandably, my deep rooted love for my nation coupled with the blissful moments I got deprived of while living abroad created such emotional waves in my life. I turned to the paintings for solace. I concede that it is only after painting the great Himalayas, my heart got filled with the heavenly nectar of the natural beauty helping me attain the sublime state of infinite happiness and peace.   

                                

Nature has ever since been our great teacher, a school of wisdom, an institute of knowledge, an university of understating and an academy of illumination. From untiring rivers and rivulets that flow ceaselessly onwards, we never cease to learn the mighty lesson of life that moves ahead constantly despite overwhelming setbacks. From upright hills above that never exhaust, we learn the lessons of watching with unyielding patience and unflagging determination. From snow-capped ridges which never cease to melt, we learn the lesson inexhaustible abundance that hides behind unspeakable benevolence of consciousness deep within. From abysmal recesses of cooing pine trees, imbue the sweetness that lies embedded in mass of persistence and strife. Smitten with buffets of snow-flakes and biting frost in winter, and shorn of their beauty, we learn from the cheerless trees enlivened and rejuvenated with lively fresh shoots in spring.

My paintings represent Nepal far across the globe as a piece of Shangrila directly fallen from Heaven to Earth. The pristine landscape, riverines, cascades of precious rocks, and pious snow capped mountains and the glorious environment take us to a spiritual world of supreme sense of happiness and natural relief far away from the ever-expanding anxiety and suffering of the materialistic world. And their inherent beauty attract people from all over the world, not only for mountain climbing and trekking but also for spreading the message of peace and plead for nature conservation.

As an Environmental Engineer, I endeavoured to create awareness on Environmental Preservation and Sustainability through my paintings. These paintings bring along with them the message that we have to safeguard these natural blessings. This demands protecting them from the threats of Global Warming and shielding them from detrimental effects of Climate Change. Unless we are to choose the path of self-destruction, we have irrevocable obligation to conserve the Mother Nature so that we could breathe and walk on clean, green mother earth and hand over the heavenly earth with uncompromised natural resources to our future generations.

(paintings by the author:)

PROMOTING NEPALI LITERATURE ABROAD

       Promoting Nepali Literature Abroad 
(International Literary Conference in Ho Chi Minh City)

(published in the Rising Nepal Friday Supplement June 6th, 2014)

 Sandhya Regmi representing Nepal in the International Literary Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Dec 20^th -23^rd , 2013 

Sandhya Regmi with the vice-dean of the HCMCSSH Dr. Hoa Tran

 Sandhya Regmi
(Nepali Literary Ambassador to Vietnam )

Since the very beginning of my professional life I have been contributing to the literary world through my articles both in the Nepali and the English language in newspapers and magazines, and throughout my stay abroad, I have been highly influenced by the literature of the host country, and —being a literary writer myself — have played my part to introduce and promote Nepal’s literature through various available means to those countries. Hence my visit abroad has always been special because it has been not only for a vacation but also to represent Nepal internationally.

To me, literature is not only an instrument for expressing sentiments and providing entertainment, but also a benchmark for calibrating cultural and social prosperity of the nation and impetus for political and social change. Moreover, I have always seen possibilities of social networking and program for literary exchange and interaction—in the global context. This on one hand gives opportunities to writers from different nations—with diverse cultural, social, and religious background—to introduce themselves and their literary works to the international literary world, and on other hand serves as an intellectual forum to express and discuss ideas, opinions, suggestions, and proposals to preserve and promote our art, culture, language and literature.

In December 2013 I was formally invited by the Vice-Dean of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences & Humanities to participate in the International Literary Conference in Vietnam. The conference entitled “Literature in the Globalization Context of the 21^st Century” was sponsored by the Japan Foundation. This was indeed a golden opportunity for emerging writers like me to broaden the knowledge in literary fields through presentation, discussion and interaction coordination.

The conference was a big success to both the national and international participants related to literature and literary works in acquiring information in depth on pre-modern as well as modern global literature. It additionally served as an excellent informative and educational platform on masterpiece literary works of the participating countries not only to the academicians and scholars of literature but also to the young university students in their strenuous journey of learning.

Attendance by the Consular General of Japan and the Director of the Japan Foundation Centre for Cultural Exchange and their congratulatory speech added extra merits, attraction and significance to the conference. The conference’s concluding remarks by the vice-dean of HCMC University was both emotionally and intellectually brilliant and thought-provoking.  

The conference was divided into 3 panels for paper presentation as well as discussion. The classification was based on the topic of the paper, and each panel contained 19 presentations. All the 3 panels ran simultaneously on a single day in 3 different halls hitting the record of a total of 57 presentations being accomplished in one day. This was in fact a big achievement made by the conference organizer. It gave the opportunity to broaden our knowledge in diverse topics of pre-modern and contemporary literature in today’s global context in a short duration of a couple of days which otherwise would have taken an individual reader months and even years of concentrated efforts.

                                                               

As the only participant representing Nepal in the huge gathering of prominent poets, writers, international academicians, professors, and educational professionals from USA, Japan, Thailand, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, I had the pride of introducing Nepali literature, prominent Nepali literary figures and Nepali literary masterpieces to the vast literary world. Particularly I emphasized on the three legendary icons of Nepali literature. These demigods of Nepali literature are: late Laxmi Prasad Devkota who is awarded 'Mavakavi' (the great poet), late Lekhnath Poudel who is rewarded 'Kavi Shiromani' (the gem of all the poets), and late Bal Krishna Sama who is often regarded as ‘the Shakespeare of Nepal’ due to his famous play-writings.

Additionally, this conference served as an excellent chance to shake hands and start foundation for building friendship-bridges. Moreover, it also provided me the chance to present 75 pieces of Nepali-literature books as gift to the library of the Department of Oriental Studies of HCMC University introducing the prominent Nepali literary figures and their literary masterpieces to the literary world of Vietnam and proposing for translation into Vietnamese language the prominent works of Nepalese Writers - 1) “Jeewan Kanda Ki Phool” (A Flower in the Midst of Thorns) by Jhamak Ghimire, 2) “Sireesh Ko Phool” (Blue Mimosa) by Parijat, and 3) “Seto Bagh” (Wake of the White Tiger) by Diamond Shamsher.  

 Though translation of a large body of Nepali literature is now available in English, Nepali literature remains largely unknown to the global literary community and hence has not been able to draw the attention of the world. I am of the opinion, for Nepali literary works to be made easily accessible to the international world, a translation organization has to be established at the national level which should make a team of experts who work fairly and impartially while selecting the master-pieces for translation into English and other languages, and hire highly professional and capable translators to do the translation and such literary works should be promoted abroad. Limited individual effort and lack of professionalism with limited resources are insufficient to promote the Nepali Literature internationally. Nepal should also take membership in the International Translation Organization established in 1953 under the UNESCO consisting of 155 member countries in which over 80,000 professional translators and language experts are working. 

In today's world of Information Technology and globalization, the language, culture, literature and art do not and should not remain isolated within a national boundary. They must be made accessible to the international world to foster unity in diversity. Its benefit is obvious. It is recommended to organize such international literary conferences also in Nepal as a regular event, say on an annual basis, so that the whole process gets opportunity for continuity, consolidation, and further prosperity in coming days.