Submit your Article

The Embassy of Nepal in Washington, DC has received  40 Nepali wooden artifacts dating back to the 19th-20th century from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USA.   The artifacts smuggled from Nepal were confiscated in Honolulu, Hawaii by the United States Customs and Border Protection on 18 Aug 2010. Nepal  had officially requested the Government of the United States to return these objects to Nepal in 2011.

In the handover ceremony held on Sunday, Nepal’s Ambassador to the US, Sridhar Khatri, extended his sincere thanks to the DHS, the Department of State, media and art and heritage campaigners for their support in retrieval and repatriation of the artifacts. He particularly appreciated and thanked the investigators and staff members of the DHS and HSI for their hard work and dedication in recovering the objects of art handed over today and other artifacts that were recovered earlier.

Deputy Assistant Director of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Ricardo Mayoral expressed his happiness on the successful return of these important artifacts to the Government of Nepal after long investigations. He also assured that the HSI will extend fullest cooperation to the embassy for repatriation of other stolen and lost artifacts of Nepal. 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of State Scott Urbom stated that the United States will continue its cooperation and collaboration with Nepal to preserve and restore its rich art and architectural heritages. He said that the successful recovery of the illegally exported artifacts is a major achievement.  The trove of the artifacts handed over to the Embassy includes 39 engraved and painted wooden panels and a carved wooden shrine, among which the four panels were randomly selected for display during the handover ceremony.

Photographs of other artifacts were displayed separately to give the audience a flavor of what the remaining pieces would look like. These precious Nepali artifacts are estimated to date back to the period between the 19th and 20th century. They signify various aspects of Lord Buddha’s life and his teachings as well as the Buddhist religious and cultural values and practices. As part of efforts to recover and repatriate the lost and stolen heritages of Nepal, the embassy has been actively engaged with relevant agencies of the governments of Nepal and the United States. 

The embassy had repatriated to Nepal seven artifacts—stone statues of Uma Mahesvara, Chaturmukh Shivlinga, Nagaraja, Padmanpani and Shakyamuni Buddha—on 18 May 2022; and a wooden statue of Nritya Devi and a standing stone statue of Lord Buddha on 28 April  2023. The embassy said it will send the artifacts received on Sunday to the Department of Archaeology of Nepal as soon as possible.

Some parts of the country including the Kathmandu Valley today experienced light rainfall due to the influence of the Westerly and the local winds. According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the weather is cloudy in Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki provinces and isolated rain is likely in the hilly regions of Koshi, Bagamati and Gandaki provinces. The Kathmandu Valley witnessed brief rainfall today, said Division’s meteorologist Sameer Shrestha. No impact of Cyclone Mocha As the Division said, there will be no impact of Cyclone Mocha developing in the Bay of Bengal. The Cyclone Mocha is moving towards east and Nepal is not likely to see its impact. It will have its major impacts on Bhutan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar, according to him. Now Mocha has taken pace and is moving towards the coastal areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

There were 621 incidences of fire including forest fires in a month in the country. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the country recorded 527 cases of fire and 94 wildfires between April 14 and May 13. The death casualties in these incidences were 16: 11 in fire and five in forest fires while 65 have been injured. According to Authority deputy-secretary, Sundar Prasad Sharma, with the increasing temperature, the incidences of fire take place each day, causing the losses of lives and property. The failed attempts to douse the fire without any safety measures generally resulted in deaths, he said, urging one and all not to take any risk of life during the fire and not to intervene it without taking safety measures. Green tree branches and soil can be used along with water to control forest fire, according to the Authority which urges all not smoke in forest area, not to throw away burning cigarette butt near the forest, to make sure it is no more burning during its management and bury the fire remnants in soil.

Six climbers including three Nepalis successfully climbed Mt Everest on Sunday morning. They stood atop the world’s highest peak at 8:45 am today. Naila Kiani of Pakistan, Marton Peter Price of Hungary and Jessica of the United States have become the first climbers to reach the summit. Similarly, Nepali climber Pasang Dawa Sherpa has set a new world record by climbing Mt Everest for 26th times from the first ascent. Sherpa, a resident of Pangboche, Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-4, set a new world record by climbing Mt Everest for the 26th time, Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) Chairman Lama Kahi Sherpa said. Likewise, Pasang Tempa Sherpa and Angnima Sherpa of Thapa, Khumbu Pasang Lhamu-5 are among those who successfully scaled the world’s highest peak today. Hundreds of mountaineers have headed towards the summit from the base camp. The icefall doctors had completed fixing the ropes only on Saturday. This is the first time in the 70-year history that many climbers have received permits to climb the Mt Everest.