March 18, 2005        

It is my pleasure to E-TALK with Nima Gyaljen Sherpa, Goparma, also known as "Chhopel" on this, Sherpakyidug.org web site's discussion forums. Whenever I had the opportunity to read comments and views and of Chhopel on this web site, I could not help but be curios to discover who this highly educated Sherpa person was. He has a wonderful writing skills which is so very well fine tuned. So, to our faithful readers of E-TALK, it is my honor to present Nima Gyaljen Sherpa (Goparma) a.k.a. Chopel, a promising young sherpa of vast academic wealth.

The youngest son of a Sherpa phasant family, Nima Gyaljen Sherpa, was born at Naya Bazar- 8 in Illam, Nepal. He grew up in the famous Illam district, known to us as the Tea Garden of Nepal and to the rest of the world as the Eastern Shangri-La of Nepal. He is the only Sherpa that I know of who owns more college degrees than fingers on my hands. Bachelor of Arts in 1991 (studying Masters in Arts), Bachelor of Law in 1995. Bachelor of Education in 1996 . Masters in Geography in 1993. Masters degree in Sociology in 1998, a number of certificates and diploma courses in different subjects and continues studying Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.

Nima, was fairly interested in politics of Nepal. He was involved in it through the organization called 'NE. BI. SANG during his student life before switching over to join the Nepali Congress Party. He worked as a regional planner and research assistant under the Central Department of Geography and New Era in various parts of the country as well as a teacher in Kathmandu.

He, along with some other Sherpas, founded the 'Sherpa Chichhok' in Kathmandu. He was representing Sherpas of Illam as a Central Committee Member. He was instrumental in successfully organizing the district level Sherpa Chichhok Conference at Sanga Choling Gumba, Sangkha Bung village in Illam in 1990, which attracted a crowd of more than five thousand Sherpas from Pachthar, Taplejung, Jhapa districts and from Darjeeling.

The loud applause of that program prompted Sherpa and other communities like Yolmo, Tamang, Gurung to celebrate Losar, New Year, and their inherent cultural festivals instead of Dashain. A committee was formed under his chairmanship which led to inception of the present organization called "Nepal Sherpa Student Forum" (Sherpa Vidyarthi Manch), Nepal. He served as the Founding President of the forum from 1993 till 1995. He remained equally involved in the Sherpa Association in Nepal until the first general conference. He served as the General Secretary and as Chief Coordinator for the "May 29 Memorial Trust.

Now a Permanent Resident of Australia while working at a Govt. Hospital, Nima Gyaljen Sherpa, the pride of the Global Sherpa community volunteers as a Media and Public Relation Officer under Gorkha Nepalese Committee (GNC), a registered Nepalese Organization in Sydney, Australia.

Nima G. Sherpa: According to history, Sherpas moved from Tibet to Ilam in 640 AD and 1496 AD respectively. In Ilam, out of 49 VDCs, Sherpas exist in 19. There are approximately 15,000 Sherpas in Ilam, majority of them are engaged in agriculture, some in business, administrative job and others in army and police. In agriculture, dairy farming, tea plantation & cardamom production are common. Ilam is nicknamed as ‘5 A’- alu, adua, alaichi, amliso and Alan/olan (milk). Most of the Sherpas are financially secure and literate in comparison to other ethnic groups. Another unique feature about Ilam is that every Sherpa village has one monastery and almost all villages have access to motor able roads.

Nima G. Sherpa: I have consistently received encouragement from my parents and sisters who by themselves happened to be the first ever girls in the village to have passed the SLC. Apart from fulfilling my parents’ dream, I aimed to fulfill my hobbies of studying as much as I could and obtaining at least two Masters Degree. Another motivating factor could be that I never had to worry about the study expenses even though I belonged to the peasant family.

Nima G. Sherpa: Well, owing to the centralization of power in Kathmandu, for every little affair one needs to come to Kathmandu and go through multiple hassles and the political uncertainty, I could not foresee a productive future for myself in Nepal. Hence I decided to come to Australia to further my education. Moreover this country had been my childhood fancy. However, the ever-worsening situation of Nepal compelled me to live in this land of kangaroo for a while longer than I had planned.

Nima G. Sherpa: As far as the racial discrimination is concerned in Nepal, I am saturated with the bitter life experiences. To site an instance; after completing SLC examination, three classmates of mine (Bhandari, Pokhrel & Bhattarai) and I had gone to Ilam CDO office for citizenship certificates. Unfortunately, my middle name was not printed on the record book. The dealing officer threatened me that if I didn’t pay him 200 Rupees he wouldn’t reprint my middle name and upon telling him that I had only 50 Rupees and that was meant to buy my lunch, he shouted at me to give him all. On the contrary, the officer gladly corrected the misprinted date of birth of the Bhandari friend. That was the first ever experience of discrimination I felt in my own country.

In another instance, while I sat on a interview for the post of ‘subba’, the interviewer, a Bahun officer, started his first question -Tapai yaha keko lagi aunu vo ? I politely answered -Interview dinaka lagi. His second question was Tapaile jagir kina khanu paryo? I answered in a submissive voice -Sanai rupma vae pani deshko sewa garun vanera hajur. Third question was -Tapai yo office auda katiwata stairs chadnu vo, tapaiko topiko rang katikisimko chha?.etc..... By that time I realized that they were bullying me, I left the room after bluntly replying them ‘hajur yi prasnaharuko jawab masanga chhaina’. By my late teens, I had already tested the fruit of discrimination by the so-called Bahuns’/Bahunbad so I never again dared to apply for another such job.

Nima G. Sherpa: Being aware of the fact that no developmental activities of a village or a community could be accomplished without the political backup, I decided to join the politics. But contrary to my belief, I found the politics as an unfair game, disheartening to my principle so I gave it up.

Nima G. Sherpa: The first and foremost strategy is to inject into our society the positive belief that we can succeed to eliminate oppression prevalent in Nepal. This could be achieved through education, awareness programs among ourselves, measures to uplift the Sherpa community so as to empower them and most importantly being united. Also by encouraging each other by setting counseling centers for child education, adult career and investment guide in new areas and preserving self-identity.

Nima G. Sherpa: The memorable experiences I gathered while working for the Nepal Student Forum (NSSF) were the opportunity to meet several Sherpa friends and personalities from different districts of Nepal, share ideas with them, develop leadership quality and strengthening self confidence, sense of community service and over all the feeling that the forum unified most of the Sherpa students in Kathmandu. I am grateful to Mr. Tenzing Sherpa and family, owner of the Tashi Taki Trekking Office, Kathmandu for their contribution to NSSF during it’s inception.

The bitter experience -again a show of racial discrimination. While my friend Mr. Urgen Sherpa from Lodhing and I were allotted the registration job, rest of the members were engaged in other activities of the forum. In the process of registration, the authorities bullied us back and forth from Kathmandu CDO office, home ministry, education ministry, from one date to another. After more than eight months of visiting those offices, we felt ourselves as unpaid employees of those ministries. Eventually we got our job done and the only excuse that they set for the delay and possibly denying our application was their apprehension that this NSSF could encourage other ethnic groups as well to come forward.

Tsewang Sherpalama: Was it true that some Sherpas opposed for your presidency in Sherpa Vidyarthi Manch simply because you were a Sherpa from Ilam and not from Solu- Khumbu?

Nima G. Sherpa: I for certain have never ever felt any direct opposition from any body except the tit-bit backbites. But nothing affected me adversely because I knew the fact that for every good adventure there would be some opposition, as a rule. On the whole our teamwork was perfect and I received overwhelming support from majority Sherpas. Through this NSSF the age-old regional biases that existed among Sherpas of different areas got replaced by the feeling of one ness among the fellow Sherpas.

Nima G. Sherpa: The strengths- hard working, clever, kind and courageous, possess the ‘can do attitude’, flexibility and ability to assimilate in any situation. Weaknesses- blind belief in baseless rumours, wasting money for the sake of show and riskiest of all, spoiling the well planned, hard earned adventure within hours in effect of alcohol.

Tsewang Sherpalama: You said that you are giving up drinking alcohol as this year’s Lhosar or New Year’s resolution, and will use the money instead to help underprivileged Sherpa students in Nepal. How are you doing with your resolution?

Nima G. Sherpa: ha ha ha Tsewang dai I am not too good at alcohol, an occasional drinker, however to start with, I am supporting a couple of students back in Ilam for their education, one of them is studying at year twelve and the other at class four.

Tsewang Sherpalama: How many Sherpas are there in Australia, what do they do, and when will there be a Sherpa Kyidug in Australia?

Nima G. Sherpa: I am not certain about the statistic of Sherpas in Australia but the figure, I guess is approx. 30 Sherpas across Australia with highest proportion in Sydney i.e. 12 of whom some are IT graduates, some at Hotel management, marketing, grocery owner, engineering and medical field.

At the moment we do not have enough number of Sherpas to form the Kyiduk in Australia but we are discussing about it. However we are celebrating Lhosar and Buddha Jayanti jointly with Gurung community.

Tsewang Sherpalama: Would you like to share any other thoughts to Sherpas participating in this web site in different capacities?