Archives: Contributions

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Dec. 9, ’76: Dr. Harka Gurung, the renowned geologist, anthropologist and author, had advised Sumitra Manandhar Gurung to use her time in the National Development Service (NDS) to see more of Nepal’s countryside. He told her that being a Kathmandu resident and a woman she wouldn’t get too many opportunities to travel to Nepal’s remote corners. Dr. Gurung also believed a geographer needed to see as much of the country as possible. He suggested Taranche, his home village. Taking his advice, Manandhar trekked from Chiti Tilahar, the village she was posted to as a NDS volunteer, to Taranche. In this photo, she is standing with a bride’s wedding party in Taranche.

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Sumitra Manandhar (front row, second from left) took her scouts oath in 1975 after completing a month-long training program. She then left Kathmandu to teach in Lamjung, which was a nine-day trek from the closet highway. On reaching Lamjung, Manandhar and her National Development Service collegues re-enacted the scouts training for the village students.

Taking the Scouts’ oath, August 1976. Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and other women enrolled in universities joined the National Development Service (NDS) to serve for a year in remote districts of Nepal. A week-long Scouts training was part of their preparation for the NDS.

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The instruments of their labor and a day’s work behind them, Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and her friend sit with Jagmohan Shrestha’s daughter. The students lived in Shrestha’s house during their Chapagaon survey. Shrestha gave a room in his newly-built house to the girls; the boys were lodged in his old house. He was fond of music. He entertained the students from the city with songs in the evenings. Here, Manandhar and the girls are listening to him sing.

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June, 1976: A group photo of the faculty members of Tribhuvan University’s geography department and their students taken in 1976. Sumitra Manandhar Gurung is one of only three female students in the group. Many of her classmates went on to become academicians, scholars and ministers. The photo was taken during a picnic organized by the students as a farewell to their American professor, Robert Stoddard (last row, third from right), who was in Nepal on a Fulbright program. Professor Stoddard’s daughter is second from left in the second row.

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The students were given Saturdays off during their survey trip to Chapagaon. Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and her friends used the holidays to go on short trips to nearby places. This photo was taken during one such trip to Tika Bhairav.

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Bicycles were still a luxury not everyone could afford in the mid-1970s. But Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and her siblings and cousins had grown up around them. Her family owned a bicycle store in Ason, Kathmandu. Here, her brothers and a cousin are out on a ride to Chobar.