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Oct 8, 2017-Writer Dipesh Risal has won the Writing Nepal 2017, a short story contest organised by the literary magazine La.lit. Risal won the award for his story The Almost Enlightenment of Prince Trailokya. Sujana Upadhyay won the second place for her story Heart of Gold, while Byanjana Thapa and Shristy Uprety jointly claimed the third place for their stories To Drown and Brown Bird, respectively.
Aug 26, 2017- We lost a prominent Kathmandu icon during the earthquake of 2015: Kasthamandap, the storied building which was then thought to be about a thousand years old, but is now believed to have existed many centuries earlier in some form.
Kasthamandap: Microcosm of Kathmandu's Living Culture and Storied History byDipesh Risal text and photos © asianart.com and the author except as where otherwise noted September 03, 2015 (click on images to go to larger image and full captions) Kasthamandap is no more.
Sep.23.2015 By Dipesh Risal A historic fiction writer mourns the loss of Basantapur tower, and recalls its public past and a personal history only fleetingly mentioned in official accounts. The petulant prince of Gorkha stopped at the top of Chandragiri.
What is being violated is the shared cultural heritage of Kathmandu. Every person that calls Kathmandu his or her home should be outraged Feb 6, 2016- We Nepalis are a very patient people. The seemingly unending series of earthquakes last year ravaged our cities, villages, our very souls.
Kasthamandap is Nepal's heritage defined, a witness to its history and evolution as a nation for almost a thousand years- and likely more. No other traditional building in Nepal could compete in size, antiquity or cultural impact. It must not be allowed to perish. - Mary S. Slusser
Kasthamandap once stood proudly as a symbol of the valley's fascinating architecture. Last year's quake brought it down to rubble. April 25 marks the one-year anniversary of the devastating first earthquake of 2015 that wrecked havoc across a large swath of Nepal's hills and mountains. We are still recovering
The shrine after which Kathmandu was named withstood many quakes in the last 900 years but came down in this one. RELIC IN RUINS: Search and rescue teams dig through the rubble of Kasthamandap on 25 April, looking for survivors. Ten people were killed here.
Fiction
"If you want to earn a good name, you must let go of greed and adopt compassion. If it will please the masses, don't hesitate to kill even your own son. Forget about jealousy and anger, forget...
It starts yonder, over the slopes of Chandragiri. Yonder to the West where Chandragiri with its majestic elephant head guards over our valley like a sentinel. Pluffywite clouds, scattered about but only yesterday, collude over the elephant head of Chandragiri, doing kanekhusi in a language we do not understand.
A wave of loud thunder rolled through the sky. She felt its power inside her chest. The impossibly deep rumbles came down to earth, and were now rolling through the valley, getting louder as they came towards her Nov 22, 2015- Four...Five...Six...Seven...Eight. Laccho counted the victory over each floor as she climbed her way up.
Ganesh Kumari came into the room slowly, balancing the large nanglo so that it would not topple over and spill all of what goes into making gaajal. She positioned herself directly in the path of the slanted rectangle of sun flooding the room, crouched down, gingerly placed the nanglo on the floor, and crouching further, eased herself onto the sukul, palm of left hand pivoting her movements.
Jung Bahadur kicked his horse into a canter to create a distraction, for his mind was unable to process the alien and unproductive thought of death. His eyes, glowing with a cold blue light like balls of phosphorous, never wavered in their gaze locked onto the tips of his horse's ears Nov 20, 2016- March 7, 1876Beldandi, Near the Western India-Nepal border Jung Bahadur was not a happy man.
Or perhaps the honesty and soundness of his wife's response stung him more deeply than he realised. Whatever the reason, the barrage of unsolicited advice from his wife suddenly made his confused impotent Nepali man-rage boil over May 28, 2017- April 26, 1847 Dhankuta, Eastern Nepal Subedar Saab? O Subedar Saab...
Pandit Bijayaraj has enjoyed a position of power at the Durbar for many years, thanks to his alliance with Sri 3 Maharaj Jung Bahadur Rana. But a seemingly minor encounter between Bijayaraj and his pupil Crown Prince Trailokya is about to unravel everything
Laccho, relegated to history as a minor character in the high drama constantly being enacted at the Hanumandkoka Royal Palace, takes centre stage in this fictional reformulation of a real historic event which until now has languished as a single, small footnote in historic records.
Two Worlds Meet in the Centre of the Universe The symbolism of "mandalas" is explored in this fictional, polyphonic reformulation of an actual historical meeting between the British Resident Brian Hodgson and the Nepali Vajrayana priest Amritananda (around CE 1823-24).