Sri Lankan president in Nepal on pilgrimage

Amid stringent security, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in Nepal Thursday on a three-day pilgrimage after his plans were interrupted earlier this year due to an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.

The former lawyer, whose government inflicted a crushing defeat on Tamil guerrillas in May killing their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, is leading a high-level delegation on the visit, the main focus of which is to visit Lumbini in southern Nepal, the birthplace of the Buddha.

Arriving on a special flight, the 63-year-old was welcomed at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu by the Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala, who is also the foreign minister, and Culture Minister Minendra Rijal.

The Sri Lankan president will separately meet Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and other senior ministers and parliamentarians.

On Friday, he will fly to Lumbini to inaugurate a vihar - a Buddhist monastery built by the Sri Lankan government. Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist.

The island nation is also the current chair of the regional grouping, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and efforts are on between the member countries, especially Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, to promote religious tourism.

Rajapaksa had visited Kathmandu in May to inaugurate direct flights by the Sri Lankan national carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, between Colombo and Kathmandu.

However, he cut his visit short and returned home without visiting Lumbini after gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

Rajapaksa is the first head of state to visit Nepal after it became a republic with the end of a decade-long communist insurgency.

Time to get back to work in Nepal

Now that the two biggest festivals - Dashain and Tihar - of Nepal are over, it’s time to wake up from the festive slumber and get back to work. Because all’s not well with the peace process: the constitution isn’t ready, the Maoist “army” remains in temporary cantonments and new armed groups continue to rampage through the country’s restive southern plains. In short, it’s time now to work hard and meet the deadlines.

Away in New York, the UN officials are closely monitoring the situation in Nepal. Like the UN, several friendly donor countries are also closely watching Nepal. But all of them continue to express their concerns about the rather slow - and often “disturbing”- traits of the three-year-old peace process.

Back in July, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended the Security Council to further extend the term of United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN) - that is monitoring the peace process in Nepal - by six months. But he made it clear that the progress in Nepal’s peace process was stalled due to misunderstanding between the political stakeholders. Frustrating it may sound, but the political stakeholders haven’t made any progress whatsoever; the face-off continues.

Most recently, the UN secretary general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhikha Coomaraswamy, appealed for swift and orderly release of the 2,973 Maoist army personnel identified as minors. “These children have a right to start their lives anew and help build and peaceful and prosperous Nepal,” she said. Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong says work is on to release the rehabilitate the minors.

If that happens, that will set the stage for rehabilitation and integration of the 19,000-plus Maoist ex-combatants, who waged a decade-long war in the country against the previous governments.

Equally important, the UNDP is concerned about the fact that Nepal may fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs seek to fight hunger and poverty, besides seeking to significantly reduce illiteracy, lack of access to health care, besides meeting other development targets by 2015. On a recent afternoon, youth leaders congregated at the Open Air Theatre in the capital and appealed to one and all to join hands to fight urban poverty, achieve MDGs.

The tasks look Herculean. And there shouldn’t be any room for complacency. That means Nepalis and their foreign helping hands need to get down to business, work toward achieving MDGs, all the while taking the country’ peace process to its logical finish.

In the higher echelons of power, all the 601 members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) need to catch up with their mission.

They’ve got to make sure that all the committees tasked with preparing concept papers for the new constitution meet their deadlines and submit their reports. For, it is only seven months to go. By May 2010, the leaders of the popularly elected CA have promised, the country’s new constitution will be readied.

But even before that process gets off to a flying start, the top leaders of the major parties need to put their heads together, discuss what’s right and what’s wrong, find an amicable solution to the president’s move reinstating the then army chief. That way, they can start it afresh. Seems unlikely, but the parties have no choice but to get the process going. The politicos need to go beyond tea party diplomacies and photo calls.

Fresh from Beijing (and surrounding provinces of China), Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) chairman Prachanda has indicated that he is in a mood to do business, that he’s willing to hold fresh talks with his political rivals and work toward consensus.

His emphasis on positivism on his return from Beijing - where he held crucial talks with President Hu Jintao, who is also the general secretary of Chinese Communist Party - could finally help. If that spirit is kept intact, the three-party talks could bear fruits.

Gulf Times

Diplomats from Security Council members tour barracks in Nepal

A team of Nepal-based diplomats from six Security Council members on Friday visited army barracks and cantonment sites in the Asian country as part of their first collective tour since the establishment of a United Nations political mission there in 2007.

Accompanied by Karin Landgren, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, the team saw first-hand how UNMIN is electronically monitoring weapons, which are under live surveillance, stored by the Nepal Army at Chhauni barracks and by the Maoist army in Chulachuli.

“That there is a light UN monitoring presence speaks to the confidence that the AMAAA [Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies] will be respected by the parties,” Ms. Landgren, who also heads UNMIN, said.

She underscored that there have been few serious violations of the agreement, which was struck between the parties and the UN, and the mission has made recommendations to both the Nepal Army and the Maoist army on how to enhance monitoring and cooperation.

The Council mission – comprising Nepal-based diplomatic representatives of China, France, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – was also briefed today by some UNMIN arms monitors, who come from 18 countries.

“The presence of weapons containers and arms monitors reflects the unfinished business of the peace process, and UNMIN calls on the parties to make strengthened and sincere efforts to create the conditions for UNMIN to complete its work and for Nepal’s peace process to usher in a stable, just and prosperous future for its people,” Ms. Landgren noted.

A decade-long civil war, claiming some 13,000 lives, ended in 2006 with the signing of a peace accord between the Government and Maoists. After conducting Constituent Assembly elections in May 2008, the nation abolished its 240-year-old monarchy and declared itself a republic.

UNMIN was established in 2007 as a special political mission tasked with helping advance the peace process. It has been extended through January 2010 to assist in the management of arms and army personnel contained in the cantonments.

Nepal government running out of money

Nepal's government will run out of money in less than a month unless it can lift opposition protests in parliament by supporters of the country's former Maoist insurgents and pass a new budget, officials warned Thursday.

Parliament must approve this fiscal year's budget by the middle of November or face a likely shutdown of the administration, with the government unable to pay employees, Cabinet spokesman Sarada Prasad Trital said.

The Maoist lawmakers have held up proceedings in the chamber for several months with protests against the president for rejecting the dismissal of the army chief by the previous Maoist-led government.

The decision by the president, who officially commands the military, led Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal to resign as prime minister. A new coalition government took over in May.

President Ram Baran Yadav had overruled Dahal's attempts to fire the army chief, saying they were unconstitutional.

The Maoists accused the army chief of opposing the integration of thousands of former Maoist fighters into the national army _ a key component of a peace deal between the government and the rebels when they laid down their arms three years ago. The fighters are still in U.N.-monitored camps.

The Maoists contested elections last year and emerged as Nepal's largest political party.

Campaign to stop mass animal sacrifice in Nepal

By Deepesh Shrestha (AFP)

KATHMANDU — Every five years a temple in southern Nepal plays host to an extraordinary religious festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are sacrificed to the Hindu goddess of power Gadhimai.

For two days, the tiny village of Bariyapur near Nepal's border with India flows with blood as thousands of Hindu devotees flock to the temple to take part in what organisers believe is the world's biggest ritual slaughter.

Many travel from neighbouring India for the festival, which has been running uninterrupted for around three centuries and is due to take place on November 24 and 25.

But this year, a group of animal rights activists is campaigning to stop what it says is senseless cruelty to innocent creatures -- pitting themselves against Hindu devotees in this deeply religious nation.

"We launched our campaign to put a stop to the gruesome killing of animals in the name of God," said Pramada Shah, director of campaign group Animal Nepal which has launched an online petition demanding the festival be cancelled.

"Even in the 21st century, innocent animals are facing cruel treatment due to people's superstition."

The campaign received a local boost when it won the support of Ram Bahadur Bomjam, a young Nepalese man believed by followers to be a reincarnation of Buddha after supporters said he could survive without water, food or sleep.

Bomjam, dubbed "Buddha Boy" by Nepalese media, has spent the past year meditating in the jungle near Bariyapur, but last week broke his silence to condemn the festival.

"Human beings have turned brutal by offering animal sacrifices to the goddess. This practice must be stopped now," he reportedly told local media.

Bomjam's supporters have organised their own campaign to put a stop to the festival, distributing pamphlets in the area and in Indian towns on the border urging people not to take part.

One reason for the event's huge popularity is its proximity to India, where some states have now banned sacrificial slaughter.

"In India today there is greater awareness about animal sacrifice and suffering, so people and rights activists are against it," said N.G. Jayasimha, campaign manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in India.

"Some states have banned animal slaughter even for religious purposes -- including Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. So all these factors contribute to the numbers going to Nepal."

But animal rights campaigners face an uphill struggle in Nepal, where Hindus make up 80 percent of the population and where ritual sacrifice is a part of everyday life.

Local authorities said they would increase security surrounding the festival, which begins with the sacrifice of two wild rats, a rooster, a pig, a goat and a lamb before the temple's statue of Gadhimai.

Devotees can then bring their animals into the temple for ritual purification before taking them into the grounds where they will have their throats slit. The meat is distributed and eaten.

Nepal's government has already pledged 4.5 million rupees (60,000 dollars) in funding for the festival and authorities say they have no power to stop it going ahead.

The temple's head priest, Mangal Chaudhary Tharu, told AFP 800,000 people attended the festival in 2004, when about 400,000 sacrifices were made, and he said he expected more people to come this year.

"Nepal's security situation has improved and we are expecting a larger turnout this year," said Tharu, the fourth generation of his family to serve as a priest for the festival, whose origins have never been documented.

"We are not forcing devotees to sacrifice animals. It is an age-old practice and it must continue.

"The festival will lose its charm and become meaningless if we break with tradition."

Chins builds earthquake monitoring station at Everest

BEIJING: China has set up an earth quake monitoring station at the foot of Mount Everest on the China-Nepal border. India and China have for long

been discussing joint projects for monitoring earth quake and weather patterns in the Himalayas. But it now seems that China has decided to go ahead on its own.

The seismic monitoring facility will also help Beijing to keep a keep a close vigil on possible testing of nuclear devices by India, informed sources said. Seismic monitoring has been used in recent years to collect data on nuclear testing by North Korea and judge the extent of Pyongyang’s nuclear development.

The new monitoring station is being set up 4,255 meters above sea level at Tingri County in Xigaze Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Going by official reports, China begun construction of the monitoring station at a cost of $140,000 in June. This is the second station in Tibet with the first one being built in Shuanghu special zone, Nagqu Prefecture as recently as December 2008.

The establishment of two stations close to the Indian border in ten months shows Beijing’s eagerness to go it alone instead of agreeing to the idea of joint project. Relationship between the two countries has soured during this period.

China’s suffered its worst earthquake in Sichuan province, which is in the Himalayan foothills in May 2008. This is an important reason why Beijing wants to monitor earth movements in the Himalayan region.

"It is the first seismic station built in south Xigaze, which suffers frequent seismic movements," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Soaring, vice director with the regional earthquake administration in Tibet, as saying.

"It can provide first-hand materials for scientific research, and enhance earthquake monitoring covering the Sino-Nepal border area," he said. There was no mention of India. Seismic monitoring usually covers vast areas and it would be possible for the Tibet station to track earth movements in India as well.

Soaring said seismic measurements could be used to study the tectonic zone of the Himalayas, where Mount Qomolangma, as the Everest is called in Chinese, is located.

Another official, Shang Rongbo, deputy head of the regional earthquake monitoring and forecast center, said signals of seismic waves could be swiftly collected and transmitted to the regional and national earthquake administrations through satellite equipment.

The harsh climate at the site had halted installation of the equipment from time to time, he said. The earth station will add to the infrastructure being built by China around Everest. It recently paved a 130 km dirt track from Tingri to Everest base camp and put up a cell phone tower now provides coverage to visitors all the way to the summit. The area also has a high-rise hotel and a police station.

Nepal border. India and China have for long

been discussing joint projects for monitoring earth quake and weather patterns in the Himalayas. But it now seems that China has decided to go ahead on its own.

The seismic monitoring facility will also help Beijing to keep a keep a close vigil on possible testing of nuclear devices by India, informed sources said. Seismic monitoring has been used in recent years to collect data on nuclear testing by North Korea and judge the extent of Pyongyang’s nuclear development.

The new monitoring station is being set up 4,255 meters above sea level at Tingri County in Xigaze Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Going by official reports, China begun construction of the monitoring station at a cost of $140,000 in June. This is the second station in Tibet with the first one being built in Shuanghu special zone, Nagqu Prefecture as recently as December 2008.

The establishment of two stations close to the Indian border in ten months shows Beijing’s eagerness to go it alone instead of agreeing to the idea of joint project. Relationship between the two countries has soured during this period.

China’s suffered its worst earthquake in Sichuan province, which is in the Himalayan foothills in May 2008. This is an important reason why Beijing wants to monitor earth movements in the Himalayan region.

"It is the first seismic station built in south Xigaze, which suffers frequent seismic movements," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Soaring, vice director with the regional earthquake administration in Tibet, as saying.

"It can provide first-hand materials for scientific research, and enhance earthquake monitoring covering the Sino-Nepal border area," he said. There was no mention of India. Seismic monitoring usually covers vast areas and it would be possible for the Tibet station to track earth movements in India as well.

Soaring said seismic measurements could be used to study the tectonic zone of the Himalayas, where Mount Qomolangma, as the Everest is called in Chinese, is located.

Another official, Shang Rongbo, deputy head of the regional earthquake monitoring and forecast center, said signals of seismic waves could be swiftly collected and transmitted to the regional and national earthquake administrations through satellite equipment.

The harsh climate at the site had halted installation of the equipment from time to time, he said. The earth station will add to the infrastructure being built by China around Everest. It recently paved a 130 km dirt track from Tingri to Everest base camp and put up a cell phone tower now provides coverage to visitors all the way to the summit. The area also has a high-rise hotel and a police station.

UN cuts food rations for refugees in Nepal

KATHMANDU — The United Nations said Thursday it had been forced to cut food rations to 90,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal due to a severe funding shortage.

The UN's World Food Programme provides rice, lentils and other food to the refugees, who fled Bhutan when ethnic tensions flared nearly two decades ago and came to eastern Nepal, where they have lived ever since in camps.

The move, which comes after the UN warned on Wednesday that the global economic crisis had led to declines in foreign aid and investment in poor countries, marks the first time rations have been cut in the camps.

Nepal country representative Richard Ragan said the WFP was "extremely concerned" about the consequences of reduced rations on the refugees' health, and that further ration cuts may be necessary in the coming months.

"The Bhutanese refugees have no legal right to own land or work, leaving them almost entirely dependent upon WFP food to meet their basic needs," the organisation said in a statement.

A representative of the refugees told AFP it would be hard to live on the reduced rations.

"I don't know how I'm going to survive for 14 days on 2.8 kilos (six pounds) of rice. I will have to eat very little so I don't run out of food," camp secretary Tek Bahadur Gurung said by telephone from the Beldangi camp.

Bhutan has refused to allow the refugees to return, but more than 20,000 have now left Nepal for Western countries under a resettlement programme launched in 2007.

The UN said the programme could take up to five years to complete, and called for urgent funding to allow it to continue feeding the refugees.

Nepal court admits first case against former royals

KATHMANDU: For the first time in Nepal's history, its former royal family has been slapped with a lawsuit by a common law wife, who is now seeking her share of property.

On Monday, Jaya Shah nee Pandey, common law wife of former Prince Dhirendra, filed a case in Kathmandu's district court, staking claim to the property of the playboy prince who perished in the infamous royal palace massacre in 2001.

Dhirendra, the younger brother of deposed king Gyanendra, was notorious for his philandering despite being married to the then queen's youngest sister Princess Prekshya.

Though the enraged queen pressured the king into stripping Dhirendra of his royal title as punishment, it still did not deter him from marrying at least twice more.

Jaya Shah claims she was married to Dhirendra in 1987 in a temple in Kathmandu and the ceremony was attended by members of the royal family.

Subsequently, she had a daughter, Shreya. Mother and daughter both now live in Boston, where they fled alleging intimidation by the royal family, who exercised a stranglehold on Nepal till the fall of King Gyanendra's government due to a pro-democracy movement in 2006.

After Dhirendra's death, his property was partly transferred to Gyanendra's family with the rest being divided among his three daughters, Puja, Sitashma and Dilasha.

The self-exiled `junior' wife is now claiming a part of the property the three daughters inherited, for herself as well as her daughter.

The case is being fought in Nepal by her uncle and lawyers with mother and daughter preferring to remain in Boston.

This is the first time that Nepal's courts have admitted a law suit against the former royals.

Till last year, the constitution gave the king and his family legal immunity. No law exists in Nepal to try the king and other royals.

The crown was the most powerful institution in the country backed by the army and even the blackest crimes alleged to have been committed by the royals were hushed up.

"The palace paid money to the widow of Praveen Gurung (the singer killed in a car accident by the then prince Paras) to hush it up," says Kishor Shrestha, editor of the Jana Aastha weekly.

The Nepali weekly had last year reported Jaya Shah's determination to fight for her and her daughter's rights now that Nepal had abolished monarchy and King Gyanendra had been reduced to a commoner, stripped of his privileges.

Shrestha has also been demanding an investigation into the rape and murder of three young girls in Pokhara in which former royals and their friends are said to have had a hand.

Jaya Shah should win the case on humanitarian as well as legal grounds, Shrestha said.

She has strong documentary evidence to prove her case, including the birth certificate of her daughter issued by the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (in Kathmandu), which was signed by Dhirendra as the newborn's father.

Uncertainty grips Nepal elephant polo event

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The future of a popular elephant polo event in Nepal is uncertain because of a delay in renewing the lease agreement of seven resorts in southern Nepal where the game is played, organisers said on Tuesday.

The World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) Cup tournament draws players from India, Britain, the United States and Australia and is played annually at Meghauli in the Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal.

But seven resorts in the area have closed after their lease agreements expired in mid-July.

Authorities say two parliamentary panels are considering whether to allow the old resorts to run inside the park, known for its Royal Bengal tigers and the one-horned Asian rhinoceroses, or to allow new operators.

"The uncertainty arising from the government's slow approach to the lease renewal has caused WEPA committee members to rethink the future of elephant polo in this country," said Tim Edwards, director of the Tiger Mountain travel group that organizes the tournament.

"Alternative countries are already being considered," he said without elaborating.

Elephant polo matches are also played in Thailand and Sri Lanka but not on the scale of those held in Nepal.

Nepal honours Tenzing Sherpa and Edmund Hillary

Nepal has honoured Tenzing Norgey Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary by installing their statues in order to promote tourism in the country.

The statues of Sherpa, Hillary and Boris Lidanevich were unveiled by Nepal’s tourism and civil aviation minister, Sharat Singh Bhandari, and Russian Minister for Culture, Tipalov Alexandar.

Sherpa and Hillary of New Zealand, both were the first persons to climb the world's highest peak Mt Everest and Lidanevich, a Russian national made significant contribution to Nepal's tourism sector by establishing the first tourist hotel.

“Nepal was lagging behind as there was not any significant economic change following the political changes,” Bhandari said.

The minister also said that government would make efforts to establish direct air service between Nepal and Russia. The statues were jointly set up by Nepal Tourism Board and Non Resident Nepali (NRN) Association, Russia.

The first human ascent to Mt Everest in May 29, 1953 made Nepal known to the international arena opening the door for tourism in the country.

Severe monsoon hlooding, landslides kill 54 in western Nepal

The death toll from flooding and landslides in western Nepal rose to 54 with thousands displaced from their homes, officials said Thursday.

The flash floods and landslides were triggered by heavy rains which began Sunday evening and left a trail of destruction as the system moved east across the Himalayan nation.

Government officials and police said at least a dozen deaths were reported Thursday from western Nepal.

The army, police and civil volunteers were mobilised to distribute relief supplies and rescue stranded people, but rescue workers were facing difficulties due to swollen rivers and poor road conditions in remote areas.

In Kailali district, about 450 km west from the Nepalese capital, over 6,000 people were displaced from their homes by floods.

The worst affected areas were Dadeldhura and Accham districts, where at least 35 people died in landslides.

At least a dozen districts were affected by the rains which also damaged highways and brought down power and telephone lines.

In the plains of western Nepal, the floods damaged thousands of hectares of farmland where fields were being readied for harvest.

The bad weather also halted air service to the region from Kathmandu.

Dragon to succeed where Delhi failed in Nepal?

KATHMANDU: Three years ago, when Nepal’s King Gyanendra angered India by staging a coup and seizing absolute power, New Delhi brought the king’s arch enemy, the Maoist guerrillas, and the opposition parties together for a united pro-democracy movement that toppled the Himalayan kingdom’s 239-year-old institution of monarchy.

Three years later, is Nepal’s northern neighbour China going to play a similar role and end a political impasse in the nascent republic that New Delhi has failed to resolve?

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who created a controversy last year when he chose to visit China first after becoming republic Nepal’s first premier, is set to trigger a fresh controversy. According to his aides, the former revolutionary will leave for China Sunday for a week-long visit during which he is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Prachanda will be accompanied by Maoist lawmakers Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who was former information and communications minister and is current chief of the party’s foreign affairs, and senior member Mohan Vaidya Kiran, who has been posing leadership challenges to Prachanda from time to time.

This will be Prachanda’s second visit to China since last year. After touring the neighbouring country in August 2008 to attend the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Prachanda was scheduled for a follow-up visit this summer. However, he postponed it when his government became embroiled in a fight with its coalition partners over sacking the chief of the army, Gen Rookmangud Katawal. Soon after the postponement, his eight-month-old government collapsed in May and the second state visit had to be shelved.

This time however, as the leader of the chief opposition party, he is going on the invitation of Hu himself, who heads the Communist Party of China. Ironically, Prachanda’s successor, current Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, is yet to go on an official visit to China since assuming office. Last month, his Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala went to visit Beijing to lay the ground for the prime ministerial visit. However, till now, no date has been finalised for Nepal’s China trip.

China is concerned about Nepal’s peace process having hit a snag. Beijing has asked the communist parties to work in tandem and also address the issue of the rehabilitation of the over 19,500 guerrillas of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army. It remains to be seen if the Chinese government will be able to propel the peace process forward. Prachanda last month avoided meeting the emissary sent by New Delhi to Kathmandu, Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, by going on an unexpected trip to Hong Kong.

The Maoists however declined to comment immediately on Prachanda’s upcoming trip. Mahara told TNN that it was yet to be fully confirmed.

Trekking in Nepal

BEN STUBBS

Eco-trekking in Nepal reveals a rapidly changing world as well as those famed peaks

KATHMANDU, NEPAL–The Sagamartha National Park in northeastern Nepal is a wonderland of icy peaks, mountain streams, glacial lakes – and more than 140,000 kilograms of rubbish.

This section of the Himalayas is the gateway to Mt. Everest, Lhotse and Cho Oyu, which are just a few of the 8,000-metre mountains in this park at the top of the world. Since 1953, when New Zealand climber Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest, the Sagamartha National Park has gradually been pried open for tourism.

As our trekking group headed up the Dudh Kosi valley to Gokyo Ri 3,000 metres above, you could see how tourism was putting the world's most spectacular mountains under pressure.

Our guide Satish resembled a Nepalese Beatle, with a pudding bowl haircut and a pair of canary-yellow trekking pants. He was in charge of the 20 porters and Sherpas (ethnic mountain guides) who accompanied us. We set off from the tin-roofed hamlet of Lukla, past alpine forests and Buddhist prayer flags clinging to the rickety bridges that ford the milky river below. Along the four-hour walk, past grazing mountain goats and peeling golden birch trees, we saw cafés selling Mars bars and apple pies and riverside resorts offering log fires and hot showers on demand.

Setting up camp on an abandoned rice paddy under the shadows of the 6,367-metre Kusum Kanguru, Satish told us the trekking routes have changed dramatically since he started working as a guide 15 years ago. When he began his work in the mountains there were only a few modest tea houses.

That first evening of the trek, the temperature fell to minus-10 degrees in the tents, and there were a few complaints the next morning as aching knees and hips thawed on the climb to Namche Bazaar at 3,440 metres.

Satish explained the more eco-friendly camping treks like ours may be a little harder, but they have much less impact on the fragile environment. Kerosene was used to cook and portable dining and toilet facilities were taken with us in response to the growing number of tea houses and cafés that strip the area of its resources. We were still astounded each night as our cooks whipped up spaghetti bolognese, fried chicken and French toast on demand.

Satish explained that porters and cooks, who would otherwise be unemployed, have a steady source of income during the trekking season.

As we ascended from the rice fields and rivers of Ghat we climbed more than 600 metres in six hours to Namche Bazaar. Indiana Jones-style bridges swung in the breeze as teams of yaks and naks (female yaks) lumbered along the winding path with bells clanging. Along one particularly beautiful switchback we got our first glimpse of Everest, the snowy dome looking down like a lighthouse across the sea of fir trees below.

Namche has been a trading post for generations. The town lies in a valley connecting the Namche pass to Tibet. Today, Tibetans sell Chinese radios and trekking shoes on grubby tarps on the edge of town, while German bakeries, tourist hotels and Internet cafés inhabit the cobbled alleys of the settlement.

With a day to acclimatize to the thinning air, we visited the Namche Bazaar museum, which revealed the evolution of the region. There are now more than 25,000 trekkers in the National Park each year.

Across the top of the valley above Namche we saw the green bins and rubbish pits introduced in an effort to clean up the area.

The evidence of our passing was minimal as the trails became more deserted. Trekking through Phortse, Dole and Macherma, the porters cleaned the way like Hansel and Gretel picking up our crumbs. We wended through the valleys of birch trees past occasional musk deer and timid Impean pheasants hiding in the grass, looking like miniature peacocks with iridescent blue, green and black feathers.

After a fresh blanket of snow at Macherma we trekked across frozen streams with water still trickling beneath. As we climbed to 4,410 metres past Amadablam, the black earth was strewn with boulders and hardy shrubs, and the prayer flags on the ridges whipped in the wind.

At our final campsite at 4,700 metres, on the shores of Gokyo Lake, the evidence of tourism had thinned out to just a few huts burning yak dung. Satish had a huge grin as our weary group scrapped up the final hill to the look out at Gokyo Ri. From our 5,475-metre vantage point we could see unobstructed views of Everest and 360-degree mountain views that fell away to the Nasumbula glacier and the turquoise Gokyo Lakes that were ringed by bright red juniper bushes. A group of bandy-legged porters accompanied us up to the lookout and Satish told me this was what they all live for. "Trekking is my second wife," he said.

Heading back through the Dudh Kosi valley, the impact of tourism was visible again. Locally run tea houses, the odd hotel and garbage bin appeared. It didn't seem like such a big deal. But if the Sherpas and porters of the Sagamartha National Park are going to continue living this life, the responsibility really falls on the ordinary tourist to take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints.

Ben Stubbs is a freelance writer based in Buenos Aires.