Christmas comes to the Himalayas in June

IN DECEMBER 1990 I got my first glimpse of a place I had known about all my life, or so it seemed. I finally saw Mount Everest. A year earlier greater freedom had come to Nepal in the wake of the fall of Communism in Europe and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Large and violent demonstrations on the Durbar Marg in front of the royal palace had influenced the king to loose some of his control and allow for elections. Religious freedom was also coming to this Hindu kingdom where there were only a handful of Christian congregations and I was visiting local Christian leaders to assist in organizing a conference the following summer.

As my Thai Airways plane made its way from Bangkok to Kathmandu my seat mate, an employee of the Nepal government, excitedly showed me the Himalayas in the distance, pointing out Mount Everest. Soon after we spiraled down into the Kathmandu valley to land and I was making my way through immigration and customs and headed for a local hotel.

I was disappointed to discover that the Himalayas were hardly visible from the city because it is nestled in the Kathmandu Valley. I caught a glimpse of a couple of snow capped peaks from my second floor hotel room but nothing more. I was told that I would only be able to see the Himalayas from the edge of the valley. Unable to bear the thought of traveling all that way and not seeing the Himalayas up close and personal I arranged for a taxi to pick me up after noon and take me to the recommended viewing location. The whole trip would cost me $40 which I thought was a reasonable price for admission to one of the world's greatest natural spectacles.

We left Kathmandu in the early afternoon and climbed our way out of the valley through the terraced rice fields. Periodically we helped thresh sheaves of some crop which had purposely been laid out on the tarred road for passing traffic to run over. We arrived at our destination at about 4:00 p.m., the ideal time for viewing the panorama before me. The western sun cast a pink glow on the snow capped mountain range as my guide pointed out to me five of the tallest peaks in the world, including Mount Everest. I stood there and gazed in wonder at what must be one of the greatest sights on our planet.

We drove back to Kathmandu as the sun set and darkness fell. I worried about an ever-glowing red light on the dashboard and wondered whether we would make it but the driver seemed not to be concerned.

I returned to Nepal again the following March (when I rode around Kathmandu on the back of a motor cycle...but that's another story) and again in June 1991 for the conference. It was during that event that a newspaper article announced that for the first time ever the government would recognize December 25th 1991 as a public holiday. Several leaders at the conference gathered one day to draft a response of thanks to the Prime Minister and the king. Christmas had come to Nepal in June.

rpk