Truth is illusion, so is everything… yes EVERYTHING… But what about DEATH?? The only known truth till now is DEATH… hell yeah… death is the ultimate truth…. Which comes one day for all… all means to all.. Whether you are old or young, men or women, good or bad, human being or animals… plants, birds… …..whatever you are, you will certainly meet death one day. In this uncertain life, only death is certain. Actually, nobody is living, only dying day by day. Each and every activity of yours is taking you to the death. You are walking in the path of death. You cannot escape from death. The death became inevitable reality because nobody has known about death…nobody has experienced death… nobody sees death… what actually is death??? One can have assumptions and may have imaginations… one can explains and describes about death with their scriptures, Holy books, limited knowledge, with their science but the fact is that the death is beyond all this. The moment when any person or Science or anything finds about death, then in that very moment death becomes also another illusion…..
Khaptad Diary
Blog??? Blog writing??? Can I even write blog??? Which topic should I select for blog? Will people be interested to read my blog? How to make blog writing interesting??? Should I google???…… These are some curiosities that hit my mind when I got assignment to write blog on some Agro-eco-tourism related topic from our course teacher. For some days I tried to select a topic for my writing. Though there are many tourist places in our Sudurpaschim province but I cannot make mind which should I select. One day when I was scrolling my facebook then a saw a caption posted by my friend as “heaven is myth, Khaptad is real”. Immediately after seeing that the reminiscence of Khapatd visit of three years ago come infront of my eyes.
Since I am from Sudurpaschim, many people ask me about Khaptad national park. Have you ever been in khaptad? How much time it takes to go khaptad? Is Khaptad beauty is same as shown in photos? Which is good time to visit khaptad? Blah blah blah… Then a day came when I have answer of all these questions. I want to say all those people to come and listen about the beauty of khaptad but its not possible. Time fly. So it is better to write blog about Khaptad diary.
Ist day
Khaptad area (khaptad national park) is one of the greatest heritage of Sudurpaschim which has great potentialities for tourism, trekking, wildlife visit etc etc. Khaptad National Park is a protected area in the SudurPaschim, Nepal that was established in 1984. Stretching over the four district of Bajhang, Bajura, Achham and Doti it covers an area of 225 km2 and ranges in elevation from 1,400 m (4,600 ft) to 3,300 m (10,800 ft). Sometime i think that the slogan Sundar Sudurpaschim must be came from seeing Khaptad beauty.
We (me and my three friends), one day made plan to visit khaptad. We decided to go via bike. So bike servicing, maintenance and other necessary packaging and provision was already done. We left Dhangadhi in early in the morning. It takes about one and half hour to reach Khanidada. It was mont of Falgun, so the environment was so cool. There we have breakfast and take some rest and photos. We have our lunch at Dadeldhura. It was 3 pm when we reached to Doti. Though from Doti also there is a way for going Khaptad. Around it takes six hours from Doti to khaptad nation park. But we didn’t stopped there, because we had plan to visit Khaptad from Achham side. Also khaptad can be visited from Bajhang and Bajura side. But the Bajhang side was farthest to go. It was around 6 pm when we reached to Achham sanfebagar. We stayed in hotel Budhiganga which is our friend Raju’s hotel. After having dinner we slept dreaming of visiting Khaptad tomorrow.
IInd day
Due to cool weather we woke up late. We left our bike to that hotel and started to our journey towards Khaptad. Our every steps taking closer to our destination. We take long way through villages because we are not familiar with the path. About 2 pm we reached to the Naini. A very beautiful place. There was only one house i.e. our friends’ farm house. The house is made for rearing sheeps, horse and doing some agricultural practices. My friend’s father has built a temple there of lord Shiva. There he has planted so many tree species like apple, walnut, Rudrakshya, many citrus species etc. His dream was to make Naini a rest place for tourist who visit Khaptad.
We have enough time to visit Khaptad but we were so tired of walking so we decided to take live that day in Naini and decided to travel Khaptad tomorrow morning. In Naini we made food ourselves. We have sheep meat from the sheep herd who were from Jumla and Humla and came there to protect there sheep from cold and for grazing.
3rd Day:
Early in the morning we woke up and started our trek. Raju’s father has provided a guide with us. We carry some noodles, juice and enough water for our trek. The path from Naini to Khaptad was full forest and no any source of water for drinking. We were walking and walking and walking. Though the weather was cold, our body heat cannot feel any cold. The jungle was full of Rhododendrton trees. Red and pink rhododendron gave the scenery extra beauty. We saw Danphe there. The guide say about story about tiger and bear that were found in the jungle………….. it was almost five hours from morning and we were still walking. We were so tired. But when we saw the hills covered by snow, our pain became vanished. There we played snow about half an hour. We collected snow in our water bottle.
In the jungle we saw many shed for cow boys but there were no one. According to our guide the people from doti, bajhang, achham and bajura came and leave there animals in the ground of Khaptad from Ashad to kartik. There they hired some cow boys for protection of their animals. And when winter starts they bring back there animals.
It was nearly pm when we reached to Khaptad. There was a army camp. And only one hotel. Horses were grazing. The winter is just finished so there we cannot find much flora.
The ground were there called as Patan. All together there were 22 patan. Big big patan. Green patan. Some patan were filled with snow. We managed to stay at hotel. Hotel was so expensive. But the facility was not so good. After doing rest we start to visit Khaptad lake. But the guide was hit by cold so couldnot come with us.
We have fun in khaptad lake. The water was so cold and lake was so dark coloured. It was saying that the water volume of khaptad is not changed ever. After visiting khaptad lake we focused towards Khaptad baba aashram. There was helipad in aashram. Now a days nobody live there. It is believed that Khaptad baba has some godly power. wild animals live with baba in ashram. People from far far places came to visit baba and to cure thier problems. The Khaptad is a holy place. Religious valuse of khaptad is very high. The night was so cool. we managed to sleep anyway.
Tomorrow morning we visited Triveni dham. Its very holy place for hinduism follower. during Gangadashara there was fair in that place. People from all nine district of this province make visit to khaptad in that time. The mela remains for 5 days from Gangadashara in Jeth month. Actually the best time for khaptad visit was jeth/ ashad or Asoj month for having the alluring scenery of the various plant species and the environment of Khaptad.
At last, I just want to say, “visit Khaptad, Experience nature, Experience life”
Thank You!!!
Some photos taken during Khaptad visit
Triveni Dham
Way to Khaptad baba aashram
khaptad mandir
Patan
Khaptad lake
Naini
Naini
with sheep in Naini
Triveni Dham
Triveni Dham
Khanidada
Patan
Khaptad Baba in his Aashram
Black tea in Khaptad
AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND HERBALISM, YOGA AND NATUROPATHY
An Article based on excursion
Knowledge is Power. Since the time of Socrates or even before the person with the knowledge were respected and used to be crowned as suprima of human kindness. It doesn’t mean knowledge is gained only through learning and mugging up the books. Anybody can be enlightened on any subject matter even through observation, speech,day to day work experience. Actually knowledge retention is more and long lasting through observation and work experience than just reading. Based on this principle our respected sir, Asst. professor AnantaPrakashSubedi organized a one day excursion program so that we students could get adequate idea and information regarding medicinal and aromatic plants. We are grateful to him for his selfless contribution in enhancing our knowledge.
The excursion program was fixed for one day. A tight schedule was made to visit three target locations. These locations were fixed by our sir which could fulfill our following objectives…
- To gain knowledge about different medicinal plants , their therapeutic properties and benefits.
- To get acquainted with different aromatic plants grown in chitwan condition.
- To have a precise knowledge on Ayurveda and ayurvedic medicines.
- To understand about yoga and its forms
- To understand about naturopathy and its methodology.
Early in the morning when fog was still hovering the atmosphere with chill, sir arrived at the gate of AFU with two buses for touring.Students got divided and patched up with respective vehicles to hit the journey. Then the bus moved its way to the first destination, Bishnu Herbal Farm, Chanauli. On the way to the farm our bus stopped at ShivalayaMandir where we got introduced with the proprietor of Herbal farm, DandaPaniKafle. It was our privilege to meet such a decent man with only goal of social service. Not only he had immense know how on Ayurveda and ayurvedic medicines, he came out to be the yoga guru. Consequently he made us practice some pranayams and different aasanas, thus rejuvenating our tissues shrunk by the winter. Thanks to him. Then he took us to his farm,Bishnu herbal Farm.
Located in an inner part of Chanauli the farm was extended in an area of more than 10 ropanis. As he guided us around his cultivated farm showing up different herbs cultivated, we came to know that there were more than 100 medicinal herbs cultivated in his farm. He explained us about different herbs and there possible therapeutic benefits. Furthermore, We got an idea on cultivation practice of different herbs via him. It was amazing to know that a small herb could even heal cancer. Some herbs and their benefits he talked of are listed below.
| PLANT NAME | PARTS USED | TREATMENT FOR |
| Tulsi | Leaves | Cough, cold, fever,allergy |
| Avijalo | Leaves ,stem | Pinas |
| Kurilo | Spear | Bone strengthening |
| Jaraapaate | Roots, leaves | Immunization |
| Sarphagandha | Stem flower | Psychosomatic disease |
| Kala megg(cetamoljhar) | ———– | Typhoid ,fever,headache |
The major concern raised in the visit to the farm was regarding the endangerment of these valuable herbs due to both over and underexploitation. Now its over our shoulder to preserve the herbs , flourish the herbs and obviously promote these herbs to make them secure fot our future generation.
Our second destination was the District Ayurved Health Centre(DAHC),Ratnanagar, almost one and half hour far from our first destination by bus.There we came to know about the present situation of ayurvedic medicine trend in Chitwan.Similarly we got acquainted with the services provided by the DAHC. The centre is mainly focused on processing of the medicinal herbs and then produce the medicine as final product.TheDAHC started preparing ayurvedic drugs only 4-5 years ago.
On the premises of the centre, different medicinal plants were found to be grown.Some of them are listed below…
| COMMON NAME | BOTANICAL NAME |
| Barro | Terminallisbellinica |
| Amala | Emblicaofficinalis |
| Rajbrikshya | Cassia fistula |
| Bijaysal | Pterocarpusmarsupium |
| Gheu kumara | Aloe variegate |
| Harro | Terminalischebula |
| Sarpagandha | Rauwolfiasertpentina |
| Raktachandan | Pterocarpussatalinus |
| Kapur | Cinnamomumglaucescens |
Due to lack of manpower and enough budget the centre hasn’t been able to run at its optimal level. We felt sorry to know that the centre produced only two types of drugs concerning major health problems of most Nepalese people. Those medicine are …
- TrifalaChurna
- Composition :harro, barro and amala
- Has a laxative effect and is used against whooping cough,gastritis and constipation.
- SetoPaladiChurna
- Composition: herbs like pippali
- Used against cough and cold.
Although DAHC was established to provide solution to health problem of maximum people of chiwan , its clear it could not work as per its efficacy due to lack of enough support from the government. So its necessary for the related stakeholders to raise the issues regarding activation of the centre .likely the government need to trigger the action for promotion of ayurvedic health care.
After lingering around DAHC for 3 hours we headed our way to Devghat where our final destination was bewaiting us. Amidst the jungle of that sacred land lies the Yogi Narharinath Yoga and Naturopathy Hospital where we walked in to gain whole idea of yoga and naturopathy. There yogiYadunathPokhrel gave us an introductory idea on yoga and nitya karma. Then after Dr. Hem Raj Koirala took an interactive lecture on different forms of yoga and naturopathy. He mentioned about the necessity and relevance of yoga and naturopathy in 21st century. He emphasized from time to time how yoga could be a means to control and prevent health issue of the world right now. Our disruptive lifecycle and irrelevant and irregular life habit has made us prone to different health issues. Thus yoga has become a necessity to check and balance our daily lifecycle and habit and consequently prevent the diseases.
Similarly we came to know that the naturopathy hospital out there dealt with human health problem by using natural remedies. There is restriction to allelopathy and surgery. Being provided with more than 60 beds ,the hospital is at expanding state . Hope it expands well and serve the human kind at its best.
Yogi Narharinath
Conclusion
The tour turn out to be much more fruitful than expected. We came to know about the medicinal plants grown in chitwan. Similarly we got enough idea on their use and benefits. Moreover the issues regarding their preservation and promotion was raised. Hope it takes a better way. Furthermore we got well acquainted with yoga and its forms. Thus this one day tour has has loaded a lot of information and knowledge in me. Indeed this tour has positively changed my life and has handed me a beautiful gift to direct my future in the right path….
tekenayer1994 