Nepal flood survivors fear loss of culture and community

KATHMANDU: In the days since Tsering Gelbu Lama’s wife was swept away by devastating Lama wiped away tears as he sat on the floor of a Buddhist monastery turned makeshift shelter for hundreds of others evacuated from remote villages to the capitalI don’t know how I will pass on our culture to her,” he said as he coaxed a spoonful of rice into her mouth.

For Lama and a rising number of others displaced by the floods, the losses go beyond homes and belongings. Communities whose culture and practices, often tied to ancestral land, are eroding as young people leave for the city now worry if their sacred traditions can be preserved.I don’t know how I will pass on our culture to her,” he said as he coaxed a spoonful of rice into her mouth.

For Lama and a rising number of others displaced by the floods, the losses go beyond homes and belongings. Communities whose culture and practices, often tied to ancestral land, are eroding as young people leave for the city now worry if their sacred traditions can be preserved.Flood survivors now living in the monastery described their villages’ forests as thick with trees and filled with bears, deer and butterflies. Others showed pictures of steep, green hills along a river.

Survivors at the monastery also shared photos and videos of what life in their villages was like before the floods: Women chopping juniper together to make incense, making new decorations for a monastery being built, men and women wearing colorful traditional clothing and dancing during festivals.Survivors described to The Associated Press how they fled the surging river water by climbing to the top of hills, seeking refuge in monasteries they had built just a year earlier, after the older ones were destroyed by a 2015 earthquake.

Many said they didn’t have time to take anything from their homes and are now left with only the clothes they wore when being evacuated by helicopter. Others spoke of losing important heirlooms that are usually passed down from generation to generation.