Scholarships established in Sankhu by a new philanthrophy organisation

SACO Foundation is initiating 2 scholarships - JAYA Scholarship for boys and JANAKI Scholarship for girls at higher secondary level in Sankhu. Scholarships will be provided to 2 boys and 2 girls whose parents or guardians are unable to support their education due to economic hardships and lack of other assets capacities. A youth organisation from Sankhu will select these students and administer these scholarships.

Stolen artifacts of Sankhu

A new video is released in YouTube on stolen artifacts of Sankhu. For watching, please follow the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhJ2jE5ckV4

Magh Mela and Swasthani Brata in Sankhu

Starting from tomorrow, the month long festival of Magh Mela (Madhav Narayan Brata) and Swasthani Brata begins in Sankhu. Madhav Narayan Brata is one of the most difficult brata practiced in Hindu Religion in Nepal. Observing fasting for a month, walking barefoot in the chilly cold winter mornings, taking a holy dip early every morning in Salinadi together with God Madhav Narayan, eating one meal in a day without any salt, going pilgrimage Sankhu village everyday and to Pharping, Changu and Panauti on foot during the month are some of the glimpses of this hard devotion of the bratalus. Come see and understand the brata!

Together with Madhav Narayan, the month long story of Swasthani is also read every night in every Hindu household. Salinadi is the holy river described in the Swasthani. There is a new temple of goddess Swasthani erected on the bank of the Salinadi river, where thousands of devotees visit each year.
Visit Sankhu between 31 December 2009 and 30 January 2010 to witness this fascinating devotion to the God Madhav Narayan and the Goddess Swasthani.

Cultural and natural heritage of Sankhu

Vajrayogini Temple complex and Sankhu village were nominated by the Government of Nepal last year for recognition as world heritage sites. UNESCO has included these two sites in the tentative list of additional world heritage sites. It is a matter of pride for all of us who love Sankhu. I feel proud to belong to and come from this beautiful village. Goddess Vajrayogini and her temple complex are famous and revered all over the world. There are many cultural artifacts in Sankhu which are unique and exist only in Sankhu in Whole of Nepal. For example, the idol of Bhairab – in Dhunla: Mahadyo with its standing hair, single snake hair-dress earpieces and ferocious look is a master piece, exist only in Sankhu.

Another idol of Bhairab in Sakha: Mahadyo, an equally beautiful masterpiece depicts a unique combination of fierce but benevolent expression.

The beautiful stone sprout, once buried under mud and now restored by local people is the Stone sprout in Sakha: Sankhu. This stone sprout is not as beautiful as those in Kathmandu or Lalitpur. However it is unique in whole of Nepal because of the human head icon engraved in its front part. So far as I know, there is no other stone sprout in Nepal with such icon. Archaeologists might be able to verify the iconographic look, but to some extent, it resembles to Birupakhchhya idol in Pashupati. It is certainly not an icon of a god as there is no third eye engraved. These are all precious jewels of Sankhu.

Besides its cultural values, the nature of Sankhu is also enthralling and mesmerizing.

In summer, particularly after rains, surroundings of Sankhu come alive with lush green paddy fields and rich flora that makes one feel liberated, full of bliss and eager to embrace the beautiful nature with open arms.

JCI Sankhu Nepal Weekly Program 2009

JCI Sankhu Nepal is pleased to invite you to JCI Weekly Program 2009 Being organized in Sankhu as follows:

2066/4/9 Table Tennis Competition Morning 6:30AM to Eveing 4:30 PM Sankhu Salkha Tole Cordinator - JC. Rupesh Lal Shrestha

2066/4/10 Health Camp Morning 10:30AM Sankhu Chalakhu Tole Cordinator JC. Sankhar Dulal

2066/4/17 Closing Ceremony Morning 11:00AM Sankhu Primery School Cordinator- JC. Rajendra Prasad Shrestha

Guess What?

Well, rainy season has started, intermittantly though. Once again, Sankhu becomes lush green as the title picture I have posted about a year ago. A stroll around the outskirts of Sankhu, on the winding roads between the fields, with growing rice saplings giving impression of green carpets everywhere, with clean air just washed by the rain gives so refreshing feeling that I can not describe. This is the time I miss Sankhu most.

Well, a slightly different view though for a different taste. Can you guess the place of the attached pictures?

Can you believe this is our lovely Sankhu? I got these Photos from Ramita, YMRC Sankhu. Fascinating and Cool!! These photos were taken after the snow fall in Kathmandu valley in February 2007, which happened after 62 years in Kathamndu. Ramita, kudos to your photography spirit and skills. I admire these pictures because they are such a rare occasion to see and enjoy. Because of global warming, it does not even rain in recent years in winter, and that makes such views more important. Yes, we do hope to see such gifted scenes of Nature in our lovely Sankhu again and again.

New Municipality in Sankhu?

According to the recent proposal forwarded by the Ministry of the Local Development, Sankhu, together with other city oriented villages around the country might be declared to be a municipality. Sankhu could have mixed blessings of this decision of the Government of Nepal. There is no doubt that the current administrative division of multiple VDCs have proven inefficient for the integrated development of Sankhu and its surrounding villages. However, the lack of strong and visionary leadership in Sankhu could result in the municipality yet being controlled by the non-residents of Sankhu. One thing that is certain however is the establishment of the administrative unit in Sankhu that will be much more beneficial to establish Sankhu as the hub of the area. More recent efforts such as the Motor-cycle rally organised by the Nhu Dan: Samaroha Samiti to publicise the Sankhu-Melamchi Road have also begun to contribute to raise potentiality of Sankhu as the economic hub for the Kathmandu - Sindhupalchowk melamchi basin. As Mr. Rajbhai Shrestha, the Chairperson of the Nhu Dan: Samaroha Samiti explained it, the road is the shortest route from the Melamchi basin to Kathmandu with immense possibilities of boosting economic activities in the eastern end of the Kathmandu as well as in Melamchi/Indrawati basin areas in Sindhupalchowk.

However the more worrying trend is the increasing sale of land by people of Sankhu to outsiders. It is estimated that more than 70% of arable land along the road outside Vaudhakha: and Manahara river are now owned by outsiders. The subsistence farming was certainly not good enough for the farmers but sale of land will certainly deplete the economic capacity of such farmers particularly if the money they received by selling land is not put into productive use. And it is so true that investment in production is so low. This could eventually have a big impact on the lives of these families as well as on Sankhu which so far had remained tranquil Newa village. The implementation of the decision to install a municipality in Sankhu must therefore immediately be completed by an integrated plan of urbanisation, protection of agriculture land, adoption of norms for house construction and drinking water supply and sanitation. Otherwise the beautiful surroundings of Sankhu will soon be a story only.

Sakwoya nimti Sakwomi

the Nhu Dan Samaroha Samiti 1128 organised a historic gathering of Sakwomi people those living in Sankhu and those currently living in Kathmandu and other places outside Sankhu. The Mass gathering had been possible due to the months of untiring efforts from the Chairperson Bhaju Mahendra Shrestha and his colleagues in the Nhu Dan Samaroha Samiti. Eminent persons from Sankhu and outside spoke on the occasion sharing their views on the significance of such a gathering and how could this be taken forward in the future.

I hope the organiser Samiti and friends will post more news and visual records of the event through their own website so that those who could not attend the event would have the opportunity to see and read about it.

Some more about Sankhu

Here are some more links to Sankhu that will give you a good reading and understanding on what's going on in and around Sankhu:

- know about a healthcare project in Bhotechour through the link http://www.brightfuturesfoundation.org/healthcare_project.htm

- know about an education support project from the same organisation through this link http://www.brightfuturesfoundation.org/education_project.htm

- know about an orphanage home set up by a dutch NGO through the link http://www.stichting-veldwerk.org/index_e.html.

About Sankhu

Description of various aspects of Sankhu are mentioned in following web sites:

Short account of the work of Friends of Sankhu from Pasa Puchha Guthi UK http://www.ppguk.org/guthi/heritage.html


Short account of Sankhu, Bajrayogini and Sankhu Rural Information Technology Centre http://jeffl.org/sritc/index.php

Work of Friends of Sankhu, a NGO working on socio-economic development of Sankhu and its surroundings can be visited at the site www.fos.org.np

There is a Page in worldwide free internet based encyclopedia Wikipedia on Sankhu. Someone has generously created the page. But there is a lot more that could be added to this page. Those willing to do that can visit the Wikipedia web page http://new.wikipedia.org/wiki/बज्रयोगिनी_(सांखु) .

I am sure there are many more places in the internet with interesting information about Sankhu and its inhabitants. I would like to request you to post those to this website. In order to post to this blog, please send your interest to us so that we could enable you to post to this site.