The extraordinary wisdom of the tantrics

Water scarcity and water management become big issues as the globe warms up and we edge closer to the 11th hour. A while back, I had the good fortune to accompany a few friends to see the Raj Kulo, a mediaval water system that brought water to the Kathmandu Valley. Astonishingly, the Raj Kulo still works where people haven't dug it up or sunk concrete foundations into the water sources.

The "hiti" (Newari water spouts made of stone) of Patan and Bhaktapur are fed through this elaborate system in which the water is brought through canals all the way from Tika Bhairav. Knowing the meddlesome (and stupid) nature of modern people, the ancients devised a tantric secrecy around their water system. The tantric priests were the only ones who knew when the water sources were located, perhaps as a way to counteract acts of sabotage from warring neighbours. The water was piped in through an elaborate filtration system so good people still go to drink water from one particular spout in Patan, believing that the water promotes longetivity. The secrecy protected the water systems from being completely overhauled and destroyed when modern engineering and water system came into being. Interestingly, the Kathmandu municipality’s water system, run through rusty and damaged water pipes, is more unreliable than the hiti sources. At least in one location in Patan, we found out that the locals actively pumped water from their Hiti straight up into their tanks during the night.

The smartest thing people living in Kathmandu could do, in the face of increasing water scarcity, is to look into ways to revive their old stone spouts and hiti systems. The second smartest thing would be to build rainwater harvesting systems in their backyards, since Severns Trent is hardly likely to fulfill the Kathmandu Valley’s water demands.

India is considered the big bad brother when it comes to water and Nepal (it wants to grab all the water, it builds dams that overflow and cause floods on the Nepal border) so it is refreshing to see that at least in one respect its doing something right: The Indian Government is giving a respectable amount of money to repair the Raj Kulo. Stay tuned for more…

Supportive Men: the documentary

In Nepal, men and women are involved in various ways to shift norms and relationships toward gender equality. This documentary focuses on one community in Kapilvastu, Southern Nepal, to show how men and couples are changing the way they interact with one another to bring about social change, and also how men are supporting women’s movement for empowerment and gender equality. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Mr. Dube is a young man in his late twenties who lives in Kapilvastu, Nepal. He has taken part in a gender equality training given by a local NGO, in partnership with an INGO. He is married and has two sons. In his small community, Mr. Dube has become an inspirational figure who has managed to change the behavior of not just the younger men, but also the older men of his community, who now cook, help with housework and childcare, and support their spouses in a way that was unthinkable...

WATER shown in eco-feminism week in Trinity College, Dublin

Isabel Jorgensen invited me to screen WATER at the eco-feminism week (Nov 13-17, 2017) at Trinity College, Dublin. She said she'd seen me present at Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and thought the film fitted perfectly with the theme of the week. I was already back in Nepal after a summer in Oxford, so I suggested that she present it instead. Isabel said the documentary would be screened at the Museum Building Library, and that "it was by far the most beautiful building and room on campus!" So I googled it up, and indeed, here is the beautiful building . It was inspired by the Byzantine architecture of Venice. Here is her email after the event, after I asked her how it went: Amazing, thanks! Here are some pictures from the event, it went smoothly and there was a lot of good discussion. I gave a 30 minute intro to climate justice and environmental issues and women’s roles in their resolution, we had the a screening an...

Hubert Bals Fund grant

I received a seed grant from the Hubert Bals Fund to write a fiction film script in 1997. The grant gave me support and inspiration when I needed it the most. I found this list of HBF grantees on the web, and am honored to be part of this global film community.

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