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<i><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><amp-img  src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981September/growth-22_110613034756.jpg" alt = "" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div>Doig: Fighting against cultural erosion</div>Mountaineer, landscape artist, writer, and urban planner Desmond Doig, 60, is better known in India as the editor of the now defunct Junior Statesman (JS) magazine. Allahabad-born Doig firmly believes in the existence of the Yeti, the abominable snowman, and is currently settled in Kathmandu where he works on a variety of projects including the Bhaktapur Development Project. Clad in a sky-blue safari suit in his tastefully decorated living room, Doig talked to</i>India Today's Ashok R. Pandey<i>about his life and work. Excerpts:</i><br><br><b>Q. What brought you first to Nepal?<br>A.</b>Well, I was very interested in finding the southern route to Everest. I did not want to climb Everest, it just seemed to me that the southern route to Everest would be a jolly good thing to find. And having served with the Gurkhas in Italy during the war I was curious to see what their country looked like. Neither of the things worked. I went to Calcutta. Story of all our lives, I got broke. Decided I needed a job and joined The Statesman as an artist.<br><b><br>Q. Was it a sad feeling to see a magazine like JS crumble?<br>A.</b>I don't think it crumbled. Like all things it was a young magazine, and after 10 years it felt old; I certainly felt old. It's very difficult being a teenager at my age. And most of the young people that were working there thought they'd had enough after 10 years, and went off to Europe and America.<br><br>So it was much easier to close down than to try and start all over again. And I found that much as I loved Calcutta 30 years there was more than enough. To be fair, I think my last book on Mother Teresa opened my eyes to Calcutta. Being with Mother Teresa for six months almost day and night made me aware of the crushing poverty and the wretchedness and the real horror that she is dealing with.<br><br>She makes it beautiful. And I felt that either I must be in a position to make that horror beautiful and become a missionary - which I was not prepared to do - or get out of the place. Getting out was much easier, especially to a nice place like Kathmandu.<br><br><b>Q. In what way are you associated with Bhaktapur?<br>A.</b>I have been involved with Bhaktapur for about a year. I am personally involved with arts, crafts and tourism, and my job is to help people outside the project area. I'm concerned with the whole of Bhaktapur and not just the Bhaktapur Development Project.<br><b><br>Q. Why has Bhakatapur been singled out for attention and not the other towns in the valley?<br>A.</b>I think everyone will agree that Bhaktapur is the most in need at the moment. Bhaktapur has been bypassed, and it is very backward at the moment compared to Kathmandu and Patan. I asked one foreign agricultural expert what he was teaching Bhaktapur farmers. He said 'I'm not teaching them, they are teaching me!' He said they were the most marvellous farmers he had ever come across. So it is a farmers' city at the moment, but with all the pangs of growing into a modern city.<br><br><b>Q. How do you view the intensive urbanisation that is going on in the valley?<br>A.</b>The terrible danger at the moment is that the valley will become a Calcutta. The population is absolutely exploding and as the prosperity of the valley grows there will be more and more people coming in from the hills. I would like every Nepali planner to go and study Calcutta. Calcutta was a beautiful garden city, then the gardens disappeared and the slums took over. I wouldn't be surprised to look down into this emerald valley one day and see houses and houses and houses.<br><br><b>Q. To what extent has tourism affected the cultural heritage of this valley?<br>A.</b>It has destroyed and it has helped. With the coming of tourists, the process of cultural erosion, of pulling down old houses quickened because we suddenly discovered that tourists were buying bits of carved wood. And then something much worse happened, they realised that tourists were paying large amounts of money for temple images, which started getting stolen. Now that can be blamed on tourism. But at the same time it is the biggest industry, and who wants to get rid of the biggest industry?<br><br><b>Q. Is there any possibility of this sort of restoration work being politicised? Wouldn't other towns also ask the Government to come and preserve the temples?<br>A.</b>Yes, I would howl if I was in Patan. And it could be a source of headaches for the Government. Like when we started building schools in Sherpa land, the Government almost stopped our project. We thought it was damned stupid as that time, then the Government explained to us that if there was one area getting schools, all the other districts would also sit on their heads.<br><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Nov 6, 2013 15:27 IST</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

neighbours

Neighbours

<i><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981September/growth-22_110613034756.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div>Doig: Fighting against cultural erosion</div>Mountaineer, landscape artist, writer, and urban planner Desmond Doig, 60, is better known in India as the editor of the now defunct Junior Statesman (JS) magazine. Allahabad-born Doig firmly believes in the existence of the Yeti, the abominable snowman, and is currently settled in Kathmandu where he works on a variety of projects including the Bhaktapur Development Project. Clad in a sky-blue safari suit in his tastefully decorated living room, Doig talked to</i>India Today's Ashok R. Pandey<i>about his life and work. Excerpts:</i><br><br><b>Q. What brought you first to Nepal?<br>A.</b>Well, I was very interested in finding the southern route to Everest. I did not want to climb Everest, it just seemed to me that the southern route to Everest would be a jolly good thing to find. And having served with the Gurkhas in Italy during the war I was curious to see what their country looked like. Neither of the things worked. I went to Calcutta. Story of all our lives, I got broke. Decided I needed a job and joined The Statesman as an artist.<br><b><br>Q. Was it a sad feeling to see a magazine like JS crumble?<br>A.</b>I don't think it crumbled. Like all things it was a young magazine, and after 10 years it felt old; I certainly felt old. It's very difficult being a teenager at my age. And most of the young people that were working there thought they'd had enough after 10 years, and went off to Europe and America.<br><br>So it was much easier to close down than to try and start all over again. And I found that much as I loved Calcutta 30 years there was more than enough. To be fair, I think my last book on Mother Teresa opened my eyes to Calcutta. Being with Mother Teresa for six months almost day and night made me aware of the crushing poverty and the wretchedness and the real horror that she is dealing with.<br><br>She makes it beautiful. And I felt that either I must be in a position to make that horror beautiful and become a missionary - which I was not prepared to do - or get out of the place. Getting out was much easier, especially to a nice place like Kathmandu.<br><br><b>Q. In what way are you associated with Bhaktapur?<br>A.</b>I have been involved with Bhaktapur for about a year. I am personally involved with arts, crafts and tourism, and my job is to help people outside the project area. I'm concerned with the whole of Bhaktapur and not just the Bhaktapur Development Project.<br><b style=""><br>Q. Why has Bhakatapur been singled out for attention and not the other towns in the valley?<br>A.</b>I think everyone will agree that Bhaktapur is the most in need at the moment. Bhaktapur has been bypassed, and it is very backward at the moment compared to Kathmandu and Patan. I asked one foreign agricultural expert what he was teaching Bhaktapur farmers. He said 'I'm not teaching them, they are teaching me!' He said they were the most marvellous farmers he had ever come across. So it is a farmers' city at the moment, but with all the pangs of growing into a modern city.<br><br><b style="">Q. How do you view the intensive urbanisation that is going on in the valley?<br>A.</b>The terrible danger at the moment is that the valley will become a Calcutta. The population is absolutely exploding and as the prosperity of the valley grows there will be more and more people coming in from the hills. I would like every Nepali planner to go and study Calcutta. Calcutta was a beautiful garden city, then the gardens disappeared and the slums took over. I wouldn't be surprised to look down into this emerald valley one day and see houses and houses and houses.<br><br><b style="">Q. To what extent has tourism affected the cultural heritage of this valley?<br>A.</b>It has destroyed and it has helped. With the coming of tourists, the process of cultural erosion, of pulling down old houses quickened because we suddenly discovered that tourists were buying bits of carved wood. And then something much worse happened, they realised that tourists were paying large amounts of money for temple images, which started getting stolen. Now that can be blamed on tourism. But at the same time it is the biggest industry, and who wants to get rid of the biggest industry?<br><br><b style="">Q. Is there any possibility of this sort of restoration work being politicised? Wouldn't other towns also ask the Government to come and preserve the temples?<br>A.</b>Yes, I would howl if I was in Patan. And it could be a source of headaches for the Government. Like when we started building schools in Sherpa land, the Government almost stopped our project. We thought it was damned stupid as that time, then the Government explained to us that if there was one area getting schools, all the other districts would also sit on their heads.<br><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Nov 6, 2013 15:27 IST</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

Mountaineer, landscape artist, writer, and urban planner Desmond Doig, 60, is better known in India as the editor of the now defunct Junior Statesman (JS) magazine. Allahabad-born Doig firmly believes in the existence of the Yeti, the abominable snowman, and is currently settled in Kathmandu where he works on a variety of projects including the Bhaktapur Development Project.

India Today

Allahabad-born Doig firmly believes in the existence of the Yeti, the abominable snowman, and is currently settled in Kathmandu where he works on a variety of projects including the Bhaktapur Development Project.

Desmond Doig: Pangs of growth - India Today

Bhaktapur is the most in need at the moment: Desmond Doig

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Bhaktapur is the most in need at the moment: Desmond Doig

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