After his 3 yrs of research of Arther village located at Parbat district Director Manoj Gurung captured the on going process of the village in his camera and made documentary named “Matribhumi ko Aatma katha”. He has mostly focused on the lifeless houses which people have left after they migrated to the city areas. The thing that I want to convey is that it’s not only the condition of Arther village coz there are many other Gurung villages which are facing the same problems.
During 2065/11/12, I along with my mother Misiri Gurung, Maiju Sabitri Gurung, Sisters Tara Gurung, Manisha Gurung, Laxmi Gurung, Pabitra Gurung, Tika Gurung, brothers Gopal Gurung, Chul Bahadur Gurung and Suresh Gurung went to Tanchok from Pokhara to see the museum established by Lok Bahadur Gurung. After 1 hr of traveling we reached Lumle. After continuous and tiresome walking for about one and half an hour from Lumle, we reached Tanchok . After reaching the main gate of our village where there was a banner saying welcome, we felt so relieved. And lastly seeing the well maintained roads, and Tanchok village just nearby we felt very happy.
Satisfying our thirst from the cold water, we again started our journey. We reached the first house of the village after walking for about 20 minutes but the house was empty. We again moved forward and could see lots of houses which were beautifully made with stones in the same order, we were all dazzled seeing that village . But one thing that I found disappointing is that there were less number of people living there as compared to the houses so i thought they might have migrated to some other place.
We then headed towards the museum but unfortunately the lady who looks after it had gone to Pokhara. So we were in confusion and thought what should we do then Manisha suggested to roam around in village whereas I was busy taking pictures of houses outside the library. When I was taking pictures I came across an old woman who might be of about 70 years. She was busy weaving and I asked her permission to take pictures. She answered in a humorous way to take her pictures and show her the film. I asked her “why the village was so empty and where were the young boys and girls?” Then she directly replied that every one has already migrated towards Pokhara and now the village is empty. Similarly I met a ex-teacher, Babbar Singh Gurung whose son had also settled in Pokhara but he lived there as he didn’t want to leave his village.
Then I showed my interest to know more about the village then he gave me full description of that village saying “Tanchok village is situated in Kaski District, ward no.9 which is almost 5000 meter above the sea level. There is every facility like water , electricity, health care, and well maintained roads. Altogether there were 55 families residing in the village, among which 30-40 were Gurungs but today there are only 7-8 Gurung family residing over there. Though having such facilities only few gurungs live here. It has been a custom that people go to army to earn money and later migrate towards the city areas.
It’s not that the houses aren’t properly built like the city though only old people can be seen here. After about one hour an old lady came and opened the museum. My Sister Tara and Maiju Sabitri were very happy and they started to dance. My mother Misiri was also very happy saying that at the age of 60 she came to roam in Tanchok village with her son and grand children and she won’t forget this moment in her life. We entered one by one in the museum, and found that there were lots of olds stuffs though it wasn’t managed properly. It might be because the house was quite small. I was quite amazed to see the things in that museum as there were every stuff that were used by the Gurungs and I hadn’t seen most of the things before.
Though the village was clean and the Museum was also beautiful, there was emptiness within the village. I feel quite sad to see our Gurung’s custom because it’s not that if one earns money then they have to migrate to the city areas, by seeing this may be our ancestor’s mite be crying. We just leave our land barren which fed us and migrate to the city areas for better facilities. Feeling scattered we all returned back. Actually our aim of taking that journey was to get information because we wanted to establish a Museum in Bhachowk village. For the establishment of museum in Bhachok village Mother Misiri has promised to take all expenses.
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