After the water dried up and farming stopped, the settlement of 18 families was relocated
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Houses of the same size and color can be seen along the Namjung River across the border of the Lomanthang-Korla section under the Kaligandaki Corridor. These are different from traditional mustangi houses. Traditional houses and monasteries have mud roofs, but here they have zinc sheet roofs.
Lomanthang-2 is the name of the settlement situated on the banks of the Namjung River, 'New Samjong'. It is also the youngest village in Mustang. People who migrated from Samjong in Lomanthang-2 10 years ago have established a settlement here. 18 families live here. In coordination with former Mustang king Jigme Palwar Bista, Lama Nawang Kunga Bista and Swiss photojournalist Manuel Wauer, a settlement has been established in Bagar of Namjung for the Samjong people.
Samjong village was earlier on the banks of Pemra river. The production of Uva, Phapar, Potato and Mustard crops produced in Peto, Napingjung and Senja districts was enough for everyone to eat. There was a problem when the water in the river dried up. Then the residents moved to Namjung Khola Bagar. Some of the land they are living in now belongs to the former king of Mustang and some belongs to the government.
41-year-old Yuk Gurung said that after the water dried up in the Pemra River, she was forced to move to the Namjung River. "The river in Samjong has dried up, there was no grain crop due to the drought. Famine spread. It was very painful. Later, when the former king of Mustang, Lama Kunga and foreigners built their houses here, we left the old Samjong village, she said, "There is plenty of water here, but we don't have our own land." There is no spare part of the place where they are staying.'
Before migrating, Samzong people tried to find water sources by drilling with the help of Swiss geologists and climatologists, making reservoirs to irrigate fields during dry season and bring water through pipelines. But after those efforts were not successful, the migration was shifted. According to Karm Namgyal Gurung, Ward President of Lomanthang-2, farming has stopped in Samjong due to lack of snowfall. Another source of income for the Samzong people is Changrapalan. "They used to earn money by selling changra during Dasain-Tihar, but when pasture became scarce, raising changra also decreased," said Ward President Gurung.
Chairman of Lomanthang rural municipality Tasinarbu Gurung said that climate change has especially affected Upper Mustang. He informed that climate friendly agriculture system has been adopted. "Especially climate-friendly agriculture system (growing vegetables in plastic tunnels, mining with mini tillers, harvesting crops with machines) has started to be adopted. Electric energy has been started to be used as an alternative to firewood or thorn firewood,' he said, 'plantation of trees has been started in the rivers and lakes of Mustang where sand is sand.'
