A prayer to answer all prayers in Nepal
Michelle from TGY caught up with Australian born yoga teacher Amanda / Mahan Shrestha from Ardas Retreats to find out more about how she first came to Nepal – the country she now calls home. A frequent visitor to Australia, she runs Ardas yoga retreats in Nepal and has also started a non-profit organization dedicated to lifting disadvantaged Nepalese out of poverty. Ardas means ‘A prayer to answer all prayers’.
Tell me about how you first went to Nepal?
I was dreaming about it first, before anything. I was dreaming about a place and I wasn’t sure where it was. I had never been to Nepal, I didn’t even know where it was, then one day I found myself in a shop with handcrafted things from Asia and beyond and I picked up a small object I was attracted to – it spoke to me in some way. Then I looked on the bottom and saw it was made in Nepal.
How old were you when you first went there?
I was twenty. I had saved up enough money to get me there, bought the plane ticket, bought a Lonely planet guidebook that I barely read, and when I arrived there at the airport, changed money without even really looking at the rate (though I knew I would get a lot of Nepalese money in exchange for Australian dollars!) bargained with a taxi driver for what I though was a good price, and he took me into the old part of Kathmandu. Once I found a good cheap hotel I went for a walk around the markets and was fascinated by the people, the energy, simplicity and the atmosphere of the place. Little did I know I would be living there a few years later.
Tell me how you came to meet your Nepalese husband?
Actually I met him before my first trip over there, at the gym that I was working in. We became friends, and when I told him I was going to Nepal, he said I should visit his family. I already had a family to visit in Nepal that some friends of mine had been sponsoring for a number of years, so I didn’t end up visiting the family of my future husband.
What was that first trip like, what were your impressions of Nepal?
First I wanted to go trekking, so I did that, went with a group of fellow tourists, and then when I came back, I met a girl who was volunteering at an orphanage, so I decided to join her. At the orphanage we played with the kids, helped them with English and did whatever else needed doing. I loved being there because the children were so happy, and so grateful for everything you did for them. But the cultural differences between Australians and Nepalese made a big impression on me. At the orphanage the volunteers wanted to start a garden, but the management kept stalling the process of getting things into the ground so the garden could start to grow. Eventually we realised it was because they didn’t have enough money to pay for the hose needed to water the garden, and were embarrassed about this so they didn’t want to tell us.
How did you come to start Ardas Retreats?
I came back to Australia after about four months on that first trip, and then my husband and I got married in 2003. A month after we got married, he had to return to Nepal because his Australian permanent residence visa was rejected. So I ended up following him to Nepal, and thought that the process to get his Australian visa sorted out could take some years, so I’d better start planning for my life in Nepal. In Nepal we got married again, and then we bought a property and built a house on it. I had been doing yoga since I was twenty, and had grown up with it as my mother did it, so it was a natural progression to bring westerners to Nepal to do yoga retreats. I am also trained in massage and so this was easy to incorporate into the retreats. I came back to Australia to plan the retreats (organising the teacher, students etc.) and in February 2006 we held our first retreat in Kathmandu.
It must have been a lot of work to organise the retreat the first time?
Actually it wasn’t because in Nepal, an uncle of my husband owns various hotels, and this was where we housed the participants – so accommodation and food was looked after already. Then it was just a question of finding the teacher – doing the website and getting the people. Since the first retreat in Feb 2006, we generally run one a year around the same time. We always schedule the retreats around the local festivals, so that people can participate and get to know something of Nepalese culture. The cultural aspect is a big part of our retreat program.
Tell me how you then started the non-profit organization and what inspired you to do this?
We started it (Himalyan Seva) at around the same time. Actually it was my own personal experience of being badly treated by my husband’s family that motivated me to do something for the disadvantaged and lower caste people in Nepal. Nepal is a hierarchical society where caste still determines your social position and your possibilities in life. Because I was a foreigner – I was treated like a low caste by some of my in-laws, and was actually locked in a room for hours on some occasions while my husband and his family attended a gathering where I was not welcome.
As an educated person, I understood that I was being treated this way because of their culture – that this treatment wasn’t really personal – rather it was just the way things had been done here for centuries. As a non – Nepalese person I was considered as a lower caste person.
My spiritual and yoga practice also helped me at this time to accept and understand these circumstances. But I realized how difficult it must be for Nepalese people to be treated this way all the time – and not to be able to do anything about it.
So this inspired me to give them an opportunity – training them as yoga teachers and spa therapists – therefore giving them a valuable skill, which could get them a job and lift them out of poverty.
How did they take to yoga initially?
Well in Nepal they think yoga is something you do to prepare yourself for death – which it is really…(we both laugh)
They thought it was something for old people. But then when I started teaching them many of them became more interested especially when they start experiencing the benefits of practice. But of course for some of the students, learning about massage and yoga is a means to an end – which is to get a job, and not necessarily something they will keep doing forever. But this is fine – with Himalayan Seva we want to empower people to change their lives. If they see they can study to become a masseur, or a yoga teacher and then get a job and earn money, they can then have more opportunities to do other things. Also, we have to deal with traditional attitude towards massage – many people in Nepal equate massage with prostitution – as prostitution is illegal in Nepal, and so people would use massage as a covert way to advertise prostitution services. So there is cultural bridge to cross there too for people to understand the benefits of massage.
What has been difficult about setting up the non-profit organization Himalayan Seva?
Funding has been an issue. Initially we set up with an American who had been in Nepal a long time, and was teaching people massage and healing techniques. With him we were applying for funding from various organizations, but now we are not working with him anymore, so we need to get funding from other avenues. We are starting a volunteer program, where we invite Westerners to come and work for the organization – paying for their food and accommodation, money which is then directed back into the organization – and working as yoga teachers, massage teachers, English teachers, or even in the veggie garden we are setting up.
So you are looking for volunteers?
Yes, we welcome everyone. There are so many different things that need doing that we can accommodate a wide range of skills. We are also interested in people with business skills to help with management and every day running of the organization.
And now that you are here in Australia – and are often coming and going between Australia and Nepal – is Himalayan Seva still running when you’re not there?
Yes, we have local people running it – which is what we want – we want it to be eventually totally run by locals and to be self sufficient and sustainable. There is no point setting something like this up if it relies on foreigners to function. The whole point is empowering Nepalese people in all levels of society.
One last question – do you speak Nepalese?
I understand it perfectly, and I can get by speaking, but I’d like to take a course and become fluent. The problem is practicing it – my husband won’t speak Nepalese with me because he gets frustrated that it takes too long to say things!
