Inauguration of Visit Lumbini Year 2012

The government is kick-starting the Visit Lumbini Year (VLY) 2012 campaign and Tourism Vision 2020 amidst a special ceremony at Central Canal in Lumbini on Saturday.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav will inaugurate the event that will also include formal closure of Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 campaign. Gyanin Rai, chief of Lumbini Development Trust, Kathmandu Office, said the target of VLY 2012 was to introduce Lumbini as birthplace of Lord Buddha and to mobilize funds from international sector for overall development of Lumbini area. Around 628,000 people, including 128,000 third-country tourists, visited Lumbini in 2011. Government has allocated Rs 130 million for VLY campaign.

A press statement from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said the Visit Lumbini Year campaign was a major linkage between NTY 2011 and Tourism Vision 2020, as it serves to sustain the achievement of NTY 2011 and improve livelihoods of the people through tourism as envisioned in Vision 2020.

“Successful completion of NTY 2011 has clearly given two messages to the world. The first one is that Nepal has come to peaceful and stable situation after a decade long political uncertainty; and another, tourism has been unanimously regarded as a vehicle of economic transformation,” the statement added.

Tourist arrivals to the country during NTY increased by 22.1 percent as compared to arrivals figures of 2010.

"Beneath Everest, Nepal Reborn" – A Documentary

Born and raised in Parbat of the Dhaulagiri Zone, Tulsi Bhandari, 35, is a graduate in Social Work from the Michigan Grand Valley College in the US.

A professional social worker, Bhandari is the maker of “Beneath Everest, Nepal Reborn,” a documentary which captures Nepal while in its turbulent transition from a monarchy-ruled Nepal to a new Federal Democratic Republic.

Filmed over four years, “Beneath Everest” documents some of the most critical defining moments in Nepal’s modern history and describes them. In his first documentary, Bhandari has managed to capture the lives of the everyday Nepalis, and questions some of the prominent political leaders.

The film, which had its New York premiere at the Asia Society headquarters in New York on December 1, 2009, has been screened at around 25 venues in the capital since mid 2010. Still on its road show, the film has traveled across the country and will reach Sauraha next week