Über EcoHimal

Today is UNESCO’s international mother language day. While Nepali is the lingua franca, it is spoken by less than 50% of Nepalis as their first language. In fact, the linguistic diversity in Nepal is outstanding! There are around 123 languages from different families spoken as a first language in the country. Among them are languages at the verge of extinction like “Lhomi” which is spoken by the Lhomi Community we worked with in our previous project in Sankhuwasabha District. Today, Lhomi is only spoken by around 7000 people. Another interesting example is Maithili, the second most common mother tongue in Nepal with almost 3 million native speakers. Since the Maithiil Community lives in both Nepal and India, there are in total more native Maithili speakers (about 34 million) than there are Nepali citizens (30 million). Having a variety of languages spoken in a society should be regarded as a strength and a reason to be proud and as both Nepal and Germany are multilingual and multicultural societies we want to celebrate this diversity! #motherlanguageday #unesco #diversity #maithili #lhomi #indigenouslanguages #tamang #languagediversity #ecohimal #portrait

Today is Maha Shivaratri – or the great night of the Hindu God Shiva. Worshippers of Shiva (and other people who like to have a good time) worship in temples and smoke marijuana as Shiva is believed to be an avid smoker. During Shivaratri the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu is crowded with Sadhus (ascetics or people who have renounced worldly life) some of whom travelled on foot from places far away from India. The festival takes place during the darkest new moon night of the year and celebrates overcoming darkness and ignorance in life and the world. #420 #shivaratri #mahashivratri #nepal #pashupatinath_temple #pashupati #sadhu

Our latest Newsletter is out now! A lot is happening in our projects in Nepal. To get all news, you can subscribe to this and all following newsletters by sending us your email address in the direct messages.

Our stoves are being manufactured in Lalitpur right now. While the individual components are already built, they remain to be welded together. We will have two youths from our project village Ramni in Kalikot traveling to the workshop in Lalitpur to participate in the assembling. Through this they will be stove experts who can later help installing and repairing the stoves in their community, plus earning an income for their services. The stoves themselves are adapted to local requirements and have some really innovative features such as an insulated water tank, which allows the later use the passively heated water. For example, the hot water produced while cooking dinner, can be used for doing the dishes, bathing or cooking the next morning without having to reheat (and use more firewood) it. #improvedcookingstove #ecohimal #kalikot #mahawai #nepal #smokefreelife #indoorpollution #energyefficiency