BIKRAM RAI
High on a ridge above the Arun River in eastern Nepal is the lost rural grandeur of Muga’s Thapagaun, the ancestral village of powerful political leaders, generals and businessmen in faraway Kathmandu.
It was this link to the country’s political elite that made Muga the target of Maoist rebels. The grand mansion of many-time prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa was destroyed, and its caretaker killed in 2004. Muga’s decline had begun even before the attacks, as its inhabitants were pulled away to Kathmandu’s power centres.
For the first time in 25 years, 87-year-old Surya Bahadur Thapa attended the once-in-three year clan puja in Muga this week, as priests paraded past the ruins of the once-stately homes (pic, above). His son, Minister of Commerce and Supply Sunil Thapa from the RPP, also attended.