Having recently visited Dolpo, I would like to add a few more things to Padam Ghaley\'s account (#8).

At least 10,000 people live at altitudes of up to 4.000 m in Doipo-many more than in the Khumbu. Yet, they have no useful vaccine immunisation programmes. Boarding schools with the help of French and German nationals have been set up with dedicated Nepali teachers, but government schools present a sorry picture.

Besides the Yarcha gompo ("Himalayan viagra"). this area is an ethnobotanists paradise. Jattamasi is just one of the useful medicinal plants which grow here. There is potential here for cultivating medicinal herbs in a big way to sell to countries like Taiwan and China where the consumption of these is highest.
Contrary to rumour mills, Maoists are not disturbing the peace at Lake Ringmo or in the upper Dolpo area, ft is still the weather, and the beautiful but dangerous terrain which make Dolpo so magnificent and yet so inaccessible at the same time.

Ed Hillary made a positive impact in the livelihood of the Sherpa people of Solu Khumbu. People like Thinley (who starred in Caravan) ask: Will the Dolpopas too have to wait to be rescued by people like Eric Valli. Or will Nepalis be able to help themselves?

Buddha Basnyat,
MD Kathmandu