[In Kathmandu, the Director General of the
Department of Forestry remarked drily, “We never saw any order from the
Appellate Court and if you can show us the Hetauda document and if we should
then find that our DFO officer had acted wrongly, he will be sacked. As to Bomjan, you foreigners may think he is
a Buddha, but to us he is just a Tamang.
The Tamang came down from the mountains (and are not really considered
legitimate Nepalese citizens by the Brahmins.)
We are the protectors of the Forests, not the monks who live there
illegally.”]
By Joan Stanley-Baker PhD*
Prologue, 
In the early years when the boy Meditator Ram
Bahadur Bomjan sat in stillness beneath a giant banyan tree, intensely absorbed
in penitential Meditation for the welfare of mankind, animals and vegetation
life, a huge and subtle process began to unfold in the area that has since
transformed the Jungle forever.
The Halkhoria woods in Nepalese Terai became
alive in more ways than the visitor imagines. The entire forest behaved as one
giant breathing and flourishing creation together with insects, birds, fish and
wildlife. Just as all the roots were reaching out supporting each other beneath
the surface, weaving the forest into one dense network of intertwining life
forms, so did the canopy overhead, unifying flying tendrils into branches, and
into trunks that would fuse themselves as living architectonic members of the
miraculously integrated leaves, twigs and vines. All these originally diverse
elements now breathe as if from a single, living consciousness.
The pervasive sound of sacred harmony and
peace that emanated from Halkhoria since the Meditator had taken up silent
residence in the Pipal Tree, had profoundly moved visitors in soul and body, so
much so that they came away not quite sure they could believe their own senses.
Why does this place feel so special?
Pilgrims and devotees arrive with open
hearts, where before long they fall into silence, many plunge into deep
meditation and meld into the gentle, loving pull of colossal Maitri
Benevolence.
Clearly, they feel the jungle whispering,
“Come, child. Home to Maitri Dharma”.
Such energy has not been manifested on Planet
Earth in thousands of years, but over those six years it had been blossoming as
the divine boy put sacred roots over the entire jungle. From near and far
visitors came to watch the young Maitriya Guru complete his legendary Tapas,
and to feel the palpable energies of the Halkhoria Jungle transform them from
the inside. From high Brahmins to crippled beggars, people queued for blessing
standing six-wide and many kilometers long under extreme weather conditions.
They listened attentively in the heart, and consciously or unconsciously, they
began to respond to the immense compassionate heart of the Guru of the Great
Jungle. Many shared in the extraordinary
experience of taking root there in the woods, of dissolving all boundaries, of
fusing like the leaves, branches into trunks, into trees, into the whole
Jungle. In scintillating silence, they could feel themselves becoming part and
parcel of the Jungle, their soul becoming bodies of light melded in the chorus
of golden illumination twinkling in the light breeze singing Halkhoria…! Halkhoria…!
All around, in the midst of the lush
flourishing jungle life, broken remnants from the historic site of the Maitri
World Peace Great Puja of 2012 can be found abandoned by the bulldozers. Large pediment stones on which the Guru’s
Dais had been built, and nearby the kitchen, the monks quarters, the Khaiba’s painting studio,
among many other ruins protrude in angular blocks, reminding the visitor today
that Here there had once been extraordinary happenings. Here the Maha Bodhisattva Avalokitshvara and
the Lord Maitreya Nath had manifested in light and communication, lifting the
young Meditator to divine heights. For
already in 2012 the bulldozers had come to make sweep to remove any and all
traces of the Maitri Guru’s presence in these parts. The only edifice that the bulldozers could
not remove was the kadjokoa itself, where they iron hand could only tear out
the windows and doors of the ground floor.
The
Uncertain Future
Since Guru left Halkhoria in June 2012 the
Great Jungle suffered visibly. Aside from the destruction of all unregistered
buildings in the Jungle, the dense Terai subtropical ecosystem has been
degrading rapidly. The five tigers that had attended Guru's vigil and accounted
for by WWF-Nepal are all gone, along with sloth bears, deer, antelopes,
leopards, wild horses, including rare snakes and birds. The elephant herd has
dwindled. Innumerable towering Sal trees (Shorea Robusta) have been felled as
well as the world’s highest grasses. Hundreds of thousands of stones were taken
away from the dry riverbed. The woods have closed in, the space has tightened
up.
* * *
Two years later in June 2014 the Hetauda
Appellate Court handed down the decision granting Guru right of permanent
residence in Halkhoria. But this was a temporary order, to wait final decision
in a month. With this permission, Guru returned to the Great Jungle landing by
helicopter from Sindhupalchowk mountains.
But local opposition had not abated
throughout the six months of Guru's return to Halkhoria. In the six months Guru
had lived in Halkhoria, there have been no less than three main disturbances
interrupting His Work for Peace.
The first occasion was on the 18th June 2014,
witnessed by a South American devotee. While he and Nepali devotees were
together praying at midnight, rather suddenly without warning, 200 soldiers
appeared in the Halkhoria woods and began rounding up all people there.
Soldiers armed with shields and guns roughed them up and pushed everyone away
from the Jungle. Startled, all devotees
and onlookers ran away in fear. The South American visitor was shocked by the
virulence of hostility shown by representative of the Nepali government,
towards the Guru and His devotees.
The second incident was instigated by local
villagers in early September, and may relate to their traditional dependence on
the now-illegal exploitation of the Jungle. Since Guru’s arrival in Halkhoria
his “blue” monks (wearing blue robes in the Maitri colour) have been daily
witnesses to unlawful activities by local villagers. The monks young and old
took action in protecting the fauna of the Halkhoria wetland ecosystem against
encroachment by villagers with snares, nets and poisons. The jungle comprises pristine lake, swamps,
marshes and springs which were now often
turned toxic when villagers dropped poison into the waters to kill the fish, as
caught on camera on the night of 17th August. Prior to the Poisoning, at least
15 cases of deliberate damage to the Jungle ecosystem (including mass
net-fishing) had been reported by the Guru’s monks. They discovered countless
dead fishes in the wetlands along with other poisoned aquatic species.
The poison was dumped into the living waters
by disillusioned poachers into the Halkhorian who emptied their vials into the
Jungle’s water source (spring), contaminating the entire stream flowing into
the Sacred lake.
The third outbreak was the last to be
tolerated. On the 29th of November 2014 Bara District Forest Officers entered
the Jungle and took Maitriya chief monk Jyampa Topchen into custody. They came
to Halkhoria around 3 PM in 2 jeeps, one with officers and one full with
soldiers in camouflage uniforms armed
with guns and video mobile cameras. One of the officers went to Jyampa Topchen,
the Maitriya Chief Monk wearing Maitri blue robes, took his hand and embraced
him saying "Come with me, I need to ask you some questions " and
hauled him towards a waiting car. Without handing him a warrant of further ado,
he forcefully shoved innocent Monk Topchen into the car and closed the door. They
then drove him away and put him in detention in the District Forest Office in
Simara. The officer didn’t return to ask the monk any questions, but kept him
there for 14 days. On the second day the Monk Topchen was forced to sign a
paper saying that three clay fire ovens and food for 25 people had been found
in the Jungle premises. (These do not in any way contravene the Resident Permit
granted by the Appellate Court). The news spread soon in the local media. While the American spiritual researcher and
observer brought food for Topchen in custody,
the monk admitted:
"I think they took my Human Rights, I
haven't done any crime ".
The innocent Monk was locked up with 2 other
men in a dirty room without proper bathroom. The other two men who had been
arrested because they had dug an oversized
hole in the ground while collecting stones from the Halkhoria riverbed.
They were part of the thirty-odd truckloads that rumble through the jungle and
across the Pasaha riverbed mining stones day and night, where paying an official
fee of 230 NRS per truckload arranged
and collected by the Bara District Forest Office. In this manner local
institutions have thrived for generations in organized logging, illegal fishing
and hunting, where the government partially oversees the carting away of the
Jungle depleting its rocks, gravel, logs, high grasses, and wildlife, including
fish.
A few days later the news reached Amnesty
International in Kathmandu who observed that in light of the Appellate Court's
Resident Permit the monk’s arrest was illegal. Finally Monk Topchen was
released on 12 December 2014 after being detained for no less than 14 whole
days.
Over the past six months of the Guru’s
residence in Halkhoria, no less than seven times did Guru’s Monks prevent local
villagers’ from vandalizing the Jungle, from felling the pristine and highly
valued Halkhorian Sal (Shorea robusta), and Shisau (Dalbergia sissoo) forest
ecosystem. To the valdals, these rare, extraordinary old trees are valued for
their excellent manufacturing qualities.
Epilogue
Due to the insecure climate inflicted onto
the Jungle on a regular basis the life of monks, nuns and Dharma lovers became
unstable. For the last month from late
November everyone slept spread out in the Jungle beneath trees and the falling
dew. They feared being harassed by armed
soldiers in the night, and preferred to brave the damp and cold of the Jungle.
Seeing their great fear, Guru decided on the 8th of December to leave the
Halkhoria for an indefinite time.
In Kathmandu, the Director General of the
Department of Forestry remarked drily, “We never saw any order from the
Appellate Court and if you can show us the Hetauda document and if we should
then find that our DFO officer had acted wrongly, he will be sacked. As to Bomjan, you foreigners may think he is
a Buddha, but to us he is just a Tamang. The Tamang came down from the mountains (and are not really considered
legitimate Nepalese citizens by the Brahmins.) We are the protectors of the Forests, not the monks who live there
illegally.”
Meanwhile this Subtropical ecosystem is
rapidly degrading, the unique spiritual green space on our living planet that
had sprouted the heart of Maitri Cultivation, the space that palpably inspires
Peace, Non-Violence, mutual tolerance and Loving Kindness, is under the axe of Nepal’s Forestry
officials, It is in urgent need of protection – a sort of loving protection
that can only come from the world outside Nepal. Halkhoria is not only Nepal's
unique heritage but Nepal’s Divine Gift to all Mankind.
Guru’s loves for the world is beyond
fathoming. He loves Halkhoria, home of His enlightenment and spiritual growth.
He loves all spiritual seekers and pilgrims open to Dharmic Maitri energies.
But He also loves those whose hearts remain closed to Blessings, who still let
fear and negativity keep them in misery. These people remain oblivious to the
sacred Jungle phenomena and are determined to eradicate the Chapter of the
Maitri Guru in Halkhoria. And after
completing His blessing of the Jungle, the Guru commented, “It may take many
more years before Nepal will understand Halkhoria and accept it for what it is”
as He flew away from his beloved jungle.
* The author is emeritus professor of art history specializing in Chinese fine arts at Tainan National University, Taiwan. She hails from British Columbia, Canada.
Related link: ‘THE BUDDHA BOY’ IS NEPAL’S GREATEST GIFT TO HUMANITY IN 2500 YEARS
Related link: ‘THE BUDDHA BOY’ IS NEPAL’S GREATEST GIFT TO HUMANITY IN 2500 YEARS
