Monday, November 26, 2012

Report on Educational tour to Jiri for the Master of Business Administration
MBA-4th Semester

30th  May 2012
ABSTRACT

To be aloof from the routine task of college, the industrial visit to Jiri is highly awaited to revitalize the IB&MS team. As soon as the bus departure from the college by 9 pm. the student begins to rock, not wasting evens a single minute in vain. The bus passes away from the crowd of city and entered the journey of hills in deem moon light encountering a heavy rain with poor down power and dense fog. The full volume music and the rhythm of Antechoir made everyone of us eloquent and engaged solely out of stress and relaxed.  We reached into the Jiri Valley in the early morning, the climate, peace and dew of water were as if like welcoming our team with warm lap in natural beauty.
As we check into our hotel every one seem really excited and overwhelmed. The warm welcome with introduction and history of Jiri delivered by Mr. Tank Jirel in Community Council Auditorium, leads our team in indentifying the various business and entrepreneurial opportunities in Jiri for the novice business graduates. A short but very informative speech of Mr. Jirel explored a sense of humor towards the contribution of Mr. Hagon from Switzerland.
Nevertheless, the hiking towards ‘Dhungeshwor Mahadev’, ‘Rangrangeshwor Mahadev’, ‘Jireshwor Mahadev’ and Cheese factory at Chordung added a lot of fun and adventurous with little toughness stuffed with life time memorial experiences. Not even wasting a single PAL our team visited temples. The moment was such that click-click sound’s of camera has had given a rhythm to excited mood and encourages giving better pose for every single next click. The team not only had fun in the lap of mountain but also explored the various business prospects at every corner and kicks of mountains like pilgrimage tourism and agro farms with modified home stay.
However the next day our team visited the Pashu Bikash Farm and Cow and Bangur Farm. After learning the various procedures and technicalities connected to the farm. We begin to shape our mind and vision from the eye of a business student and try to explore the opportunities like dairy and integrated professional cow farm. The concern of everyone has drawn by the sub surface drainage system to ejaculate the run off. This is the one and only sub surface drainage system in Nepal.
Perhaps, the day kicked off by knowing about various opportunities in Jiri into the hangout evenings. A little wildness with a little melody in nearby Vatti, have made the team into more chilled in the peace and calm evening of Jiri.
The next day, our team headed towards the stiff in order to visit cheese factory at Chordung.  A suspension bridge on the way had posed a lot of fun by swing it to and fro. A lot of photo snaps took over the day in the seven hours of hiking. It was a fun, accompanied with the tiredness and sweating while climbing the inclined cliffs. Nevertheless, playing of “Satpatre” was the biggest renaissance of the trek.
Not only but also the toffee that are dropped on the way to Chordung a like in the story of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ had added a lot of fun and little jealous at ease.
Although the trips have had fun and tiredness our team reached the Chordung cheese factory. After testing of ‘Mohi’ our team took a nap and immediately engaged in making fun by singing and dancing typical western Nepali verse called “Raijhuma”. Again the team engaged with the Mr. Lalit Jirel to know all about the process and organization activities of Cheese Factory. By learning the theory, we one after other visited the factory operation wearing an apron.
Since, we realized that the operation of cheese factory is even not fulfilling the local demand of Cheese; so, there is a greater opportunity to enhance or expand the factory to mass production level. Our team returned from Chordung with lot of dreams in the minds and vision behind the visibility. The natural beauty, excitement, relaxation a cool hangover in a peace land away from the crowd of city is still itching our mind with a sound of renaissance and rhythm.

Chapter 1

1.0 An Introduction to Jiri

Jiri is a typical legend of beauty, it simply pose to the reconcile stress of mind. Naturalism fused with simplicity is another renaissance that every one holds in their mind for every single trip to Jiri.
A peace land located at an altitude of 1,905 meters (6,250 feet) and is the eastern-most terminus of the highway coming from Kathmandu . village development committee in Dolkha District in the Janakpur Zone of north-eastern part of  Nepal lies at the distance of 55 km east from Charikot and 188 km northeast from Kathmandu. Swiss tourists compare this valley with the beautiful city of Switzerland, Zurich. The valley has its own importance being the gateway to Mt. Everest and a prior hinterland looks like a landlocked peninsula entrants of small village a loudly known as JIRI, a name derived after the Zurich and a native land of Jirels, an ancestral tribal of Jiri.
A lot of prospects with a little peculiar climate have become the synonymous to Jiri. Bus service is available from Kathmandu but the 184 km ride takes 6 to 8 hours due to narrow, winding roads and check points along the high-way. There are a number of lodges available along either side of the main road in Jiri Bazaar.
There is one high school namely Jiri Higher Secondary School at Hatdanda. Jiri was set up as agricultural development centre by the Swiss Government Aid in 2014 B. S
As the closest road head, Jiri is now the trailhead for many treks into the Mount Everest region. The trek to Lukla will take seven or eight days. Few people actually begin a trek from Jiri, as only 5% of all trekkers who attempt the difficult trek to Everest Base Camp start at Jiri. The other 95% choose to fly into the small airstrip at Lukla, thus cutting off a week of difficult but beautiful trekking.
Although the trailhead from Jiri into Sagarmatha National Park is referred to as the "classic route to Everest", the original trailhead actually began at Kathmandu. All early Everest expeditions—including the one led by John Hunt that put Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the summit—passed through Jiri. So, Jiri is also called the "Gateway to Mt. Everest".
Jiri is the home of an ethnic group called the Jirels.

1.1 History of Jiri:

Based on the Tank Jirel’s speech,
(In Friendship Multipurpose Cooperative’s Auditorium)
Former Chairman of Jiri Community Council
A prominent social worker in Jiri, President of Jiri Community Hospital Monitoring Agency and Director of Jiri View Hotel.
Since the beginning of the era, Jiri was a wide grazing land locally called KHARKA; the entire region was covered by a dense forest. It leads to the nearest gateway to Tibetan boarder which is the main escape for classical trading between Nepal and Tibet. The entire land is an ancient residence of Sherpa.
The name Jiri is derived from a local verse namely Zic-Ree, Zic means tiger (Baag) and Ree means jungle commonly known as a dense forest with a residence of tiger.
At the ancient time the Nepal Rajya was under the empire of Kirat, there were seven princes of King Kirat, during the course of war fair among these brothers in order to acquire Rajyas among these brothers 2nd one came to Jiri. And hence his surname was named as JIREL. Similarly, the other one went to Siri and called Sirel.
JIRI is also an adventurous land for the Shah Kings of Nepal. Basically all the Shah dynasty of Nepal used to visit Jiri for hiking.
Nevertheless, the history of Jiri isn’t shrinking only to these events. However, in the year 2014 a Swiss citizen came to Nepal in order to hike towards the Everest base camp via Jiri. During his trail, he finds Jiri valley similar to the Zurich city of Switzerland. So Jiri is now called Switzerland of Nepal.
The Swiss thought of doing something good in Jiri and purposed the Swiss government for a project. As a result he established a cow farm named as Jiri Pashu Bikash Farm and Bangur Farm there by in Jiri.
 Since the Swiss they belong to a civilized nation so they are more into health conscious and sanitation, as a result they used to bring medicine from Switzerland for their personal care but during the course of time they saw the superstations beliefs in Jiri residence towards their medical care and treatment so they used to provide medicine to the villagers when they are ill. These incidents become a part of daily life to the residents of Jiri and as a result when they get ill health they used to visit the Swiss in the farm in order to seek medicine. Thus the Swiss realized the need of a community hospital thereby and hence established a hospital and hired the doctor from Switzerland. Jiri was considered as a prominent point for the treatments of TB in those times, even the people from India used to come to Jiri to treat TB. Prior to this the Swiss have already constructed a road from Kathmandu to Jiri in order to transport goods and their travel, they also made a small helipad within the periphery of farm in order to fly in and off to Kathmandu in a hurry time. This is how the Swiss have saw the seed of infrastructure of development in the succession years after 2014, not only these but also they have opened a school to educate the local villagers children in the Jiri locality during their stay in the Jiri along with a technical school named as Jiri technical school in which many students from various parts of the country used to come to study. The beauty of the technical school was that the teachers were all Swiss initially and encouraged local educated people to work there by.
The entry of the Swiss was like a light at the end of the tunnel or we can say that it is like a silver lining in the black cloud during the time Jiri was the hot spot for tourism there used to be a big crowd of tourist from various parts of the world and they teak up to Everest base camp. Even though, the national VIP of Nepal used to go for hiking.
This pace of advancement is no longer in existence in Jiri because after the expiry of the Swiss project in 2034/35, all the authority came under the government of Nepal. And various projects which were previously under one umbrella i.e. Jiri multipurpose development project came under various ministry and the crash down begins overnight due to poor bureaucracy, corruption, nepotism and favoritism and due to the myopic vision of political leaders.
However, silver rings can be seen in clouds; the co-operation among the political leaders while taking any critical decisions about the village, no Nepal bandh and any strike takes place in Jiri, very less load shedding and upgrade of the Jiri higher secondary school to a bachelor degree program, Swiss cheese factory under the authority of DDC and Swiss cow and Bangur farm working for as a technical center and research center and breeding center, promotion of internal tourism, students and peoples from various co-operative to visit Jiri co operative which is being honored in the recent year as a best co operative in the nation are some of the approaches that caught the path towards the revive of the prosperous Jiri. Jiri community hospital has a local monitoring agency under the chairmanship of TANKA JIREL, local farmers are opting towards the organic cultivation now days and growth of few of the boarding schools is also helping Jiri to march towards the stairs of civilization. A lot of prospects with a little peculiar climate has become the synonymous to Jiri.
Chapter 2

2.0 Main issue concentrated Discussion

TASK-1

2.1 Historical and Religious Places:

2.1.1 Dungheswor  Mahadev :

A Mahadev Temple situated beside of a small brook seems praised by nature itself. As similar to the Rang Rangeshwor Temple, this is also situated inside a cave. According to travel guide, the temple is a part of Rang Rangeshwor temple.  The followers or believers of Dhungeshwor belong to all ethnic groups of Jiri and its surroundings (i.e. Jirels, Timings, Surely, Sherpas). The special day for believers for praying Dhungeshwor Mahadev Temple is Falgun 29. The priest of this temple is Jhankri.

2.1.2 Rang Rangeshwor:

A Bhagwati Temple, without any architectural structure statute inside a small cave of Jiri hills at a distance of twenty (20) minutes from Jiri Valley (Jiri Market). The temple is special for the Mela on Magh 1st (on the occasion of Makar Sankranti). It is believe that the wish will fulfilled once you visit and pray for the god in Rang Rangeshwori Temple.

2.1.3 Jireshwor Mahadev:

 A holly place of lord Shiva, situated in the north west of Jiri at one and half hour of walk. Quite aloof from the din area, a secret place under the big rock framed like a cave structure inside the forest is the place of lord Shiva called Jireshwor Mahadev. Small meandering stream flowing in its own pace nearby has given a gentle rhythm into the whispering of plant leafs. As we approach the temple we felt as if the nature is welcoming our team wearing green sari with an incredible smile all day long.
A statute was there inside the cave and a small pond in another end of cave made by the water drops falling down from hither surface of the rocks. The premise of this temple is quit peaceful. The special day for visiting Jireshwor Mahadev temple is the day of Nagpanchami (People worship snakes in that day).
Since the time immemorial Jireshwor mahadev was worshiped by the local adivasi. Jireshwor is religiously so famous because the belief behind the jireshwor is that one’s wishes are fulfilled after the pray. So it is very famous not only in Nepal but also in various part of India as well.

TASK-2

2.2 Swiss Cow & Bangur Breeding Center

Based on Mr. Manandhar’s Briefing,
CEO of Animal Development Farm, Dolkha, Jiri
(Swiss cow and Bangur breeding center)
Dr. Toney Hagen came to Nepal in 2013 via the road of Khadi Chaur in order to visit mountain base camp. During his trip he stays in a local house of farmer where he found a very warm hospitality behind the poverty. His heart felt behold of the farmers poverty and he learns about the occupation of peoples and realized the primitive ways of agriculture and live stock farming. He finds this place similar to the Zurich city of Switzerland so he determines to establish a livestock farm in Jiri in order to upgrade the lifestyle of native farmers. Thus, the livestock farm of Jiri was established in the effort of Hagen in 2014 B.S.
The farm initially begins to operate from brown Swiss cattle brought from Switzerland, after that a technician feels that Gercy cattle is better than the brown Swiss cattle so he begin to test on that cattle.

TASK-3

2.3 Yak Cheese Factory

Based on Mr. Lalit Jirel’s Briefing,
CEO of Cheese Production Center
(Swiss cheese Factory, Chordung)

2.3.1  Origin of the factory:

Yak cheese factory, Chordung Jiri was established by Swiss. This cheese factory is the only Yak cheese factory in the world.  Chordung cheese factory is one of the seven cheese factory in Nepal under DDC.
At the very beginning Swiss cheese maker coming from Switzerland opened a cheese factory in Langtang of Rasuwa District for the investigation purpose taking aids of Nepali assistance. After successfully production of cheese in Langtang in 2009, the Swiss cheese maker concentrated towards the Ramechhap District (2013) in Thodung as 'Thodung cheese production center'. Similarly in 2017, PK of Solukhumbhu, in 2027, Gosaikunda of Rasuwa District and in 2028 this Chordung cheese production center was established. After that in 2034, Godlang Rasuwa District and in 2039, Chankhu Dolkha was established under the technical support of Swiss, DDC is producing cheese in these seven places in Nepal.They do not have their own yak farm so they collect milk from the farmers. They give 60% of the previous year’s transactions to farmers at the beginning of the year as a pesky/ advance and 1% incentives/ prize in order to motivate the farmer.
 They also provide milk cans to farmers at free of cost. The payment is made in  bi-monthly (15 days) basis. Also provides advance loan free of interest as they fall in trouble which has to be cleared at the end of same year.
Now, the cheese culture brought from Denmark (Helveticas & thermopiles’) is mixed in skim milk to make mother culture. This mother culture is then poured in the cheese cattle in the proportion of 1:100, i.e. 1% of mother culture is mixed in the cheese cattle, after 10 min Reni powder is mixed in the ratio of 2.5 gram per 100 liter of milk. The milk is then stirred and kept for 30 min to become perfectly yoghurt. Again the yoghurt is splitted into 3X3X3 mm dimensions by cheese herpes which is again pressed for 30 min and finally the cheese is cooked at temperature of 50 degree for 30 minutes. The cooked cheese is tested either by chewing or by free hand. Now the cooked cheese is given a definite size like 1kg, 2 kg, 5kg to 10 kg and the label of DDC is put into the cheese. The cheese are now pressed in order to make definite shape for 3 times in the various of interval of time and finally the green cheese is ready, this green cheese is brought to brain tank for maturity. This cheese gets ripe by 45 days in the brain tank. The cheese is sent to the market for sale.Since, the factory itself does not have its own cow farm, so it collects milks from various farmers in the locality. The milk that qualifies the minimum criteria to make cheese is first poured into a milk can of 40 liters of capacity and it is then sink into water boiler for 30 minutes mentioning 65 degree temperature. The can is then drawn from the boiler and held into a cooler where it mentions 35 degree temperature. For the purpose of making cheese, milk should contain only 35% fat, so in order to make the whole milk of 35% fat. from the whole milk 45% milk is held to extract cream and rest of 55% is kept as it is, so that by mixing skim milk with the fatty milk in a proportion so that the mixture contains just 35% of fat. This mixture is then poured into a cheese cattle where its temperature reaches 33-35 degree.
In Jiri there is a whole sale shop of cheese and from there cheese is distributed to the different venders of DDC in Kathmandu and other areas. The pictures below gives a clear picture of the process :
Important step to follow is the temperature level:

2.4 Prospects

Since, Jiri being a cardle place of beauty and nature. So there is a greater opportunity for the development of tourism industry. However, the prospects of tourism can be carried hand in hand with hotel industry development. Since Jiri being the small village with little infrastructure for hotel industry, so the concept of home stay can uplift the economic standard of the people in Jiri. Also there is a prime opportunity to establish the resort in which packaged programmes can be designed for the people living in the town.
Again, Jiri is being a place of historically famous for the religious temples such as Jireshwor Mahadev, Dhungeshwor and so on. So that pilgrimage tourism for both national and international tourism is another opportunity that can be seized in Jiri.
Nevertheless, the people of Jiri are still deprived and relying poverty. Agriculture and livestock farming being the major occupation of the residence of Jiri. So scientific integrated agro farming and animal husbandry can be the other important entrepreneurial activities that can be carried out in Jiri. Jiri itself is a fertile land for the agriculture and the situation of Jiri pashu farm is an aided advantage to flourish the better professional cow farm, bangur farm  for any organic agro.
On the other hand, professional production of local tea of Jiri, which have abundant demand in the market. It also can be capitalized on the cheese and chhurpi in the local as well as foreign market.
Nonetheless the production of quality local alcohol primarily called “Teen Pane” can be produced in more quantity and marketed into the nearby market.
Thus, inspite of many prospects, there are so many shortcomings because prospectus and shortcomings are parallel in nature. But Jiri can be prosperous Jiri, if this prospects can be capitalized and flourish its name in the rest of the world.
·         Internal and external Tourism (site seeing, hiking, mountain viewing..)
·         Academic Tourism
·         Pilgrimage Tourism
·         Organic agro farms
·         More professional cow farm
·         Hotel industry
·         And so on…
Jiri would not have come to the map unless Hagon have had come to Jiri. Some precious times together are as follows

2.6 Brief Portrayal of the journey:

The journeys to Jiri began on 4th May, 2012 and with about 40 of us were excited to visit the place Jiri which is famous for its beauty and also known as the Switzerland of Nepal. We began our journey easily. Since it was a night trip we could not enjoy the view around us and we fully enjoyed on the way by singing dancing. Though the roads were not that favorable for dancing  as there were lots of turns and even some part of the road were not that good but still we managed and we were determined to have a great trip. We even took some snacks for the journey and it even was quite useful since it was quite dark and there were no hotels, restaurants on the way that were opened so we were in the safe side. We reached Jiri in the morning @ 5-6 am after whole night of trip .Apart from just a tour it was meant to be an educational tour and we had planned the trip along with the activities that we needed to carry on. We had a very tight schedule i.e, we had no time to rest as our trip was fully scheduled and we had to sum it up in about 3 days. The schedule is as follows:

2.7 Tentative JIRI program

·         Friday, May 04- Departure from college compound at 9:00 pm
·         Saturday, May 05 - Reach JIRI morning at 5:30 am; Check-in hotel; Refresh; Breakfast at 7:30 am; Briefing session in Community Hall by JIRI Community Council Member at 8:00am and collection of all information about JIRI from him; Visit of 3 Mahadev Temples and Boudha Sthupa on Tracking; Return to Hotel for lunch at 1:00 pm; Visit Swiss Cow Firmat 3:00 pm in the afternoon for interaction; Evening free; Dinner 9:00 pm.
·         Sunday, May 06 - Breakfast at 7:00 am; 3 hours tracking through the Hills to Yak Cheese Factory after breakfast; Interaction with the CEO of Cheese Factory and collection of information at 11:00am; Production process display at Cheese Factory; Return tracking to Hotel; Lunch at 2:00 pm; Evening free; Dinner 9:00 pm. Monday, May 07 - Breakfast at 6:30 am; Departure for Kathmandu at 7:00 am; Visit to Dolakha Temple at 9:00 am; Lunch en-route 12:00 noon; One hour shopping stop in KHARI CHAUR (Mini Khasa Market) at 2:00 pm; Reach Kathmandu by 6:00 pm.
We finished all the routines as planned though the weather out there was chilly and we felt really cold in the day and night time. the natural beauty it had was eye pleasing .For the sake of reminiscence we took different snaps of  th places, temples, factories we visited . For some memoirs we even bought things for family here like durkha, tea leaves, cheese which were quite famous out there. Though the rime spent together with classmates, teachers were extravagant and it will remain fresh in our memories. And We would like to thank Mr B.G Bhattarcharya for an planning a trip not only just for the sightseeing sake but also for knowledge gaining and fore mostly we got to know the people who were the habitant of that place and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip with the help of other two brothers (guide) who guided us to the different renowned places of Jiri.
Chapter 3

3.0 Conclusion:

Finally the trip Jiri is beneficial in terms of refreshment, knowledge, and we knew what people in the Jiri are and we were touched by the behavior of the habitants out there. The visit to temples, Cheese factory, Swiss bangur factory, etc. Though the time spend in Jiri was memorable and time passed in just a blink of  second . The people were friendly and the environment was very chill and pollution free.  It can be regarded as hill station and a perfect place to relax and enjoy the beauty of Nepal. There are different place to be around the world but after visiting  Jiri we need to promote internal tourism and there are many places that needs attention as Jiri has initially stepped in the developed area so such awareness can for sure focus the other part of Nepal and be well known for the beauty .
We as the generation of today would surely like to convey and promote to visit the place like Jiri from time to time and should promote internal tourism, academic tourism and very loudly pilgrimage tourism as well for the further development of the areas like Jiri
Source: Field Survey by Rajendra pokhrel and IBMS friends 

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