Travel Day 998 – Kathmandu and Manamaiju, NEPAL
After the day with the Napali girls had been so great, I thought that this day couldn’t possibly get any better, but I was far from right…
Manamaiju Village by Kathmandu
While running around over the last couple of days, I had passed many music instrument stores and when they either had Tablas on display, or they were making drums inside, I usually walked in and said hello. And so it happened that when I walked into one music instrument shop that had what looked to me like a Nepali version of a Tabla in the window display, I asked the guys about concerts in the area until they finally invited me to one…
They actually just told me to come back on Saturday at noon and they would take me to a concert. Not quite sure what to make out of this, but curious enough to find out, I did show up at noon at the store and I even brought a friend from India along. To my big surprise the guy from the shop did remember me and he actually seemed quite happy that my friend and I could make it and were interested in his music…
Nepali Shakira on Stage in Manamaiju
Next we followed him crisscrossing through the little Kathmandu alleyways until we reached a little courtyard where we found some other Nepali guys banging on all sorts of drums in preparation for their concert. After listening for a while, we then helped pack up everything and load into a minivan that was supposed to drive us to the concert venue, a village outside of Kathmandu…
As we found out, the village we were visiting was called Manamaiju and it was all a bit mysterious to us how this concert was supposed to look like until we finally arrived in the location. We actually had to carry all the instruments to the other end of Manamaiju and then we all of a sudden stood in front of a huge stage, set up on a square of the village…
It was actually absolutely amazing. We found ourselves as the only foreigners in a village in Nepal at an annual local music festival and because we arrived with the band, we were allowed in front as well as backstage with all the other artists. And there were actually a lot of artists, as the concert or rather festival was happening from the early afternoon up to the late evening…
Crazy Manamaiju Village Crowd
Amazingly enough, but every second act happened to be a Nepali version of a boy-band. It almost seemed that the kids here had watched a little bit too much MTV, but all these wanna-be boy-bands were showing off their 1980’s break-dance moves to somewhat modern dance floor and techno music. It was actually quite a sight, especially for the dhaka topi wearing older Neplai generation who seemed to have rather come for the occasional, traditional act in-between…
Our drumming band was then one of the last acts and they turned out to be extremely popular with the crazy village crowd, as they were playing a fusion of modern and classical Nepali songs. But equally as popular seemed to be a Nepali version of Ricky Martin and a Nepali Shakira who certainly managed to make our day and the crowd go mad at the same time. Wow, and with that it really had been another absolutely brilliant day in Nepal… : )
Find all Manamaiju photos here.
well, it ‘s really interesting to see how foreigners like you interpret the situation totally in a different way than how we see it as a locals….anyway good explanation for those who really wants to explore the country like Nepal
Hello Humbre,
And thank you for your comment. I am glad to hear that my interpretations of the concert in Manamaiju were interesting to you. Obviously I cannot speak for all foreigners, but for me personally it was a really great event.
Could you tell me which things you as a local would have seen differently?
dear sir
dennis kopp,
i am from manamaiju nepal..so 1st of all thank u so much from..all our manamaiju..v.d.c family to u for publish this articles.so this programe organized is “manamaiju youth group” so i am the chairman for this group.so if u have time plz reply my mail i am waiting ur mail and we discuss many good actives and bad actives so our manamaiju village is so beautiful…ya..ok we talk next mail
bye
Dear Heera Maharjan,
Thank you very much for your comment. I did not know that there is a Manamaiju Youth Group organizing these concerts, but it seems to be a very good thing that you are doing it. And judging by the amount of people who showed up, it must be a really popular event as well…
For it was definitely very interesting to see all the different local acts in a surrounding that was not set up for tourists. Luckily some local friends brought me along, otherwise I would have never known about it. But you are definitely right, Manamaiju Village is certainly a beautiful place to visit…
Best wishes,
Dennis