People After War Tour

2009-11-23  [ Press Release ]

People After War' Photo Exhibition Tour Heads West

Kawasoti, 6th December 2009, Sunday

Hounded by hurdles on highways, nepa-laya's 'People After War' nationwide photo exhibition was held in Kawasoti of Nawalparasi on Saturday and Sunday.

The exhibition contains follow-up photo-essays on the relatives of the victims of war contained in the original book, 'A People War', and visitors were visibly moved as they read the stories. Braving a series of bandhs and a bridge collapse along the East-West Highway, the tour is now headed towards western Nepal.

"I just couldn't stop my tears," said Kawasoti-based activist Belauti Devi Khanal, who herself was detained and tortured by the army during the war. "Only those who lived through it know what it was like, this exhibition helps others to understand our suffering and sorrow."

Radio Madhyabindu broadcaster Pushpa Tiwari agreed. "I cried when I watched the first exhibition here in Kawasoti three years ago because I myself was displaced by the war. But seeing how the ordinary people affected by the conflict have survived and are full of hope for the future made me optimistic also."

"People After War' follows people like Maoist guerrilla Juna Rai whose brother was in the army, a vigilante in Rupendehi who turned into a sadhu after the war, and a policeman killed in action whose daughter was a Maoist.

UML district committee member Tilak Mahat praised the exhibition tour for helping to strengthen the peace process. "This is very patriotic work, it unites the Nepali people and helps build peace."

Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel visits PAW photo exhibition

Journalist Kunda Dixit being awarded the Surya Bhakta Patana Debi Memorial National Journalism Award

Visitors throng the Khanepani Hall in Kawasoti

The exhibition is based on Kunda Dixit's trilogy of the conflict that includes the books 'A People War', 'Never Again' and 'People After War'. It has already completed its tour of eastern Nepal with shows put up in Itahari, Ilam, Damak and Hetauda. From Kawasoti it will visit Nepalganj and Tansen. A permanent exhibit of content from the three books are already on at Madan Puraskar in Patan.

On Saturday, Dixit was awarded the Surya Bhakta Patana Debi Memorial National Journalism Award, which was established seven years ago in memory of the noted freedom fighter who was jailed for his activism during the absolute monarchy days.
    
In his acceptance speech, Dixit thanked the hundreds of journalists and photographers throughout the Nepal who contributed to the books, and he said the award was a tribute to the resilience and inner strength of the Nepali people.

He also announced that the Rs 15,101 prize money will be handed over to the family of slain Sindhupalchok journalist Gyanendra Khadka, the picture and story of whose murder is included in the trilogy.

People After War photo exhibition draws crowd in Hetauda

Hetauda, 3rd Dec 2009, Thursday

The exhibition of nepa-laya's book, People After War, concluded in Hetauda on Thursday as part of its nationwide tour and will now move on to Kawasoti, Nepalganj and Tansen.

Nearly 12,000 visitors saw the exhibition in Hetauda in two days.

The exhibition is a collection of photo essays about victims of the conflict and their relatives, and tells poignant stories about how they are getting on with their lives four years after the end of the war. 

People After War is the third part of A People War trilogy and follows A People War (2006) and Never Again (2008). All three books were edited by Kunda Dixit and focus on the civilian victims of the ten-year conflict that killed 16,000 Nepalis.

People throng the Palpasa Hall in Hetauda to see the People After photo exhibition

Dixit, who is accompanying the exhibition tour, said at the opening of the Hetuada show on Wednesday that the book and exhibit showed that the legacy of violence lasts a long time after the end of conflict.

"The book contains stories of hope for peace, as well as tales of suffering and survival," Dixit added

Family of disappeared visit 'People After War' Photo Exhibit

Damak, 30th Nov, 2009, Monday

When Shanker Basnet visited the People After War photo exhibition in Damak on Monday, he couldn't stop his tears. Shanker is a teacher in the Himalaya High School in this highway town Damak, and his three younger brothers had been detained by the army during the war and two of them, Pushpa and Dhirendra, were kept at the Bhairabnath Battalion in Kathmandu and disappeared.

It has been exactly seven years this week that the two brothers were disappeared, and for Shanker and his mother the sorrow of war continues. They know Pushpa and Dhirendra were in Bhairabnath because their third brother was also detained there for a while and later released.

For Shanker, the photo exhibition brought back the memories of the war years. "It is difficult for others to understand what we families of the disappeared are going through," Shanker explained, "but seeing the pictures here will help the others understand our sorrow and help us share our own grief."

A visitor sees the portrait of a widow and her son at People After War photo exhibit in Damak

Visitors queue to enter People After War photo exhibit in Damak

People After War is on a nationwide exhibition tour and will now head westward towards Hetauda, Kawasoti, Nepalganj and Tansen. So far, close to 50,000 people have seen the exhibition in Itahari, Ilam and Damak. The exhibition contains photo essays of people in the first book, showing how their lives have been since the war ended.

People After War Photo Exhibition Tour reaches Ilam
 
Ilam 26th Nov 2009, Thursday

The traveling exhibition of photo essays of the victims of the conflict and their relatives reached Ilam on Thursday as part of a nationwide tour of the book, People After War.The book is the third in nepa-laya's trilogy of the conflict that also includes A People War, and Never Again that were published in 2007 and 2008. All three books are edited by Kunda Dixit.

Soldiers looking at the before and after photograph of Maoist guerilla Juna Rai at the People After War photo exhibition in Ilam on Thursday

"I was really very moved by the stories," said Jivan Rai, a college student in Ilam, "I especially like the picture of the woman guerrilla whose brother was in the army and the siblings are united with their father after the war."

Charles Haviland's photograph of Juna Rai, her brother Bhuban embracing their father in Khotang is on the cover of People After War book.

Dixit told Nepal Bani FM in Ilam in an interview: "Pictures like the one on the cover of the book prove that this wasn't a civil war, but a war between brothers and sister. It was a war within the Nepali family. And the picture also gives us hope for reconciliation in the future."

The exhibition tour visited Itahari in Sunsari earlier this week and will travel to Damak, Hetauda, Narayanghat, Nepalganj and Tansen. More than 15,000 people from all walks of life visited the exhibition in Itahari on Monday and Tuesday.

Tour of People After War Exhibition Begins

November 23, 2009/ Itahari

The travelling exhibition of follow-up stories from nepa-laya's new book, People After War, began on Monday in Itahari and will be on the road across Nepal till mid-December.

The displays in the exhibition show how relatives of those who died or were disappeared during the 10-year Maoist war are struggling to survive and how ex-combatants are trying to readjust to peacetime.

"We were intrigued by the dramatic stories of those who have suffered the sorrows of war, but have come out of it with their aspiration and hopes for the future intact," said Kunda Dixit at the opening of the first exhibition in Itahari.

The travelling exhibition brings the contents of the third book in Dixit's trilogy on the conflict, People After War, to a much larger nationwide public. It contains follow-ups on the lives of 55 of the people depicted in pictures in the original book.

Itharai journalists with Kunda Dixit

Itahari police personnel queue up to see displays of exhibition

A visitor on Monday in PAW exhibition in Itahari on Monday

The exhibition will travel on to Ilam, Damak, Hetauda, Kawasoti, Nepalganj and Tansen. The exhibit is also on permanent display at the Madan Puraskar in Kathmandu.

People After War- Photo Exhibition Tour Schedule