Karnali Expo

The continuous limelight on Karnali’s weak aspects has hindered its prosperity journey, which has also harmed the promotion of tourism, an important area for the region’s development. In this context, Samriddha Karnali Aviyan organized a comprehensive exhibition of Karnali’s art, culture, costumes, customs, history, various artificial and natural items with potential for tourism and investment, nutritious food crops etc. The “Grand Karnali Expo” was organized from 15th-17th February 2019 at the heart of the country’s capital, Kathmandu, in Bhrikutimandap to promote tourism and investment in Karnali by highlighting the positive sides and strengths of Karnali.

Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwor Pokharel inaugurated this grand expo, which was organized with the slogan “Showcasing the magnificence of our past and possibilities of our future”. Minister of State for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Dhan Bahadur Budha; Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of Karnali Province Nandsingh Budha; Executive Chief of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Raj Joshi and many other distinguished personalities were present in the inauguration session.

At the beginning of the inauguration session, a large rally with cultural banners from all ten districts of Karnali province circled the historical Tundikhel ground. After that, a group of artists who came in collaboration with various municipalities and villages represented their districts and presented their art. Performances from the famous Hudke dance to the fascinating Mayur dance from Karnali were presented on the first day of the cultural session. Similarly, many cultural concerts, plays, ghazals, poetry, dohori, and deuda were performed on other days. Performances in the expo ranged from the Syapro dance of the upper Bhot region of Karnali to the Maruni dance of the lower belt of the area.

Another main attraction of the program was a wonderful house called “Karnali in one frame”, which was built to provide information about Karnali. There were architectural models of essential tourist areas in all ten districts of Karnali. Along with each architectural model, meaningful information about the tourist area was kept in the house. Due to this, the general public has been able to get a lot of information about the tourist area. In addition, the house walls were decorated with information about all the ten districts and tourist possibilities in a very artistic manner.

As another essential session of this expo, the session on the “Khas” language and civilization was held at the Nepal Tourism Board. The session, which Khas language experts attended, shed light on the historical importance of the Khasa language and the current relevance of language.

At the program entrance, many photographs of Karnali’s lifestyle, customs, art-culture and tourism potential were exhibited. The photo exhibition was organized by selecting many photos in collaboration with famous photographers of Karnali. Apart from this, a live painting competition related to Karnali was also organized in which 50 painters from different campuses participated.

As an integral part of this expo, there was a service and goods exhibition place where different agricultural products of Karnali, thankas, books written about Karnali, and stalls related to various activities reflecting the strengths of Karnali were kept. Ordinary people got the opportunity to buy natural products of Karnali along with other items from this place.

Similarly, in this program, we brought water and sheep from the Jumla district of Karnali to give the people the feeling of reaching Karnali. In collaboration with Himalayan Corner, we provided the venue with many local and modern dishes from Karnali.

Directly observed by eight thousand people, hundreds of thousands indirectly participated in this large expo. Three Hon’ble Ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister of the Central Government, one Hon’ble Minister of State, two Hon’ble Ministers of the Karnali State Government, Hon’ble MPs of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assembly, the Executive Head of Nepal Tourism Board, Chiefs and representatives of many other governmental and non-governmental organizations, leaders of various political parties, and many other prominent people observed this expo.

Major media outlets of the country Kantipur, Nagarak, Setopati, Nayapatrika, Annapurna and many other TV, radio and online media covered this expo with great importance. In addition, this expo was widely publicized on various social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

This expo has played an essential role in promoting tourism and investment in Karnali province by exposing the hidden aspects of Karnali. Hundreds of volunteers from inside and outside Karnali have made a tremendous contribution in this great campaign to recognize and promote Karnali. Overall, this expo has played an essential role in achieving the goals of Nepal Visit Year 2020 and Karnali-Rara Tourism Year 2075 and expanded the significance of the tourism slogans of the Nepal government, such as “First Country then Foreign”.