June 9, 2024 • 32 mins
Join us as we explore the captivating story behind Nepal's national anthem, "Sayaun Thunga Phool Ka." This episode delves into the cultural and historical significance of the anthem, highlighting how it reflects the nation's diversity and unity. We'll uncover the journey of the anthem's composer, Amber Gurung, and the poet, Pradeep Kumar Rai, who crafted the lyrics that resonate with the spirit of Nepal. The discussion takes us through Nepal's tumultuous history, including its transition from a monarchy to a democratic republic, and the role music played in shaping national identity. With insights into the anthem's melody and lyrics, we celebrate the beauty of Nepal as a tapestry woven from its rich heritage and the sacrifices of its people.
Here are my sources, notes, and reading for the episode. Thanks for listening folks
- https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/3513/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Gne3UHKHs
- https://archive.org/details/nepal0000bhat
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_National_Review/xDUFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA609&printsec=frontcover
- https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ancientnepal/pdf/ancient_nepal_154_02.pdf
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080906154632/http://www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/SSOL/hillary/campII_e.php
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nepal/-aArqOqBGBQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA32&printsec=frontcover
- https://www.recordnepal.com/the-making-of-the-gorkha-empire-part-i-%E2%80%93-land
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Nepal/History
- https://web.archive.org/web/20161220102904/http://nepalarmy.mil.np/history.php?page=three
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/Democratic_Innocations_in_Nepal/MX22o4PJ3Q0C?hl=en
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/Thapa_Politics_in_Nepal/7PP1yElRzIUC?hl=en
- https://sites.ff.cuni.cz/praguepapers/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/09/Matteo_Miele_90-101.pdf
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Hello and welcome to theAnthems podcast.
I'm Patrick and I'm here to tell.
You the story of a song that.
Helps to tell the story of anation. Today we are headed to East
Asia.
And at a mere 6000 miles or.
9656 km capital to capital.
It's not the longest leapwe've made.
(00:35):
By quite a bit, but this oneis fun because Google Maps is pretty
sure that you could walk it in 124
days. You take a 3000 miles jaunt
right across the top of Africa and
much of that is going on foot through
the Sahara desert, through Burkina
Fasoand Mali. Then you go northwest across
Algeria and Libya, then you get to
the coast through Egypt, across the
Suez canal, head straight up through
Israel and past the West bank, then
head east at Damascus, then right
across the Middle east through Syria,
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, not in that
order. Iran comes before Afghanistan,
thenacross Pakistan and the top of India
to reach our goal, Nepal, officially
theFederal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
(01:31):
And here is another countrythat I've.
Gone into with a pretty starklack of knowledge about. But I was
aware of perhaps two of the most
famous things about it. It's where
Mount Everest is and it's also where
Siddhartha Guatema was born, as in
the Buddha, the guy who started Buddhism.
Here again, though, we are hearing
about the anthem of a country that
was picked by my mom.
(01:57):
This time she walked a few steps.
Towards my world map with hereyes closed, spun her hand around
alittle bit and pointed. It should
notsurprise us that it's not a completely
random process. Humans are super
badat consciously picking random things
and I don't know that we can actually
dothat. And my mom's a certain height
at.
The shoulder and extending herarm shoulder.
(02:19):
Height and getting a maybefive or.
Six inch diameter circle withher finger.
Narrows down where it couldbe, but it's random enough for my
purposes because it gets me to make
a decision and it's the reason that
I'm going to be telling you about
theSean thunga folka or made of hundreds
offlowers. It will be an educational
episodeand I've been enjoying the reading
forthis one. I may or may not have mentioned
before here that I am a fairly dedicated
math nerd. As a part of my nerd life
I've done a lot of euclidean compass
and straight edge geometric construction.
It's possible this is a relic of
me being in drafting in high school.
Nepal is to my knowledge, the only
country with a non rectangular flag.
And the constitution contains instructions
for how to geometrically construct
thatflag using euclidean methods. Source
number two is a link to the numberphile
video on YouTube that does it.
(03:21):
And of course I have drawn the.
Flag and it's satisfying to dobecause it's been a while since I
did a compass in straightedge drawing.
It's incredible, and it tells us
alot about the country that produced
thenext minute and 18 seconds of anthem.
(03:48):
Sayyutunga fulka hamiyotaimisayatunga pulkarity la jala gata.
(04:48):
My initial reaction is thatthere's a reason that this was ranked
as the third best anthem at the 2016
Rio Olympics. I like it a lot of
in.
Most of the versions that I've heard.
From it, particularly the oneI played, my kid even liked it when
I asked her that she listened to
the tune. It doesn't sound much like
the other anthems that we've heard
sofar, and that might be what appeals
to me.
(05:12):
Something that I've come tofind that.
I'm not a huge fan of iscertain specific vagaries about history.
In the case of Nepal, my current.
Irritating vagary is that wedon't get.
To know how the country gotits name for sure. All we've got
are theories and legends. It might
have been named for the tibetan word
for wool and house. So Nepal, as
in house of wool.
(05:35):
May have been named for the newer.
Word Nepa, meaning country ofthe middle zone. It might have been
the Lepsha people.
Thinking of a sacred cave.
Hindu mythology in buddhistlegend name it after an ancient sage
called Neddin. So who knows, I guess.
But at least we can pin down where
inthe world we are. After doing this
show for like a year and a half,
I'vestarted to.
(06:02):
Kind of know where stuff is in.
The world, but I'm stilllearning. It gives me an interesting
problem because I have to explain
wherestuff is.
To other people in terms that make.
Sense, even though I'm stillfiguring out how to do that. However,
Ifeel like a lot of people know where
India and China are because they're
very big. At least you might if you're
not.
(06:24):
From the US, becauseapparently we are.
Famously bad at geography. Myeducation lightly brushed at it in
school, but it wasn't really a priority
according to what I've read. You
see the show notes, folks, we're
worse than geography, than the rest
of the world, but not that much worse.
Like maybe 10%. So it's really not
that bad.
(06:46):
I suspect it'll only matterduring international.
Travel when the gps systemfinally fails us anyway, assuming
youknow where India and China are, then
you might know.
That there are a couple of countries.
That are kind of crammed inbetween them. They're semi enclaved
inbetween them. More on that in a second.
Nepal is the bigger one, and it.
(07:08):
Is to the west of the other.
The other country is Bhutan.More specifically, Nepal is north
ofthe indian states of Uttar Pradesh
andBihar, but to the south of what until
1951 was the country of Tibet, but
is now a province of China. A quick
note on semi enclave countries. These
are states that are surrounded by
only two other countries, whereas
anenclave country like the Vatican
iscompletely surrounded by just one.
(07:41):
It's another not super long list.
I'm not going to read it, though.
We'Ve already encountered oneof them on the show.
It is Liechtenstein. That was,however, not my geography or something
factoid for this episode. This one
is a thing that I kind of find terrifying
in a Lovecraftian way. It's called
theKhumbu icefall, and it's just a bit
up from base camp on Mount Everest
atabout 18,000ft and.
(08:08):
Consists of a 600 meters climb up.
A chasm filled ice flow thatequates to a linear mile at 37.7%
pitch and it moves three or 4ft a
day. So you get these extra huge,
deep.
And crushing gorges that comeand go.
Despite the fact that I'mpretty sure.
If I had time and a knowledgeable.
(08:29):
Team I could get up thatmountain, I won't even try just because
of this thing, because I'm terrified
offalling into an ice gorge that slowly
crushes me. But I'm pretty sure of
lots of stuff. Like I'm pretty sure
I could write a proper history of
Nepal if I had a lifetime worth of
scholarship to devote to it, even
though I probably would need three
orfour. We're talking about a region
that certainly.
(08:51):
Doesn'T have the depth ofhuman prehistory that Africa does.
But people have lived in modern Nepal.
As early as 300 BCE. As far aswhat they've actually written down,
though, we get to go back far enough
that it's legend. So sometime in
the 30th century BCE, as far as actual
physical evidence of religious sites
can confirm. As usual, I can't start
all the way back there because the
country wasn't a country there and
then in the same way that it was
when it got an anthem. I'm sure there
were tribal territories or some kind,
but that is straying outside of anything
I've read for this. So honestly,
I can'tsay for sure. But a fun and interesting
thing about Nepal is that while it
has had many the dynasty and ruler
amongst its subdivided history, its
been pretty cohesive as a region
witha shared culture since around the
6th century BCE. But since were talking
about a national anthem, we need
thecountry to exist.
(09:52):
As a nation in thecontemporary sense of the word.
I think for Nepal that beginsto happen over a roughly 25 year
period that begins in 1743 cedar
and involves.
The consolidation of no lessthan 46.
Separate kingdoms in a regionthat is roughly the size of the state
of New York. It reminds me a bit
ofthe pre revolution situation in Italy.
If you were not here for that story,
episode two is waiting for you. But
it only reminds me of Italy a bit
because it was not as fractured.
The mostimportant figure in that part of
the story is somebody named Prithvi
Neron Shah. They were the 9th generation
king of Gorkha, one of the aforementioned
fractioned kingdoms. Given the position
of the region between India and China,
the king took to calling it a yam
in between two boulders, and he foresaw
a reason to unify the disparate hill
kingdoms into a single region. Otherwise
they'd all be swallowed up by one
or both of the larger neighbors.
As willlater heard of, this policy has persistently
informed Nepal's foreign policy for
a very long time after unification.
(11:08):
The king was correct in his assessment.
Of the region being tenuous asa collection of weak states, and
hewas able to fairly easily subjugate
amajority of them in short order.
As far as subjugations ofnation states.
Goes, he basically sieged thearea by.
Going around and taking overthe kingdoms.
That had ways to get out ofthe Indus valley. Given that the
point of this particular show is
not to talk about individual wars
and battles, we're going to brush
past a bunch of that and skip to
the last bits of the unification.
When indesperation, King Malla of Kathmandu.
(11:45):
Reached out to the British forhelp. They sent in soldiers from
the East.
India Company, but theGorkhali army defeated them, and
king privilege was able to complete
hisseries of conquests with the valley.
Hetook a seat on the throne of Kathmandu
and sometime in 1769 proclaimed.
It as the capital of the newkingdom, Nepal. The kingdom would
last up until the establishment of
the Democratic Republic of Nepal.
(12:12):
In the very recent year 2018,and was the world's only hindu kingdom.
After the death of King privy, there.
Was an attempt at expansion by his.
Heirs, namely by taking oversome of the disputed princely kingdoms
that bordered then british occupied
India.
This led to the Anglo nepalese war.
(12:35):
And that resulted in Nepalsdefeat by the far better armed actual
british army and an 1816 treaty that
ceded a good deal of the conquered
territory back.
Although Nepal was grantedsome of the.
Lost lands in 1860 for reasonsthat were not included in what I
readdez, that was the last conflict
that changed.
(12:57):
The shape of the country as far.
As I'm aware of. But it wasnot the last dramatic political event
in Nepal.
The next major dynasty weredescendants of the nephews of a murdered
king of.
The Shah dynasty, and theytook power in a story that I wish
Ihad more time to go back and read
about, but I will someday probably
actual murder is never an interesting
partin a story like that, and here sometimes
all we get are historical punchlines.
Thisnew regime was a tightly centralized
autocracy, and it was able to maintain
independence from colonial Britain
andChina by being an isolationist and
pro british state at the same time.
It was a choice that meant that.
(13:45):
The country was allowed toremain independent.
But it also created a veryisolationist economy and in a small
economy, delays modernization. Although
to be fair, I'm not here.
To make an argument for oragainst modernization.
I think both paths probablyhave their merits anyway. This policy
led the Nepalese to lending support
tothe crown pretty unrelentingly during
the indian rebellion of 1857. And
right through both world wars, they.
(14:18):
Signed a treaty of perpetualpeace and friendship.
That among the bunch of otherstuff that it did, it was the first
formal acknowledgement by the British
that Nepal.
Was actually an independentnation and had.
The right to its own foreignpolicy. All the allying with the
west they were doing meant that Nepal
declared war on Germany right after
they invaded Poland in September
of 1939and joined the allied effort. However,
this is not one of the episodes that
we're going to be wading into that
conflict with, because at this.
(14:52):
Point, the composer has beenalive for.
A little bit, so I can beginto get to the point. Amber Gurung
wasborn on February 26 in 1938 in Darjeeling,
India, where his.
Father had become a policeman.
After he left the britisharmy, his.
Mother taught him to sing andcompose as a child, and he learned
both.
(15:13):
Western and eastern musicprimarily in the.
Same way that he learned how to.
Play six or seven differentinstruments. He taught himself. He
could play the violin, piano, guitar,
mandolin, tabla, and other things.
Wedon't get a real granular picture
ofhis life growing up, but he does
grow up to be a non trivial person
inthe musical life of Nepal. To start
off, all my sources insisting that
despite being a literal teenager,
hefounded something called the Art
Academy of.
(15:46):
Music during the 1950s.
Mathematically and timelinewise, I have trouble with that, but
I don't know.
What seems more plausible tome is.
His first recorded song aboutthe suffering of the nepali diaspora,
called Nau Lakhi tara being the opening
salvo of a.
Recording career thatestablished him as an.
(16:08):
Architect of modern nepalese music.
I know that he moved to Nepal.
Where his parents were from,and then he moved away. But at that
point he was so important to the
country's music that in 1968, the
king personally convinced him to
resettle in Kathmandu and properly
establish the music department at
the Nepal Academy of Arts, and he
remained the chair at that place
for30 years. In 2007, in a process we'll
discuss.
(16:34):
In more detail soon, he wasasked to provide the music to be
considered for the new national anthem
of the.
Democratic Republic ofNepalheze, and one of the three songs
that he submitted was chosen. That's
why I'm talking about him. He died
on June 7 in 2016 and would probably
want to be remembered first and foremost
as a serious musician. In an interview
about five years before he died,
hesaid that music is not entertainment
and itis instead serious art, and it must
shake the very foundation of my listeners.
Amber was not a poethen, but he wasn't
on the team that picked the poem
that became the anthem. The man that
wrote the poem was Pradeep Kumar
Rai,and he was born on March 29 in 1972.
Most Nepalese know him by his pen
name, Bihakul Melat. He chose this
name when he started.
(17:33):
Publishing poetry that hebegan writing during.
Law school to sort through hisfeelings of lostness and homesicken.
Hecame from a rural background, and
the press of city life in Kathmandu
hadhim feeling overwhelmed. But Mela
did obtain his law degree.
And since has been heavilyinvolved in.
Social services, villagedevelopment processes, youth sports,
and other programs that benefit the
young people in Nepal. He seems like
a genuinely wholesome guy.
(18:00):
In the interviews that I'veseen him.
In and that I've read abouthim in, despite having been become
extremely well known in his country
andeven granted a pension for his contribution
to nepalese culture. He's also very
much alive, and he's.
Even got a Twitter or an x.
Or whatever that thing iscalled. Now.
He said that when he initially decided.
(18:21):
To try and write the anthem,he wrote down the requirements and
then missed.
The deadline and was only able to.
Enter his piece because theyextended the submission time by 15
days. Initially, after being picked
there was some controversy, and Pradeep
was accused of being a monarchist,
but thedecision was eventually made official.
Why there was any controversyat all.
(18:44):
Requires a time jump back so we.
Can talk about how the country came.
To need a new anthem at all.There's a lot of reasons that revolutions
happen in Nepal.
We get a good old fashionedcommunist insurgency.
It resulted in an aggressiveshift away from the monarchy, and
it led to, in contrast to the communist
insurgency in the russian revolution,
arepublic style government. It really
began back in 1997 through a five
part people's war strategy that the
communist insurgents had come up
with. And they were actually fairly
successful enough so that they established
regional governments in places pretty
quickly. Then, on June 1 of 2001,
tragedy struck when, for still unknown
reasons, the crown prince. The country
came downstairs during a party.
(19:41):
And killed nine people in the royal.
Family and then himself.
This led to the king's brothertaking power.
Some serious instabilityhappened in the country at this point,
and the new king.
Did not do a great job of.
Trying to fix it. So themaoist rebellion grew, and more conflicts
and chaos arose, to the tune of 13,000
deaths until 2006, when a newly reinstated
parliament stripped the king of much
of his power and reached a compromise
withthe revolutionaries.
(20:12):
This led to the abolishment of the.
Monarchy in 2007 and fullelections in April of 2008. In what
I think is a pretty odd twist of
the timeline, they were able to pick
an anthem before they.
Actually sorted out thegovernment enough to.
Declare the new country andpromulgate the constitution.
A 14 member committee thatincluded Amber.
(20:34):
Held a contest wherein 1272people submitted poems to be judged
blind until they reached the final
three.
The poems were subject to a very.
Specific list of things that Icannot get a definitive source on,
actually, but I know it included
certainstuff, like a poem that had to be
48 words or less, must be eight lines.
(20:57):
Must include devotion to thecountry and.
Have no vulgar words in it.Possible themes included love and
glory to the country, history, culture,
and stories of heroism. Now, I have
not heard of a national anthem contest
having such specific parameters before,
but I suppose that there should.
(21:18):
Be some basic requirements forthese contest.
Things, or you end up withsomething like anthem McAnthem face,
at any rate.
After some wrangling andjudging in a.
False monarchist controversy,because Baiekel once wrote.
A dedication for a collectionof poetry.
That the former kingcontributed a single poem to. Given
the modern state of politics in the
United States and all over the world,
in fact, I'm 0% surprised by these
people's behavior despite that. But
after actual months of investigation
anddespite the Maoists wanting something
that was more militaristic, in April
of 2000, we finally got our national
anthem, and now.
(22:03):
I can go on to discuss thesong itself. Musically, we are again
granted another refreshingly.
Simple and refreshingly localsong with Saiyan thunga Phulka. Amber
said it was actually a pretty difficult
thing to write because they wanted
thesong to be simple enough that literally
anybody in the country would be able
to manage to play or sing it. So
it was written in the key of g with
a major mode, has a range of a single
octave, and it is played at a moderate
four four, which is about 96 beats
per minute. It must have a positive
feel. It's a very nepalese song,
andit's so different from almost all
of the other anthems. I'm into it,
and I've added it to my playlist.
Thetranslation that I'm going to read
is the same one that's on the English
Wikipedia. It is a poetic translation,
not aliteral one.
(22:58):
It gets the feeling of thething right.
As far as I can tell from whatI have read, it is not 48 words long
or less because it's a translation.
And I will admit to being briefly.
Confused by that, as silly asit sounds, because why would English
and Nepalese have a one to one word
ratio? But it's a silly thing to
think this is another anthem that
we're going to hear right through,
andthen I'll talk about it. For something
this short and cohesive, I'd like
todiscuss it as a whole object onto
the lyrics. Like the single one garland
made of hundreds of us as flowers
stretched as the sovereign state,
spreading from Maki to Mahakali,
rich ofcountless heritage from the nature,
freedom, and always firm, that all
owned with the brave martyr's blood
as the land of knowledge and the
peace spanning in terrain, hills
andmountains, dearer is this indivisible
motherland, Nepal, having diverse
racesand languages, religions and cultures,
asso great in her long and long live
our progressive nation, Nepal. The
task of this anthem is trying to
distill the essence of Nepal through
metaphor, symbolizing the country
as asingle garland of individual flowers.
This imagery suggests unity and collective
strength derived from diverse components.
And Nepal is indeed a diverse place.
There are something approaching 130
different ethnic groups, and they
speak 123 different languages. At
least. Each flower represents a citizen
contributing to the beauty and integrity
of the sovereign state. Stretching
fromMechi to Mahakali. It's about 148
miles as the crow flies, because
theHimalayas would make that a tough
drive. This spatial reference underscores
Nepals geographic span and cultural
richness, portraying it as a tapestry
woven with countless heritage and
natural splendor. The use of garland
helps convey a sense of interconnectedness
andshared identity among the people,
so itstarts off pretty strongly as far
as anthems go. The poem also highlights
the sacrifices that were made by
the brave martyrs whose blood has
endowed the nation with freedom and
unwavering strength. This acknowledgment
ofpast sacrifice underscores a deep
sense of gratitude and reverence
for.
(25:36):
The country's history in theindividuals who.
Have shaped its present. Theauthor was a part of some of the
protests against the new king's reactionary
methods, and although he obviously
wasnot killed, he was shot with rubber
bullets. The lines as the land of
knowledge and peace, spanning in
terrain, hills, and mountains, not
only emphasize Nepal's diverse topography
but also its intellectual and peaceful
heritage, or at least pretty far
from war mongering heritage. The
repetition of these natural elements
accentuates the nation's vast and
varied landscape. It contributes
to itscultural and historical richness.
Finally, the poem celebrates Nepal's
inherent diversity, mentioning its
multitude of races, languages, religions,
and cultures. I mentioned the impressive
numbers already, so I won't repeat,
butthere's something huh? This diversity
ispresented not as a point of division
butas a testament to the nation's greatness.
Theyre also quite a biodiverse place,
too, netting the 49th spot in the
world with some 22,000 species.
(26:46):
The concluding wish for thelong and.
Prosperous life of Nepalreflects a deep sense of patriotism
andhope for the future.
The reference to the countryas an.
Indivisible motherlandreinforces the idea of unity amidst
diversity, portraying Nepal as a
progressive nation that cherishes
itspast while looking forward to continued
growth and harmony. Overall, I think
we're treated to an anthem that is
very appropriate to the country and
manages to feel nepalese in.
(27:16):
Ways that many other anthemsfail to.
Feel like their own country.
This was an interesting placeto learn.
About and a surprising storyin several ways. It's a nice break
from the revolving door of colonialism
andsoviet breakups that this kind of
history can get you locked in.
We managed to narrowly avoidwading into the narrative surrounding
thesecond world War.
(27:39):
Too, and we got a verydistinctly local song made by people
that lived and breathed and are still
breathing the country's air, and
they are involved in it in a general
racial way as well as an anthem,
itjust sounds fantastic. It's a good
song coupled with a geographically
andculturally unique place that makes
Nepal pretty high on the list of
places that I might actually get
ona plane for someday. At the moment,
though, we're all going to get this
episode's iteration of the credits.
Butfirst, I have an announcement to
make.
(28:19):
I have joined the creatoraccountability network.
CAN is a non profit dedicatedto reducing harassment and abuse
through ethical education.
And a system of restorative accountability.
I joined because I care aboutthe safety and well being of community
members, and I believe people should
hold themselves accountable. If you
feel my behavior or content has harmed
someone, please report it to CAN,
either via the reporting form or
on their website, which is creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
oryou can call them 617-249-4255 the
country code on that is one theyll
help make it right, and theyll help.
(29:04):
Me avoid repeating thatmistake again.
Can also needs volunteers tohelp them with their mission and
their process. If you have the skills
you think.
Would be helpful, or even just time.
And a desire to be helpful,please visit their website and then
you can find out how you can volunteer.
Even more importantly, though, please
get the word out about this network
to other.
(29:26):
Creators who you think wouldbe interested in this mission.
We'd like more people to getcredentialed and help build safer
communities. The writing, recording,
andproduction for the show are done
byme, and I wrote and played the theme
music. The music was used by me with
my permission unless otherwise noted.
The anthems I play are public domain
or some other equivalently free to
play license, and this time I'm not
sure I need permission. This version
ofthe anthem is a crowdsourced version
ofthat was commissioned by a pipe supplier
that was heavily involved in recovery
efforts after the April 2019 earthquake
inNepal. What you heard is the end
result of 6000 entries, and they
arevoices from every part of the country.
Ithink it's pretty cool. My sources
andthe specific items I mentioned in
the show are contained in the show
notes.
(30:21):
The most direct way to get to.
Those show notes isanthemspodcast.com. you can find
meon Facebook and WhatsApp as the Anthems
podcast podcast. You should follow
meon Facebook when I do post. It's
apost about this show, and.
Right now you're hearing thevery end of the show.
So I'm gonna guess that youdidn't hate it. Or if you did, I'd
like to hear about that and why you
got all the way to the credits. For
now, I try to get the episode shared
onto whatever platform I can with
the hashtag Hash anthemspod. It would
be cool if you hashtag to post like
that too, and it.
(30:57):
Also makes you cooler thanbeing a.
Smoker did in the nineties. Asalways, you can email me corrections,
comments, suggestions, ideas, instructions,
concerns, and even ask me questions@anthemspodmail.com.
forbetter or for worse, I've made.
It possible to leave me a voicemail.
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I want to know what you think. Give
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That's actually way more important
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ourlives. Or maybe the next time you
go to a car wash, you leave this
very episode playing extremely loud
on your bluetooth speaker so everybody
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let me know about that too. But even
if the only thing you do is stick
around and listen to me talk sometimes,
then you are in a very important
group ofpeople to me. I'll see you next time.
Hello and welcome to theAnthems podcast.
I'm Patrick and I'm here to tell.
You the story of a song that.
Helps to tell the story of anation. Today we are headed to East
Asia.
And at a mere 6000 miles or.
9656 km capital to capital.
It's not the longest leapwe've made.
(00:35):
By quite a bit, but this oneis fun because Google Maps is pretty
sure that you could walk it in 124
days. You take a 3000 miles jaunt
right across the top of Africa and
much of that is going on foot through
the Sahara desert, through Burkina
Fasoand Mali. Then you go northwest across
Algeria and Libya, then you get to
the coast through Egypt, across the
Suez canal, head straight up through
Israel and past the West bank, then
head east at Damascus, then right
across the Middle east through Syria,
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, not in that
order. Iran comes before Afghanistan,
thenacross Pakistan and the top of India
to reach our goal, Nepal, officially
theFederal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
(01:31):
And here is another countrythat I've.
Gone into with a pretty starklack of knowledge about. But I was
aware of perhaps two of the most
famous things about it. It's where
Mount Everest is and it's also where
Siddhartha Guatema was born, as in
the Buddha, the guy who started Buddhism.
Here again, though, we are hearing
about the anthem of a country that
was picked by my mom.
(01:57):
This time she walked a few steps.
Towards my world map with hereyes closed, spun her hand around
alittle bit and pointed. It should
notsurprise us that it's not a completely
random process. Humans are super
badat consciously picking random things
and I don't know that we can actually
dothat. And my mom's a certain height
at.
The shoulder and extending herarm shoulder.
(02:19):
Height and getting a maybefive or.
Six inch diameter circle withher finger.
Narrows down where it couldbe, but it's random enough for my
purposes because it gets me to make
a decision and it's the reason that
I'm going to be telling you about
theSean thunga folka or made of hundreds
offlowers. It will be an educational
episodeand I've been enjoying the reading
forthis one. I may or may not have mentioned
before here that I am a fairly dedicated
math nerd. As a part of my nerd life
I've done a lot of euclidean compass
and straight edge geometric construction.
It's possible this is a relic of
me being in drafting in high school.
Nepal is to my knowledge, the only
country with a non rectangular flag.
And the constitution contains instructions
for how to geometrically construct
thatflag using euclidean methods. Source
number two is a link to the numberphile
video on YouTube that does it.
(03:21):
And of course I have drawn the.
Flag and it's satisfying to dobecause it's been a while since I
did a compass in straightedge drawing.
It's incredible, and it tells us
alot about the country that produced
thenext minute and 18 seconds of anthem.
(03:48):
Sayyutunga fulka hamiyotaimisayatunga pulkarity la jala gata.
(04:48):
My initial reaction is thatthere's a reason that this was ranked
as the third best anthem at the 2016
Rio Olympics. I like it a lot of
in.
Most of the versions that I've heard.
From it, particularly the oneI played, my kid even liked it when
I asked her that she listened to
the tune. It doesn't sound much like
the other anthems that we've heard
sofar, and that might be what appeals
to me.
(05:12):
Something that I've come tofind that.
I'm not a huge fan of iscertain specific vagaries about history.
In the case of Nepal, my current.
Irritating vagary is that wedon't get.
To know how the country gotits name for sure. All we've got
are theories and legends. It might
have been named for the tibetan word
for wool and house. So Nepal, as
in house of wool.
(05:35):
May have been named for the newer.
Word Nepa, meaning country ofthe middle zone. It might have been
the Lepsha people.
Thinking of a sacred cave.
Hindu mythology in buddhistlegend name it after an ancient sage
called Neddin. So who knows, I guess.
But at least we can pin down where
inthe world we are. After doing this
show for like a year and a half,
I'vestarted to.
(06:02):
Kind of know where stuff is in.
The world, but I'm stilllearning. It gives me an interesting
problem because I have to explain
wherestuff is.
To other people in terms that make.
Sense, even though I'm stillfiguring out how to do that. However,
Ifeel like a lot of people know where
India and China are because they're
very big. At least you might if you're
not.
(06:24):
From the US, becauseapparently we are.
Famously bad at geography. Myeducation lightly brushed at it in
school, but it wasn't really a priority
according to what I've read. You
see the show notes, folks, we're
worse than geography, than the rest
of the world, but not that much worse.
Like maybe 10%. So it's really not
that bad.
(06:46):
I suspect it'll only matterduring international.
Travel when the gps systemfinally fails us anyway, assuming
youknow where India and China are, then
you might know.
That there are a couple of countries.
That are kind of crammed inbetween them. They're semi enclaved
inbetween them. More on that in a second.
Nepal is the bigger one, and it.
(07:08):
Is to the west of the other.
The other country is Bhutan.More specifically, Nepal is north
ofthe indian states of Uttar Pradesh
andBihar, but to the south of what until
1951 was the country of Tibet, but
is now a province of China. A quick
note on semi enclave countries. These
are states that are surrounded by
only two other countries, whereas
anenclave country like the Vatican
iscompletely surrounded by just one.
(07:41):
It's another not super long list.
I'm not going to read it, though.
We'Ve already encountered oneof them on the show.
It is Liechtenstein. That was,however, not my geography or something
factoid for this episode. This one
is a thing that I kind of find terrifying
in a Lovecraftian way. It's called
theKhumbu icefall, and it's just a bit
up from base camp on Mount Everest
atabout 18,000ft and.
(08:08):
Consists of a 600 meters climb up.
A chasm filled ice flow thatequates to a linear mile at 37.7%
pitch and it moves three or 4ft a
day. So you get these extra huge,
deep.
And crushing gorges that comeand go.
Despite the fact that I'mpretty sure.
If I had time and a knowledgeable.
(08:29):
Team I could get up thatmountain, I won't even try just because
of this thing, because I'm terrified
offalling into an ice gorge that slowly
crushes me. But I'm pretty sure of
lots of stuff. Like I'm pretty sure
I could write a proper history of
Nepal if I had a lifetime worth of
scholarship to devote to it, even
though I probably would need three
orfour. We're talking about a region
that certainly.
(08:51):
Doesn'T have the depth ofhuman prehistory that Africa does.
But people have lived in modern Nepal.
As early as 300 BCE. As far aswhat they've actually written down,
though, we get to go back far enough
that it's legend. So sometime in
the 30th century BCE, as far as actual
physical evidence of religious sites
can confirm. As usual, I can't start
all the way back there because the
country wasn't a country there and
then in the same way that it was
when it got an anthem. I'm sure there
were tribal territories or some kind,
but that is straying outside of anything
I've read for this. So honestly,
I can'tsay for sure. But a fun and interesting
thing about Nepal is that while it
has had many the dynasty and ruler
amongst its subdivided history, its
been pretty cohesive as a region
witha shared culture since around the
6th century BCE. But since were talking
about a national anthem, we need
thecountry to exist.
(09:52):
As a nation in thecontemporary sense of the word.
I think for Nepal that beginsto happen over a roughly 25 year
period that begins in 1743 cedar
and involves.
The consolidation of no lessthan 46.
Separate kingdoms in a regionthat is roughly the size of the state
of New York. It reminds me a bit
ofthe pre revolution situation in Italy.
If you were not here for that story,
episode two is waiting for you. But
it only reminds me of Italy a bit
because it was not as fractured.
The mostimportant figure in that part of
the story is somebody named Prithvi
Neron Shah. They were the 9th generation
king of Gorkha, one of the aforementioned
fractioned kingdoms. Given the position
of the region between India and China,
the king took to calling it a yam
in between two boulders, and he foresaw
a reason to unify the disparate hill
kingdoms into a single region. Otherwise
they'd all be swallowed up by one
or both of the larger neighbors.
As willlater heard of, this policy has persistently
informed Nepal's foreign policy for
a very long time after unification.
(11:08):
The king was correct in his assessment.
Of the region being tenuous asa collection of weak states, and
hewas able to fairly easily subjugate
amajority of them in short order.
As far as subjugations ofnation states.
Goes, he basically sieged thearea by.
Going around and taking overthe kingdoms.
That had ways to get out ofthe Indus valley. Given that the
point of this particular show is
not to talk about individual wars
and battles, we're going to brush
past a bunch of that and skip to
the last bits of the unification.
When indesperation, King Malla of Kathmandu.
(11:45):
Reached out to the British forhelp. They sent in soldiers from
the East.
India Company, but theGorkhali army defeated them, and
king privilege was able to complete
hisseries of conquests with the valley.
Hetook a seat on the throne of Kathmandu
and sometime in 1769 proclaimed.
It as the capital of the newkingdom, Nepal. The kingdom would
last up until the establishment of
the Democratic Republic of Nepal.
(12:12):
In the very recent year 2018,and was the world's only hindu kingdom.
After the death of King privy, there.
Was an attempt at expansion by his.
Heirs, namely by taking oversome of the disputed princely kingdoms
that bordered then british occupied
India.
This led to the Anglo nepalese war.
(12:35):
And that resulted in Nepalsdefeat by the far better armed actual
british army and an 1816 treaty that
ceded a good deal of the conquered
territory back.
Although Nepal was grantedsome of the.
Lost lands in 1860 for reasonsthat were not included in what I
readdez, that was the last conflict
that changed.
(12:57):
The shape of the country as far.
As I'm aware of. But it wasnot the last dramatic political event
in Nepal.
The next major dynasty weredescendants of the nephews of a murdered
king of.
The Shah dynasty, and theytook power in a story that I wish
Ihad more time to go back and read
about, but I will someday probably
actual murder is never an interesting
partin a story like that, and here sometimes
all we get are historical punchlines.
Thisnew regime was a tightly centralized
autocracy, and it was able to maintain
independence from colonial Britain
andChina by being an isolationist and
pro british state at the same time.
It was a choice that meant that.
(13:45):
The country was allowed toremain independent.
But it also created a veryisolationist economy and in a small
economy, delays modernization. Although
to be fair, I'm not here.
To make an argument for oragainst modernization.
I think both paths probablyhave their merits anyway. This policy
led the Nepalese to lending support
tothe crown pretty unrelentingly during
the indian rebellion of 1857. And
right through both world wars, they.
(14:18):
Signed a treaty of perpetualpeace and friendship.
That among the bunch of otherstuff that it did, it was the first
formal acknowledgement by the British
that Nepal.
Was actually an independentnation and had.
The right to its own foreignpolicy. All the allying with the
west they were doing meant that Nepal
declared war on Germany right after
they invaded Poland in September
of 1939and joined the allied effort. However,
this is not one of the episodes that
we're going to be wading into that
conflict with, because at this.
(14:52):
Point, the composer has beenalive for.
A little bit, so I can beginto get to the point. Amber Gurung
wasborn on February 26 in 1938 in Darjeeling,
India, where his.
Father had become a policeman.
After he left the britisharmy, his.
Mother taught him to sing andcompose as a child, and he learned
both.
(15:13):
Western and eastern musicprimarily in the.
Same way that he learned how to.
Play six or seven differentinstruments. He taught himself. He
could play the violin, piano, guitar,
mandolin, tabla, and other things.
Wedon't get a real granular picture
ofhis life growing up, but he does
grow up to be a non trivial person
inthe musical life of Nepal. To start
off, all my sources insisting that
despite being a literal teenager,
hefounded something called the Art
Academy of.
(15:46):
Music during the 1950s.
Mathematically and timelinewise, I have trouble with that, but
I don't know.
What seems more plausible tome is.
His first recorded song aboutthe suffering of the nepali diaspora,
called Nau Lakhi tara being the opening
salvo of a.
Recording career thatestablished him as an.
(16:08):
Architect of modern nepalese music.
I know that he moved to Nepal.
Where his parents were from,and then he moved away. But at that
point he was so important to the
country's music that in 1968, the
king personally convinced him to
resettle in Kathmandu and properly
establish the music department at
the Nepal Academy of Arts, and he
remained the chair at that place
for30 years. In 2007, in a process we'll
discuss.
(16:34):
In more detail soon, he wasasked to provide the music to be
considered for the new national anthem
of the.
Democratic Republic ofNepalheze, and one of the three songs
that he submitted was chosen. That's
why I'm talking about him. He died
on June 7 in 2016 and would probably
want to be remembered first and foremost
as a serious musician. In an interview
about five years before he died,
hesaid that music is not entertainment
and itis instead serious art, and it must
shake the very foundation of my listeners.
Amber was not a poethen, but he wasn't
on the team that picked the poem
that became the anthem. The man that
wrote the poem was Pradeep Kumar
Rai,and he was born on March 29 in 1972.
Most Nepalese know him by his pen
name, Bihakul Melat. He chose this
name when he started.
(17:33):
Publishing poetry that hebegan writing during.
Law school to sort through hisfeelings of lostness and homesicken.
Hecame from a rural background, and
the press of city life in Kathmandu
hadhim feeling overwhelmed. But Mela
did obtain his law degree.
And since has been heavilyinvolved in.
Social services, villagedevelopment processes, youth sports,
and other programs that benefit the
young people in Nepal. He seems like
a genuinely wholesome guy.
(18:00):
In the interviews that I'veseen him.
In and that I've read abouthim in, despite having been become
extremely well known in his country
andeven granted a pension for his contribution
to nepalese culture. He's also very
much alive, and he's.
Even got a Twitter or an x.
Or whatever that thing iscalled. Now.
He said that when he initially decided.
(18:21):
To try and write the anthem,he wrote down the requirements and
then missed.
The deadline and was only able to.
Enter his piece because theyextended the submission time by 15
days. Initially, after being picked
there was some controversy, and Pradeep
was accused of being a monarchist,
but thedecision was eventually made official.
Why there was any controversyat all.
(18:44):
Requires a time jump back so we.
Can talk about how the country came.
To need a new anthem at all.There's a lot of reasons that revolutions
happen in Nepal.
We get a good old fashionedcommunist insurgency.
It resulted in an aggressiveshift away from the monarchy, and
it led to, in contrast to the communist
insurgency in the russian revolution,
arepublic style government. It really
began back in 1997 through a five
part people's war strategy that the
communist insurgents had come up
with. And they were actually fairly
successful enough so that they established
regional governments in places pretty
quickly. Then, on June 1 of 2001,
tragedy struck when, for still unknown
reasons, the crown prince. The country
came downstairs during a party.
(19:41):
And killed nine people in the royal.
Family and then himself.
This led to the king's brothertaking power.
Some serious instabilityhappened in the country at this point,
and the new king.
Did not do a great job of.
Trying to fix it. So themaoist rebellion grew, and more conflicts
and chaos arose, to the tune of 13,000
deaths until 2006, when a newly reinstated
parliament stripped the king of much
of his power and reached a compromise
withthe revolutionaries.
(20:12):
This led to the abolishment of the.
Monarchy in 2007 and fullelections in April of 2008. In what
I think is a pretty odd twist of
the timeline, they were able to pick
an anthem before they.
Actually sorted out thegovernment enough to.
Declare the new country andpromulgate the constitution.
A 14 member committee thatincluded Amber.
(20:34):
Held a contest wherein 1272people submitted poems to be judged
blind until they reached the final
three.
The poems were subject to a very.
Specific list of things that Icannot get a definitive source on,
actually, but I know it included
certainstuff, like a poem that had to be
48 words or less, must be eight lines.
(20:57):
Must include devotion to thecountry and.
Have no vulgar words in it.Possible themes included love and
glory to the country, history, culture,
and stories of heroism. Now, I have
not heard of a national anthem contest
having such specific parameters before,
but I suppose that there should.
(21:18):
Be some basic requirements forthese contest.
Things, or you end up withsomething like anthem McAnthem face,
at any rate.
After some wrangling andjudging in a.
False monarchist controversy,because Baiekel once wrote.
A dedication for a collectionof poetry.
That the former kingcontributed a single poem to. Given
the modern state of politics in the
United States and all over the world,
in fact, I'm 0% surprised by these
people's behavior despite that. But
after actual months of investigation
anddespite the Maoists wanting something
that was more militaristic, in April
of 2000, we finally got our national
anthem, and now.
(22:03):
I can go on to discuss thesong itself. Musically, we are again
granted another refreshingly.
Simple and refreshingly localsong with Saiyan thunga Phulka. Amber
said it was actually a pretty difficult
thing to write because they wanted
thesong to be simple enough that literally
anybody in the country would be able
to manage to play or sing it. So
it was written in the key of g with
a major mode, has a range of a single
octave, and it is played at a moderate
four four, which is about 96 beats
per minute. It must have a positive
feel. It's a very nepalese song,
andit's so different from almost all
of the other anthems. I'm into it,
and I've added it to my playlist.
Thetranslation that I'm going to read
is the same one that's on the English
Wikipedia. It is a poetic translation,
not aliteral one.
(22:58):
It gets the feeling of thething right.
As far as I can tell from whatI have read, it is not 48 words long
or less because it's a translation.
And I will admit to being briefly.
Confused by that, as silly asit sounds, because why would English
and Nepalese have a one to one word
ratio? But it's a silly thing to
think this is another anthem that
we're going to hear right through,
andthen I'll talk about it. For something
this short and cohesive, I'd like
todiscuss it as a whole object onto
the lyrics. Like the single one garland
made of hundreds of us as flowers
stretched as the sovereign state,
spreading from Maki to Mahakali,
rich ofcountless heritage from the nature,
freedom, and always firm, that all
owned with the brave martyr's blood
as the land of knowledge and the
peace spanning in terrain, hills
andmountains, dearer is this indivisible
motherland, Nepal, having diverse
racesand languages, religions and cultures,
asso great in her long and long live
our progressive nation, Nepal. The
task of this anthem is trying to
distill the essence of Nepal through
metaphor, symbolizing the country
as asingle garland of individual flowers.
This imagery suggests unity and collective
strength derived from diverse components.
And Nepal is indeed a diverse place.
There are something approaching 130
different ethnic groups, and they
speak 123 different languages. At
least. Each flower represents a citizen
contributing to the beauty and integrity
of the sovereign state. Stretching
fromMechi to Mahakali. It's about 148
miles as the crow flies, because
theHimalayas would make that a tough
drive. This spatial reference underscores
Nepals geographic span and cultural
richness, portraying it as a tapestry
woven with countless heritage and
natural splendor. The use of garland
helps convey a sense of interconnectedness
andshared identity among the people,
so itstarts off pretty strongly as far
as anthems go. The poem also highlights
the sacrifices that were made by
the brave martyrs whose blood has
endowed the nation with freedom and
unwavering strength. This acknowledgment
ofpast sacrifice underscores a deep
sense of gratitude and reverence
for.
(25:36):
The country's history in theindividuals who.
Have shaped its present. Theauthor was a part of some of the
protests against the new king's reactionary
methods, and although he obviously
wasnot killed, he was shot with rubber
bullets. The lines as the land of
knowledge and peace, spanning in
terrain, hills, and mountains, not
only emphasize Nepal's diverse topography
but also its intellectual and peaceful
heritage, or at least pretty far
from war mongering heritage. The
repetition of these natural elements
accentuates the nation's vast and
varied landscape. It contributes
to itscultural and historical richness.
Finally, the poem celebrates Nepal's
inherent diversity, mentioning its
multitude of races, languages, religions,
and cultures. I mentioned the impressive
numbers already, so I won't repeat,
butthere's something huh? This diversity
ispresented not as a point of division
butas a testament to the nation's greatness.
Theyre also quite a biodiverse place,
too, netting the 49th spot in the
world with some 22,000 species.
(26:46):
The concluding wish for thelong and.
Prosperous life of Nepalreflects a deep sense of patriotism
andhope for the future.
The reference to the countryas an.
Indivisible motherlandreinforces the idea of unity amidst
diversity, portraying Nepal as a
progressive nation that cherishes
itspast while looking forward to continued
growth and harmony. Overall, I think
we're treated to an anthem that is
very appropriate to the country and
manages to feel nepalese in.
(27:16):
Ways that many other anthemsfail to.
Feel like their own country.
This was an interesting placeto learn.
About and a surprising storyin several ways. It's a nice break
from the revolving door of colonialism
andsoviet breakups that this kind of
history can get you locked in.
We managed to narrowly avoidwading into the narrative surrounding
thesecond world War.
(27:39):
Too, and we got a verydistinctly local song made by people
that lived and breathed and are still
breathing the country's air, and
they are involved in it in a general
racial way as well as an anthem,
itjust sounds fantastic. It's a good
song coupled with a geographically
andculturally unique place that makes
Nepal pretty high on the list of
places that I might actually get
ona plane for someday. At the moment,
though, we're all going to get this
episode's iteration of the credits.
Butfirst, I have an announcement to
make.
(28:19):
I have joined the creatoraccountability network.
CAN is a non profit dedicatedto reducing harassment and abuse
through ethical education.
And a system of restorative accountability.
I joined because I care aboutthe safety and well being of community
members, and I believe people should
hold themselves accountable. If you
feel my behavior or content has harmed
someone, please report it to CAN,
either via the reporting form or
on their website, which is creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
oryou can call them 617-249-4255 the
country code on that is one theyll
help make it right, and theyll help.
(29:04):
Me avoid repeating thatmistake again.
Can also needs volunteers tohelp them with their mission and
their process. If you have the skills
you think.
Would be helpful, or even just time.
And a desire to be helpful,please visit their website and then
you can find out how you can volunteer.
Even more importantly, though, please
get the word out about this network
to other.
(29:26):
Creators who you think wouldbe interested in this mission.
We'd like more people to getcredentialed and help build safer
communities. The writing, recording,
andproduction for the show are done
byme, and I wrote and played the theme
music. The music was used by me with
my permission unless otherwise noted.
The anthems I play are public domain
or some other equivalently free to
play license, and this time I'm not
sure I need permission. This version
ofthe anthem is a crowdsourced version
ofthat was commissioned by a pipe supplier
that was heavily involved in recovery
efforts after the April 2019 earthquake
inNepal. What you heard is the end
result of 6000 entries, and they
arevoices from every part of the country.
Ithink it's pretty cool. My sources
andthe specific items I mentioned in
the show are contained in the show
notes.
(30:21):
The most direct way to get to.
Those show notes isanthemspodcast.com. you can find
meon Facebook and WhatsApp as the Anthems
podcast podcast. You should follow
meon Facebook when I do post. It's
apost about this show, and.
Right now you're hearing thevery end of the show.
So I'm gonna guess that youdidn't hate it. Or if you did, I'd
like to hear about that and why you
got all the way to the credits. For
now, I try to get the episode shared
onto whatever platform I can with
the hashtag Hash anthemspod. It would
be cool if you hashtag to post like
that too, and it.
(30:57):
Also makes you cooler thanbeing a.
Smoker did in the nineties. Asalways, you can email me corrections,
comments, suggestions, ideas, instructions,
concerns, and even ask me questions@anthemspodmail.com.
forbetter or for worse, I've made.
It possible to leave me a voicemail.
Or send a text at1203-759-8375 or better still, leave
me a review wherever you can so that
I can find out what you think. And
I want to know what you think. Give
me a rating on your podcast app.
That's actually way more important
because ratings and reviews matter
toalgorithms and those things rule
ourlives. Or maybe the next time you
go to a car wash, you leave this
very episode playing extremely loud
on your bluetooth speaker so everybody
can enjoy it. If you've got any suggestions
for future episodes, you could let
let me know about that too. But even
if the only thing you do is stick
around and listen to me talk sometimes,
then you are in a very important
group ofpeople to me. I'll see you next time.
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