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Born to an adventurous Dutch couple who had left Holland on bicycles for France, one may need to consult an atlas to make sense of Petra ten Velde (39) and her siblings' nomadic childhood. After her parents, agriculturalist Gerrit and mum Gysbertha Berindina cycled to France and learned French, they took the ferry over to Algeria where their first daughter, Pauline was born. From there they lived in Tanzania and then on to Mauritania where they had a son, Simon. But it would be this Dutch family's travelling life in Katmandu, Nepal, which would eventually become the most dominant influence in Petra's life.
Having lived in Nepal since the age of nine until she was 28, it is understandable that Ten Velde feels herself irrevocably linked to the Himilayan country where the Buddha is said to have been born, in Lumbini on the Terai plains of southern Nepal in 623 BC.
"Lumbini is one of the holiest places of one of the world's great religions," explains Ten Velde, who is fluent in Nepalese and whose passion for her previous homeland has evolved into her taking small groups of visitors there every year. Nepal is landlocked between India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.
"Nepal contains Mount Everest (8,850 m), the tallest mountain in the world. Along its Southern border, Nepal has a strip of level land that is partly forested, partly cultivated. North of that are the slopes of the main section of the Himalayan range, including Everest and many other peaks higher than 8 000m," she explains.
After her final year at school in Kathmandu, Ten Velde went to university in Ohio, America.
"It was a very bad decision. I went in the winter when there were no leaves on the trees and I just couldn't find common ground with my American peers. I was asked to leave the Black Student Union party because I was white. I realised if I had to stay there for four years, I would lose it. I was very naive. Kathmandu had been the largest city I had ever lived in. I couldn't reconcile myself with food fights in the cafeteria, having been raised in countries where people were often in a struggle for survival and food security." She left and spent a year in New York instead.
The staple diet of Nepal, says Ten Velde, is rice and dal.
"Dal is lentil soup eaten over the rice, and spicy vegetables, with occasional meat of either chicken or domestic water buffalo and goat. Cows are considered holy or sacred and are thus never eaten."
Ten Velde also longed to visit Tanzania, the country where she was born, but which she couldn't really remember. When her father was attending a conference in that country, they arranged to meet at Arusha, from where they took a trip to where they had lived when she was a small child.
"It was good to see the mango trees we had planted since I was looking to find my own roots. Swahili is called the language of the waving palms and I quickly learned to speak it. In the States I had realised that I was struggling with an identity crisis. Although we visited Holland, I felt no real connection to it - Nepal was my home."
Ten Velde says she was "shattered" when her parents decided to leave Nepal. Her parents, motivated by work opportunities, moved to Maputo and later to Rheenendal district. Ten Velde next went to study conservation, working with elephants in both Western Nepal and South India. Eventually she would marry, have two daughters of her own and move to England for a while.
"Yet, I always had a yearning to come back to Africa. Here in South Africa there is a lot more freedom outside the caste system. Most Nepalese are Hindu and only people of the lowest caste clean up. The humanity there and in India is overwhelming and holy rivers are dumping grounds. People see it, but consider it not their problem if they are from a higher caste. Nonetheless, Nepal remains one of the most beautiful and enchanting countries in the world and experiencing it for oneself is an unforgettable experience."
Ten Velde feels there is something very grounding to the energy here in South Africa and that South Africans could gain valuable perspective on their own country by experiencing the Asian diversity of Nepal.
"Tourism is the number one income generating industry in Nepal - many are employed in trekking and tour companies, hotels and restaurants, and the endless curio shops, selling anything from embroidered T-shirts to hand-woven carpets to hand-crafted jewellery. Certain ethnic groups specialise in certain crafts - like bronze deity statues, pottery, wood carvings and hand-loom carpets. Generally, visitors are welcomed and respected by the Nepalese, and they are rarely too shy to make some small talk."
Some of the cultural differences between us and them, she says, would be that one is expected to take off one's shoes to show respect when entering someone's home in Nepal.
"Greeting in the traditional manner, you say 'Namaste' with hands pressed together and a slight bow of the head, which means 'the divine in me salutes the divine in you'. South Africans are mostly very friendly and often hug or kiss when greeting. This would be quite hard for Nepalese to absorb, especially the hello kiss on the lips!" she laughs.
South Africans, Ten Velde ponders, may find the yearly animal sacrifices to the goddess Kali and the way the bodies of Hindus are openly cremated along the banks of the holy (but very dirty) Bagmati river, quite unusual.
"Nepalese are generally quite docile and friendly people, however, their temperaments are quick to flare when there is disagreement and these otherwise good-natured people can show an opposite side.
The people of Nepal were ruled under an autocratic king for centuries, and hence are not naturally very proactive or outspoken. This has changed over the years, and people are beginning to find their voices in a relatively newly emerging democracy. Nepalese are very hospitable and will welcome you to their home readily for a cup of tea and a snack, or even a meal, without any pre-arrangements."
As far as a dress code is concerned, Ten Velde says that "modernisation has crept in" and that things are quite relaxed in Kathmandu.
"Women generally should not show their legs. The upper arms are also usually covered, so a sleeveless T-shirt wouldn't be acceptable, especially in villages. When I was there in March it was strange for me to see girls in tight mini-skirts and platform high heels!"
When Ten Velde first came to the Garden Route, she spent two years assisting well-known author and researcher, Gareth Patterson with his field work concerning the elusive Knysna elephants. Every year in March she facilitates a journey to Nepal, her 'other home' where she grew up and lived for more than 15 years.
The next journey is set for next year March 1 to 16. The group has space for no more than six people.
"This will be the third journey out - and is bound to be the best yet!"
This photograph was taken in 1992, during an initial survey of the Sukla Phanta Wildilfe Reserve, conducted on elephant back. Here Petra ten Velde is 'watering' Devi, the elephant she used to ride for the duration of the survey.
ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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