SIRUBARI VILLAGE

THE WONDERFUL AGRO- ECOTOURISM MODEL VILLAGE
SIRUBARI VILLAGE

By Anita Shrestha

                                                            

                                                       View of Sirubari Village

1. INTRODUCTION:

Nepal is a landlocked Himalayan country bordering India and China, with enormous cultural and natural diversity and tourism assets. The country has an area of 147,181 square kilometers or 0.1% of total land mass of the Earth. 83% of total area is covered by Mountains thus providing increased opportunities for nature based tourism and\or adventure tourism, including Trekking, Mountaineering, Rafting, Paragliding, Cycling, Wildlife observation and Bird watching and cultural experiences. Almost all of these activities take place in rural areas except cultural tourism in Kathmandu valley which hosts attractive art and architectural building and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Cultural). Tourism development in Nepal dates back to the early 1950s following the successful ascent of Mount Annapurna by French mountaineer Maurice Hergoz, and three years later the successful ascent of Mount Everest, world’s highest peak, the Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgey and Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander. The major issue remains that the tourism income is not being shared by all parts of the country; it remains confined to the major trekking trails and destinations such as Everest, Langtang, Annapurna, Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan region, often referred to as the ‘tourism triangle’. This has led to the tourism entrepreneurs and development workers to seek alternative ways on how to diversify the tourism benefits to other parts of the country as well in par with environmental conservation. Nepal’s rural settings also provide a strong foundation to promote rural and\or village-based tourism because of its unique lifestyle, unspoiled culture and tradition. If marketed in an innovative way it can bring tourism benefits in the villages that are off the main trekking trails and help create off-farm employment.

            2. VILLAGE TOURISM EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT:

Nepal has more than 101 ethnic groups and 92 spoken languages and a rich variety of cultures, lifestyles, values and traditions. Although the law and the interim Constitution has provided equal rights to all ethnic and religious groups, Nepal is characterized by a highly stratified social system, resulting in the presence of many castes.

 In Sirubari village, Syangja district, west Nepal, there are the Gurung and the Dalit  communities consisting of Damai, Kami and Sarki, which are often denoted as ‘occupational castes’. The village tourism ‘product’, Sirubari, only showcases the Gurung community and not the Dalit. With the exception of the Damai who are engaged in welcome, farewell and portering, no other Dalit castes are involved in tourism activities. Locally as well as nationally, the Gurung, who are officially Buddhist but also follow Hindu rituals and festivals, have a higher socio-economic status than the Damai.

Due to the lack of alternative livelihood options the youth and productive work force are compelled to emigration to cities and abroad. Over 86% of Nepal’s population live in rural areas, more specifically in 3,915 Village Development Committees (V.D.C.) Farming is the main occupation and non-farming opportunities are very rare so the emigration is inevitable in rural Nepal (Upadhyay, 2007).

To tackle this situation, the concept of village tourism was introduced for the first time in Nepal in Sirubari village. The village is located at an altitude of 1,700 meter above sea level and one can reach Sirubari either by Jeep ride from district headquarter Syangja bazaar (Putalibazar) or  by Bus/Jeep from Naudanda along the Pokhara-Sunauli Highway (Siddhartha Highway). However, the trip from Helu-Lamachaur (about 50 kms south of Pokhara) along the same highway offers the joint experience of adventure travel and short trekking along the lush green valley and terraced farm land of Darau-Khola and then uphill climb of about 2 hours from Arjun Chaupari. Visitors can choose either to walk (maximum of 4 hours) from Helu-Lamachaur up to the village via Arjun Chaupari or can ride on Bus/Jeep up to Arjun Chaupari and then a short trek. Nepal Village Resorts (NVR), a Kathmandu based travel agency serving as s marketing agency of the village tourism product of Sirubari, states that the first commercial group of 16 Belgian tourists were taken to Sirubari in October 1997.

                                                      Typical House in Sirubari

Before the initiation of village tourism in 1997, the village was no different than any other villages. However its unspoiled Gurung culture and intact rural traditions seemed to be a strong foundation to on which to build village tourism.

In the initial stage of village tourism development, the model faced several challenges, especially in the marketing and promotion category. Small scale development works such as drinking water supply, local trail improvements, community hall establishment, repair and maintenances of village temples and Gompas can be done by villagers themselves from their community fund and voluntary contribution of labour and local skills. The Sirubari experience shows that the utmost importance for the success of such type of tourism is the local peoples’ participation (from cost to benefit sharing and in all stages of development) and a feeling of ownership of the project.

Tourism development has also been quite easy in Sirubari because it had already some sort of tourism infrastructure before the initiation of tourism. Strong unity among villagers, active youth club and mothers group were key local features. Key factors also included a supply of drinking water, experience in community forest management and good walking trails.

3. TOURISM MANAGEMENT:

The most interesting aspect of Sirubari village tourism is its management paradigm. The overall management responsibilities of tourism activities are shared by 9 TDMC members consisting of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and 5 Members (Thapa, 2004) representing the local youth club, mothers group, fathers group, and others chosen from the consensus among villagers. It has the full right to make and amend any rules and regulations pertaining to tourism activities in the village. It manages the welcome and farewell ceremony, guest room (including type and quality of food and accommodation), local environmental sanitation and hygiene, assigns visitors to the local hosts on a rotational basis, arranging village tour activities through one of the community members and so on.

The TDMC sets the minimum requirement for guestrooms such as the room quality, cleanliness, food hygiene and menu, the security of visitors and their belongings, among others. There are two different guestroom categories. In the first category, which meets the strictest requirements, TDMC members host national and international visitors while the second one is only for national visitors. In 2004, Sirubari had 25 households as active TDMC members offering accommodation . Even Gurung households that do not host guests participate actively in the village development programme and accrue tourism benefits indirectly in the form of community development.

In fact, occupational castes do not host any guests because they cannot meet the set requirements and physical infrastructure demanded by TDMC. However, their role in playing musical instruments during welcome and farewell processions, portering work and the involvement in small scale construction work also provided them both economic and non-economic benefits which in the absence of tourism could be impossible. They also use community assets and their increased awareness of cleanliness, sanitation, health and so on can be directly attributed to tourism.

Gurungs are in the driving seat of Sirubari village tourism and the TDMC almost consists exclusively of Gurungs. They make all the necessary rules and regulations themselves as they are the tourists’ hosts. Occupational castes are employed in supportive works in the development of village tourism, mainly contributing to physical labour rather than economic investment. One cannot guess the success of village tourism in the absence of occupational castes.

Visitors’ perceptions, both national and international, are very positive towards tourism activities in Sirubari. Almost all of the visitors who registered comments in the visitors book kept in Buddha Gompa, praised Sirubari. We divided the comments into 6 major headings: Visitors liked Culture (16%), Environmental Quality (17%), Hospitality (24%), Satisfaction (15%),Socialstructure (22%) and gave Recommendations for further improvement (6%) .

                                       

The major tourism resources of the village are Local Gurung culture, Livelihoods pattern, (the way of living), community forest/forest nursery, and the Thumro Juro view point. Tourism activities begin from the arrival day as they experience the unforgettable welcome procession from gate of the village. The people queue up at the main entrance to welcome tourists with flower bouquets and garlands and the Panchai baja is played on. They take  the tourists to the Buddha Gompa where light snacks are offered to them and after short break they are handed over to the guestroom owner as per their turn on rotational basis. On the second day of their arrival, tourists are taken to Thumro Juro (if the weather is clear) to see the Himalayan ranges. They get the chance to see the community forest too. In the day time tourists are shown the local way of living such as agriculture works, animal husbandry, use of wood made traditional grinding machine and so on. They can explore the nearby government school, health post and other rural settlements and villager’s daily interaction for the livelihoods. Even tourists can participate in household activities such as cooking, milking cow or buffalo, participate in harvesting crops or do some work in the kitchen garden, depending on the cropping season. Everything is open to them and they can get chance to explore village on their own wish and interest. In the evening of the second day, a cultural programme is organized in the community building with singing and dancing. Gurung dances such as Sorathi and Gathu with some folk songs and dances can be observed there. On the third day, after their breakfast with the host, they leave the village. Once again they gather in the Buddha Gompa, get some blessing from the lama (Gompa Buddha priest), and write some comments and their experience in the visitors’ book. After the Tika and blessings from the Lama they are praised with Sirubari Topi (Cap) as a token of love and appreciation. Once again they are seen off from the village; people queue up in line and offer flowers and garlands.  

4. TOURISM IMPACTS: 

Tourism does not only create benefits but it brings along some negative impacts which can be devastating if not managed properly and addressed in time. With the growth of tourism, the negative impacts worldwide include loss of cultural integrity, environmental damages and inflation. In a country like Nepal, where the cultural and social structure is still traditional and intact, there is sensitivity to any negative influence from tourism. Similarly, the fragile mountain environment and deteriorating pristine natural environment can also be very sensitive towards tourism as the growing number of tourists and their demand for daily needs put pressure on natural resources. Acculturation of intact tradition/culture and westernization can be attributed to the cultural erosion of Nepal whereas depletion of natural resources, especially forest, wildlife and biodiversity, accumulation of waste along trekking trails and destination community can be pointed to negative environmental impacts. Leakage of tourism income and lack of coordination between tourism activities and local production system are the examples of negative economic impacts. These have been the subject of discussion among academia, policy makers and practitioners on how to reduce it. A study in the Annapurna Conservation Area (Ghorepani) shows that 76.41 % of total income was used to import various goods among lodges whereas just 23.59 % remained in the destination community. Another study shows that only 6% of the total income was retained in local economy in the Annapurna Conservation Area .

Negative environmental impacts have not been experienced so far in Sirubari, probably because of the low flow of tourists. The Award-winning community forest has maintained a good biodiversity with presence of different species of wildlife, including birds. Consumption of a local meal together with the host family has discouraged the use of packaged food items that are popular in urban based tourism so the problem of disposing plastic is reduced. Generally, the meal is offered in the village 4 times a day: breakfast, lunch, late afternoon light snacks and dinner. Breakfast contains tea, milk, egg, homemade bread (typical to Nepal’s lifestyles) with light fried spicy (not hot) potatoes. Lunch consists of the food items taken by ordinary Nepalis: rice, lentils, vegetables, tomato chutney, chicken meat and salads such as onions and cucumber. Late afternoon snacks may contain tea, maize, some kind of bread, bitten rice. Dinner is similar to lunch along with home brewed alcohol. Rice pudding is also offered as dessert. More than 95% of the meal that is offered to tourists in Sirubari is similar to taste and variety that is daily consumed by Nepalese people. 

Grey water from toilet and bathroom are supplied to septic tank whereas waste water from house hold activities are supplied to kitchen garden. Bio-degradable waste is used to make compost or mixed together with farm yard manure (Thapa, 2005). At least once a week, villagers organize a cleaning campaign in the village’s main trails and community area to make it aesthetically pleasant for the guests. Many mountain tourism destinations in Nepal are facing a deforestation problem due to the continuous supply of firewood to meet the growing needs of energy to tourists and local people and the absence of alternative energy sources. The case of Sirubari is again different, tourism has led to the adoption of alternative energy. 93% of the surveyed households have some sort of alternative energy sources such as improved cook stoves, biogas and solar cooker .

                                                                 Solar Cooker

Research shows that the visitors are willing to pay more than double for the current level of entry fee (27 U.S. dollar) in Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal in order to better protect the environment . So, a similar conclusion can be drawn for Sirubari: a better natural environment will attract responsible or environmentally conscious tourists willing to pay more for the services they take resulting in a direct positive impact in local economy.

                                              Dung Mixture and main biogas valve

Leakages have been the major issue of concern in the tourism sector. The communities who bear the environmental and social costs of tourism do not receive tourism benefits in many cases. The level of economic benefits from tourism that the villagers in Sirubari received is quite low in comparison to the investment made on guest room (NRs. 50,299) and operating costs (NRs. 10,422)

The opportunities derived from village tourism in Sirubari have been proved by the awards gained by the village in various sectors: tourism, forestry, youth, development sector. Due to the high rating of youth involvement in village development the local youth club of Sirubari won a national youth award in 1993. Likewise, the forest user group of Sirubari has won the national forest conservation award in 1995. Sirubari village tourism project won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) gold award in the heritage category at the 2001 PATA gold awards. Similarly, the government of Nepal has recognized Sirubari for its contribution to sustainable mountain development at the local level. In this regard, the village has been awarded the International Mountain Development prize on the occasion of International Mountain Day 2004.

6. CONCLUSION:

Village Tourism in Sirubari is small scale and can be considered and alternative form of tourism in terms of visitor numbers and tourism practices. It neither involves central level planning nor an existing tourist destination, but a tourism product developed from the grassroots level through the active participation of the people in consultation and co-ordination with an urban travel agency which took care of marketing responsibility. It has provided a lesson to the government on how to extend tourism benefits to the rural people. Various awards bagged by Sirubari village reflect its success as a role model not only for Nepal but also for the world.

The successful initiation and implementation of Sirubari village tourism depended on some important factors which are listed below :

• Overwhelming local support for community oriented projects,
• Proactive marketing and publicity at the national level,
• Strong social and economic standing of the participants,
• Community support for tourism and willingness to adapt to economic opportunities,
• Projects built upon principles of partnership and collaboration and
• External support to the projects from the governments and NGOs.

Sirubari is the only such tourism destination in Nepal where the domestic tourists exceed international tourists. Domestic tourists especially visit Sirubari to get the lessons of village development whereas international tourists visit to see the Nepalese rural way of living and to experience its cultural in natural settings along with some other activities. With the observance of peace process and political stability in the country it is assumed that more tourists will visit the village. Nepal has prepared itself to see the year 2011 as Visit Nepal Year so it will be the golden period to market Sirubari accordingly from now on and to target quality tourists rather than budget tourists.

Preparation of tourism management plan, promotion of tourism and environmental awareness programme, and marketing of the village via internet or latest mode of communication help to internationalize on the occasion of “Nepal Tourism Year 2011”. To make village tourism sustainable and to promote it through the concept of sustainability, especial target should focus on to host high quality-low number of tourists rather than low quality-high numbers. 

Appendix 1: Tourism management and operational modality in Sirubari Village Tourism in 2001 (Parr, 2001) – valid until 2007.

Appendix 2: Current tourism management and operational modality in Sirubari Village Tourism (after the agreement dismissed with NVR). This modality may undergo changes if TDMC enter into new agreement with some other travel/tour operator.