To
the Memory of...
Kathmandu’s British Cemetery By
Don Messerschmidt
Not only did we want to see this quiet garden with its grey tombstones and
scarlet poinsettias, but we also sought a glimpse of history available through
the names and dates of some who lie buried here. To visit the site we first
sought permission from British Embassy staff who guided us along the narrow
lane behind the Embassy in Lainchaur and down the hill to the edge of
Samakhosi. On the north side of the road we came to a gated archway with a
simple sign: ‘British Embassy, Founded 1816’ (in English and Nepali). The site
is called ‘Kapur Dhara’, which literally translated means ‘camphor waterspout’.
More likely, however, the name is a corruption of kapardar, an old Nepali word
for ‘cemetery’. To passers by the site is known colloquially as the Belaiti
chihan, the ‘British graveyard’, but many who pass this way each day probably
have no idea what, or who, lies within.
Each society has its own way of putting its dead ‘to sleep’, so to speak. Some
cremate, others bury, and some turn the bodies over to vultures to dispose.
Unless a body is buried with a headstone, or a memorial plaque is installed
somewhere to remember the deceased, it is difficult to learn much history from
the disposal of the dead. European and American societies, however, have
cemeteries dedicated to the eternal sleep of the dead by interment, with
engraved headstones to remind visitors who’s who, resting underfoot. The notion
of ‘sleep’ is a common euphemism for the final rest of the deceased and
‘cemetery’ ultimately means just that. It is derived from Middle English
cimitery, with origins traceable back through French and Latin to Greek
koimeterion, or ‘dormitory’, from koiman, ‘put to sleep’.
Apparently, it was early Greek Christians who first applied the term to a
burial ground. The notion of a cemetery as a ‘dormitory’ harks back to an
obsolete meaning of that word as ‘a place for repose of the dead’, from Latin
dormire, meaning ‘to lie dormant’ or ‘sleep’. (I wonder how many college and
university students who reside in ‘dormitories’ know this archaic meaning of
the term—as a place for the dead.)
In recent years, the study of cemeteries has become popular among school
children in the West, and by historians and anthropologists around the world,
all seeking a glimpse into a community’s past. In Nepal the choice is limited.
There’s a memorial plaque at the site of the Thai Airlines crash of 1992, and
there is a cemetery near Lele at the site of the Pakistan Airlines crash of the
same year; but not all who died in that crash are buried there. One entire
family of the Pakistan
air crash casualties, Andrew and Helen Wilkins and their three children, are
buried in the British cemetery. Seeing their tombstone temporarily put a somber
edge on our visit.
Nepal
also has numerous Muslim graveyards, especially in the Terai, as well as Gurung
and other ethnic graveyards near villages in the mid-hills. But, there is only
one British cemetery, and (with rare exception) you have to be a British
citizen to be buried in it. If you have any notions or curiosity about the past
two centuries of British presence in Nepal, you’ll appreciate the
significance of some names on the cemetery’s oldest headstones.
Long before a proper embassy, a British Residence was established in Nepal in 1816
(though a representative was sent briefly a few years earlier). The original
Residence compound is now the Indian Embassy. In 1954, seven years after Indian
Independence (1947), the old Residence was turned over to the Goverment of
India for their embassy. The current British Embassy was built after that, a
short distance away. The cemetery stayed with the British, though it is
physically separate from the embassy compound.
Our first impression upon entering the cemetery gate was of peacefulness in the
midst of the cacophony and commotion of the surrounding neighborhood. Just
outside the gate cars and motorcycles roar by, taxis queue for passengers and
farmers sell produce on the street side. Once we were inside the cemetery gate,
however, Samakhosi seemed far away.
We were aware of several recent burials, from the late 20th century, but were
curious at first about those from the preceding century. We commented on the
fact that several of the graves are for children of early British Residence
staff. One from the early 1800s reads: “Sacred to the memory of Alice Mary
youngest daughter of Captain William Boyd Irwin.” Alice Mary’s tombstone says
that she died 13 days after birth. Life in Kathmandu
in those days was not easy, and many children succumbed to disease and
infection, a century before the discovery of penicillin. The relatives of other
Residence staff are also interred here. One is the wife of Dr Daniel Wright,
MD. Her grave monument is one of the largest and most prominent in the
cemetery. It reads: “Sacred to the memory of Ceclilia Ann Broughton the beloved
wife of Surgeon D. Wright M.D., Residence Surgeon at Katmandoo, obiit 17,
1873.” Wright’s son, Alexander, is buried under the same monument.
Daniel Wright served as the Residence Surgeon, or chief medical officer, for
ten years, 1866 to 1876. He, like others posted to the isolation of Kathmandu, not only performed his official duties but
also pursued intellectual interests. He is noted for collecting and preserving
a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts and Tibetan block-printed books, all of
which he donated to the Cambridge University Library. Wright also wrote the
extensive History of Nepal: With an Introductory Sketch of the Country and People
of Nepal, published by Cambridge University Press in 1877 (available today in
reprint editions). Remarkably, he wrote it in Parbatiya (Nepali; translated by
Munshi Shew Shunker Singh and Pandit Shri Gunanand). In it he notes that “in Nepal the
Resident has nothing whatever to do with the Government of the country. In
fact, he merely acts as consul, in the same way as the British consul at any European Court.”
Then he makes an observation that is as true today as it was in his day: “The
Nepalese”, he wrote, “are particularly proud of their independence, and most
jealous of any interference with their domestic policy.”
Other early Residence personnel also interred in the cemetery include F.G.F.
Deatker of the Indian Medical Department who died age 51 in 1842, and Hastings
Young of the 63rd Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry, who briefly served as
Assistant Resident. We know nothing more about young Hastings other than he was only 20 years old
when he died in March 1840.
The oldest inscription in the cemetery is that of “Robert Stuart, Esq.”, son of
one Sir John Stuart. Robert served as Assistant to the first British Resident
“At the Court of the Raja of Nipaul”. He died and was buried in March 1820.
Since the cemetery was established in 1816, we assumed that there are graves
older than Robert Stuart’s. We searched and found one small monument on the
knoll that looked very old. It is so badly weathered, however, that no
inscription is discernible. Given its small size, it may also have been for a
child, perhaps the first to have been buried here.
We then turned away from the old gravestones and looked for those, more recent,
whose names and lives were more familiar to us. Here lies our old friend, the
Russian hotelier Boris Lissanevitch. Boris was born in Odessa
in 1905 and died in Kathmandu in 1985. His
great grandfather was a prominent Russian soldier and, in his youth, Boris,
too, was a cadet, headed for a career in the Tsar’s army. During the Russian
Revolution, however, he fled the country. His life then took on a series of
very different and seemingly unpredictable directions. For some years, for
example, he was a dancer in the world famous Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. During
the 1930s he found himself in Calcutta
without citizenship or passport. Thus stranded, he and a few friends decided to
open the (soon to be famous) Club 300. There Boris met royalty and politicians
of several countries, especially Nepal. His friendship with King
Tribhuvan and other prominent citizens of the realm eventually drew him to Kathmandu where he opened the first hotel, the Royal
(with its Yak & Yeti bar), on Kantipath (where the national Election
Commission office is now).
We knew him in those days, and enjoyed sitting around the Yak and Yeti
fireplace in winter, sipping drinks and listening to Boris, always the
raconteur, telling stories. Later he built the Yak and Yet Hotel in its present
location at Lal Durbar. Boris’ long and eventful life is described in his
biography, Tiger for Breakfast by Michel Peissel (1966). Somewhere along the
way, Boris took British citizenship, which made him eligible for interment in
the British cemetery. Beside him are the graves of his mother and the mother of
his second wife, Inger, who still lives in Kathmandu.
Another of Kathmandu’s memorable characters
was Frederick Ralph Bowles, more well known simply as ‘Freddie’ to those who
knew him as the jovial bartender at the Malla Hotel. Freddie (1913-94) is
actually buried elsewhere in the valley, but his plaque in the British cemetery
serves to remind us of his wonderful character. It reads, in part: “Freddie,
the bartender bard... the first Englishman to become a Nepalese citizen and who
found his Shangri-la in Nepal”.
One of the more interesting graves is that of Mike Cheney (1928-1988): “In
loving memory of Micheal John Cheney 10th Gurkha Rifles and Friend of Nepal.”
(Was his name really ‘Micheal’, or is that a misspelling of Michael on the
stone?) In the British Army he rose to the rank of Captain in an artillery
regiment. After retiring, ‘Mike’ stayed on in Nepal working in the mountaineering
and trekking industry, with Himalayan Rover Treks, Mountain Travel and the
Sherpa Cooperative. Mike Cheney was a bit flamboyant, occasionally riding
through the streets of Kathmandu on his
bicycle, dressed in a Scottish kilt. His tombstone, too, is distinctive, the
most unusual in the cemetery. It has a white cross along with a miniature
Buddhist stupa all freshly painted when we saw it. And someone had thoughtfully
left a bouquet of fresh flowers.
Desmond Doig (1921-83) is also here. Born of Anglo-Irish parents in Calcutta, he worked for some time on The Statesman
newspaper, and later moved to Kathmandu. He
was well known in both cities as an artist and writer. While in Calcutta he wrote a biography of Mother Teresa (Mother
Teresa: Her People and Her Work, 1976) and in Nepal he co-authored a
mountaineering book with Sir Edmund Hillary (High in the Thin Cold Air, 1962).
As an artist he also published two books of nostalgic sketches of neighborhoods
and landmarks in both cities (Calcutta: An Artist’s Impression, 1976, and My
Kind of Kathmandu, 1994). His book, Look Back in Wonder (published posthumously
in 1995), relates his impressions from travels in Europe, Africa, Tibet and South Asia.
Although a main requirement for interment in the British cemetery is British
citizenship, there are exceptions. Robert Rieffel (1913-2000) and his wife,
Cécile (1913-85), for example, were French citizens. The Rieffels first came to
Nepal
when Robert served as the Air France representative. Later he became Managing
Director of Royal Nepal Airlines, and Honorary Consul-General for Belgium. Robert
published two books, Nepal Namaste (1975 and 1987) and Nepal:
Collection Les Grands Voyages (1978). The Rieffels expressed their wish to be
buried at Kapur Dhara and because they were such long time residents of Kathmandu and out of respect for Cécile’s dedicated
social work and, perhaps, for her closeness to the expatriate British
community, an exception was made. The Rieffels lie buried together amidst the
trees in the peaceful ambience of this unique resting place alongside so many
other
expatriates of the past.
We closed the gate behind us when we went out, leaving the deceased to ‘Rest in
Peace’, knowing, full well, that there are many more stories to be told.
i was hoping to find some history facts of Nepal and British but it is about a graveyard of early British settlers in Nepal and know one thing now-where the cemetary is? it is right behind where my friends used to rent a room while going to ASCOL.
From Trump “I will revoke TPS, and deport them back to their country.”
wanna be ruled by stupid or an Idiot ?
Sajha Poll: Who is your favorite Nepali actress?
अरुणिमाले दोस्रो पोई भेट्टाइछिन्
To Sajha admin
seriously, when applying for tech jobs in TPS, what you guys say when they ask if you have green card?
MAGA denaturalization proposal!!
How to Retrieve a Copy of Domestic Violence Complaint???
Nepali Psycho
advanced parole
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