Nepathya Tour, that started in the eastern city of Birtamode concluded in the Far-western city of Dhangadi with a power packed performance at the Dhangadi Stadium premises on Thursday.

The concert tour started in Birtamode on 20^th of November and travelled through Dharan and Butwal before reaching Dhangadi.

“This place reminds me of the conflict era we recently went through and the difficult travels we had to make during that time,” said Nepathya front-man Amrit Gurung. “This time I can see the city coming back to life by distancing itself from the effects of the conflict and moving towards prosperity.” He added.

This was Nepathya’s 4th performance in Dhangadi. Earlier, Nepathya had performed in Dhangadi as part of the Sundar Shanta Nepal peace concert tour in 2005 and three other performances as part of Nepathya’s Education for Peace concert tour.

Earlier, when Nepathya performed in Dhangadi, Nepal was drenched in Maoist Conflict and this far west district of Kailali was severely affected. The Sundar Shanta Nepal (Beautiful Peaceful Nepal) and Shantiko lagi Sikchya (Education for Peace) – travelling Peace concert tours were organized with the motive of providing some solace to conflict effected mindsets of the people.

The Dhangadi show of the 2005 Sundar Shanta Nepal concert tour was organized at the local Trinagar School, where separate block was allocated for students.

Amidst the thousands attending the concert in Dhangadi on Thursday, were also the then students, who had their first concert experience in 2005. The only difference was time, earlier they had enjoyed the show with their friends, and now they had come with their family members.

Bimala Bista was one of them. She was in grade 10 in 2005 and had attended the show with her schoolmates. Today, she was attending the show with her family including a 3 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. “The show brought back nostalgic memories of those school days. Remembering the fear we lived in, during that time, still gives me a chill,” recalled Bimala. “It was a time when people would refrain from moving around after dusk, let along gathering in numbers,” she added. She remembers the time when Sundar Shanta Nepal peace concert was organized in her school grounds. “When the peace concert was organized, the musicians had brought with them a sense of relief and I remember thousands of people had gathered in our school ground to support their call for peace,” Bimala further recalls. “Today I feel we are at peace and our lives are relatively fearless. I along with many people have come here with our children. It was an enjoyable experience and all of us enjoyed the show. This Nepathya experience helped me travel back through the memory lane.” she said. 

The Dhangadhi show started sharp at 5:45 with the projection of Nepathya’s popular music video Sa Karnali. The band took over the stage after that to enthrall the thousands present with two full hours of musical spectacular with a set list which included Nepathya’s classic hits to recent releases.

Amidst the audience was also a Dhangadi based journalist Nawaraj Dhanuk. He has been following all events happening in Dhangadi for many years now. “In addition to Nepathya’s performace, the sound, lights and visual projection all were brilliant.” Dhanuk said. “We experienced a show of this standard for the first time here in Dhangadi,” He added.

He also said, he had never seen people gather in such numbers earlier in Dhangadi. “I must admit, from performance and audience participation, this will remain a historic event for us.” Dhanuk commented.

A famous poet once wrote one of his popular poems on far-west Nepal. A line in it says, ‘Even the sun comes to the far-west, only to set’. Referring to those lines, Nepathya front-man, Amrit said from the stage, “With positive development taking over, I can see the feeling expressed in these lines is changing. We need to progress together.”

Gurung, also shared his trekking experience in the far-west and expressed appreciation to the many natural beauties, Sudur Pachim is blessed with. “I wish and I am confident, those natural wonders will get proper recognition and this state gets a tourism boost soon.” He said.

The show started with Nepathya’s first recorded song, Aaganai Bhari and cruised through popular classic hits like Chekyo chekyo, Jomsome Bazaar, Resham, Taalko Pani before concluding with powerful social and patriotic numbers Gaun Gaun bata Utha and Rato ra Chandra Surya.

The Dhangadi show was locally hosted and organized jointly by Dataaz events and Mansion Nepal. The tour is part of the band’s 25 years celebration.

“We had travelled the nation in times of pain and conflict amidst fearful mindsets. We are glad to revisit these places amidst joyous environment,” expressed Amrit after concluding the final show of the tour.