Ash Bahadur Gurung and his male Springer Spaniel Turner
 Ash Bahadur Gurung and his male Springer Spaniel Turner  
Ash Bahadur Gurung

We knew Ash Bahadur already when he was only a 3 years old toddler. His nickname is Aite because he was born on a Sunday (Nepalese Aitebar). He is the first and only son of  the farmer Kul Bahadur Gurung amongst 3 elder daughters in Pahire Ward No.9. which is a beautiful hamlet just 10 minutes walk  away from the Sukumbhashi Settlement of Shyauli Bazaar.
His father
Kul Bahadur took a job at HRDSN as the lunch break cook for the local construction workers who were employed by us to build our staff quarter and all the other ongoing constructions, such as a small Hospital and our on the side school etc.

Ash Bahadur is the paternal grandson of the late and famous Shaman Ram Bahadur Gurung, a herbalist and healer of Shyauli Bazaar, who passed away in 1999. One year after the great Dhami Jhankri (Shaman) died, Ash Bahadur's father died  sudden and unexpected after a short and violent sickness.  The superstitious folks of the area where whispering around that the Shaman Ram Bahadur had called his only son to a new world to join him. Seven years old Ash Bahadur became the youngest Landlord of the Middim Khola Valley, being the only son of Kul Bahadur Gurung according to tradition of the Tamu people of Lamjung. ("Tamu" is the ancient name of the Gurung people) That was not an easy job for a 7 years old because in front of a dozen local Tamu-Shamans of other larger settlements along the Middim Khola Valley he had to pledge alliance to his family as their "head" and promise that his elder sisters and his mother "will receive his proper care and support  as long as he may live".

He followed his school years at Shree Ishaneshwar Higher Secondary School at ward no. 8 in near by Bhorletar-Lamjung and finishes SLC next month.  In September 2011 he will be 19 years old. Ash Bahadur takes his pledge as a local Farmer very serious and therefore he enrolled in our Academy already in June 2010 to make sure that he can keep an eye on his sisters and his widowed mother Soma Gurung.
Our first batch of Junior SAR Dog handlers