next photo

prev photo

When he first visited Mustang, a civilization in the Himalayan nation of Nepal situated in the highest altitude in the world in connection with his job at JICA as its fruit specialist in 1990, Toru Kondo was so much moved by its vulnerability to life that he decided to live there and do something for its people. Unable to be adamant to the honest but ignorant people of Mustang, Kondo decided to quit a retired life of luxury in Japan and founded Mustang Development Service Association (MSDA) a year after his retirement in 1993.

With his personal funds, Kondo not just established schools for the kids and hospitals for the sick but he kept working with the adults in their dry and barren farmlands until they turned out to be arable and fertile lands for fruits and vegetables. “My technology, snow melted water and a strong sun shine were all the land needed for the fruits and vegetables to grow. And all I did was that I amalgamated them together,” Kondo, 87, told this scribe after presenting his lecture on Mustang at the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C. last Monday. Kondo is on a private tour to USA before undergoing a scheduled surgery in Japan on October.

After the lecture, the author of three best selling books told the Nepalese community living in the USA to go to Mustang. By saying so he did not only mean to show them what he was doing but he meant them to do something for the people in Nepal who were languishing for support.

Lauding the contribution made by Kondo in Mustang, Rajendra Shrestha, an American of Nepali origin said on the same occasion that the Nepalese should learn from him that service to humanity was the best contribution one can make in life.

“We are proud that we have a Nepal lover like Kondo who in his late eighties is still active for the wellbeing of the Nepalese,” Ganesh L. Kayastha of Himalayan Elderly Care, INC. noted on the occasion.

Hundreds of Mustangi children today go to schools Kondo has established for them and the sick people get basic medicare facilities in the hospitals he has set up. The adults now not only consume the self produced fruits and vegetables, they also export them to food hungry towns of Pokhara and Kathmandu. Apart from launching special irrigation programs in various places, MSDA has so far opened over 60 schools, couple of hospitals in different locations and set aside a scholarship fund for intelligent students. The MSDA has also opened a technical training center, meteorological observation center and a blacksmith workshop center keeping in mind the needs of the people.

Asked why he chose Mustang as his destination for service, he said because the Nepal government never reached there to listen to the needs of the Mustangi people he had to reach them as they were doomed to live in the difficult terrain without basic amenities of life.

Kondo’s dream project of MSDA has been a household name in Japanese communities. There are 67 MSDA branches in Japan that raise funds for the project to run in Mustang which is also a tourist destination due to its wonderful terrain. “The money for my project comes from membership, donations and the royalty of the books I have written about my life in Mustang,” he said. Kondo has three best selling books on Nepal to his credit. Kondo visits Japan everywhere for the fundraising program during spring and autumn.

“It may sound baffling but the fact is that by listening to what I am doing for Mustang, senior citizens like me in Japan feel so obligated that they become more than happy to donate money for the success of the project,” Kondo said in an answer as to how he was generating fund for running such a multi-million dollar project alone.

Kondo’s future plans include educating all the Mustangi people and moving on to Tibet where he has witnessed similar suffering due to poverty and ignorance. Now, people of Mustang should be ready to go on. I can’t stay there for long.”

Kondo is worried about the negligence of Nepal government as it has not been doing anything about the land silt problem. “Treeless mountains in Mustang are falling and no one is serious about it,” he expressed his pain for the beloved Mustang.

Highlighting decades of Nepal-Japan friendly relations, Hiroshi Furusawa, director of Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington DC said Kondo’s initiative was the best example of Japan’s belief for international development through people to people contact. “This also displays Japan’s willingness to participate in the development endeavors for the betterment of the people worldwide,” Furusawa noted.