A journalist’s scholarly research takes the long view on a small country’s foreign relations, even as it often finds itself caught between two neighbourhood giants
A Personal Account of Border Crossing Reveals the Deep Ties Between Nepal, China
An excerpt from All Roads Lead North: Nepal s Turn to China book sheds light on how the neighbouring countries moved close to each other in the past few years, with implications for geopolitics.
Rasuwagadhi border. Photo: Special arrangement
World17/Mar/2021
At Rasuwagadhi border crossing, which Chinese maps from the 1792 war call âResoqiaoâ or âIron Chains Bridgeâ, dust is the norm. The walls of the fort where Gorkhali soldiers held off the Qings in a three-day battle were rebuilt by the Nepal Army after it collapsed during the 2015 earthquake. The regionâs delicate geology has been further destabilised by the earthquake. Landslides are commonplace; in Timure, about 3 km from the border, a yellow house is submerged in a sea of mud, a macabre memorial to the nine people who died in a landslide here in 2018.