Younger generation turns to veganism in Nepal

When I was thinking about the topic of today’s episode, veganism in Nepal, it seemed oddly out of place. It’s not that being vegan is new in Nepal—historically many Hindus and Buddhists have not eaten meat or dairy products—but I was associating veganism with the emerging movement in the west, which probably more than anything else reveals the overwhelming reach of western culture. Of course, the basic diet is the same, but there are similarities and differences, noted in my chat with Suresh Prasad Sharma, Chair of the World Vegan Organisation—Nepal.

Both here and abroad the new wave of veganism is being led by young people, and shared and promoted on social media. It has various motivations globally: to eat more healthily, to reduce the impact on the planet of a diet that includes meat and dairy, and to prevent cruelty to animals. For Suresh, this last point is what transformed him from being a vegetarian into a vegan: the treatment of dairy cows. Somehow I naively thought that in Nepal the cow—which is worshipped by Hindus and protected in law—was always pampered by loving farmers on small family farms. According to Suresh that’s far from the truth.

One major difference between being vegan in Nepal and say in my home country, Canada, is that made-for-vegan products are hard to find. The ones that do exist can be out of the price range of many people who are contemplating giving up meat and dairy. Suresh says that work has begun to start making products like non-dairy milk and cheese, along with mock meat, in Nepal. Perhaps the project will have progressed so that these vegan substitutes will be on display at the Himalayan Vegan Festival , scheduled for September in Kathmandu and Bhutan. In any case, one thing that I like about this episode is that it contains lots of practical information about being, or becoming, vegan in Nepal.

A couple of notes before we start:

-Suresh mentions the word ‘ahimsa’ near the end of the episode, when discussing the Buddha and tourism. It is the Nepali word for non-violence.
-Also, earlier in our chat we discuss the number of Nepali vegans who are not getting vaccinated for Covid-19. Animal testing of vaccines is one reason for that opposition, says Suresh. Afterwards I confirmed that animal testing of vaccines did occur. I’ve put a few links to that info in the Resources section.

What do you think? Are you vegan, or thinking about making the move? Let us know if this chat was helpful and if you have any follow-up questions. You can find Nepal Now, or Nepal Now pod, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

My name is Marty Logan. I’m a long-time vegetarian but now thinking again about going vegan. I produce Nepal Now and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Resources

World Vegan Organisation—Nepal

Online Khabar article on veganism in Nepal

Animal testing of Covid-19 vaccines

Transcript

Speaker1: [00:00:07] Welcome to Nepal now. My name is Marty Logan. When I was thinking about the topic of today's episode, veganism in Nepal, it seemed oddly out of place. It's not that being vegan is new in Nepal. Historically, many Hindus and Buddhists have not eaten meat or dairy products. But I was associating veganism with the emerging movement in the West, which probably more than anything else, reveals the overwhelming reach of Western culture. Of course, the basic diet is the same, but there are similarities and differences noted in my chat with Suresh Prasad Sharma, chair of the World Vegan Organization Nepal. Both here and abroad, the new wave of veganism is being led by young people and shared and promoted on social media. It has various motivations globally to eat more healthily to reduce the impact on the planet of a diet that includes meat and dairy and to prevent cruelty to animals. For Suresh, this last point is what transformed him from being a vegetarian into a vegan. The treatment of dairy cows. Somehow, I naively thought that in Nepal, the cow, which is worshipped by Hindus and protected in law, was always pampered by loving farmers on small family farms, according to Suresh. That's far from the truth. One major difference between being vegan in Nepal and, say, in my home country, Canada, is that made for vegan products are hard to find here.

Speaker1: [00:01:45] The ones that do exist can be out of the price range of many people who are contemplating giving up meat and dairy. Suresh says that work has begun to start making products like non-dairy milk and cheese, along with mock meat in Nepal. Perhaps the project will have progressed so that these vegan substitutes will be on display at the Himalayan Vegan Festival, scheduled for September in Kathmandu and Bhutan. In any case, one thing that I like about this episode is that it contains lots of practical information about being or becoming vegan in Nepal. A couple of notes before we start. Suraj mentions the word ahimsa near the end of the episode when discussing the Buddha and tourism. It is the Nepali word for non-violence. Also, earlier in our chat we discussed the number of Nepali vegans who are not getting vaccinated for COVID 19. Animal testing of vaccines is one reason for that opposition, says Suresh. Afterwards, I confirmed that animal testing of vaccines did occur and I've put a few links to that info in the resources section. And now please listen to my chat with Suresh Prasad Sharma. Suraj Prasad Sharma, Welcome to Nepal podcast.

Speaker2: [00:03:05] Thank you for inviting me and giving me opportunity to share my experience.

Speaker1: [00:03:13] I read a really good article from online onlinekhabar from last year that talked about veganism in Nepal and it mentioned many reasons why people become vegans, which I'm sure you know very well. There is a group of people who are really concerned about animal welfare and cruelty to animals. Other people are concerned about the planet and global warming and other people are more interested in personal health reasons. Can you tell me, is there a particular like is there a main reason why people become vegans? Or do you find that it's a mix?

Speaker2: [00:03:54] It is a mix. It is depend on like people's personal interest or personal benefits. Some people going vegan because of health benefits. Some people going vegan because of global warming and some people going vegan for the animals. So mixed reasons to go vegan in Nepal.

Speaker1: [00:04:22] Okay. Okay. Now, I lived here until 2010 and then moved back in 2016. And the first time I lived here, I didn't see very much evidence. I'm sure there were already vegans in Nepal then, but you didn't see or hear much about it, and it seems to be much more evident now. You're seeing restaurants and you're just hearing more people becoming vegan and more people talking about veganism. Do you know why that's happening and am I right? Is there a much more growth recently?

Speaker2: [00:04:57] Yeah. If you see veganism everywhere is growing in Nepal. Also like we have a very good population of vegetarian people, but vegan people were only few. But because of the like animal trading and global warming, other causes. Now veganism is growing in Nepal and everybody knows about the veganism and most of the people before they don't know about difference between vegetarianism and veganism. That was also the problem. Now, yes, in Nepal, in few years, like in 4 or 5 years, veganism is growing very fast.

Speaker1: [00:05:46] And do you find that it's mostly younger generation that's becoming becoming vegan, or is it all age groups?

Speaker2: [00:05:54] Yeah. If you compare with the older generation, younger generation are more vegan now because they are using social media. They know the cruelty from the social media and they got the all the information from the social media. So we are getting young people going to vegan in Nepal, especially like students. They are changing their diet and they are accepting plant based lifestyle.

Speaker1: [00:06:30] Right. Okay. Now, I have to confess, I've been a vegetarian for 25 years plus, but I always thought that going vegan would just vegan would just be too difficult. You know, you have to work so much harder. Whereas if you're a vegetarian, then, you know, protein you can get quite easily if you eat dairy. Et cetera. Et cetera. Do you find people coming to you with the same sort of approach, or is that an old way of thinking?

Speaker2: [00:07:00] Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Now you can get everything, every products, even in Nepal you get. And vegan diet is the healthiest diet. Everybody knows about it and you will get all the proteins, calcium, everything from the plant. So we are getting all the things like for the protein you can get from the tofu. Tofu is easily available. You can get soya milk, you can have different kind of spinach, you can have vegetables. So this is very easy in Nepal, like our national disease. Dalbeth So our food is 100% vegan friendly, that's why. No problem. Very easy to be vegan in Nepal.

Speaker1: [00:07:54] One thing I noticed about the West is that there are lots of processed vegan foods. Like I really like cheese. So I very quickly learned that there's this this vegan cheese and there are many more kind of processed foods and there is some question about how healthy those are for you. Do you find that vegans in Nepal are also attracted to those kind of foods or, as you say, is it more kind of natural organic foods that a vegan would eat here in Nepal?

Speaker2: [00:08:29] Yeah, that is the human nature. Like everybody, like the tasty food, like we say, vegan junk food that is not good for health. In Nepal. We don't have so many restaurant and we are not getting like most of the junk food here, even just started in Nepal. Still, we have a healthy and whole grain organic, natural plant based food.

Speaker1: [00:08:58] Okay. And would you recommend to people that they first become vegetarian as a as a first step and then become vegan? Or should you just go and try to be vegan from the start?

Speaker2: [00:09:10] It is dependent like people's thinking. Some people, when they realize they turn immediately vegan, some for some people takes time. So I, I suggest if people are already vegetarian, then very easy to go vegan. Just they have to quit dairy products for non vegan people. They have to stop meat and dairy product all things. So it takes time. So normally if my suggestion is when you decide you have to start like if you are having meat seven days, then you have to stop. You can start like in a week, one day, then slowly, slowly you have to take the time. Then body will adjust their diet. Then that will be easy. Sometimes if you stop immediately, then your body react. So my suggestion is first you can become a vegetarian, then vegan. That will be easy because I was vegetarian. Then I turn to vegan.

Speaker1: [00:10:19] And if you don't mind me asking, why did you go from vegetarianism to vegan? What was the thing that pushed you to make the change?

Speaker2: [00:10:26] I became vegetarian in I was nine years old. I did not saw the diets killing the animals. So when I saw that killing, then I became vegetarian. I was thinking like in Nepal, we don't have animal farming and we treat animal is our family. So I was thinking that time like dairy product is not a cruelty in Nepal. But when I realized and I saw like a calf on the street in Kathmandu and I knew the truth about the dairy farming, then I turned to vegan.

Speaker1: [00:11:13] Okay. So you're saying that dairy farming is not this idyllic picture that we have in our head, which is a farmer somewhere in his very small land who has 1 or 2 cows and and looks after them very well, treats them like like pets. You're saying that there is an industry that treats cows cruelly also here in Nepal? Yes.

Speaker2: [00:11:37] Yes. Because animal farming is growing. Like when I was a child, like that time animal treating and now is totally 100% different. And if you see every villages, they have a farming and they are doing artificial, pregnant and torture, they are not getting natural food. And now even in Nepal is not good for the even dairy also. So we have to be vegan.

Speaker1: [00:12:09] Okay. And I saw your website and it's very, very colorful and has lots of information, very updated. You were saying earlier that a lot of young people are getting into veganism. So are you on social media? Do you find that to communicate with people you need to be on Twitter and Instagram and TikTok and things like that? Yes. Yes.

Speaker2: [00:12:32] Yeah. We are getting very young people in social media. They are using and they are sharing knowledge about veganism, animal welfare and like global warming, bad effects. So people are aware about about that.

Speaker1: [00:12:52] And those people who you're interacting with, say, on social media, what are the main questions that they have for you?

Speaker2: [00:13:00] Most of the people are Hindu here. So most of the people ask me about about the dairy product. Lord Krishna also accepted that this is very precious thing in Hinduism. That is one question everybody asking. I'm giving examples like Lord Krishna's time. If we see the population that time, animal population are higher than main population. So they used to live in forest and they used to have like more animals, then they just take the milk. Then that time animals has a freedom. But now, like if you see in Kathmandu, one cow, they have that one cows milk. Uh, delivering in 20 houses like that is not good thing. So people asking about me, most of the discussion and some people ask about like how we get the protein and calcium like vitamin B12. These are the common question we are getting.

Speaker1: [00:14:14] Yeah, and those are some things that I've also had to ask myself being vegetarian. So in the West there's this belief that some vegans anyway, not certainly not all, but some vegans are almost militant in the way that they kind of aggressively, if I can use the word preach being vegan, they don't only say that I'm vegan, but they really try to promote it aggressively and try to persuade other people and sometimes are seen to be attacking people who are not vegan because they're, you know, they're being cruel to animals or they're not taking the welfare of the planet into account. Do you see that happening here as well? Or are people in Nepal who are vegan and becoming vegan, are they more relaxed and more accepting about it?

Speaker2: [00:15:07] Yeah. In Nepal, if you see vegan activist, we are more open minded. We don't believe in forcing to people. So our duties, we have to share the knowledge about benefit of the veganism. So we have to aware about that. And people have a choice. They want to be vegan or not weaken. That is their choice. And it takes time. Like turning vegan is not easy. So when you think veganism is good, that is one step. When you stop meat, like if you are having seven days and you stop for two three days, that is second step. So if we convince people and if we listen their problem, then that is easy to turn vegan. If you go aggressively that way of activism, some people do that but don't believe in aggressive activism. So we have to convince people, we have to listen their conscience. Then we have to share our experience and ideas and knowledge about veganism. From this way, people can turn vegan easily, and this is the positive way, I believe.

Speaker1: [00:16:30] Another question I have is there are some vegans in my neighborhood, some younger people, and I've noticed that some of them I've met are also anti-vaccine. They don't believe in, at least for the COVID 19 vaccine. They're not believers and they haven't got the vaccine. Is this something you're hearing among other vegans as well?

Speaker2: [00:16:55] I'm hearing from my friend Circle. Also, some people, they are not having vaccine. But in my personal opinion also, this is not important for the government. And you have to travel and you have to do work. Health is most important. That's why I did vaccine. So some people are not using. Yes, that is true.

Speaker1: [00:17:23] And I'm guessing it's because of health issues, because they're so concerned obviously, about their health. They think that putting a vaccine in their body would not be healthy. Is that what you're hearing?

Speaker2: [00:17:34] Yeah, that is not healthy. One thing and some people like think when a vaccine developed, then they test in animal. That's why also some people, they don't want to vaccinated.

Speaker1: [00:17:51] Right. Okay. I didn't think about that. Do you know if that's true that they test vaccines on animals?

Speaker2: [00:17:58] I think they do, because first they do in animals, then they do trial vaccine in some people. Then W.H.O. gave the certificate. Then they do vaccine for the all people. And this is new vaccines. And because of that, also, most of the people, they don't do vaccines. Even they don't take medicine. Some vegans.

Speaker1: [00:18:25] Right. Okay. So I see that there's some restaurants have opened, some vegan restaurants have opened fairly recently. There's one in my neighborhood here. And I've also seen online someone is advertising a cookbook of Nepal vegan recipes. What would make life easier for people to become vegans? Like what is missing in Nepal that would help people make the transition to veganism.

Speaker2: [00:18:54] And most of the like non-vegetarian people. They missed meat. We have vegan products, but these products are more expensive because of this product imported from different countries. So we are trying to make like this product in Nepal, so that will be easy. We are trying to teach people how to make milk and make meat other supplements for veganism. But some people have no time. So we are trying to focus on establish one at least vegan product company here so people will get vegan products in cheapest price. And in Nepal most of the people use dairy. So dairy product is missing one thing and obviously non-vegetarian people miss the meat. So we have to produce mock meat here in Nepal. So we have tofu other like all plant based food that is not problem for like processed food. We don't have cheese. So dairy product, most of the people are missing when they go to vegan.

Speaker1: [00:20:10] Okay. Yeah, that certainly makes sense. I remember when I lived in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, there were a few Chinese restaurants that made vegetarian, that made mock meat products. They tasted quite similar to the actual products, and I think they were quite popular. Personally, I don't eat them and I don't find that I need to eat them. But I certainly understand that a lot of people do miss those particular flavors. So it would be really interesting to see what kind of business you would do manufacturing these products here in in Nepal.

Speaker2: [00:20:48] Yes. For me, like if people say mock meat, that is not a good idea when you quit the meat. So no need to remember that words or like that supplement for transitional people, that is very important. When they quit the meat, then they need same kind of taste but cruelty free. So for transitional period, that is very important. And we are trying to establish like dairy products, mock meat sees these kind of product. Here we are having Himalayan vegan Festival in September, so we are approaching to international company, vegan International Company also. They will come here, then they will show their product so people get easily all the products here. That is our focus now.

Speaker1: [00:21:49] Okay, that's really interesting. And I'm going to keep my eyes open to see how that goes. I'm glad you mentioned the festival because I saw that on your website. It's going to be here in Kathmandu, right?

Speaker2: [00:22:00] Yeah. This Himalayan vegan festival going to be in Kathmandu and Thimphu. Bhutan. We are organizing in two countries, Nepal and Bhutan. So from September 15th, 16, 17 will be in Kathmandu and 1819, 20th September will be in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Speaker1: [00:22:21] Okay, great. And so I'm guessing there will just be lots of different types of foods on display that you can taste, that you can buy and maybe other vegan products as well that people can see.

Speaker2: [00:22:33] Yeah, the Himalayan Vegan Festival is vegan history, History in the Himalayas, family friendly, educational, fun and free event. This festival is organized by local vegan activists and supported by vegan activists from around the world. So we are trying to make ritual oriented program and festivities there and giving practical knowledge. That is our goal.

Speaker1: [00:23:02] Okay. Well, best of luck with that. Final question. If the interest in veganism continues to grow in the future, as it's been doing recently, what would you say would be the biggest benefit for Nepal as a country?

Speaker2: [00:23:18] Is a country. Nepal is the tourism country. If, like most of the people visit Nepal for the sea, the mountains and natural beauty. So vegan people like natural places and they can have more plant based food here. When more people will be vegan here. Nepal is the birthplace of Lord Buddha, so IMSA started from this country and environment point of view also like we have a mountains because of the global warming, our snow mountain getting darker and darker. So we know like global warming effects, if people will go vegan, then that message will spread from the Nepal and Nepal will save the globe because mountains are here and Nepal will be the vegan friendly destination, an a tourism country.

Speaker1: [00:24:21] Okay, that's a really good point. I didn't ask about that. I'm glad you brought it up that it can kind of create a niche for tourists who come if they see that. I mean, obviously lots of people are already come to Nepal for nature, but if they also see that it's vegan, a vegan friendly country, then that will attract even more people. Yeah. Okay. That's great. Thank you very much. Yes.

Speaker2: [00:24:45] Thank you for giving this opportunity to share about veganism in Nepal. And we would like to invite all of you to join in celebrating this grassroot history making event in the heart of the Himalaya at the largest vegan festival ever in Nepal and Bhutan Himalayan Vegan Festival. Please save the date from September 15th, 1617. Nepal 18 1920 will be in the Thimphu 2022.

Speaker1: [00:25:22] Okay, great. Thanks again, Suresh. I'm really glad that you were able to fit me in. I know you're traveling, but thank you for taking the time and sharing some of this information with us.

Speaker2: [00:25:32] Thank you. Thank you for giving this opportunity.

Speaker1: [00:25:38] Thanks again to Sudesh Prasad Sharma for talking about the current state of veganism in Nepal. What do you think? Are you vegan or thinking about making the move? Let us know if this chat was helpful and if you have any follow up questions. You can find Nepal now or Nepal now. Pod on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. My name is Marty Logan. I'm a long time vegetarian, but now thinking again about going vegan. I produce Nepal now and I'll talk to you again soon.