Karuna Ratna Tuladhar

Karuna Ratna Tuladhar (Devanagari: करुणा रत्न तुलाधर) (23 October 1920 – 19 July 2008) was a pioneer of Nepalese public transport.[1] He was proprietor of Nepal Transport Service which he and his brother Lupau Ratna Tuladhar founded in 1959.[2][3] This was Nepal's first public bus service which linked the capital Kathmandu with the railhead of Amlekhganj, 190 kilometers to the south near the Indian border.[4][5]

Karuna Ratna Tuladhar in 1963
1959 model Chevrolet Viking bus of Nepal Transport Service shown in 1961.
Postage stamp showing Karuna Ratna and Lupau Ratna Tuladhar issued in 2012.

The same year, Nepal Transport Service also started the first local shuttle between Kathmandu and Patan (Lalitpur), one of the three cities in the Kathmandu Valley.[6][2]

Early life

Tuladhar was born at Dhalasikwa in Asan, Kathmandu, the second of three sons of trader Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar and his wife Dhan Maya. Pushpa Sundar owned a business house in Lhasa, Tibet which conducted trade between Nepal, Tibet and India, transporting merchandise over the Himalaya by mule caravan.[4][7]

Business in Lhasa

After a brief period of schooling under Jagat Lal Master, Karuna Ratna Tuladhar went to Lhasa and joined the family business.[8] He travelled to Tibet for the first time in 1934.[9] The journey at that time involved walking for two days, riding a vintage lorry and then a steam locomotive to the Indian border at Raxaul, followed by taking the Indian railway and a motorcar to Sikkim. From Sikkim, the merchants traveled by mule carvan to Lhasa which took 20 days. This trade route is an offshoot of the ancient Silk Road.

Tuladhar would subsequently make two more trips, spending a total of 17 years in the Tibetan capital.[9][10] In 1948, in between his second and third tours, he married Hira Shobha Tamrakar. He served as president of the Nepalese Chamber of Commerce, Lhasa in 1952.[11] He returned from Tibet for the last time in 1954 and managed the business from Kathmandu and Kalimpong in West Bengal, India, the start of the caravan route to Lhasa.[9][12]

Nepal Transport Service

Tuladhar decided to downsize his Tibet business and concentrate on home after Nepal's first highway Tribhuvan Highway opened to jeep traffic in 1956. After the road was improved to handle larger vehicles, Nepal Transport Service went into operation hauling freight with two Tata Mercedes-Benz trucks in March 1959.[2][13]

The company started passenger service in July the same year with a lone bus. Subsequently, its fleet grew to 11 Tata Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet and Bedford buses.[2][5] Its head office was situated at the family home at 122 Asan Tyouda Tol, Kathmandu.[14]

The initial years were profitable, but the company began racking up losses due to the long periods of downtime as major repairs needed to be done in India. Nepal Transport Service folded in 1966. Tuladhar died in Kathmandu in 2008.[15][16]

Postage stamp issued

On 31 December 2012, the Postal Services Department of the government of Nepal issued a commemorative postage stamp bearing portraits of Karuna Ratna and Lupau Ratna Tuladhar to honor their service to the nation. The stamp also shows a Chevrolet bus of Nepal Transport Service.[17]

  • Tuladhar (second from left) in 1932 class photo.
  • The Tuladhar home in Kathmandu.
  • Tuladhar's shop in Lhasa (ground floor).
  • Tuladhar on a BSA in Lhasa in 1954.

See also

References
  1. "First motorcycle importer to Tibet, Lhasa Newah passes away!". The Newah (नेपाल भासँ थःगु बिचाः प्वन्केगु हलिमे छगुहे जक नेवाः ब्लग्). 20 July 2008. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  2. Tuladhar, Kamal Ratna (26 September 2008). "Nepal took the bus half a century ago". The Kathmandu Post. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  3. Shrestha, Krishna. "Time For Comprehensive Urban Transport Policy". Gorkhapatra Online. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  4. Shrestha, Bijaya Lal (11 August 1989). "All Those Years Ago: A trip through the early days of bus transport", The Rising Nepal.
  5. "1959 Chevrolet Viking Bus – Nepal Transport". Classic Bus Depot.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  6. Poudel, Keshab (November 2003). "Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'". ECS NEPAL. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  7. Tuladhar, Prem Hira (2009) The Past Lives of the Buddha. Kathmandu: Hira Shobha Tuladhar. ISBN 978-9937-2-1497-1. Pages 9–11.
  8. Bajracharya, Himesh (16 June 2012). "Lhasa legacy". Kantipur. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  9. Tuladhar, Kamal Ratna (9 January 2010). "Merchants of yore". The Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  10. "The Vintage Motorcycle Pictures Gallery". Classic-Motorbikes.net. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  11. Tuladhar, Kamal Ratna (2011) Caravan to Lhasa: A Merchant of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet. Kathmandu: Lijala & Tisa. ISBN 99946-58-91-3. Page 107.
  12. Kalimpong. New Delhi: Nest & Wings. ISBN 81-87592-01-X. Page 20.
  13. Yoon, Sungoh. "Newar Merchants of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet". Tibetan Biographies. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  14. Bajracharya, Himesh (23 January 2010). "Bas Yatayatko 50 Barsha" [Fifty Years of Bus Transport]. Kantipur (in Nepali). Kathmandu. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  15. "Post staffer bereaved". The Kathmandu Post. 22 July 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  16. Sandhya Times (19 July 2008). Page 1.
  17. "Commemorative stamps issued". The Kathmandu Post. 1 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2013.


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