Remembering Kodari, another victim of the Nepal Earthquakes

Kodari devastated

Remembering Kodari, another victim of the Nepal Earthquakes
Kodari devastated

Back in September 2014 we crossed the border over the ‘Friendship Bridge’ from Tibet into Nepal at Kodari.

Friendship Bridge, Nepal (left), Tibet (right)

The Kodari I remember

I remember the chaos, friendly smiling faces and warmth (both physical from the humid air and emotional from the people) of this little one street town. It was quite a contrast to the authoritarian atmosphere we’d just experienced at the Tibetan border.

Friendly organised chaos, Nepal

Kodari clings to the mountainside between shear cliffs and a roaring river.

Farewell Tibet, Moutains of Memories
Chels'olla
Hookah Lounge, not...
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A major earthquake occurred in Nepal on 12 May 2015 at 12:50 pm local time (07:05 UTC) with a moment magnitude of 7.2–7.3, 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Kodari | May 2015 Nepal earthquake Wikipedia

The Aftermath

The images bellow are from a BBC news report tonight (05/17/2015). Kodari was near the centre of the quake aftershock and has been destroyed.

It is abandoned, as the threat from damaged buildings and unstable hills is just too great. They said the Chinese Army had crossed the border to help with the recovery, then showed diggers attempting to move rocks the size of buildings.

Kodari post 2015 earthquake BBC
Kodari post 2015 earthquake BBC
Kodari post 2015 earthquake BBC
Kodari post 2015 earthquake BBC

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be there during this, nowhere to run, and how many were injured or killed. There was no mention of that — just that many had fled to the hills — and no reports at all how Zhangmu, a similar town over the border in Tibet, had fared. Horrific.

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From Wikipedia: Zhangmu was evacuated after the 2015 earthquake. It was not resettled until 2019. No mention of injuries or deaths