The forest does not open until the Nawa says so

Solukhumbu · Nauche market square, Namche Bazaar, Solukhumbu, Nepal

“The park office can fine you. The Nawa can close the wood. Those are not the same job.”

Ang Phurba served as Shingi Nawa — wood custodian — in the Khumjung–Namche rotation. He will tell you the Nawa system is older than Sagarmatha National Park (1976) and older than the UNESCO listing (1979). Nawa means authority. Each year the village assembly, Worshyo, chooses households to enforce di, the customary rules, and collect najang, the fines. There are two offices: Shingi Nawa opens and closes the forest for firewood, leaf litter, and timber; Lothok Nawa sets when yaks may graze, when grass may be cut, and when crops are safe from herds coming down too early. Even with a park post in Namche, he says, a family still asks the Nawa before a tree comes down inside the village jurisdiction. The Buffer Zone programme has paid Nawas a small stipend since 2002, which he treats as respect, not a salary that replaces the assembly. He remembers years when younger relatives had to stand in because the named household was too old and the children were in Kathmandu or on expedition — the rotation only works if someone is actually on the hill. Above Khumjung sits Khumbila, Khumbi Yul Lha, the local protector peak. Khumbu is also spoken of as a beyul, a hidden valley Guru Rinpoche set aside. Killing inside a beyul is avoided; certain groves are kyaksing, restricted, where cutting or hunting is prosecuted under the same thim the Nawas keep. Sacred springs and lu sites — Namche's own Lumu chuwa Nauche among them — are on the same mental map as the Saturday market. Trekkers photograph prayer flags and move on. Ang Phurba's instruction is practical: if you want dead wood or a picnic fire off the lodge terrace, ask who this year's Nawa is before you ask the lodge owner. The forest has an opening day. It is not printed on your permit.