“I’ve trained people in many countries but never in any place as beautiful as Nepal,” he said upon his arrival in Kathmandu after a recent training session in Pokhara.[break]
“It was spectacular! Mountains everywhere,” exclaimed Rowe, who teaches kendo, iaido and judo to his students in Nepal and occasionally trains the Armed Police Force.
Having trained the British soldiers, including the army, navy and the air force as well as the Royal Gurkha Rifles Brecon for about ten years, Rowe says he made up his mind to spend the rest of his life in Nepal -- if allowed -- after falling out with the dismal weather in England.
He was curious to visit Nepal after learning about the beautiful weather of the country from the Gurkhas and he finally landed here in 2010, although he had made a brief visit to the country in 2008 as well. “I will stay here as long as they keep me,” says Rowe, who says he has to renew his business visa every year at a cost of Rs 100,000. He is seeking ‘sports coach visa’ (non-tourist visa) but has not got it yet.
Although his trip to Nepal was impelled by desire, Rowe, who just turned 70 on Wednesday, has been providing selfless service to the Nepali people.
While he misses Christmas and his family of two sons and 22 grand-children and great grand-children who live in Watchet in South West England, he points out the three important things that he learnt from his religion - God, People and the Self.
He says, God comes first, whatever name you call him by, and the Self comes at the last. In between lies the People and this explains his selfless service to them.
“But there is no religion and no politics in my training because when God made us, we were all the same,” he says.
“When I left England, I had told one of my grand-daughters that I may never come back but do the best you can do,” he says, recalling his conversation with his grand-daughter Kimberley, who is now a national junior boxing champion.
“I liked the weather of Nepal and the attitude of people. Some come a long way to practice. People don’t go for training at six o’clock in the morning in England,” says Rowe, also known as ‘kaka’ among the locals.
Rowe, who says he was one of the four coordinators of the World Kendo Championship 2003, aims to prepare a Nepali kendo team for the next world championship.
“There is a space that needs to be filled,” he says, about his decision to lead the kendo team instead of judo.
He trains a group of young kids early in the morning at Swornim International School in Dhapasi, Kathmandu, twice a week while he teaches English language during the rest of the day.
While Rowe and the kids, braving the cold, are eager to learn the Japanese martial arts, what they are lacking is adequate facility for training.
“We need wooden hall to practice kendo because we do it with bare feet,” he says. “But there is only one hall in the whole country,” he adds, referring to the Multi-purpose Martial Arts Centre hall in Naya Bazar, Kathmandu, built with the Japanese assistance.
Showing a ground laid with some uneven bricks where they train in the chilly morning, Rowe says, “That’s the best that we have.” Rowe says that every school in the United Kingdom, starting from kinder garten, has sports hall. “Unfortunately in Nepal, sports comes last, education comes first,” he rues.
Rowe has 70 swords and 16 suits of armor for kendo, which he says were transported to Nepal by the British Army free of cost but all of them have been of little help without a proper hall for training.
He has been involved in kendo for the last 33 years, having learnt the art at a relatively late age of 37. His involvement in judo dates back even further behind as he learnt it at the tender age of 17.
“My first love is judo but I can’t do it now,” says Rowe, who has undergone two operations after getting injured in the game.
“I can still teach judo if someone asks for help but not the physical judo, only instructions,” he adds.
As far as his achievements are concerned, Rowe says, “I was not a big competitor. I did not win the European championship or other big events. But my students did,” he says soberly.
One of his students, Bhagawati Majhi, won silver medal in the First South Asian Sambo Championship held recently in Kathmandu. Although Majhi doesn’t learn sambo, she capitalized on the similarity of the Russian game with judo, which she learns occasionally from Rowe.
But there is still a lot more to go. Rowe still has daunting challenges as he intends to fulfil his goals. But he hasn’t lost hope. That’s what his efforts show.
Pointing out to one of his little students of Swornim School, he says, “Look, he is a rising star. I am a setting sun.”
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