The first time I met Dimantha D. Thenuwara was almost exactly two years ago, in 2023, when he caught a bus overnight across Sri Lanka to meet me and Aisha Gazdar at Ramani Corea‘s beach house in the north-west. He climbed up a tree branch and napped there in the mid-day heat, and offered to show us how he could eat bugs (no thanks, we said).
This man from the tropics had recently determined to climb K2 – the ‘savage mountain’ in northern Pakistan – and wanted to meet some Pakistanis. We’ve been in touch since. He has visited Pakistan and is even learning Urdu (search sapannews.com for ‘Dimantha’).
Next week, he’s headed to Nepal to summit the spectacular Mt. Ama Dablam, one of the world’s most challenging peaks. Sri Lankans have summitted Himalayan mountains before but Dimantha will also carry the Southasia Peace Action Network hashtag#Sapan logo on the flag he hoists, to highlight a mission he supports, to amplify the narrative of peace, dialogue, and regional cooperation and connectivity.
So he’s not just conquering a peak but also laying seeds of regional peace, as Sapan News Coordinating Editor Regina Johnson points out in her story about his journey.
The piece includes links to the other collaborations he has done with Sapan and with Pakistanis, including coordinating a trip of students from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture to Sri Lanka. We’ve included his itinerary and contact details in case friends in Nepal want to meet him while he’s there.
Check out Regina’s story on Sapan News:
Promoting regional peace, one mountain at a time
Filed under: Southasia | Tagged: #Amadablam, #AmaDablam #Pakistan, #amadablammountain, #ClouderOnThePeak, #healthcareit, #Himalayas, #Lifeatcsi, #milessherpa, #mountainclimbing, #Nepal, #NextPeakAwaits, #ngatenjisherpa, #SapanNews, #sherpa, #SouthasiaBetterTogether, #thesummitforce, #trekking #SouthasiaPeaceActionNetwork |
Journeys to democracy 
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