Kathmandu Kite Compact

There is a story that many, many years ago, there was a court official, who went to China and was intrigued by the kites there. He sent one back to a nephew, who fell in love with the kite and flew it every day. Soon others copied the design and the sky was filled with kites.

The birds of the valley started having a hard time. The kites got in the way of their feeding and flying. They ended up injured and starving. So they attacked the kites. This made the kite flyers angry.  Soon there was an all out war.

Finally the king of the valley called  both sides in to talk. He told them they were not leaving until it was settled. So the spokesmen for the two sides... the nephew and an owl... along with the king went into a separate room and hashed out a plan. 

The solution was that during a certain time of the year... about a month on either side of Dashain..humans could fly their kites and the birds would give way to them. But during the rest of the year, birds had the airways to themselves. 

So today I am thinking of getting myself  a kite, because I can actually  go fly it!