Lamu Amatya (; 27 January 1932 – 1 June 2012) was the first Nepalese trained–nurse. She received her nursing degree in 1954 and started working in 1956. In 2017, the Ministry of Health and Population of Nepal certified and declared her as the first Nepalese nurse posthumously. Her son

Yogeshwar Amatya Yogeshwar Amatya (born Yogeshwor Prasad Amatya, 3 April) is a Nepali singer, musician, producer, actor, social activist, and photographer. He has sold more than 1 million records, making him one of Nepal's best-selling music artists and the b ...

, a popular Nepalese singer and musician, accepted the certificate on her behalf.

Early life and education

Amatya was born as Lamu Palden on 27 January 1932 (14 Magh 1988 BS) in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. When Lamu was very young, her mother died. Her father Sirdar Karma 'Paul' Palden was a mountaineer. Palden was originally from

Solukhumbu district Solukhumbu District ( ne, सोलुखुम्बु जिल्ला , Sherpa: , Wylie: shar khum bu dzong) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. As the name suggests, it consists of the subregions Solu and Khumbu. ...

. He was the porter and interpreter of the mountaineers

George Mallory George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. Born in Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester ...

and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine during the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition. Later, Karma moved to Darjeeling, which was a major mountaineering hub at that time. After the death of Lamu's mother, Karma remarried. Lamu was sent to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

for her education, where she grew up. She received her nursing degree from Kolkata Medical College in 1954.

Marriage

Lamu Amatya met her future husband, Bhuwaneshor Amatya, in Kolkata, while she was training as a nurse. Bhuwaneshor Amatya was studying dentistry in Kolkata. One day he had gone to Calcutta Medical College for his leg treatment, there he met Lamu and fell in love with her. Bhuwaneshor Amatya then frequently visited her. They married in 1953. After completing her nursing degree in 1954, they returned to Nepal and she became a

naturalised citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of Nepal.

Nursing career

During the time, Amatya came to Kathmandu, the

maternal mortality Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...

was very high in Nepal. Indra Rajya Laxmi Shah, the wife of

King Mahendra Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev ( ne, श्री ५ महाराजाधिराज महेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह देव; 11 June 1920 – 31 January 1972) was the King of Nepal from 13 March 1955 until h ...

had also died during childbirth in 1950. Mahendra heard about the arrival of Amatya in Kathmandu and met her. He asked her to open a nursing school in Kathmandu. So, on 13 March 1956 (30 Falgun 2032 BS), Amatya opened the first ever nursing school in Nepal by renting a building in Chhetrapati. The Nepal Nursing Association was also established under Lamu's leadership.

First Nepalese nurse title

The first Nepalese nurse title was debated for a long time between her and Uma Devi Das. On 30 April 2017 (7 Magh 2073 BS),

Gagan Thapa Gagan Kumar Thapa (born 19 July 1976) is a Nepali politician and youth leader, who is the current General Secretary of the Nepali Congress. He is currently serving as a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives, Nepal from Kathmandu ...

, the then Minister of Health and Population declared Amatya as the first nurse of Nepal. Both Amatya's and Das' family had provided evidences regarding the claim to the title of first ever Nepalese nurse, and Amatya was decided based on those evidences. The title and certificate was provided to Amatya posthumously. Yogeshwar Amatya, Lamu Amatya's son received the official certificate on her behalf.

Personal life and death

She died on 1 June 2012 (19 Jestha 2069 BS), due to

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. Her son

is a popular Nepali singer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amatya, Lamu 1932 births 2012 deaths People from Darjeeling Nepalese nurses Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata alumni