Janto's statue enhances identity, beauty of Jante

By Our Correspondent,Urlabari, Mar. 11: Jante was one of the village development committees in Morang district before half of it was amalgamated with three other committees – Letang, Warrangi and Bhogateni – to form present Letang Municipality and another half to form Miklajung Rural Municipality in 2017.

Since then, locals of Jante were trying to make others know their identity as the entire VDC’s name was now limited in wards of two separate local levels. This was what inspired them to build a statue of janto, Nepali name for quern-stone, in Jante Park situated in Ward No. 9 of Letang Municipality. 

The village was named "Jante" referring to the excessive use of jantos to crush different crops and cereals in the area. In 2009, Jante locals had organised a Maha Yagya to celebrate the centenary of the establishment of Jante village.

Locals had planned to inaugurate the Jante Park during Visit Nepal 2020; however, it was stalled for three years due to the lack of enough budget and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The locals, who have lived with the quern-stones for over a century, have constructed a statue of Janto to keep their identity intact. 

Senior citizens of the village said that Jante lies beneath the hills and was a mine of stones from which jantos were prepared and used for over a century.

The locals said that they have been using jantos in their everyday life. 

Jante village lies nine-kilometre north from the East-West Highway from Pathari Chowk. Named as Dharmik Chowk, the place welcomes the visitors to the village with a welcome gate. The park has been constructed at the same chowk. 

Before the road reached Jante from Pathari in 1995, people had to travel 6-km north to Letang from Kanepokhari for lack of bridge to cross one of the three rivers which surround the village. 

Now, with the construction of bridge following the expansion of the Madan Bhandari Highway, Jante has become accessible for many domestic tourists. The park and its statue are expected to keep the identity of the village alive.

The statue of janto constructed in the park is expected to be the world's tallest statue of a quern-stone. It has been constructed after the Koshi Province government provided a budget of Rs. 1 million.

The villagers had also contributed volunteer work worth Rs. 400,000 for the park construction. 

"The park has an area of 10 dhurs. The statue has been constructed within a circle with a five-feet in diameter. The lower stationary stone of the statue is 1.5-feet in length and the upper mobile stone has a width of 15 inches. Similarly, the bell, which is in the centre, is made from two-kilogram iron and the janto also has a wooden handle," said Bimal Limbu, chairman of the Janto Park Construction Committee.