This play was originally written in Nepali as 'Agni Ko Katha' by Prof. Abhi Subedi. The setting of the play occurs at a Mahayana Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in the northern mountainous region of Nepal. The play unfolds the monks and nuns preparing for a religious dance. The rehearsal of serious dance goes on. A Bhikshu enters singing a Song. A monk of Bhikshu tells her to stop Singing a folk song as it does not coincide with the atmosphere of the Gumba or monastery. As the rehearsal is going on, news of a fire in the monastery Catches everyone's attention. A poet monk expresses that because the monastery's library has been burnt everybody's mind got burnt. Feelings written with great devotion got burnt. Memories of knowledge have been turned to ashes. All valuable religious lines, prayers dedicated to the Buddha have been reduced to ashes. Bhikshu Gyan tells Bhikshuni Purnima that he is leaving the monastery. There is some kind of attachment between the two pumima asks Gyan if he is leaving the monastery and going to his village to get married. Gyan replies that he is going Somewhere to sock the truth. Bhikshuni Purnima asks Gyan What the burning of the monastery meant. Gyan replies that a library ls not just a collection of books. A library is a place which could provide them with answer. Gyan tells her that a library is not herald that he should do something, such as, go to his village or Kailash, Kang-Rimpoehe, Mansarovar, etc. to find truth He might even live in a cave like Milarepa. Bhikshuni Purnima looks depressed. Gyan tells her that Nuns Should not feel that Way. He asks her if She Wants to go with him by leaving the monastery. She replies that the monastery is her world and she cannot contemplate leaving it without some serious purpose. After the fire in the monastery, the nuns have experienced a change, as if, Buddha's voice has been burnt. One nun remarks that when monks leave monastery' Buddha will protect them, but what about the nuns? It is not the some with the nuns, because of a male dominated society. Purnima replies that when nuns leave the monastery, everybody thinks they are sinners or are immoral. A singing nun enters the scene. The fire haunts all the nuns because they think it is a portent of some evil that may happen.

Meanwhile Gyan returns to his village. He enters a village monastery where three village damsels try to seduce him. They are like a seductress or enchantress and the monk Gyan runs for his life. Sometime later, the nun Purnima also comes there with another nun. They meet Gyan, who is surprised to see them. The two nuns also think of going to Kailash to find the answers to their questions. Purnima tells Gyan that after the fire in the monastery, there is so much unrest in everybody's mind. Due to the unrest and disorder, The Head Lama is coming to give a sermon. The HeadLama comes and tells Gyan that the journey he completed (he had completed the outer kora, i.e. circling of Kailash) is the book or the writing. That journey is his gyan, his words. Then he must blow his horn (kanglin),and together with the sound of that horn, they must meditate forpeace. Then all pray with a chorus of Om Mani Padme Hum (whichmeans Hail to the jewel in the lotus). Interpretation and analysis: Many years of the Maoist insurgency prompted Prof. Abhi Subedi, then chairman of T.U. Department of English, to pen 'Agni ko Katha', Which gives details of a fire thatbreaks out in a library of a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Northern Nepal. Abhi Subedi wants to drive home the message that the path of salvation and enlightment is not only renunciation, but also aesthetic awareness. The high degree of emotional attachment When Gyan leaves the first monastery is well portrayed. The nun Purnima feels the pangs of Separation. Where the monk Gyan's journey for truth ends, the journey of nun Purnima begins. The fire in the monastery is like a catalyst that brings different modes of imagination together. The fire may also imply the Maoist insurgency in Nepal or the growing dissatisfaction of Tibetans in China's occupation of Tibet. More than three dozen self-immolation or Tibetan monks and nuns shows the strong protest against the religious suppression by China in Tibet. Tibetans were forced to renounce their spiritual leader, the exiled Dalai Lama and profess loyalty to China.