Explore The Western Hills
Despite its status as the cradle of the nation, GORKHA remains strangely untouristed, even though the 24km paved road up from Abu Khaireni makes it a relatively painless half-day’s ride from Pokhara, Kathmandu or Chitwan. Conscious of its tourist potential, the government has spruced up Gorkha’s main monuments, but the lower town remains a fairly ordinary roadhead bazaar.
As the ancestral home of the Nepali royal family, Gorkha occupies a central place in Nepali history. Hunched on the hilltop above the bazaar is its link with that splendid past, the Gorkha Durbar, an architectural tour de force worthy of the flamboyant Gorkha kings and the dynasty they founded. Unless you’re setting straight off on a trek or just finishing one, you’ll have to spend the night here. The Durbar and its agreeable surroundings can easily soak up a day, and hikes around the area could keep you busy for another couple.
Brief history
In a sense, Gorkha’s history is not its own. A petty hill state in medieval times, it was occupied and transformed into a Himalayan Sparta by outsiders who used it as a base for a dogged campaign against Kathmandu and then, having won their prize, restored Gorkha to obscurity. Yet during those two centuries of occupation, it raised the nation’s most famous son, Prithvi Narayan Shah, and somehow bred in him the audacity to conquer all of Nepal.
Prithvi Narayan’s ancestors came to Gorkha in the mid-sixteenth century, having been driven into the hills from their native Rajasthan by Muslim invaders, and soon gained a reputation as a single-mindedly martial lot. His father launched the first unsuccessful raid on the Kathmandu Valley in the early eighteenth century, and when Prithvi Narayan himself ascended to the throne in 1743, at the age of twenty, he already had his father’s obsession fixed in his mind. Within a year, he was leading Gorkha in a war of expansion that was eventually to unify all of present-day Nepal, plus parts of India and Tibet. Looking at the meagre terraces of Gorkha today, you can imagine what a drain it must have been to keep a standing army fed and supplied for 27 years of continuous campaigning. The hardy peasants of Gorkha got little more than a handshake for their efforts. After conquering the valley in 1769, Prithvi Narayan moved his capital to the bright lights of Kathmandu, relegating Gorkha to a mere garrison from which the later western campaign was directed. By the early nineteenth century, Gorkha had been all but forgotten, even as an alternative spelling of the name – Gurkha – was becoming a household name around the world.
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Why Prithvi Narayan didn’t conquer the world
Why Prithvi Narayan didn’t conquer the world
As a young man, Prithvi Narayan Shah is said to have prayed to the guru for success, and was answered in a dream (some say he came in person, and at this spot) by an old man who offered the young prince a bowl of curd. Haughtily, Prithvi Narayan let it fall to his feet (though some say he spilled it by accident), whereupon Gorakhnath revealed himself, saying that the future king would conquer everywhere he set his foot. If he had accepted and eaten the curd, the guru admonished, he would have conquered the world.
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Walks around Gorkha
Walks around Gorkha
The obvious destination from Gorkha is Manakamana. The old walking trail is increasingly ignored, now there’s a road, but you can still find the trail, starting from the unpaved side road off the main Gorkha road, 7km down from the town. It takes four hours to walk to Manakamana, and it’s easily possible to return via the cable car and bus the same day.
Longer routes can be found by taking the high trail through Hanuman Bhanjyang – this is the traditional start of the Manaslu Circuit trek. From the little pass, you descend gently for about ninety minutes to Ali Bhanjyang (where you can find tea and snack food); from here you can ascend along a ridge with fabulous views to Khanchok (about 2hr 30min). This would be about the limit for a day hike, but given an early start you could continue down to the subtropical banks of the Budhi Gandaki at Arughat, a long day’s 20km from Gorkha – and a third of the way to Trisuli. A rough road now connects Arughat to the town of Dhading, which is 21km up a surfaced side road from Malekhu, on the Prithvi Highway.
