A walk along the Tamang Heritage Trail is a once in a life time experience of nature and ethnic culture

Following the unilateral ceasefire by the Maoists, tourist arrivals this season picked up. For the first time in the last couple of years, the hotels and lodges in the popular trekking circuits of Annapurna, Everest and Langtang region, were overbooked. The ceasefire had a great impact on tourist arrival and trekking industry this season.
This is a clear indicator that thousands of tourists have Nepal as their holiday destination in mind. But, they were deterred from coming here because of the prevalent violence.

In such a situation, it will certainly put a strain on the existing infrastructures for tourists. With larger number of tourists coming to the country, the common trekking trails will be overcrowded. Tourism entrepreneurs have now started to talk about the need for opening new trekking trails. There is also a need to develop and promote the trails that have been opened but not used because of the recession in tourism industry in the past.

In the present context, when the trekking agents have limited number of routes to offer for prospective trekkers, 'Tamang Heritage Trail' in Rasuwa offers an excellent option for those who fancy adventure, nature, culture and people. The trail that begins from Syaphrubesi – about 200 km northwest of Kathmandu – after a day’s bus ride can be trekked in three to seven days depending upon the requirement of the trekker.
The villages en route offer home-stay facilities. The visitors get to stay in the traditional Tamang houses built from stone and wood only as part of the family member. The villagers offer them with local food and drinks most hospitably. If the villagers are informed in advance, they also arrange for Tamang cultural shows to entertain the visitors.

With the support of Tourism For Rural Poverty Alleviation Program (TRPAP), a project of the government funded by international donors, houses are being developed as lodges where visitors are treated as part of the family member during their stay.
Such facilities are available in every village Goljung, Gatlang, Thambuchet, Chilime-Tatopani, Bungdang, Thuman and Briddhim. While some of the villages like Briddhim have almost every households trained for hospitality management and almost every houses turned to home-stay lodges, the infrastructure and training is ongoing in other villages.

Briddhim, which is close to the Langtang trekking circuit has been taken as a model of home-stay facilities. "I have begun to develop my house as a lodge with the hope that tourists would come," said Nangkang Ghale of Tatopani, Chilime VDC, who has just opened a home-stay lodge. "I will develop it further as more people start coming here."
Goljung is the first station in the trail. The village with clustered houses built from stones and woods only, is unaffected by any symptoms of modernism. The traditional Tamang culture is preserved in its most original form. The villagers perform cultural shows for the guests if they are informed about the arrivals in advance
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Their hospitality, simplicity blended with the natural beauty of the area enthralls everybody. The landscapes of the high reaching barren mountains, sparsely populated villages are the specialty of this area. Most of the places in the trail offer excellent views of mountain ranges of Nepal and Tibet from a very close proximity. Ganesh Himal, Shyangden, Kerung range of Tibet, as well as Langtang, and Gosaikunda range look spectacularly beautiful from various points of the trail.

Some of the places at high elevations have been developed as viewpoints by the support of the TRPAP, where the trekkers can rest while viewing the magnificent mountains.
Nagthali danda, at an altitude of about 3100 meters- the highest point in the trail- offers the best view of the mountains. Langtang Lirung, the highest mountain of Rasuwa, stands bold and confident, face- to-face from this high altitude plain. Other ranges like Ganesh Himal and Gosainkunda can also be viewed from a close proximity.

There is a hot water spring 'Tatopani' in Chilime VDC. The spring is considered to be the largest hot water spring of the country. Locals believe it to have healing power.
There is another hot water spring on the way to Timure. The specialty of this spring is that it changes its origin with seasons. This spring, however, is also in shambles. The spring does not even have a sign-post toilet the visitors know of its presence.
Likewise, the problem of sanitation is seen in most places. Pema Buti Tamang, social mobiliser of Timure VDC, concedes that they have not been able to do enough in terms of sanitation and cleanliness. "We know that our area is dirty and we know that visitors don't like dirty areas, but still sanitation has improved in our area. People here are not very aware in that context," she said.

In some places the development of infrastructures looks unbalanced and not well planned. While, there is no single proper toilet in the Tatopani – the place where the hotspring is, ten toilets-one each for each household -are being constructed at the nearby Bungdang village. The monuments at the historical Rasuwa fort are also in mess. The historical scriptures, a temple and monuments are not conserved. The fort bears a historical importance in the context of the Nepal-Tibet war. This is also the entry point of the traditional trade route from Nepal to Tibet.

Despite all the wonderful prospects and the promotional activities carried out by the TRPAP, tourists have not been visiting this trail. TRPAP has released promotional materials like brochures, postures and documentaries. However, apart from its own Fam (familiar) trips, there have been virtually no other trekking groups in these destinations. Locals informed us that there had only been two camping groups and no individual trekkers in the area.