Gorkha

Nepal was assembled from this hilltop. Prithvi Narayan Shah was born in the palace above Gorkha town, inherited a small hill principality, and over twenty-five years took the Kathmandu valley and most of what is now Nepal. He entered Kathmandu in 1769. The country’s name for its army, its dynasty until 2008, and the word Gurkha all come from here.

Almost no foreign visitors stop. The town is four to five hours from Kathmandu on a road that most people take to Pokhara, and the turn north is easy to miss.

Gorkha Durbar

The palace sits on a ridge at about 1,500 metres, roughly 300 metres above the town, and you get there by climbing steps. There are around fifteen hundred of them and it takes an hour at a steady pace, more in the heat.

It is a single long building combining a palace and the Kalika temple, in Newar style (carved struts, gilded roof), built by craftsmen brought from the valley the Shahs would later conquer. Non-Hindus can walk the terraces and the courtyards but not enter the Kalika shrine itself. There is a cave below where Gorakhnath, the yogi the town is named for, is said to have meditated.

The view from the top runs along Manaslu, Himalchuli and Ganesh Himal, and down over the Daraundi valley.

The earthquake

The epicentre of the April 2015 earthquake was in Gorkha district, at Barpak, about forty kilometres north of the town. Roughly nine thousand people died nationally and a great many of the district’s villages lost most of their houses.

The Durbar was damaged badly and has been repaired. Villages in the district are still in the process of rebuilding a decade on, and much of the new construction is concrete rather than the stone and mud that failed. Anyone coming here should understand they are looking at a place still in recovery rather than a heritage site that happens to be old.

There is a memorial and a museum in the town covering the Shah dynasty, in the old Tallo Durbar below the hill.

Manakamana

Half an hour back down the highway, a cable car climbs from Kurintar to the Manakamana temple in about ten minutes, replacing what used to be a three-hour walk up. The goddess there is believed to grant wishes, and it is one of the busiest pilgrimage sites in Nepal, packed with Nepali families, almost no foreign visitors, and completely different in feel from anything on the tourist circuit.

Goats are brought up for sacrifice and killed in a designated area beside the temple. This is normal practice at many Hindu shrines in Nepal and it is not hidden. If it would distress you, go elsewhere.

Manakamana on a Saturday or a festival day involves long queues for the cable car. Any weekday morning it is straightforward.

Walking from here

Gorkha is the traditional starting point for the Manaslu Circuit, and the old approach walked north from here for several days before the road reached Arughat and then Soti Khola. Most treks now drive that section.

Shorter walks out of the town go through Gurung and Magar villages on the ridges either side, and there is no permit needed for any of them.

Practical things

• Accommodation is basic. A handful of guesthouses in the town and one or two better places on the hill. This is not a place with a tourist infrastructure.
• Water and a hat for the steps. There is a drinks stall partway up and not much else.
• Cash only, effectively.
• English is limited outside the guesthouses, more so than anywhere in the valley.