Gorkha

October 25, 2011

This week I took a quick overnight trip to Gorkha, about half way between Kathmandu and Pokhara, along the ridge from Manakamana. Gorkha is most famous for the role it played in Prithvi Narayan Shah’s rein. For 27 years (ending in 1769), Gorkha Durbar (durbar=palace) was the launch pad for Shah’s eventually successful attempt to conquer the Kathmandu Valley. Immediately after he captured Kathmandu, Shah moved the capital there and Gorkha was pretty much forgotten. But it’s actually still a sizeable town, a nice change from the tiny hamlets around the valley I’ve been exploring lately.

To get to the Durbar, you have to climb 1500 stone steps up to a sharp ridge. It’s now an important religious site, since Shah was thought to be an incarnation of Vishnu (I have not been able to get a clear answer to whether Hindus decide people are reincarnations of Vishnu before or after they do something cool) and there is still a small army base inside. On my way up to the Durbar, there were a lot of people carrying recently sacrificed goats down the steps in plastic bags. I felt sad for the poor goats that had to climb 1500 stairs just to be killed. At least the Manakamana sacrifice victims got to ride a gondola up. There were also houses and shops all along the staircase and children evidently have to climb the steps every single day to get home from school. Makes the hill from 7^th to 9^th Ave on Sherman seem like cake.

I can definitely see why one would put a fort on the ridge above Gorkha. It seems very protected and the views were great, but I didn’t think the palace was actually all that impressive. It certainly didn’t seem like “the crowning glory of Newari architecture,” as Lonely Planet describes. (My theory is that they put so much effort into the staircase that by the time they built the palace they were all worn out.) In fact, at first I did not realize I was looking at the palace, I thought it might be just the guesthouse. Luckily, some of the army men stationed decided to set me straight and provide what may be my strangest Nepal tourism experience yet:

There were a ton of tourists and Nepalis around the Durbar but for some reason I caught the attention of the army, some of who decided to show me around. They however did not speak English, so my tour consisted of them commandeering my camera and pointing at things I should stand in front of so they could take my picture. Then they wanted me to take their picture; then they wanted pictures of us together. After about a 30-minute photo shoot, one of the men went to get the station commander, who spoke some English, to actually tell me what I was looking at. And then the army commander took me inside the base (past all these scary “no entry” signs) to see the palace’s helipad. Then I was invited for tea and a rest inside the army base. Ha. This is actually the second time I’ve been invited into an army base. The first was in Bardia—we were having lunch outside the army base inside the park and I trotted off to go use the restroom in the woods and the army man ran after me and told me to come inside the base and use their bathroom. First though, he had another army man clean the bathroom for me. Maybe this is not unusual for Nepal, especially since their military is not that active. I asked Gita what the army did now that the Maoist insurgency was over (there are still military stationed absolutely everywhere) and she responded that they are training. Still, I can’t imagine either of these two experiences happening in the States.

And some Gorkha pictures:

Goods delivery in Gorkha

Gorkha Durbar

Annapurna views

Me and one of my photographers