Over the Himalaya is a hidden valley. Surrounded by the 8,000 m-plus Annapurna range and the great peaks of Pisang and Chulu, the valley is wild and wonderful. Nomadic Tibeto-Burman people, moving across the mountains hunting and gathering food, found and settled the valley centuries ago.
Today, the Manangi people, with support from the late King Mahendra, have become prosperous traders, hoteliers, and businessmen. Many have moved down from the harsh and beautiful valley in north central Nepal down to Kathmandu.
The weather is dry and desert-like. The Annapurna range creates a rain shadow that stops the monsoon clouds from crossing over. This harsh climate ensured that the Manangi people never lost their nomadic roots. Horse-riding and archery were the most popular tools used by these people for gathering food, and these abilities continue to remain important for the community, and are celebrated each year with festivals.
The settlers did put down some roots, though, and took up agriculture, cultivating buckwheat, maize, and oats. There were herbs in the jungles, and sheep and yak could give milk and meat, and help transport goods from beyond the valley. The settlements grew more sophisticated, and so did the culture, festivals and architecture. Buddhist, Bonpo, and animistic traditions created traditions unique to Manang, or Nyeshang, as locals like to call it. And yet the people remained simple, hardworking, and generous, even in hardship. Along with the yak and sheep caravans, hard days, and tough journeys, tales of the Nyeshang people aso crossed the Annapurna.
Greatly interested, King Mahendra came to the valley in the ate 1950s and, seeing the hard life of the settlers, as well as their strength and determination, declared that the people of Manang need not pay the government duties if they wanted to import and export goods from Nepal. The people of Manang prospered, but as always such prosperity is a double-edged sword, threatening the traditional ways of communities.
However, unlike many cultures of the Himalaya, the Nyeshang people realized the need to preserve their ways, and fiercely protected their traditions. Today, deep within the mountains, in the hidden valley of Manang, survives a unique Himalayan culture fueled by horseriding, archery, yak and sheep caravans, trading, and many other things else that similar worlds have long stopped weaving into their day to day lives.
