The Key to Mustang

Manjushree Thapa is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, and has produced several works of literary translation. Her essays and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, the Globe and Mail and elsewhere. Her latest novel is All of Us in Our Own Lives.

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It is time to open up the "Forbidden Kingdom", so that it, like Lower Mustang, can benefit from tourism and development.

Lower Mustang, home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom, has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the "Annapurna Circuit," pilgrims to Muktinath, and apple farming.

In contrast, the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang, the ancient kingdom of Lo, live much as their forbearers did for centuries, farming in the spring, taking their animals to high pastures in the summer and engaging in trade in the winter.

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Himal Southasian
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