Cultural & Heritage Tours

Nepal is not one culture

The census records 123 languages and over 140 ethnic groups in a country smaller than England and Scotland combined. There is no single Nepali culture to tour; there are several, separated by altitude more than by distance.

Broadly: Indo-Aryan Hindu communities in the southern plains, Newar civilisation in the Kathmandu Valley, and Tibetan Buddhist communities along the northern border. You can travel between all three in a week.

The Kathmandu Valley: Newar

The Newars built the valley's temple towns and their craftsmanship is the reason seven Monument Zones there are UNESCO-listed. What distinguishes Newar culture is the blending — their religion draws on Hinduism and Buddhism simultaneously in a way that does not resolve neatly into either, and the same festival may be celebrated by both.

Their metalworking, woodcarving and brick architecture are still practised. In Patan you can watch lost-wax bronze casting done the way it has been for centuries.

The northern border: Tibetan Buddhist

Along the Himalaya — Mustang, Manang, Solukhumbu, Dolpo — the culture is Tibetan. Monasteries, mani walls, prayer flags, barley and yak. In Upper Mustang the continuity is remarkable: because it was a closed kingdom until 1992, its Buddhist practice and its wall paintings survived a century that was destructive elsewhere.

The Terai: Tharu and the Buddha's birthplace

The southern plains are the least visited and least like the Nepal of the brochures. The Tharu have farmed this belt for centuries. Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, is here — a UNESCO site, a working pilgrimage destination, and an afternoon that recalibrates most people's sense of the country.

Travelling around the festival calendar

Nepal's festivals are not staged for visitors; they close the cities down. If your dates are flexible, plan around one.

• Dashain (Sept/Oct) — the longest and biggest, fifteen days, everything shuts.
• Tihar (Oct/Nov) — lights, and a day on which dogs are garlanded and honoured.
• Indra Jatra (Sept) — masked dances in Kathmandu Durbar Square and the chariot of the living goddess.
• Losar (Feb/Mar) — Tibetan New Year, best seen at Boudhanath.
• Tiji (May) — three days of masked dance at Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang.

Note that Dashain closes offices, shops and many lodges for a fortnight, which affects trekking logistics as well.

How we run these

With a guide who is from the community concerned wherever we can. A Newar guide in Bhaktapur and a Tharu guide in Chitwan give you a different conversation than a generalist, and the money stays local.