Second trekking location of note within the Nepal Himalayas is still the Annapurna Circuit, from Pokhara across the Marsyangdi River area for the invisible Manang area north of the fish tail mountain of Machapuchare as well as the extraordinary Annapurna summits.
Many trekkers select the Annapurna Sanctuary, a rewarding travel as much as the Annapurna base camp that provides a sweeping panorama of High Himalayas from Dhaulagiri to Himalchuli and Manaslu. But often overlooked is the trek along the very base of the Kali Gandaki river gorge, the connection with traveling through communities of Tatopani to Tukuche, driving from elevations of 5,000 to 8,500 feet above sea level, and searching for at the vista framed by 26,800 ft high Dhaulagiri massif for the west and 26,500 Annapurna Range for the east is just astonishing.
Considering that the summits of these two mountain ranges are just some 20 miles apart, and both tower to altitudes of over 26,000 feet as well as the Kali Gandaki River reduces its approach between them at an elevation of just some 6,000 feet, the vantage point of such a spectacular vertical distinction is actually mind boggling.
But the topography, climatic conditions and physical features of the surroundings generally speaking one experiences growing north over the river from its lower reaches completely for the water shadow of the Himalayas are only part of the secret of the trek. The trek now offers an amazing look of background and knowledge of a makeup and settlement patterns of the Nepal Himalayas.
Kali Gandaki is indeed a melting pot of civilizations, of Historical Nepalese and cultures that transferred to the area in the south in addition to the north.
The lower reaches of the Kali Gandaki River valley, indicating the spot in elevations less than grain growth restriction of approximately 5,000 feet above sea-level, were historically resolved by two of socalled Old Nepalese ethnic communities, namely Gurungs and Magars. The Old Nepalese contests, however, haven't remained the only real residents of the desirable middle-hills region.
As a result of Muslim invasions into the Indian subcontinent, compelled to flee, Brahmans, the caste of Hindu priests, and Chetris, the descendents of the Kshatriya warriors caste of India, began to move from your upper plains of India into the Midlands of Nepal, negotiating within the rich altitudes between 3,500 to 5,000 feet.
In effect of the migrations from your south, Gurungs and Magars moved up in to the mountains above the lake bottom of the Kali Gandaki gorge and after this live in altitudes of 6,000 to 8,000 feet with their choice crop, viewed installed drying off the eaves, being corn in the place of grain.
In the north, from Tibet correct, got the Tibetan population groups, who completed in the torrential rain shadow of the Himalayas, in the Interior Himalayan valleys, including the Baragaunle neighborhoods within the area valleys of the Kali Gandaki behind Dhaulagiri as well as the Annapurnas, or as-is the event of the Thakalis, choosing to be in along Kali Gandaki and its own part valleys however not below 8,000 feet, choosing less severe climatic conditions than those of Upper Mustang.
Even though the Thakalis as a way to improve their social status have since late 19th century announced themselves as Hindus, first glimpse of the communities establishes their Buddhist past. Near and almost in every Thakali village are available long mani walls, chortens as well as today mostly dilapidated gompas. The Thakali spot of Kali Gandaki hence you might say shows the melting point of the Buddhist civilizations in the north and also the Hindu cultures from the south.
Beyond Thakali villages, however, one absolutely enters the sphere of Tibetan Buddhism and continuing further upstream, on through the Baragaunle Bhote villages from community of Marpha on, the Buddhist culture dominates all the way to
Mustang Trekking. The trek over the Kali Gandaki River area to Mustang indeed takes its unique insight to the national and real forces that formed the settlement patterns of the Nepal Himalayas and for that cause alone is really a fascinating travel to try.
