- July 18, 2024
- Nepal
Karnali and the Far West – Reviving Ancient Prosperity through Tourism
In June 2024, Basant Adventure Treks and Expeditions arranged a documentary filming trip to a remote part of the far west, near Mt Saiphal. The team included Nigel Roberts, a British/American who is producing the film, Nepali cinematographer Shyam Karki, and Canadian climatologist Jamie Smith. The film will tell the story of the Bhote Khampa, a small nomadic group which has traditionally made its living using sheep and goats as pack animals. For hundreds of years, the Bhote Khampa brought salt down from Tibet, exchanging it for rice at the Indian border. As rice and salt have become readily available throughout Nepal, the group adapted its business model, and now buys Chinese consumer goods (noodles, alcohol, shoes, etc) at the border town of Hilsa, and transports them to the markets of remote villages of north-western Nepal.
With motor roads now spreading into far-western Nepal, their business is threatened by cheaper truck transport.
The filmmakers are interested in how this marginalized community is reacting to the changes caused by modernization, and in exploring ways of helping the Bhote Kampa find new ways of making a living. Despite intense pre-monsoon heat (even at high altitudes), the first stage of the work was successfully concluded and will be followed over the coming weeks by two short trips to complete the filming.
Basanta Adventure specializes in both adventure and spiritual tourism, highlighting the pristine natural and cultural heritage of this remote region of Nepal as a part of the initiative to revive ancient prosperity through sustainable tourism in Karnali and the Far Western part of Nepal. Tourists increasingly traveling to western Tibet (Kailash) utilizing this ancient trade route using the Hilsa port of entry.
