Pokhara

Pokhara valley was settled long before it was a city, farmed by Gurung, Magar and Brahmin-Chhetri communities and drawn into the salt-and-grain trade that ran down the Kali Gandaki from Tibet. The valley belonged to the kingdom of Kaski, one of the Chaubisi principalities ruled by a branch of the Shah dynasty, and in the 1770s its king brought Newar merchant families from Bhaktapur to settle a bazaar here, which became the old town in the north. Kaski was absorbed into the Gorkha state during the unification campaigns of Prithvi Narayan Shah.

For two centuries it remained a hill bazaar reached only on foot. Aircraft landed on a grass strip from the 1950s, and the decisive change came with roads: the Siddhartha Highway from the Indian border, the first to reach the town, finished in 1968, and the Prithvi Highway link to Kathmandu, completed in 1974. Tibetan refugees arrived after 1959 and settled in camps that still exist on the edge of the city. British Gurkha recruitment and pensions brought money and a lasting connection to Britain.

Trekking began in the 1970s, when the Annapurna routes opened to foreigners, and the shore of Phewa lake filled with guesthouses, restaurants and agencies. The Annapurna Conservation Area, now Nepal's largest protected area, was created to manage the effects. Pokhara was made a metropolitan city and absorbed neighbouring Lekhnath in 2017, becoming the seat of Gandaki Province under the federal constitution, and its international airport opened in 2023. Earthquakes, the Maoist conflict and the pandemic each interrupted the tourist economy, which has recovered each time.

Pokhara is a city of migrants from the surrounding hills, and its culture is Gurung and Magar as much as Brahmin-Chhetri or Newar. The Gurung, who call themselves Tamu, are the most visible community: their new year, Tamu Lhosar, fills the streets in late December or early January with processions and dancing, and the Gurung military tradition runs through families with sons and fathers in the British and Indian armies. Newar merchants founded the old bazaar and still run much of its trade, and Thakali families from the Kali Gandaki own many of the city's restaurants and lodges.

There are also Tibetan settlements established after 1959 at Tashi Palkhel, Tashi Ling and Paljorling, where monasteries, carpet weaving and handicraft shops are part of the local economy, and their monasteries hold Losar rituals each winter. Hindu and Buddhist practice sit side by side, and the Bindhyabasini temple above the old bazaar draws worshippers for weddings, rice-feeding ceremonies and animal offerings.

The other layer is the international one. Fifty years of trekkers have given Lakeside its bakeries, bookshops, live-music bars and yoga schools, and a generation of guides, pilots, instructors and hoteliers who work in several languages. Residents make a clear distinction between Lakeside, treated as a visitors' quarter, and the rest of the city, where dress and behaviour are conservative.

About 600,000 people live within Pokhara Metropolitan City, which since 2017 has included the former town of Lekhnath and a large area of farmland, making it Nepal's largest metropolitan city by area as well as the second-largest city by population. It is the capital of Gandaki Province, and government, schools, colleges and hospitals employ a large share of residents.

Tourism sets the rhythm of Lakeside — hotels, restaurants, trekking agencies, paragliding and rafting operators, gear shops — but the wider city runs on trade, construction, transport, education and remittances. Pensions from the British and Indian armies support many households, and money from relatives in the Gulf, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Australia is a mainstay. Farming continues on the valley floor and around the Begnas lakes.

Mornings begin early, with walkers and joggers on the lakeside path, school traffic and the first flights off Sarangkot when the air is right. The seasons are stark: the city fills in October and November and again in spring, and empties in the monsoon, when many businesses close for repairs. Long-standing concerns include unplanned building around the lake and the shrinking of Phewa's shoreline, monsoon landslides on the roads north, the quality of the water supply and the vulnerability of an economy that depends on visitors arriving.

Thakali cooking, brought down from the Kali Gandaki, is what Pokhara is best known for. The Thakali set is a careful version of daal bhaat: rice or buckwheat dhido, a thin lentil daal, spiced seasonal greens, potato with timur pepper, pickles and often mutton or dried meat, served in brass dishes with refills. It is eaten by visitors and residents alike and is the most reliable meal in the city.

Fish is the local speciality. Carp raised in Phewa and Begnas is fried whole or cooked in curry, and the stalls along the Begnas shore and parts of the Phewa lakefront are known for it. Gurung hill dishes appear as well: millet dhido, gundruk, nettle soup called sisnu, and pork or chicken sekuwa grilled over charcoal. Sukuti, dried meat fried with onion and chilli, is a standard drinking snack, with raksi, the home-distilled spirit, in the colder months.

Lakeside adds the traveller's menu — momo in a dozen varieties, thukpa, wood-fired pizza, curries, steaks and bakery pastries — and cafés roasting Nepali hill-grown coffee. Tibetan restaurants in and around the refugee settlements serve thenthuk, tingmo and butter tea. For sweets and snacks, the old bazaar and Mahendrapul have sel roti, jeri, lakhamari and mishthan counters, and juice stalls press sugarcane and seasonal fruit through the hot months.