Lomanthang () is a

rural municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipality (Canada), Rural municipalities in Canada, a Lists of municipalities in Canada, type of municipa ...

Mustang district Mustang District ( ) (from the Standard Tibetan, Tibetan ''möntang'' (), "fertile plain") is one of the eleven districts of Gandaki Province and one of List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal which was a Kingdom of Lo-Mant ...

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southw ...

of western

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. It is located at the northern end of the district, bordering the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to the north and

Lo-Ghekar Damodarkunda rural municipality Lo-Ghekar Damodarkunda () (earlier:Dalome) is a rural municipality situated in Mustang District of Gandaki Province of Nepal. The municipality is situated on the northern part of the Mustang, surrounded by Lomanthang rural municipality on the nort ...

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

in the south. ''Lo'' is the northern two-thirds of Mustang district,

culturally Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

and

linguistically Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures i ...

influenced by Tibet, while the southern third is called ''Thak'', the homeland of

Thakali people The Thakali ( ) are an ethnolinguistic Tibeto-Burman ethnic group of Nepal. They are often regarded as the "richest caste" of Nepal. The traditional area of the Thakali community is called ''Thak-sat-se'' or the Thak Khola region and lies in the ...

who speak a different language and have a synthesis of Tibetan and Nepalese culture. In 2007, a series of at least twelve caves were discovered north of

Annapurna Annapurna (; ) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its as ...

and near the village, decorated with ancient

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

paintings and set in sheer cliffs at an elevation of . The paintings show Newari influence, dating to approximately the 13th century, and also contain

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or '' abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins ...

s executed in ink, silver and gold and pre-Christian era pottery shards. Explorers found

stupa In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and m ...

s, decorative art and paintings depicting various forms of

the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

, often with disciples, supplicants and attendants, with some mural paintings showing

sub-tropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones immediately to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 3 ...

themes containing palm trees, billowing Indian textiles and birds.

History

Lo Manthang was the walled capital of the ''Kingdom of Lo'' from its founding in 1380 by ''Ame Pal'' who oversaw construction of the city wall and many of the still-standing structures. After the Shahs of Gorkha unified Nepal out of numerous

petty kingdoms A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into t ...

in the 18th century, Lo became a dependency but kept its hereditary rulers. This arrangement continued as long as Nepal remained a kingdom, until the country was declared a

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

in 2008 and

Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista ( Tibetan: འཇིག་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་འབར།; Nepali: जिग्मे दोर्जे पलवर विष्ट; 1930 – 16 December 2016) was the official King of Mus ...

() was stripped of his title. His

suzerain A suzerain (, from Old French "above" + "supreme, chief") is a person, state (polity)">state or polity who has supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy and economic relations of another subordinate party or polity, but allows i ...

King Gyanendra Gyanendra Shah (born 7 July 1947) is the final monarch of Nepal, ruled from 2001 until 2008, when the monarchy was overthrown. He briefly held the throne as a child between 1950 and 1951, when his grandfather Tribhuvan and his family fled to In ...

suffered the same fate, however the ''raja'' or ''gyelpo'' of Mustang was 25th in a direct line of rulers dating back to 1380 AD. Gyanendra was only the eleventh Shah ruler since

Prithvi Narayan Shah Prithvi Narayan Shah (; 7 January 1723 – 11 January 1775), was the last king of the Gorkha Kingdom and first king of the Kingdom of Nepal (also called the ''Kingdom of Gorkha''). Prithvi Narayan Shah started the unification of Nepal. He is a ...

conquered Kathmandu in 1768. More prosaically, Lo Manthang became a village development committee in Mustang district of

Dhawalagiri zone Dhaulagiri ( ) was one of the fourteen zones which Nepal was divided into for administrative purposes, prior to the September 10, 2015 adoption of a new Constitution, which divided the nation instead into 7 provinces. It is in the Western Devel ...

. The

1991 census It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving fifteen sovereign republics and the CIS in its place. In July 1991, India abandoned its policies of dirigism, license r ...

counted 876 people living in 178 households in the VDC. The population includes ethnic Lhobas.Gopal Sharma
Explorers find ancient caves and paintings in Nepal
Reuters, May 3, 2007, ''Accessed October 28, 2012''

Demographics

At the time of the

2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. Working in cooperation with the 58 municipalities and the 3,915 Village Development Committees at a district level, they recorded data from all the m ...

, Lomanthang Rural Municipality had a population of 2,350. Of these, 87.5% spoke Lhopa, 7.0%

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung language, Gurung: ) are a Tibetan people, Tibetan ethnic group living in the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurungs speak Tamu kyi which is a Sino-Tibetan language derived from the ...

, 3.6% Nepali, 1.2% Magar and 0.7% other languages as their first language. In terms of ethnicity/caste, 87.6% were Lhopa, 7.1%

, 2.3%

Thakuri The Thakuri (Nepali: ठकुरी) . This term is Nepalese title ""Thakuri"", which translates to 'master of the estate'. The term denotes the royal descendants of kings of Baise Rajya and Chaubisi Rajya. During the height of their influence ...

, 1.5% Magar and 1.5% others. In terms of religion, 92.8% were

and 7.1%

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

. In terms of literacy, 40.1% could read and write, 2.1% could only read and 57.7% could neither read nor write.

Administration

The total area of the Lo Manthang rural municipality is and the total population according to the 2011 census is 1899. The rural municipality is divided into 5 wards. Previously Lomanthang was a village development committee which was upgraded into a rural municipality merging adjoining VDCs of Chhoser and Chhonhup. The rural municipality came into existence on 10 March 2017, fulfilling the requirement of the new

Constitution of Nepal 2015 The Constitution of Nepal () is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the Interim Constitution of 2007. The constitution of Nepal is di ...

when the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration replaced all old VDCs and municipalities into 753 new local level bodies.

Transport

Lo Manthang is by unpaved road from a

border crossing Border control comprises measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it als ...

into

Zhongba County Drongpa County or Zhongba County (; zh, s=仲巴县) is a county of Shigatse Prefecture in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Located in the western part of Central Tibet (sometimes referred to as "western Tibet"), it is the birthplace of the Ts ...

Shigatse Prefecture Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

TAR Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

. This road continues about from the border to

China National Highway 219 China National Highway 219 (G219; Chinese language, Chinese: ''Guódào219'') is a highway which runs along the entire western and southern border of the People's Republic of China, from Kom-Kanas Mongolian Ethnic Township, Kom-Kanas Mongolian et ...

, which follows the valley of the

Yarlung Tsangpo River The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () and Yalu Zangbu River () is a river that flows through the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and Arunachal Pradesh of India. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The u ...

. The Government of Nepal has built a road north along the

Kali Gandaki River The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left-bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area is , most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, the Gandaki is notable f ...

, to within of Lo Manthang. There are also scheduled flights from

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

and

Pokhara Pokhara ( ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country's "capital of tourism" it is the List of cities in Nepal, second largest city after Kathmandu, with 599,5 ...

to Jomsom Airport, located south of Lo Manthang.

Tourism and access

The village is noted for its tall whitewashed mud-brick walls, ''

gompa A Gompa or Gönpa or Gumba ("Five Breathtaking Gumbas Around Kathmandu", ''OMG Nepal'', https://omgnepal.com/five-breathtaking-gumbas-around-kathmandu/ "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (, "island"), is a sacred Buddhist ...

s'' and the ''Raja's'' or Royal or King's Palace, a nine-cornered, five-story structure built around 1400. There are four major temples: Jampa Lhakhang or Jampa Gompa, the oldest, built in the early 15th century and also known as the "God house"; Thubchen Gompa, a huge, red assembly hall and gompa built in the late 15th century and located just southwest of Jampa Gompa; Chodey Gompa, now the main city gompa; and the Choprang Gompa, which is popularly known as the "New Gompa". Even though foreign visitors have been allowed in the kingdom since 1992, tourism to Upper Mustang remains limited, with just over 2000 foreign tourists in 2008. The Nepalese Department of Immigration requires foreign visitors to obtain a special permit, which costs $50 per day per person, and liaison (guide) to protect local tradition from outside influence as well as to protect their environment.

2015 Earthquake

The

April 2015 Nepal earthquake The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh. It occurred at on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of Moment magni ...

caused multiple cracks in the 600-year-old Lo Manthang Royal Palace.Local people have reconstructed Lomanthang Palace on their own
nepalnow.org, 31 October 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2018.

Gallery

File:Lo Manthang Royal Palace.JPG, The Royal Palace in Lo Manthang File:Lomanthang.jpg, Lo Manthang File:Lo Manthang.jpg, The settlement of Lo Manthang File:Photos of Mustang, Nepal Tourism Center 02.jpg, Nepal Tourism Center, Upper Mustang Mustang-Lo Manthang-42-Jampa Lhakhang-gje.jpg, Jampa Lhakhang Mustang-Lo Manthang-Laden-02-2015-gje.jpg, Shop Mustang-Lo Manthang-Choerten-12-LKW-Wrack-2015-gje.jpg, Choerten Mustang-Lo Manthang-Lotus Holiday Inn-12-Gaeste bei Totenfeier-2015-gje.jpg, Lotus Holiday Inn

References

Bibliography

*Maïe Kitamura, ''La cité fortifiée de Lo Manthang, Mustang, Nord du Népal''. Paris, Éditions Recherches, 2011. 214 plans & drawings, photography.

External links

*
UN map of the municipalities of Mustang District
on Nova (American TV program), Nova (series)
Lo-manthang Photo Gallery
{{Authority control Rural municipalities in Mustang District Populated places in Mustang District China–Nepal border crossings Hill stations in Nepal Rural municipalities of Nepal established in 2017