Marpha is a village in

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 ...

in the

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 ...

of northern

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 ...

. At the time of the

1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. Working with Nepal's Village Development Committees at a district level, they recorded data from all the main towns and villages of each ...

it had a population of 1630 people living in 434 individual households. The village is a part of the trekking industry, and has a nearby Tibetan refugee camp. Tibetans from the camp work in the village, supporting the tourist and trekking service sector. It is in a scenic location and apples are an important crop for the area. Formerly, Marpha was a village development committee (VDC), which were local-level administrative units. In 2017, the

government of Nepal The Government of Nepal () is the central executive authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Nepal, prime minister (K. P. Sharma Oli, K.P. Oli since 15 July 2024) who selects all the o ...

restructured local government in line with the 2015 constitution and VDCs were discontinued.

Sights

Marpha is a pretty stone lined village which has survived the transition to the current time, by catering to trekkers and tourists. The village is a common overnight halt on the

Annapurna Circuit The Annapurna Circuit is a trekking, trek within the mountain ranges of central Nepal. The total length of the route varies between 160–230 km (100-145 mi), depending on where motor transportation is used and where the trek is ende ...

, less crowded and touristy than

Jomsom Jomsom (), (Ward No. 4 of Gharpajhong Rural Municipality) also known as Dzongsam (New Fort), is the centre of Gharapjhong rural municipality in Mustang district and a former independent village development committee situated at an altitude of ...

to the north. The name itself reflects the "mar" meaning hard working and "pha" meaning people. Tourism and mule rearing are the means of survival of the people of this place. Although it has an original Safe Water Drinking station, it now also sports numerous guest houses and small hotels. The village is the apple capital in the nation, with Marpha brandy and jams produced from local fruits. Dominating the village is the

Nyingma Nyingma (, ), also referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school was founded by PadmasambhavaClaude Arpi, ''A Glimpse of the History of Tibet'', Dharamsala: Tibet Museum, 2013. ...

monastery from which there are good views of the village and the

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 ...

valley. Above the monastery is a

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

painted onto the cliff face and a number of small stone chortens on the ledges below. Legend says that the villagers became afflicted with leprosy and all attempts to control it had failed. A local monk, originally from

Tukuche Tukuche, sometimes spelt Tukche, is a village development committee in Mustang District in the Dhawalagiri Zone of northern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepa ...

, south of Marpha, advised the villagers to build the chorten and hold religious rituals at the site. Since that time the leprosy stopped and Marpha flourished once more. On the southern outskirts of Marpha, on the opposite bank of the

is a Tibetan refugee camp and

Chhairo gompa Chhairo Monastery (, THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription, THL Tsérok Monastery) was the first monastery of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism founded in Upper Mustang. It was established in the 16th century and is part of present-day Mustan ...

, the first

monastery to be established in

. Many of the souvenir shops in Marpha are run by residents of the Tibetan refugee camp.

Climate

Marpha has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(BSk) with cold, dry winters and mild, slightly wet summers.

Gallery

Marpha.JPG Goats in Marpha.jpg Mustang-Marpha-06-Schranktransport-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-30-Hauptstrasse-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-Gompa-04-Aufgang-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-Gompa-10-Innenhof-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-Gompa-16-Lhakhang-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-Gompa-25-Padmasambhava-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-Gompa-40-Zeremonialgeraete-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-42-Gompa-Ausblick-2015-gje.jpg Mustang-Marpha-22-Bergheiligtum-2015-gje.jpg

References

External links

UN map of the municipalities of Mustang District
Populated places in Mustang District {{Mustang-geo-stub http://www.marphamonastery.com Website of Marpha Monastery