Sightseeing in Gorkha

Gorkha is an interesting town midway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. The surrounding area is fantastic. Gorkha is 25km north of the road between Pokhara and Kathmandu. There are some interesting walks in the area. Not many tourists visit here.

Prithvi Narayan Shah became the king of Gorkha in 1743 and two years later started a 25-year campaign to eventually take over the Kathmandu Valley and the rest of Nepal. After conquering Kathmandu Valley in 1769, Prithvi Narayan Shah moved the capital of Nepal to Kathmandu. By the beginning of the 18th century Gorkha had become a minor town.

The main thing to visit here is the interesting Gorkha Durbar. The area around Gorkha is a place of Maoist insurgents, and there have been some problems in the area. The police may be having a 10 pm curfew.

Gorkha Durbar

The Gorkha Durbar is a half-hour (250m ascent) walk from town, high above the town. The entrance to the Durbar is from the western entrance and you reach it by taking the path to the east of the wall.

The east wing of the Durbar is the palace, where Prithvi Narayan was born. Parts of the palace date from the reign of King Ram Shah (1606-36), but additions have been made successive rulers. It has some excellent 18th century brick- and woodwork. It is well renovated. Much of the building is done in the Newari-style, who came here from Kathmandu to do the work. It is only open on the 10th day of Dasain. If you look through the lattice window on the east side of the palace, you can see what is said to be Prithvi Narayan Shah’s throne. The central palace, Dhuni Pati, was the birthplace of Prithvi Narayan. There are latticed windows on the top floor. Upstairs is the throne of Prithvi Narayan and an ‘eternal’ flame, which has been burning since he united Nepal. Foreigner can not go upstairs in the palace, but the throne can be seen from a small window.

There are excellent views over the interesting area, and great views of the Annapurna and Ganesh mountain ranges. The old part of the city where the Durbar is located has no vehicle traffic, so it is a nice place to wander around to old traditional buildings.

If you go up a few steps and there are on the right are two bells. On the left of the bells there are stairs that led down to the cave where Gorkhanath, a solitary sage lived, near the entrance. Gorkhanath is the Indian guru, from which the town of Gorkha got its name and is considered to be a guardian of the Shah Kings.

Past the bells is a four-faced Siva-lingam. You can then go down to an interesting carving of Hanuman, the monkey servant of Lord Rama.

In the west (left) wing of the palace is the Kalika Mandir, a temple dedicated to the goddess Kali. This is the first building on the left if you enter from the west. It has an intricately carved ‘Star of David’ window. Only the king and a particular caste of Brahmin priests can enter the temple. It is said that other people would die if they saw the deity of Kali in this temple. There are sacrifices done in front of the temple. It is especially busy during the twice-monthly Astami day. The main days are the Chaitra Dasain festival and the 10th day of Dasain in October.

To get to Gorkha Durbar from the bus station, you walk north until you get to a tank surrounded by several temples. You then bear right until you get to a square. On the right side of the square is Tallo Durbar, which was built in 1835 in the Newari-style for a Rana who was exile here from Kathmandu after being engaged a court conspiracy.

From Tallo Durbar, you go north and it is a steep climb for one hour up to old part of town, from where you go left and walk up a modern set of stair 100m. If you reach the place where the women do washing, you have gone too far. When you get to the pipal tree you can take either fork, but the one to the left is not as tough. You then come to another fork and you take the left one. When you reach the ridge you make a right to reach the palace.

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