Bandipur

Bandipur is between Kathmandu and Pokhara lies on the hilltop. A Newar town with its age-old flavor still intact. Climb through pristine forests on the historical trail at Dumre Bazaar to a town that has hardly changed. Well preserved Bandipur today invites travelers to experience its unique offerings: rich hill culture, mountain views, and hiking. Unlike most trading posts in the Nepal hills, Bandipur has retained its age-old cultural attributes - temples, shrines, sacred caves, innumerable festivals, and a Newari architecture that harks back to the Kathmandu Valley of old.

Bandipur village located on a wide saddle at a height of 1,030 m the surrounding hills of Bandipur are ideal for hiking along trails that take you through tribal villages, verdant forests, and hilltop shrines that once doubled as fortresses. which has a magnificent view of the central Himalayan peak (Manaslu, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri) and the Marshyangdi valley. The main resident of the old town, Newars, are cultural and friendly. The ancient type old building, untouchable culture of Magar village and the pure Nepalese way of living are the extra experiences to explore in Bandipur Hiking.

Bandipur also welcomes all the adventure lovers with its challenging rock climbing, ragging Marshyangdi River rafting, caving and cycling tour activities. Walking distance of Bandipur hiking is just 10 km uphill from highway and in between Kathmandu and Pokhara. Some people, who would love to hike, walk from Dumre to Bandipur which will take approximately 3hrs.Bandipur Hiking, thus, is a combination of cultural tour and village hiking tour which will help travelers understand actual hidden history from the ancient Nepal. The weather in Bandipur is good all round the year.

Strolling around the town, to hilltops and peaks, to objectives such as the largest cave in Nepal (Siddha Gufa), or the Martyrs Memorial, or the Patali Dwar (aka the Gateway to Heaven), etc. This is something you definitely won’t have enough. Just smell the flavours, and you’ll want to wander around to abandoned army camps or police stations, or to the surrounding Magar villages, admiring the views and watching children at play and adults at work. This seemed to me a step back in time, to the age of innocence, untouched by “civilisation”.

Back when Bandipur was a stop no the trade route India – Tibet, Tundikhel was the setting for trade fairs, as well as a parade ground for archery contests and celebrations. Strolling around the platform, i got a sense of eternalness to the point that i even expected some medieval arches to jump from the enormous fig trees while trade caravans were packing their goods.According to Hindu legends, the diferent types of fig trees represent different gods - the fig trees at Tundikhel represent Vishnu, Brahma and Hanuman.

History of Bandipur Nepal
In back days, Bandipur was a mountainous village channel of trade. From Bhaktapur, a large number of Newar traders settled here and started trading. In 1768, after Prithvi Narayan Shan conquered this place and named as Magar village. From the day, Bandipur became a crucial trade center featuring extraordinary buildings, rich environment, neoclassical facades, and simply everything lavish and opulent. During the times, the rich culture of Newari doubled with the constructions of innumerable temples, buildings, shrines, sacred caves, and more a lot.
Moreover, in the times of Rana, the village got more popular receiving traders from Tibet and British India. But in 1970 the spell of trading in Bandipur was weakened due to the Prithvi Highway connecting major cities. Finally, the Kathmandu-Pokhara highway connected Bandipur. After getting easy access to the city many towns neglected their own culture and traditions but Bandipur accustomed to its own culture strongly. That’s why it was differed from other towns and became a popular tourist attraction for culture in Nepal.