Marpha

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

Although it has an original Safe Water Drinking station, it now also sports numerous guest houses and small hotels.

Dominating the village is the Nyingma monastery from which there are good views of the village and the Gandaki River valley. Above the monastery is a chorten painted onto the cliff face and a number of small stone chortens on the ledges below. Legend saya that the villagers became afflicted with leprosy and all attempts to control it had failed. A local monk, originally from Tukuche, 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 Gandaki River is a Tibetan refugee camp and Chhairo gompa, the first Nyingma monastery to be established in Mustang District.

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

Marpha has a cold semi-arid climate (BSk) with cold, dry winters and mild, slightly wet summers.

• Marpha
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• UN map of the municipalities of Mustang District