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Pokhara (Nepali: पोखरा) is a metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country’s “capital of tourism” it is the second largest city after Kathmandu, with 600,051 inhabitants living in 120,594 households as of 2021 census.
Pokhara is located 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, on the shore of Phewa Lake, and sits at an average elevation of approximately 822 m above sea level The Annapurna Range, with three out of the ten highest peaks in the world—Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu—is within 15–35 mi (24–56 km) aerial range from the valley.
In 2024, Pokhara was declared as the tourism capital of Nepal, being a base for trekkers undertaking the Annapurna Circuit through the Annapurna Conservation Area region of the Annapurna ranges in the Himalayas. The city is also home to many of the elite Gurkha soldiers, soldiers native to South Asia of Nepalese nationality recruited for the British Army, Nepalese Army, Indian Army, Gurkha Contingent Singapore, Gurkha Reserve Unit Brunei, UN peacekeeping forces and in war zones around the world.
Pokhara
| Native name | पोखरा |
|---|---|
| Official name | Pokhara Metropolitan City |
| Country | Nepal |
| Province | Gandaki Province |
| District | Kaski District |
| Coordinates | 28.21°N, 83.99°E (approx.) |
| Established | 1959 (Municipality), 2017 (Metropolitan) |
| Area | ≈ 464.24 km² |
| Elevation | ≈ 822 m (2,697 ft) |
| Population (2021) | 600,051 |
| Time zone | UTC+5:45 (Nepal Time) |
| Mayor | Dhanraj Acharya |
| Region | Pokhara Valley, Phewa Lake Basin |
| Known for | Tourism capital, lakes, Annapurna Range, paragliding |
Etymology
The Nepali word “pokhari” (Nepali: पोखरी, pronounced [ˈpokʰʌɾi]) means “pond”; pokhara is a local variant.
History
By radiocarbon dating and investigating the alluvial deposits of Pokhara Valley, researchers have found that there were at least three large medieval earthquakes in 1000, 1255, and 1344 AD. Up to 9 cubic kilometres of conglomerates, massive mud and silt show indications of one or several megafloods that emanated from the Sabche Cirque in the Annapurna range.
A more recent 2023 study, by a team of French scientists, estimated that a single landslide, dated approximately to 1190 AD, removed as much as 23 cubic kilometers of material from Annapurna IV – now 7525 meters high, but could have been as high as above 8000 meters prior to the catastrophic event – and sent most of it to where the City of Pokhara were to be built subsequently.
Pokhara lies on an important old trading route between China and India. In the 17th century, it was part of the Kingdom of Kaski which was one of the Chaubisi rajya (24 Kingdoms of Nepal, चौबिसे राज्य) ruled by a branch of the Shah dynasty. Many of the hills around Pokhara have medieval ruins from that time. In 1786, Prithvi Narayan Shah, the last ruler of the Gorkha Kingdom and first monarch of the Kingdom of Nepal, added Pokhara to his kingdom. It had by then become an important trading place on the routes from Kathmandu to Jumla and from India to Tibet.
The first settlement of the valley is theorized to have taken place when the first King of Kaski, Kulamandan Shah Khad (also called Bichitra Khan and Jagati Khan), made Batulechaur in the northern side of the valley his winter capital during the mid 14th century.
The people settled here included Parajuli Brahmins, who were asked to look after the Bindhyabasini temple and were given some land in that locality as Birta. Dhobi Gauda was the first market center developed in Pokhara valley before the last King of Kaski brought sixteen families of Newars from Kathmandu (Bhaktapur) to develop the present-day market (i.e., old market) in the 1770s. Prior to that people were settled in the peripheral hills.
Pokhara was envisioned as a commercial center by the King of Kaski in the mid 18th century A.D. when Newars of Bhaktapur migrated to Pokhara, upon being invited by the king, they settled near the main business locations such as Bindhyabasini temple, Nalakomukh and Bhairab Tole. Most of Pokhara, at the time, was largely inhabited by Khas (Brahmin, Chhetri and Dalits), Gurungs, Magars and Thakuri.
At present, the Khas, Gurung (Tamu) and Magar form the dominant community of Pokhara. There is also a sizeable Newari population in the city.Batulechaur in the far north of Pokhara is home to the Gandharvas or Gaaineys (the tribe of the musicians).
Phewa lake in 1982
The nearby hills around Pokhara are covered by Gurung villages with few places belonging to the Khas community. Magar communities are also present mostly in the southern outlying hills. A Newar community is almost non-existent in the villages of outlying hills outside the Pokhara city limits.
From 1959 to 1962, approximately 300,000 exiles entered Nepal from neighboring Tibet following its annexation by China. Most of the Tibetan exiles then sought asylum in Dharamshala and other Tibetan exile communities in India. According to UNHCR, since 1989, approximately 2500 Tibetans cross the border into Nepal each year, many of whom arrive in Pokhara typically as a transit to Tibetan exile communities in India.
About 50,000–60,000 Tibetan exiles reside in Nepal, and approximately 20,000 of the exiled Tibetans live in one of the 12 consolidated camps, eight in Kathmandu and four in and around Pokhara. The four Tibetan settlements in Pokhara are Jampaling, Paljorling, Tashi Ling, and Tashi Palkhel. These camps have evolved into well-built settlements, each with a gompa (Buddhist monastery), chorten and its particular architecture, and Tibetans have become a visible minority in the city.
Until the end of the 1960s, the town was only accessible by foot and it was considered even more a mystical place than Kathmandu. The first road was completed in 1968 (Siddhartha Highway) after which tourism set in and the city grew rapidly.[28] The area along the Phewa lake, called Lakeside, has developed into one of the major tourism hubs of Nepal.
Geography
Due to the high population density and the frequency of natural disasters, western Nepal is considered one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Pokhara is considered particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and floods because the Seti Gandaki River flows through the city. For example, the strongest earthquakes in the region include those of 2015 in Nepal.
Pokhara is in the northwestern corner of the Pokhara Valley, which is a widening of the Seti Gandaki valley that lies in the region (Pahad) of the Himalayas. In this region, the mountains rise very quickly, and within 30 kilometres (19 miles), the elevation rises from 1,000 to 7,500 metres (3,300 to 24,600 feet). As a result of this sharp rise in altitude the area of Pokhara has one of the highest precipitation rates in the country (3,350 mm/year or 131 inches/year in the valley to 5600 mm/year or 222 inches/year in Lumle).
Even within the city, there is a noticeable difference in rainfall between the south and the north: The northern part at the foothills of the mountains experiences a proportionally higher amount of precipitation. The Seti Gandaki is the main river flowing through the city. The Seti Gandaki (White Gandaki) and its tributaries have created several gorges and canyons in and around Pokhara that give intriguingly long sections of terrace features to the city and surrounding areas.
These long sections of terraces are interrupted by gorges that are hundreds of metres deep. The Seti gorge runs through Pokhara from north to south and then west to east; at places, these gorges are only a few metres wide. In the north and south, the canyons are wider.
In the south, the city borders Phewa Tal (or Phewa Lake) (4.4 km2) at an elevation of about 800 metres (2,600 feet) above sea level, while north of Pokhara, the village of Lumle at 1,740 metres (5,710 feet) touches the base of the Annapurna mountain range. Pokhara, the city of lakes, is the second-largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu. Three 8,000-metre (26,000-foot) peaks (Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, Manaslu) can be seen from the city. The Machhapuchchhre (Fishtail) with an elevation of 6,993 metres (22,943 feet) is the closest to the city.
The porous underground of the Pokhara valley favors the formation of caves and several caves can be found within city limits and neighboring cities as well. In the south of the city, a tributary of the Seti Gandaki River flowing out of the Phewa Lake disappears at Patale Chhango (पाताले छाँगो, Nepali for Hell’s Falls, also called Davis Falls, after someone who supposedly fell in) into an underground gorge, to reappear 500 metres (1,600 feet) further south.