Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 1 | Page 50

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Live the Simple Life

Kapan HomestayVillage
Kunsang Dorje Lama is the Coordinator
of Kapan Homestay Village (KHV) in
Kapan, Faika, Kathmandu, Nepal. KHV is
a Community Project Office and Training
Center that works in partnership with the
Kapan Village Development Committee.
Its logo is simple: “Live the Simple Life”.
However, its ambitions are not so simple.
KHV’s goal is to enhance development of this
substantially populated village that is about
an hour away in the outskirts of Kathmandu,
by augmenting the income of local families
and increasing the economy of the village as
a whole.
KHV was registered only last year although
somehomestayshavealreadybeenoperating
for two-three years back. According to Lama,
KHV has improved the management of
homestays and is helping to make the whole
idea of homestays a great success. “I believe

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it has a great future,” he says. He further
informs,“Currently we have 60 homestays in
the village although only 24 are presently in
operation.”The rest are undergoing training
being provided by KHV. Talking about the
procedural aspects, Lama says that not more
than four rooms can be utilized in a house for
homestaypurposesandthatthehomeowners
have to undergo different training. “We give
traininginhousekeeping,foodandbeverage,
hygiene and in English language,” he says.
In addition, the organization also provides
training in marketing and customer service,
environment awareness and area resource
development.
“Many of the homestays grow their own
vegetables using organic farming methods.
This of course is a plus point for health
conscious guests,” Lama says. Other plus
points of the program have to do with the

January 2012 - Issue 1

village itself. “For one, its location is not
far from the international airport (only 10
km), secondly, we have a clean and green
unpolluted and safe environment, thirdly,
the village’s inhabitants are a mix of various
ethnicitiesandcultures,andlastbutnotleast,
Kapan is popular as a center for Buddhist
learning.” Talking about this, the village is
home to the Foundation for the Preservation
of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) which was
founded in 1975 at Kopan Monastery and
now has over 150 centers in more than 33
countries.
In fact, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB)
had first approached the Spiritual Director
of FPMT, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rimpoche, in
2007, to help enhance tourism in the area.
Subsequently, the idea of a homestay village
cameintobeingandacommitteewasformed
to oversee the project. There are also other