Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 27

Hidden Valley of Happiness-Tsum Valley

Photo: Denis Olivier Poulet.

One of the less well-known and more recently opened up areas for trekking is the Tsum Valley. It has been only open to visitors
in the last five years. This enchanted valley is a beautiful and sacred pilgrimage site located in northern Gorkha, and is often
included as part of the Manaslu trek.
The valley has its own distinctive culture, influenced by Tibetan culture. It is has religious significance as Yogi Chyuchin Milarapa, a
legendary Buddhist sage, meditated in one of the caves in the mountains here. This sacred cave, known as Piren Phu (Pigeon Cave),
is near a village called Burji. There’s a story that tells how the sage, who often disguised himself when he went to beg for food in the
village, once was given just a meager scrap of bread by one of the village women. Soon after, this woman’s field became totally barren.
It is said that even today you can see a small plot of land in the village where nothing grows.
In a monastery nearby, there are statues of Avalokiteshwara, Buddha and Tara. You can also see the footprint of Milerapa. There
are many religious texts in Piren Phu as well as ancient scripts on the stones and ceiling. Other interesting monasteries such
as Rachen Gompa, set up in 1905 in the Shiar Khola valley; Mu Gompa, established in the late nineteenth century, a six-hour
hike from Chekkam; Dephyudonma Gompa, the oldest gompa in the Tsum Valley; and Lungdang Gompa which was established
through the determined efforts of a blind man in the early 20th century.
The main way into this valley i ́