Annapurna circuit travel guide

Remote, bordering the Tibetan Plateau and with a strong Tibetan culture influencing life in its high villages, it’s hardly surprising that conflict between Tibetan Khampa guerrillas in the late 1950s – with a mission to preserve the Tibetan way of life – and the communist ruling party of China spilled over into Nepal’s Annapurna region.

The CIA-backed Khampa set up base camps in Mustang – the province trekkers cross into after conquering the Thorong La pass – to fight for Tibetan freedom from Chinese rule. And while on the whole welcomed as fellow Tibetans by Mustang residents, food was scarce and most guerrilla fighters lived a very hard, very deprived life in Nepal.

The CIA abruptly dropped its support of the Khampa in 1969, a condition of establishing diplomatic relations with the Chinese government, and in 1974 the Nepali government came under pressure from the Chinese to demand the Khampa guerilla’s surrender. Troops were sent into Mustang and the Dalai Lama – the de facto leader of the Tibetan Buddhist culture – sent a message to the Khampa urging them to lay down their arms and avoid bloodshed.

The end of the resistance movement brought stability to the Annapurna and the region was opened to trekkers in 1977. Originally, the Annapurna Circuit – encircling the Annapurna Massif and crossing through the Marshyangdi river valley and the Kali Gandaki Gorge – started in the market town of Dhumre and ended in Pokhara and took at least 23 days to complete. However new roads have increased access into the mountain villages and shortened the route, with some trekkers choosing to travel by jeep to start the trek later or finish earlier, if time is tight.

Of the original 23 days, only 5 are now completely away from motorised transport, although in recent years alternative trails have been developed through the Kali Gandaki Gorge, and other areas, to take trekkers off the dusty roads as much as possible. The roads have inevitably changed the previously remote villages in Manang and Mustang – driving increased contact with the outside world, and trade in goods and services became far easier than by yak or on foot. Since 2011 this region has seen a boom in mountain biking, and companies as far into the mountains as Muktinath and Jomsom now rent out bikes for tourists to speed down the virtually traffic-free dirt tracks through the Kali Gandaki Gorge.