Bandipur is the hilltop settlement of Newar community with its age-old entity. We can climb through pristine forests from the Dumre Bazaar to Bandipur, exclusive town. Well preserved Bandipur today invites travelers to experience its unique offerings: rich culture, mountain views, and for hiking.
Bandipur has preserved its age-old cultural attributes – natural beauty, temples, shrines, sacred caves, numerous festivals, and a Newari architecture that reflects to the Kathmandu Valley.
Majority of the current residents are originally traders from Bhaktapur. While the Newars are predominant in Bandipur, the Magar and Gurung ethnic groups inhabit the hillsides growing rice, millet, corn and mustard on terrace fields.
Located on a wide saddle at a height of 1,030 m the surrounding hills of Bandipur are ideal for hiking along trails that take you through tribal villages, verdant forests, and hilltop shrines that once doubled as fortresses.
Following the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1768 by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, many of the valley’s Newar inhabitants fanned out to establish trading posts in the hills. Some traders made their way to Bandipur, from where they began to meet the needs of an increasingly mercantile British India and the Himalayan hinterland.
In the 1800s, this bazaar town grew in wealth and importance. Traders came from Tibet with musk pods, mountain herbs, animal skins, and horses. Calico, tobacco, glassware, and kerosene came in from British India. However, when Nepal opened her doors to the world in the 1950s, Pokhara with its airfield began to gain importance, and in 1972 the Kathmandu-Pokhara highway by-passed Bandipur.
But, the road’s alignment was a blessing in disguise – while many Newar hill towns lost their distinctiveness after joining the highway grid, Bandipur retained its originality. Because Bandipur’s merchant class had built sturdily, their buildings have stood firm and are used today once more to house shops, cafes and lodgings.