Mustang () is a district in Gandaki Province, located in northern Nepal. It is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal and covers an area of , making it the fifth-largest district in Nepal by area. According to 2021 Nepal Census, the district has an population of 14,452. It's administrative headquarters is Jomsom.
The district is located in Gandaki Province in northern Nepal, straddling the Himalayas and extending northward onto the Tibetan Plateau. It is among the most remote and least densely populated districts of the country.Pasture Management, Indigenous Veterinary Care and the Role of the Horse in Mustang, Nepal Elevation ranges from 1,372 meters to 8,167 meters at Dhaulagiri, the seventh-highest mountain in the world, with several peaks exceeding 7,000 meters.
Agriculture and animal husbandry are the primary occupations of the population. The entire district lies within the Annapurna Conservation Area, the largest protected area in Nepal.Mustang: The Last Lost Kingdom Conservation, tourism regulation, and development activities are managed by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), a division of the National Trust for Nature Conservation.
Upper Mustang remained a restricted area until 1992, which has helped preserve its cultural heritage and traditional way of life. The name “Mustang” is derived from a Tibetan term meaning “plain of aspiration." Since its opening to foreign visitors in 1992, Upper Mustang has become a regulated trekking destination, with a limited annual entry quota, and remains accessible throughout the year.
The district is home to several important religious and cultural sites, including the renowned Muktinath Temple, a sacred pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists.
According to the Human Development Index, Mustang is considered relatively well-developed compared to other remote Himalayan districts, with an estimated GDP per capita of approximately US$2,466.
Geography
Description Area covered (km2) % of Area Total area of the district 3639.6 100% Total forest area 123.2 3.38% Total cultivable land 40.3 1.10% Irrigated cultivable land 32.5 0.89% Rain-fed cultivable land 7.83 0.21% Pasture land 1476.8 40.57% River, stream, cliff, mountain, stone etc. 1505.7 41.36% Area covered by residence and buildings 3.20 0.08% Area covered by snow 305.9 8.40% Area covered by lakes 0.92 0.02% Other 183.5 5.04% Mustang, the second least populated district of Nepal, is flanked by the Nepalese districts of Manang, the least populated, to the east and Dolpa, the third least populated, to the west. The Tibetan frontier stretches north from Mustang's borders.Transhumant Pastoralism in Yak Production in The Lower Mustang District of Nepal Mustang is divided into two sub-regions, Lower and Upper. This is a high-altitude trans-Himalayan region spread over 3,640 square kilometres in area barely north of the main Himalayan mountain range.Kingdom of Mustang Geographically this cold high-altitude steppe is a part of the Tibetan highlands. This boot-shaped piece of land thrusts north into western Tibet is caught in the rain shadow of Dhaulagiri to the south and west and the Annapurna Massif to the north and east.
Average elevation of Mustang is 13,200 ft (4,023m), coming to a peak at 8,167m — the summit of Dhaulagiri. It is a vast and arid valley, distinguished by eroded canyons, vividly coloured stratified rock formations and barren high-altitude deserts. The area receives an average annual rainfall of less than 260 mm at Jomsom in the Lower Mustang. Spring and autumn are generally dry, but some precipitation is brought by summer monsoons, which averaged 133 mm at Jomsom between 1973 and 2000. The mean minimum monthly air temperature falls to -2.7 °C in winter while the maximum monthly air temperature reaches 23.1 °C in summer. Both diurnal and annual variations in temperature are large. Only about 40.3 square kilometres, about 1 per cent of the total land area, is cultivated and 1,477 square kilometres, about 40%, is pasture land. Kora La at in elevation is considered the lowest drivable path between Tibetan Plateau and Indian subcontinent.
The elevation of the district range from 1640m in nearby Kopchepani under Kunjo VDC to 7061m in Nilgiri North above from the sea level. The peaks above 6000m in Mustang District are Tukuche Peak (6920m), Nilgiri South (6839m), Yakwakang Peak (6462m), and Damodar Himal (6004m). Thorung Pass (5416m), arguably the world's highest and busiest pass, is located in this district. This district share long international border with Tibet Autonomous Region of China where 16 boundary pillars are in existence from pillar no. 18–33.
Climate zone Elevation Range % of AreaTemperate2,000 to 3,000 meters6,400 to 9,800 ft.4.0%Subalpine3,000 to 4,000 meters9,800 to 13,100 ft.4.7%Alpine4,000 to 5,000 meters13,100 to 16,400 ft.2.7%Nivalabove 5,000 meters8.8%Trans-Himalayan 3,000 to 6,400 meters9,800 to 21,000 ft. 79.8%
The Kali Gandaki River is a highly important feature of the district. Its source located near the Tibetan border coincides with the Tibetan border and Ganges-Brahmaputra watershed divide. From there, it flows south towards the northern Indian plains through the ancient kingdom of Mustang. It flows through a sheer-sided, deep canyon immediately south of the Mustang capital of Lo Manthang, then widens as it approaches Kagbeni where high Himalayan ranges begin to close in. The river continues southward past Jomsom, Marpha, and Tukuche to the deepest part of the gorge about south of Tukuche in the area of Lete. The gorge then broadens past the border of Mustang and Myagdi districts. Geographically, Lower Mustang lies between the Tibetan Plateau in the North and high Himalayan Mountains in the South. The region between the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Mountain is called Trans-Himalaya.
The Kali Gandaki Gorge or Andha Galchi, measured by the difference between the river height and the heights of the highest peaks on either side, is the world's deepest canyon. The portion of the river directly between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna I (7 km downstream from Tukuche) is at an elevation of , lower than Annapurna I.Annapurna (1:100,000 map), Nepal-Kartenwerk der Arbeitgemeinschaft für vergleichende Hochgebirgsforschung Nr. 9, Nelles Verlag, Munich, 1993. Also see Google Earth Major peaks along the gorge include Dhaulagiri (8,167 m or 26,795 ft) and Tukuche (6,920 m or 22,703 ft) on the west and Nilgiri Central (6,940 m or 22,769 ft) and Annapurna (8,091 m or 26,545 ft) on the east.
History
Much of the history of Mustang is about legends rather than documented facts. However, it is believed that Mustang or the Kingdom of Lo was once a part of Ngari area of Tibet and a loose collection of feudal estates, their history is also tied to Tibetan religion and culture, geography, and politics. It was often closely linked to adjoining kingdoms of Western Tibet and, during other periods of history, politically linked to Lhasa, the capital of Central Tibet.The Raja of La, for instance, continued to pay tithes to Lhasa until the 1950s. For more information about the historical connections between Tibet and Mustang, see Jackson 1978, Vinding 1988, and Ramble 1993 a and b. Lo was incorporated into the Tibetan Empire by Songtsen Gampo, the most famous Tibetan king.
From the 15th century to the 17th century, Mustang had control over the trade between the Himalayas and India because of its strategic location.Flagspot In 1380, Lo became an independent kingdom under Ame Pal. The last royal family traced its lineage for 25 generations, all the way back to Ame Pal. Ame Pal oversaw the founding and building of much of the Lo and Mustang capital of Lo Manthang, a walled city surprisingly little changed in appearance from that time period. The only remnant of these kingdoms is the still-intact Kingdom of Lo, an area corresponding to the northern third of Mustang District.
In 1769, the army of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first King the Kingdom of Nepal, unified what was a land of many small kingdoms to forge Nepal. Before that much of present-day Mustang was ruled by kings from Jumla, a region to the southwest, and independent kings and feudal lords. At the end of the 18th century, the kingdom was annexed by Nepal and became a dependency of the Kingdom of Nepal since 1795. Swedish explorer Sven Hedin's visited the pass at the head of the Kali Gandaki Gorge in 1904.Sven Hedin's Transhimalaya (published 1909 by MacMillan & Co, Ltd, London), Vol II, pgs. 78-79 in the Chapter headed "A peep into Nepal" British Tibetologist David Snellgrove visited and researched Mustang's Buddhist temples and monasteries in 1956, 1960–61 and 1978.
During the late 1950s and 60s, Mustang became the centre for Tibetan guerrillas engaged in small operations against the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1959. Tibetan guerrilla group Chushi Gangdruk operated out of Upper Mustang with the intention of raiding PLA positions in Tibet, which led to a border incident that caused the killing of a Nepalese officer who was mistaken as a Tibetan rebel. These guerrillas were aided by CIA and Tibetan Khampas. In the 1970s, after US president Richard Nixon had visited China, CIA withdrew its support and the Nepalese government disbanded Tibetan fighters. In 1961, People's Republic of China and Kingdom of Nepal officially signed a border agreement, setting the border between Mustang and Tibet Autonomous Region set slightly north of the traditional boundary marker demarcated by a stupa at .
Up until 2008, the Kingdom of Lo or Upper Mustang was an ethnic Tibetan kingdom and a suzerainty of Kingdom of Nepal. The suzerainty allowed for a certain level of independence in local governance from the Nepalese central government. Though still recognised by many Mustang residents, the monarchy ceased to exist on 7 October 2008, by order of the Government of Nepal.China View news After the civil war that overthrew the Nepalese monarchy, it became a republic. Mustang became another district of Nepal losing its status of a tributary kingdom it enjoyed since the late eighteenth century. Mustang is the setting for a large part of the book The Kingdom, a novel by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood published in 2011. In December 1999, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th claimant Karmapa fled Tibet through this area. In response, China built a border fence immediately after. There is a PLA border outpost a few miles on Chinese side, it is the westernmost border outpost in Tibet Military District. The outpost was renovated in 2009 to have a modern facility.
Royal Family
Jigme Dorje became head of the Royal House of Lo, assuming the title Lo Gyalpo (King of Mustang), after his elder brother, King Angdu Nyingpo Palbar, died at a young age. Lo Gyalpo Angdu Nyingpo had married a Tibetan aristocrat and left behind only two young daughters; his eldest, Lo Selmo (Princess) Chimi Dolkar Palbar Bista, and a younger daughter whose name is unrecorded. Princess Chimi Dolkar later had two sons, one of whom married a Princess of Bhutan. The crown passed to his younger brother, Jigme Dorje. King Jigme Dorje married a noble lady from Shigatse, Tibet, Sahiba Sidol in the 1950s.Presence and Absence: Mourning a Himalayan King He had one son, Angun Tenzin, who died at the age of 8, and later adopted his nephew, Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista (b. 1957). King Jigme Dorje died on 16 December 2016 after living a retired life largely in Kathmandu since 2008 when Nepal abolished its own monarchy. Today, members of the Lo royal family are dispersed across Kathmandu, San Francisco, and Upper Mustang.Last ruler of remote Buddhist kingdom dies in Nepal, The Star Online
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