Festivals & Events
If you are taking tika in the US this Dashain, the auspicious hours start on Tuesday night
Dashain’s tika day is Wednesday 21 October in Nepal. Across US time zones that window opens on Tuesday evening and closes before dawn.
Culture & Heritage
Maya Rai
Maya studied anthropology before she studied trekking. She writes the festivals, the food, the living heritage and the wildlife — the why behind what you are looking at. From a Kirat family in the east, she is curious about every other community she writes about, and careful with all of them.
About Maya
- Anthropology background
- Culture, festivals, food, wildlife
- Respectful, well-sourced
- Eastern Nepal
- Corrections: email our team.
Recent articles by Maya
Festivals & Events
Dashain 2027 tika is Saturday 9 October, twelve days earlier than this year
Dashain 2027 runs 30 September to 14 October, tika on Saturday the 9th. Bhai Tika is 31 October. Why the early date matters for an autumn trek.
Festivals & Events
Chhath 2026 in Nepal, the Terai’s sun-worship festival explained
Four days of fasting, river-standing and dawn offerings
Festivals & Events
Losar 2026: Nepal's Tibetan New Year and Its Masked Monastery Dances
The Tibetan-Buddhist New Year of Nepal's high country, explained.
Culture & Heritage
Nepal Culture & Heritage in 2026: Faiths, Peoples, Festivals and Living Traditions
A respectful overview of Nepal's cultural richness — its intertwined faiths, its mosaic of peoples, the UNESCO heritage of the Kathmandu Valley, and the great festivals and living traditions.
Wildlife & Nature
Nepal Wildlife in 2026: The Iconic Animals and Where to See Them
From the rhinos and tigers of the Terai to the snow leopards of the high Himalaya, a field guide to Nepal's extraordinary wildlife — and how, and where, to actually see it.
Climate & Environment
The Himalaya and Climate Change in 2026: The Big Picture, from Melting Glaciers to an Erratic Monsoon
Warming faster up high, glaciers in retreat, floods pooling behind unstable lakes, soot on the snow and a monsoon turning extreme — how the threads tie together, and what they mean for Nepal’s water, its people and the people who trek here.
Culture & Heritage
What you’ll actually eat in Nepal, from dal bhat and momo to everything between
Dal bhat, momo and Nepal’s real food culture
Culture & Heritage
What to see in the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site
Seven monument zones, inscribed together in 1979 as one World Heritage Site, are the cultural gateway every Nepal trek passes through.
Climate & Environment
Nepal Has Mapped 2,070 Glacial Lakes. The One That Burst Was Not On the List.
A new ICIMOD and UNDP inventory counts 3,624 glacial lakes and flags 47 as dangerous — 42 of them in the Koshi basin. The lake that killed at least 165 people in August was not among them, because it did not exist the day before.
Culture & Heritage
Who the Sherpa people really are, and why Sherpa is not a job title
An ethnic group, not an occupation — the Sherpa of the Khumbu have their own language, Nyingma Buddhist faith and a homeland below Everest, far beyond the mountaineering fame that made their name a household word.
Wildlife & Nature
Nepal Has 915 Bird Species — Nearly a Tenth of the World's (2026)
One of Asia's great birding countries hides above and below the treks.