Industry & Tourism
A planned cable car to the Pathibhara temple in eastern Nepal has become a flashpoint between tourism development and Indigenous Limbu heritage…
By Laxman Rawal · Jun 14, 2026
High in the hills of Taplejung, in Nepal's far east, a mountaintop draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year — and has become the centre of one of the country's most heated debates about how tourism should grow. Known as Pathibhara to Hindu pilgrims and…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The proposed cable car would carry visitors up toward the Pathibhara shrine, which currently requires a steep walk to reach. Backers — including the developer and parts of the government — frame it as a tourism and accessibility project: a way to bring more…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
For the Limbu community and the Save Mukkumlung campaign, the mountain is not a backdrop but a living sacred landscape tied to their Mundhum tradition. Opponents argue the project has advanced without the community's free, prior and informed consent…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The Mukkumlung dispute is about one mountain, but the question behind it echoes across the Himalaya: who decides how a sacred place becomes a tourist destination, and who benefits when it does? As Nepal pushes hard to grow visitor numbers and build…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
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