At the Foot of the Himalayas, the Once-Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang Is Now Welcoming Travelers

22.07.2024 - 18:20 / cntraveler.com / Bill Bensley

A fierce diurnal wind is gusting up the Kali Gandaki valley in Mustang, an isolated region in central Nepal, suffusing the austere terrain with drama and motion. It whips the thousands of prayer flags into a frenzy and relieves unsuspecting visitors of their hats. The powerful wind is the breath of this land; its heart is the Kali Gandaki, the river that originates in the north, near the Tibetan border, and empties into the Ganges. Over centuries the wind and the river have carved this gorge out of the Annapurna range, part of a 500-mile band that contains some of the Himalayas’ proudest peaks. But all are dwarfed by a single form looming 23,000 feet above, somehow both near and far: the triple-peaked, snowcapped Nilgiri Himal, which keeps watch over its dominion below.

I am struggling to make headway down a slope amid the feral gale. Abhishek Thakali, my guide and butler from Shinta Mani Mustang, a newly reimagined resort in the Nepali highlands, laughs at me. “Welcome to the windy valley, Ong Chandrahas,” he says.

This is the gateway to the ancient “forbidden kingdom” of Mustang (pronounced “moos-taang”). It is a barren, stony, gray landscape of secrets and specificities, a consequence of its place in the rain shadow of two colossal massifs, the Annapurna and the Dhaulagiri, and its natural isolation from the rest of the world. In the 14th century Mustang was an independent kingdom called Lo, ruled by the fabled king Ame Pal. In the 18th century it was assimilated into Nepal but retained some of its autonomy, remaining a stronghold of Tibetan culture. Though it has always been sparsely populated (even today fewer than 15,000 people live here), hardy travelers have long passed through the region; it sits along what was once an important trans-Himalayan trade route between Tibet and the lower realms of Nepal and India. Whereas Mount Everest and its environs are visited by hordes of trekkers, Mustang is quieter, grounded in its own past, exuding a lama-like poise and mystique. Things change very slowly here. Until as recently as 1992, Upper Mustang was closed to outsiders. Its monarchy was officially abolished only in 2008, and its last king, Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, died in 2016.

But there is a vivid new presence in the valley: Shinta Mani Mustang, an atmospheric 29-room hotel in the municipality of Jomsom, which opened to guests last summer. It is the third hotel under the Shinta Mani banner, after outposts in Cambodia’s Siem Reap and Cardamom Mountains. All were designed by the pioneering hotelier Bill Bensley, whose sustainability-minded ethos can be found at resorts throughout Asia. The Mustang property came to life after the renovation of a grand structure made of local timber and stone,