Honey Hunting In Nepal –10 Days

Honey hunting in Nepal  is the ancestral practice of collecting honey from wild bees in the mid-western Nepal. The practice is strongly upheld by the indigenous Gurung and Magar tribes of Bhujung and Pasgaon villages. The practice has continued for hundreds of years.

The remote village of Bhujung and Pasgaon depends entirely on local employment. The honey hunting trek offers them a chance to earn living through potential tourism. The trek is designed to accommodate the local culture, lifestyle and traditions in the trip. You’d be staying as the house guests during your time at Bhujung and Pasgaon. Camping may be required for a night.

You can spend a day or two listening to the locals story, hunting honey and celebrating the feast with them.

You will start your journey from Besi Sahar and advance slowly towards the remote areas of Bhujung and Pasgaon. Tea-houses will be available at the earlier and later parts of the trek. You will get to observe the discreet culture and lifestyle of the indigenous tribesmen.

The advanced technology of communication has brought the local tradition of the world to light. One of the boons of modern communication we can feel is Himalayan Honey Hunting, which was limited only in the country, and now has been a flourishing tourist activity in Nepal. No doubt, all over the world honey is consumed and used for different purposes. But, far away from modern honey farming, honey hunting in Nepal is an ancient tradition of indigenous people who live in the foothill of the Himalayas in Nepal.

Harvesting honey is not their profession, but they do it skillfully, and bravely with full confidence

without any modern harnesses, equipment, and tools. They completely depend on a handmade ladder, ropes, and objects which make the harvesting scene ” Wow”, ” amazing” and “breathtaking”. Honey hunting in Nepal happens twice a year: autumn and spring. Generally, Rai people in eastern Nepal, and Gurungs in western Nepal harvest giant size of honeycombs hanging on the nooks of the cliffs. Certain procedures have to be performed before harvesting them. The ceremony is performed differently as per the culture of the local people. Somewhere it is performed by a shaman worshiping nature and sacrificing cocks, and somewhere by the team members who are participating in the act. Wherever the ceremonies are performed, they show respect to nature and wish for achievement avoiding the bad omen. And the hunter can’t be the random one. The honey hunter must be skilled and confident and brave, and he is supposed to be selected by their deity to perform the task. To reach the spot the team has to hike quite a long distance along the slippery dark green hilly forest loaded with all the local equipment like a long handwoven ladder, rope, bamboo basket, bamboo strainer, some buckets or gallons to store the honey, and other tools to cut the honeycombs and hold them. The journey is adventurous in itself. At the spot, first, they worship the cliff and nature and some of them climb up the cliffs and drop the ladder and rope, the members at down, light the fire, and make the surroundings smoky so the bees move away from the honeycombs. The brave hunter climbs up the handwoven ladder hanging on the cliff and with the help of a long bamboo knife cut the honeycombs and drops that into the bamboo baskets. Down people squeeze and strain them through the bamboo strainer and store them in buckets or gallons. Finally, after harvesting too, they worship the cliff and pray for the richness of nature. The scene of climbing up the handwoven ladder without any harnesses on the dangerous cliff is really breathtaking to look at. They hardly use gloves and nets to be protected from the bees. The city people who use modern harnesses even to climb up on the horseback find it a really crazy thing to do. But it’s

the life of mountain people. They don’t do it as their profession, nor they got this skill in any training center, nor in any institution, nor it is a stunning scene of any action movie. They do it just to collect the honey which is a source of their good health, medicine, and good diet which they offer to their deity too. It’s their ancient tradition that shows their identity. So, to observe such an organic stunt of mountain people, the diversities our planet has, and to test the Himalayan honey of wild Himalayan giant bees tourists must come to Nepal.

Moreover, as modernization, urbanization, and globalization are ruling the world causing global

warming, this ancient tradition is being rare and rare every year. Because new generation is moving to cities and old generation is dying. Along with their death, their tradition of respect for nature, skill, bravery, and confidence is also dying gradually. So, on time, people should come to Nepal, observe the tradition of human nature relationships and test the sweet pure honey of the wild Himalayan giant bee made from the collective nectar of Himalayan flowers.