Sirubari: The Village That Started Community Tourism in Nepal

Homestays are now found all over Nepal. The idea of an entire village organising itself to receive visitors, with a committee, a rota and shared profits, was first put into practice in the late 1990s in a small Gurung settlement in Syangja district called Sirubari. It remains a quiet, well-run place, and a visit shows the model in its original form.

Where it is

Sirubari sits on a south-facing slope at about 1,700 metres, in the middle hills south-west of Pokhara. It is not on a trekking route and has no mountain lodge strip. The village is compact and unusually neat: stone-paved lanes, whitewashed houses with slate roofs, flower beds and a small Buddhist monastery at the centre.

Many of its men served in the Gurkha regiments of the British and Indian armies. Their pensions built the solid houses, and it was a retired officer who proposed inviting paying guests as a way of keeping the village alive when young people were leaving.

How a stay works

1. Book ahead. Visits are arranged through the village tourism committee, usually via an agency in Pokhara or Kathmandu. You cannot simply turn up and choose a house.

2. Arrival. Guests are met at the edge of the village by a band of traditional musicians with drums, cymbals and long curved horns, and walked in procession to the community hall. There you are given garlands and tika and introduced to your host family.

3. The house. Each participating home has one or two guest rooms with clean beds and a simple bathroom nearby. Standards are checked by the committee.

4. Meals. You eat with the family: rice, lentils, vegetables from the garden, home-made pickles, and occasionally chicken. Breakfast is often flatbread with eggs and tea.

5. Evening. A cultural programme of songs and dances is held in the hall. Tea or the local millet drink is passed around, and guests are expected to join the dancing.

6. Departure. The same musicians see you off.

Fees are fixed, cover food and lodging, and are divided between the host and a fund that maintains paths, the water system and communal buildings.

What to do

• Climb to Thumro Juro. A hilltop viewpoint above the village, about an hour and a half on foot, with a panorama of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges at sunrise.

• Walk the lanes. Notice how clean the village is; residents sweep the paths daily.

• Visit the monastery and the small museum of household objects.

• See the community forest, replanted and managed by villagers over several decades and a source of some pride.

• Join in. Depending on the season, you can help in the vegetable plots, watch weaving or learn to cook a local dish.

A two-night stay allows the viewpoint walk and a slow day in the village.

Getting there

From Pokhara, the drive takes four to five hours. The route follows the Siddhartha Highway south towards Syangja, then turns onto a smaller hill road that climbs to the village. Public buses run to the junction towns, with local jeeps for the last section; a hired vehicle is simpler. Some visitors walk the final stretch on the old footpath, which takes a few hours uphill.

When to go

October to April is best. Autumn and winter mornings are clear, and in spring the hillsides flower. The road can be difficult during the monsoon.

What to expect, and what not to

Sirubari is peaceful. There is no bar, no wifi worth mentioning and nothing to buy. The programme is organised and may feel a little formal on the first evening, since the welcome follows a set pattern that the village has refined over many years. Stay a second day and it relaxes into ordinary hospitality.

Bring a torch, a warm layer for evenings, modest clothing and small notes. A gift of fruit or sweets for the household is appreciated but not expected.

Why it matters

When Sirubari began, the usual pattern was for tourism income in the hills to go to whoever owned a lodge on a busy trail. Here the earnings were shared by design, and decisions were made in common. Community homestays in Lamjung, Chitwan, Bardia, Ilam and dozens of other places follow the same outline.

Visiting the original is partly a matter of curiosity about how the idea started. Mostly it is a chance to spend a day or two as a guest in a hill village that is confident, orderly and plainly pleased to see you.