A Tibetan valley on Nepal's side of the line
Limi has always faced north. Its people share language, faith and family ties with western Tibet, and for centuries they traded and grazed across what is now the border with Purang. Halji's Rinchenling monastery is believed to have been built by Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo, the great translator of the 11th century, and scholars note narrative and physical evidence placing its oldest parts in that period. It closely resembles the Tabo monastery in Spiti, India, also linked to Rinchen Zangpo.
When the modern border hardened after the 1950s, Limi found itself on the Nepali side, far from Kathmandu and closer to Taklakot than to Simikot. The valley's economy, built on barley, yaks, sheep and trade, had to adapt. In recent years a rough road has been built from the border near the Lapcha La to the Salli Khola, giving Jang a road link to Taklakot in Tibet, while the trails south to Simikot remain long and hard.
Today Limi faces new pressures. Since 2004 a series of glacial lake outburst floods have destroyed parts of Halji village and come close to the monastery, which scientists link to climate change. Young people leave for school and work in Kathmandu and India. Yet the villages keep their festivals, their gonpas and their fields, and visitors who make the journey are received with great hospitality.
