A beyul that wrote its own law of peace
Tsum has deep links with Tibet. Historically the valley lay on trade routes across the border, and its people speak a dialect of Tibetan origin and share religious lineages with Tibetan monasteries. Buddhist tradition holds that the yogi Milarepa meditated in caves in the valley in the 11th and 12th centuries, and these caves have drawn pilgrims for centuries. Monasteries such as Mu Gompa, near the head of the valley, and Rachen Gompa, a nunnery, became centres of practice and learning.
In the early 20th century, lamas led the Tsumba to adopt the Shyagya, a collective vow of non-violence, written down and sealed with the thumbprints of the community. Upper Tsum declared itself a non-violent area in about 1920; the lower valley joined in 2012. The rules forbid hunting, trapping, honey harvesting, selling livestock for slaughter and setting fire to forests. In April 2023 the centenary was celebrated in the valley with Nepal's prime minister present.
Tsum stayed closed to foreign trekkers until 2008. Since then a modest flow of visitors has come, mostly in autumn and spring, staying in small lodges and homestays. The valley remains poor in cash and rich in tradition: barley and buckwheat fields, yaks and sheep on high pastures, polyandry still practised in some families, and young monks and nuns in the gompas. Roads are slowly reaching its lower end.
