Ame Pal's city and the last king of Lo
Lo Manthang was founded in about 1380 by Ame Pal, a warrior who made Lo an independent Buddhist kingdom, closely tied to Tibet by language and religion. He oversaw the building of the city wall and many of the structures that still stand. Lo's position on the trade route between the Tibetan plateau and the Kali Gandaki brought it wealth, and from the 15th to the 17th century it controlled much of the trade in salt, wool and grain between the Himalaya and the south. The great gompas of the city were built in this period of prosperity.
At the end of the 18th century Lo was annexed by the expanding kingdom of Nepal and became a dependency in 1795, but it kept its own hereditary rulers, known locally as gyalpo and in Nepali as raja. They lived in the palace, presided over festivals and settled disputes. Upper Mustang remained closed to outsiders until 1992, which helped preserve its Tibetan culture, language and architecture into modern times. Lo also supported Tibet and the Qing empire against Nepal during the Sino-Nepalese War of the late 18th century, a reminder of how close its ties to the north remained.
On 7 October 2008, after Nepal became a federal republic, the government ended the kingdom of Lo. The last king, Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, who had reigned since 1964 and was 25th in a line traced back to Ame Pal, lost his title, though many residents continued to treat him as their king until his death in December 2016. His nephew, Jigme Singhe Palbar Bista, still attends ceremonies in the palace. Today Lo Manthang is the centre of Lomanthang rural municipality, a place of farmers, monks, traders and lodge-keepers.
