Bhaktapur's traders on the road to Tibet
Before the traders came, Bandipur was a simple Magar village on a ridge above the Marsyangdi. After Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the Kathmandu Valley in 1768, Newar merchant families from Bhaktapur moved here, drawn by its position on the trade route between India and Tibet and by its malaria-free altitude above the hot valley. They brought their architecture, their gods and their festivals, and in the early 19th century the village became a prosperous trading town.
Bandipur's heyday came under the Ranas (1846–1951). Its merchants grew rich, its houses gained neoclassical facades and shuttered windows, and its streets were paved with slabs of silvery slate. As a mark of its status the town was given permission to have its own library, which still exists and was renovated in 2000. It was also the headquarters of Tanahun district.
Then the road bypassed it. The Prithvi Highway, built in the 1970s, ran down the Marsyangdi valley 700 m below, and the district headquarters moved to Damauli. Traders moved down to Dumre or to the Terai, and Bandipur became half empty. Since 1998 an 8 km road from Dumre has connected it again, and its residents chose to keep the bazaar free of cars and restore the old houses as inns and cafes. The town came back by looking after what it had.
