The Medieval Town of Tansen

When you would have asked me 15-20 years ago what my favorite country was, I certainly would have answered: “Nepal”. I loved its mountainous setting, its chaotic but colorful towns, the sense of adventure in the air. In 2001 I spent a month backpacking all across the country, after having made an inaugural visit in 1993. One of the stops on that one month trip was the town of Tansen: little visited by foreigners at the time and still off the beaten track in 2020. It has been lingering on Nepal’s Tentative List since 2008 under the title of ‘The Medieval Town of Tansen’ and has since been unreviewed.

Tansen was the capital of the medieval kingdom of Palpa, an important place during a period when Nepal was not unified yet and its current territory was covered by separate kingdoms. Later on, in the 18th century, it became an important Newari bazaar town on the trade route between India and Tibet. It was only incorporated into the unified Nepali kingdom in 1806.

It lies in southwestern Nepal and in 2001 I reached it by public bus from Lumbini (via Butwal or Bhairawa?). The bus ride was the best one of that trip. And the one with the worst road conditions. The road slowly gains height, passing steep cliffs: that was a very different view from what I had experienced the week before in the lowlands of the Terai.

The town is built on a slope. I found …