Districts
Gandaki Province
Tanahun तनहुँ
Manakamana cable car, Seti gorge
Tanahun sits astride the Kathmandu–Pokhara highway around Damauli, at the meeting of the Seti and Madi rivers. The Manakamana wish-fulfilling temple, reached by cable car, and the river-edge cave of Siddha Gufa are its best-known draws. It is also the birthplace of the poet Bhanubhakta, who first translated the Ramayana into Nepali.
About Tanahun
Tanahun occupies a strategic position on the Prithvi Highway between Kathmandu and Pokhara, its headquarters at Damauli standing at the confluence of the Seti and Madi rivers. The Manakamana temple — dedicated to the goddess believed to grant wishes — sits on a ridge in the southern part of the district and is reached from the base station at Kurintar by Nepal's first cable car, a 2.8-kilometre ride opened in 1998 that lifts pilgrims above the Trishuli gorge in around ten minutes. Siddha Gufa near Damauli is the largest cave in Nepal and among the largest in South Asia, its main chamber wide enough to shelter thousands.
Tanahun is the birthplace of Bhanubhakta Acharya, the 19th-century poet who first rendered the Sanskrit Ramayana into Nepali, and his ancestral home at Chundi Ramgha is a small pilgrimage site for Nepali literary culture. The district's predominantly Brahmin-Chhetri and Magar communities farm the terraced ridges above the main rivers. Travellers on the Kathmandu–Pokhara route can make a Manakamana detour without significant time loss; the cable-car base at Kurintar is signed from the highway and the round trip takes under two hours.
At a glance
- Headquarters
- Damauli
- Known for
- Manakamana cable car, Seti gorge
Getting there
Damauli sits on the Prithvi Highway around 130 km from Kathmandu — about 3–4 hours by tourist or local bus — and roughly 60 km east of Pokhara (1.5 hours). The Manakamana cable-car base station at Kurintar is a further 20 km east of Damauli on the same highway, clearly signposted. Any Kathmandu–Pokhara bus can drop passengers at Kurintar or Damauli, making both easy pit-stops on the highway circuit.