A village looking down on the road to Kerung
The Bhote Koshi valley below Briddim was for centuries a trade road between Kathmandu and the Tibetan town of Kerung, now Gyirong. Caravans of salt, wool and grain passed through Timure and over the border at Rasuwagadhi. Villages on the slopes above, like Briddim, supplied porters, pack animals and food, and their families married and traded across the border. Language, dress and religion in Briddim still show those ties. Older people in Briddim still remember when the valley road was a footpath and when trips to Kerung took several days of walking with loads on the back. Their stories are the best guide to how the valley used to work.
The route had its wars as well as its markets. In 1792 Qing Chinese troops came down this valley toward Nuwakot, and in 1855 Nepal built the fort at Rasuwagadhi during its war with Tibet. In the 20th century the border closed and reopened with politics. In 2014 Rasuwagadhi became an international trade crossing, and trucks returned to the valley road below the village, now motor road rather than mule track. Each change brought new work for people in Briddim, as porters, drivers, traders and labourers, and each closure took some of that work away. The village learned to adapt to whatever the border and the road brought.
Briddim chose a different path to an income: community tourism. Families opened their homes to visitors as part of the Tamang Heritage Trail, sharing guests through a village committee so that the money spread across households. The 2015 earthquake damaged houses and the gompa, and the village rebuilt. The floods of 2025 and 2026 destroyed the border road and much of Syabrubesi; Briddim, on its high shelf, now waits for the road and the visitors to return. When it does, the homestays will be waiting, and so will the people who run them.
