Farming nomads at the edge of the possible
Agriculture in Dolpo is possible up to about 3,800 to 4,180 m, and the Tarap valley sits right at that limit. Short summers are just long enough to ripen barley, buckwheat and a few vegetables, watered by channels from the streams. The people combine farming with herding in a way known as samadrok, roughly 'farming nomads': in summer, families move their yaks, sheep and goats up to pastures at 4,000 to 5,000 m, returning to the village for harvest and winter.
For centuries the Dolpo-pa relied on trade to survive. Caravans of yaks carried salt from the lakes of the Tibetan plateau south through the high passes, to exchange for grain in the lower hills. This is the life shown in Eric Valli's 1999 film Himalaya, filmed in Dolpo with local people as its cast. After 1959 the border was tightened, Indian salt arrived in the lowlands and the old trade declined, though some caravans still travel north to Tibet each year.
Religion has always been central. Tarap has both Bon and Buddhist gompas, some centuries old, and the mani walls and chortens along the trails are kept in repair by villagers. In 1975 Dho became a village development committee, and in 2017 part of Dolpo Buddha rural municipality. Schools, solar panels and phones have reached the valley, and some young people now study in Kathmandu, but the cycle of planting, herding and festivals still sets the rhythm of the year. The valley endures.
