A new fort on an old salt road
For centuries the Kali Gandaki valley was a trade corridor. Caravans of mules and yaks brought rock salt and wool south from Tibet and carried rice, sugar and cloth north. The Thakali villages of the lower valley, Tukuche, Marpha, Thini and Syang, grew rich on that traffic. Jomsom, whose older Tibetan name Dzongsam means 'new fort', was a small settlement on the river below Thini, important mainly as a crossing. Traders stopped here to rest their animals before the climb to Kagbeni and the high country of Lo.
The town grew in the 20th century because the government chose it. It became the headquarters of Mustang district, and an airstrip was built on the flat gravel terrace above the river. Offices, a hospital, schools, an army post and lodges followed. When the Annapurna Circuit became one of the most walked trails in the world, Jomsom became the place where trekkers coming over the Thorong La caught their flight back to Pokhara. Many of the first lodges were simply Thakali family homes with a few extra beds.
The road changed everything again. Since the jeep track up the Kali Gandaki from Beni was opened through, Jomsom has been connected to Pokhara by land, and the Kaligandaki Corridor highway now runs on north to the Tibetan border at Korala. Trucks of apples go south in autumn; Indian pilgrims bound for Muktinath arrive by the jeep-load in spring. Old Jomsom still has its flat-roofed Thakali houses, but the west bank looks more like a small administrative town every year.
.jpg){kind=link}