A fort ridge turned sunrise point
Kot means fort in Nepali, and the hills around Pokhara are full of kot names: Sarangkot, Kaskikot, Pumdikot and, further east, Nuwakot. They date from the centuries when the Gandaki basin was split into small rival kingdoms and every ridge with a view of the valley was worth holding. Kaskikot, a little further west on the same line of hills, was the seat of the kings of Kaski, who ruled Pokhara's valley until the Gorkha state absorbed them in 1786.
For most of its history Sarangkot was a farming village of terraced millet, maize and rice, with paths down to the Phewa shore and to the trade route towards Baglung. Villagers carried produce down to Pokhara's bazaar on their backs. The hike up from the Pokhara–Baglung road at Miruwa takes about 90 minutes, and for generations that was the only way. Water came from springs on the slope, and the ridge's forests supplied fodder and firewood. Houses were built of stone and mud with thatched or slate roofs, many of which have since given way to concrete and tin.
The road, the sunrise tower and the paragliding came in the past few decades, and the village changed with them: guesthouses on the ridge, tea stalls at the viewpoint, and pilots' launch strips cut into the grassy slope. In 2015 Sarangkot was merged into Pokhara as Ward 18. The farms are still there just off the road, and so is the view that made the ridge worth defending. Early in the morning, before the taxis arrive, it still feels like a farming village with a very good view.
