The guerrilla and yarsa trails are ideal for trekkers looking for something utterly unique.
Take an exhilarating odyssey through the heartland of post-conflict territory. This remote area where state forces clashed with Maoist rebels is now a tranquil land graced with many natural attractions that will compete for your attention every step of the way.
Visitors will experience ancient villages surrounded by birdsong and emerald and golden paddy fields. This area has a broad range of eco-diversity including Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Nepal's only hunting reserve. Wildlife, waterfalls, rivers, caves, lakes, hot springs, yarsagumba hunting grounds and the inspiring, snow-topped Himalaya to the north make this region a backpackers’ paradise.
Find more information at http://www.guerrillatrek.org/
Yarasgumba
Foraging for Yarasgumba (a mushroom fungus that has consumed the insides of a caterpillar larva) in the rugged highlands of Nepal has become an important source of income for many rural villagers and beyond. Revenue from yarsagumba harvesting helped fund Nepal’s Maoist insurgency and continues to fill party coffers.
The mushroom is reputed to be an aphrodisiac and is even referred to as Himalayan Viagra. Large caravans set off in search for it in remote, high elevation areas of Nepal including Rukum, Dolpo and Manang districts. The name is often shortened to bu or insect in Tibetan (and referred to as chaiu or mushroom by gatherers ). The long name is monsoon grass (yartsa), wintertime insect (gunbu), and so named for the transformation that takes place from insect to a fungus that sprouts like grass.
The epic search for this mushroom has been an economic blessing for local residents in districts where it is found as well as people who arrive from surrounding regions. They travel to the highlands in the spring to hunt for its outgrowths. Yarsagumba is actually the larva of the Himalayan ghost moth (Thitarodes) that has had its insides eaten by the fungus Ophiocordyseps sinensis. Moth caterpillars nesting underground play host to spores of the fungus which consumes them leaving only the outer shell remaining. The fungus eventually sprouts through the head of the mummified caterpillar and up through the earth in the springtime similar to a bud of grass.
Yarsagumba is relished in China where it commands a higher price than gold. It is believed to enhance energy, male virility and general health, although these putative properties await conclusive research.
Yarsagumba was mentioned in Tibetan medical literature around the 15th century, but first achieved world headlines in 1993 when unheralded Chinese distance runners achieved monumental success at a track meet in Beijing. Their coach partially attributed the record-setting victories to the high-elevation mushroom mixed into an elixir of turtle’s blood of all things. Yarsagumba is not a banned substance, although when testing became standard and more rigorous, some of this coach’s athletes withdrew from the Sydney Olympics rather than face scrutiny for doping and performance enhancing drugs.
Regardless of the doubt this spread over his previous claims to success, excitement surrounding this fungus has been increasing exponentially. Value has also grown dramatically, largely driven by China’s nouveau riche and their desire to be fashionable and yarsagumba being used as a suitable non-cash gift to cajole high government officials (who often re-sale the gift for the cash).
Prices for premium yarsagumba are over $45,000/lb (more than 100,000 USD per kg) in posh Chinese emporiums. The fungus, in the form of a desiccated caterpillar, can be eaten whole but is generally pulverized and added to food or boiled in tea, and sometimes plopped whole into soup. Buon appetito!
Recent article (in Nepali) about a yarsa caravan in Pupal Highlands of northern Rukum, Nepal. This story was published in the 10th May 2014 issue of Kantipur, written by Surbindra Kumar Pun from Maikot, Rukum.
Journey to Yarsa (2011), a documentary by Dipendra Bhandari of a Yarsagumba caravan in Rukum, Nepal that “simultaneously reveals the struggle, hope, laughter, romance and resilience in the lives of the hill people who go to dig for survival in the High Himal.”
Himalayan Gold Rush (2012), a documentary by Eric Valli of yarsagumba caravan in Dolpo.
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