Introduction

2The ethnographic information on Rolwaling is based on my own research, unless otherwise noted. Since most of it is commonly held knowledge, it is difficult to attribute it to individuals, though I do so whenever possible. I spent 1974 in Rolwaling and visited it again in 1977 and 1978. Then, on four occasions over the following three decades, I visited natives of Rolwaling who live in Kathmandu. Since 2015 I have met with Rolwaling Sherpas living in the United States of America at least once a month and I interviewed visiting lamas Tulku Ngawang Tenzin Lapsum and Geshe Thubten Jinpa, both Rolwaling natives, during their American tour in the autumn of 2025.

3This paper first presents a brief account, both religious and secular, of the 900-year history of Rolwaling. This is followed by a longer section on its relationship to the larger world of Tibetan religion and culture, with a comparison with nine other beyuls which have also been studied from an academic perspective. Rolwaling’s unique features are discussed and certain personal theories concerning the nature of their social structure are briefly mentioned. I conclude with Rolwaling’s current status. It is hoped that by the end the reader will have gained knowledge not only of Rolwaling but of beyuls in general, especially those in Nepal.

Beyuls from a historical perspective

Rolwaling’s sacred landscape

7Lying west of the Khumbu region, Rolwaling is associated with three important spiritual figures within Tibetan religion and culture (Sacherer 2011). Chronologically, the first of these are the five long-life sisters (Tshe ring mched lnga), guardians of the Rolwaling region who, it is said, predate Buddhism (Roth 2008). They are believed to inhabit the five separate peaks of Gaurishankar (7,181m in altitude), which are visible from Rolwaling. Sometimes malevolent in their pre-Buddhist state, the goddesses were first subdued by Padmasambhava (Nebesky-Wojkowitz 1977: 177–181) and again by the Tibetan saint Milarepa in the eleventh century (Quintman 2008: 393–398, Huber 2007: 241–248). They are the flying-sister goddesses who featured in Rigdzin’s original name for Rolwaling: ‘Playground of skygoers’ (Rol ba mkha’ ‘gro’i gling).

9Next in chronological order is Padmasambhava who appeared in the eighth century, subdued the local gods, converted the Tibetan royal court to esoteric Buddhism and built Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. Arriving from India, he visited the Kathmandu Valley before crossing into Tibet and proceeding east to Lhasa. Historically, he would have passed Lapchi and Rolwaling on his right. He is said to have subdued the Tseringma sisters and to have presumably blessed beyuls along the way. Once in Lhasa, he met his royal consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, who was also his chief disciple. When he left Tibet, she remained there to carry on his legacy. Part of the spiritual knowledge Guru Rinpoche is said to have entrusted to Yeshe Tsogyal was the location of hidden valleys across the Himalayas. This knowledge was kept by her and was to be passed on to his closest disciples when they reincarnated in future centuries. She did this by appearing in their visions and dreams approximately five hundred years later. One such ‘treasure revealer’ (tertön) was the Nyingma lama, Rigdzin Gödem (Rig dzin rGod ldem can), who first qualified Rolwaling and six other Himalayan valleys as beyuls.

10The most spectacular Rolwaling monument to Guru Rinpoche is Urgyen Shuti, a large square rock five metres high, said to be a ‘naturally arisen’ throne, a rangjung (Tib rang byung). An impressive monolith, it is inscribed on all four sides with the Sherpa and Tibetan mantra to Avalokiteshvara, om mani padme hum. Nearby is a smaller and similarly carved rock known as Kanda Shuti or Khadromi Shuti, the throne of Yeshe Tsogyal. Lying at the base of these impressive stones are small slabs of stratified rock said to be holy scriptures, whose meaning has not yet been revealed. Most important is the Urgyen Drubkang, a cave overlooking the stone thrones of the Guru and his consort where he is said to have meditated and performed rituals for several months.

11The third major religious figure is Milarepa, Tibet’s native-born saint (1040–1143), who went from a life of great sin to full enlightenment. Known for his asceticism, he resided in numerous places in southern Tibet, including Lapchi (La phyi) and Chuwar (Chu dbar) which border Rolwaling to the northwest (Quintman 2008, Huber 2007). Recognised as one of the Tibetan founders of the Kagyu sect, he had many students since he was well known and lived to be more than 80 years old. Milarepa was also a great poet whose verses, said to number 100,000 or more, are recited to this day (Milarepa 2006). Many of them concern his encounters with the five Tseringmas who did their best to distract him from his meditation. He persevered, however, and eventually drew them deeper into Buddhism. The only Rolwaling monument associated with him is a high-altitude cave near the Himalayan crest where he is believed to have meditated. According to tradition, the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284–1339), born in nearby Dingri, Tibet, and head of Milarepa’s Kagyu sect, undertook a long retreat both on the slopes of Mount Everest (Thinley 2001, 55–60, Kunsang, Pemo and Aubele 2012: 59–72) and in Rolwaling, where he left the imprint of his head, hands and knees on a rock when he saw Tashi Tseringma and bowed down to her.

Early religious history

14The first known references to the Rolwaling area are the songs of Milarepa (1040–1143) who, without specifically mentioning Rolwaling, detailed his interactions with the Tseringma whose abode atop Mount Gaurishankar is shared between the Lapchi, Chuwar and Rolwaling valleys (Roth 2008). Although Guru Rinpoche is said to have passed through the southern region of Tibet in the eighth century, his beyul legacy was not known until his treasure revealers reappeared during the period from the eleventh to thirteenth century. In the meantime, Milarepa’s long life (1040–1143), his many meditation retreats and students had left a deep impression on the region’s people and landscape (Quintman 2008). Although Lapchi was named a beyul by Rigdzin Gödem and is still believed to be one by the Nyingmas, Milarepa’s legacy has completely overshadowed the beyul tradition there.

15The first explicit mention of Rolwaling in Tibetan religious literature appears to have been made by Orgyen Lingpa (1323–1360), a treasure revealer quoting Yeshe Tsogyal. This reference is found in the Padma Katang, Shelbragma edition. It is noteworthy that the reference to Rolwaling does not specifically mention it as being a beyul. Instead, it states under Canto 95, ‘The glacier of Tsering is one of the best places for spiritual attainment in future times’ (Tsogyal 1978: 645). He is more specific in folio 6 of his Katang Dupa, the Abbreviated Chronicle (or Short Biography of Padma (Padma’i rnam thar chung ba), which mentions that Padmasambhava performed the Vajrakilaya ritual in a cave in Rolwaling which then became known as the Phurbi Drubkang (Wangmo 2005: 335). In the same century, Rigdzin Gödem, the single greatest namer of beyuls, noted in The Seven Plains and Ridges of the Seven Hidden Countries (Sbas yul bdun gyi thang gang bdun ma) that Rolwaling was one of seven hidden valleys (Wangmo 2005: 332). In his General Catalogue of the Hidden Valleys (Sbas yul spyi’i them byang), Rolwaling is also mentioned as ‘a hidden valley that is easy to find and can easily be kept by skillful means’ (Wangmo 2005: 335).

Sherpa settlement

20Although Rolwaling was known at Milarepa’s time or before, it did not have permanent inhabitants until the late 1800s when mostly Sherpas or those wishing to assimilate to Sherpa culture settled there. Sherpa people, according to their own historical documents, originated from near Derge in Kham, eastern Tibet (Zangbu and Klatzle 2017, Oppitz 1974, Draper 1989). Later, many people left Kham, motivated by a series of Mongol invasions towards the end of the fifteenth century (Oppitz 1974: 125). These Sherpas eventually settled around Dingri, Tibet. Some then moved south to the Milarepa valley of Chuwar, now known as Rongshar. However, peace did not reign even in this region because a Muslim general came through from the west in 1533, destroying Buddhist temples in his wake (Oppitz 1974:122), precipitating the Sherpas’ move south of the Himalayas. The already existing beyul tradition made this an obvious choice.

21According to Sherpa accounts, their move was preceded by an exploratory visit by Phachen of the Thimi clan (Zangbu and Klatzel 2017: 4). Phachen travelled from Rongshar through the Menlung Valley to Rolwaling. He must have soon realised, however, that it was not suitable for a large number of people due to its modest size. He then crossed Tashi Laptsa pass at its eastern end and proceeded to Khumbu (Zangbu and Klatzel 2017: 4) with its broad and sunnier north–south valley and an easier trade route to Tibet. Pachen is credited with opening Khumbu to settlement by virtue of his explorations but also his spiritual powers that enabled him to overcome the local guardian spirits (Zangbu and Klatzel 2017:21–22). More Sherpas then came directly over the northern Nangpa La Pass to settle where they now live in Solu and Khumbu.

22It was not until the 1870s that three families moved permanently to Rolwaling (Sacherer 1977: 290, 1981: 157). These pioneers were a combination of a family from Kyrong, Tibet and two Sherpa families from Thami, in Khumbu, to the east. Sherpa families were seeking to escape large debts, probably the result of the increased taxation imposed at the time on Sherpas by the aristocratic Rana family in Kathmandu (Ortner 1989: 117–123). These early settlers first lived in caves and rock lean-tos. Barley was their main food crop in the early years but was soon replaced by potatoes imported from Khumbu.

Modern developments

23By 1974, a few Rolwaling men were already working for mountaineering expeditions, earning far more than they ever could from the traditional sale of seed potatoes and yak hybrids (Sacherer 1974, 1977, 1981). A mass exodus to Kathmandu – home to mountaineering agencies and offering good schooling for their children – came as no surprise. At about the same time, Everest became a popular destination and there was a growing need for Sherpa climbers. Rolwaling men seized this new opportunity (Baumgartner 2015, 2017) and are now known for having produced more Everest summiters than any other village in Nepal. Today, the now prosperous Rolwaling people own two square blocks of contiguous three-story concrete houses where they still live as as villagers, a unified community maintaining as active a religious and social life as before.

24Their new-found wealth has been invested in real estate, climbing-gear shops and mountaineering agencies, with a substantial amount being put into educating the next generation in the management skills needed to run businesses with an international clientele. A large number of young Rolwaling men also became Buddhist monastics, obtaining the equivalent of doctorates in Buddhist studies. The current head of the Nepal Buddhist Association is Geshe Thubten Jinpa from Rolwaling.

25Today, hardly anybody lives in Rolwaling itself, save a few elderly people. Some young Sherpas return to open teahouses during the trekking season because foreign tourists and a growing number of Nepalis now visit the valley. A number of Rolwaling people also come from Kathmandu for the Dumje festival which is held during the summer months. The old system of festival sponsorship has been maintained, with some Rolwaling people returning from abroad when it is their turn to provide food for Dumje participants and spectators in Rolwaling and for other festivals held in Kathmandu, in the newly built Rolwaling temple and cultural centre.

Rolwaling’s unique qualities

Religious history

28Another unique religious feature of Rolwaling is that it has the unfortunate distinction of being the only beyul to have lost its neyig. Life in Rolwaling was difficult so no one thought of making a second copy before lending a visiting lama the only one they had. Rolwaling people have consequently spent years trying to locate another copy. The Rolwaling gomba houses a set of the Buddhist canon, the Kangyur, the Buddha’s teachings, and the Yum, the version of the Prajnaparamita in 100,000 verses. These were acquired in the mid-twentieth century by first making paper from daphne plants in the part of Rolwaling situated at 3,000 metres, an activity that took a whole year. The bales of paper were then carried by porters to Tibet where they were loaded on yaks and taken to the woodblock printing press at Narthang Monastery near Shigatse. By the time they were returned to Rolwaling and placed in the newly renovated gomba, almost three years had passed. This process seems to partially verify Diemberger’s theory (2021) that wood and paper resources south of the Himalayas were the material foundation of the book-printing culture in central Tibet.

Difficult location and late settlement

29While Rolwaling has the distinction of being the first Nepalese high-altitude valley to be explored by Sherpas, it ended up being the last valley where they settled due to a number of physical constraints involving its location, topography and climate (Sacherer 1974). It is inhabited up to an altitude of 4,000 metres in the winter and up to 5,000 metres in the summer; these altitudes are not unusual for areas of Tibetan culture south of the Himalayas. However, Rolwaling differs from most valleys in that it runs east to west which makes it difficult to supplement agricultural activities with trade. The only other beyul in Nepal with this orientation is Langtang, which adjoins a main north-south trade route providing easier access to both Kyirong in Tibet and Kathmandu in Nepal. Historically, Langtang was inhabited by Tibetans from nearby Kyirong who travelled back and forth and benefited from a major trading path. In modern times it has had the additional advantage of being labelled a national park.

30By contrast, although Rolwaling is located near a small route connecting Tibet and Nepal, it is disadvantaged by the steep and sometimes slippery trail up the cliffs above the Tama Koshi River. This climb of approximately 2,000 metres made it necessary until recently for goods to be carried by porters. This path is the easy way in and out of Rolwaling. Otherwise, it is accessible only via passes to the north, south and east that are nearly 6,000 metres high. The Tashi Laptsa Pass connecting Rolwaling to the Sherpas in Khumbu is at this altitude and is notorious for crevasses and dangerous rockfall that have caused many deaths.

31Another major disadvantage of its narrow (1-km-wide) east-west orientation is that the surrounding 6,000–7,000-metre peaks block out sunlight, making only the south-facing side of the valley suitable for agriculture. This also makes the winter days especially cold and dark, a feature recently put to good use for training perspective Nepali mountain guides in ice climbing. Lastly, the abrupt altitude differential between the Tama Koshi River and Rolwaling, creates an updraught of humidity that brings in a cold fog every afternoon over half of the year. While stunningly beautiful during the monsoon waterfall and wildflower season, and anytime there is sunshine, it is not surprising that Rolwaling was the last high-altitude beyul to be inhabited. Its settlement represents a horizontal east-west migration mainly by populations south of the Himalayas rather than from the north, as in other beyuls, which is the consequence of its challenging location.

Unique forms of self-government

32Geoff Childs (1999) has speculated that Rigdzin Gödem’s concept of beyul was a place of refuge for descendants of Tibetan kings who would have a patron-priest relationship with a local lama, as the latter did with the king of Gungthang. This was the case with the two beyuls that Gödem opened, Kyimolung on the Tibet-Nepal border and Demjong in Sikkim (Ducher 2024). In the case of nearby Langtang (Lim 2004) and Yolmo in Nepal (Clarke 1980, Gelle 2020), a lineage of married priests served in place of nobility, exerting both secular and religious authority. Khembalung (Diemberger 1997) and Pakchakshiri/Menchukha (Grothman 2021) beyuls functioned according to a rota system whereby headmen from various leading families were appointed, although Pachakshiri had a written document advocating a more egalitarian society. Pemako is divided between Tibetans and indigenous tribal groups, each with their own system (Grothman 2012).

33By contrast, an evocative part of early Rolwaling folklore recounts the power struggle between the head of the first Tibetan family and the two heads of the first Sherpa families who settled in the valley. Knowing that the valley was a beyul, the Sherpas objected to any killing there, particularly of wildlife. The head of the Tibetan family had previously used Rolwaling as a hunting ground and possessed a gun which he used to intimidate the Sherpas into being scouts for his hunting forays and for working in his fields.

34This conflict is recounted by the Sherpas in terms of Buddhist ethics, but it also seems to have involved Tibetan versus Sherpa social models. The Tibetan headman was trying to follow the single dominant family model. However, he did not possess the requisite religious values to gain respect as a leader and relied on intimidation instead. Fortuitously, he met with a fatal accident early on, falling from a cliff while hunting wild sheep. Later members of his family adopted more egalitarian, Sherpa ways, eventually becoming leaders in the community that forbade the killing of animals in any form in the valley at that time. From 1880 onwards, the Rolwaling people remained a vegetarian community, except for when their livestock died by accident, predation or old age.

35After the initial power struggle, village political and religious leaders were selected based on ability and willingness to serve. In 1974, this included the long-time village headman, murmin, chosen for his exuberant personality and ability to speak Nepali which allowed him to liaise effectively with district officials. By contrast, the lay religious officials serving in the village temple were chosen for their ability to read Tibetan and their knowledge of Nyingma rituals. They had acquired this ability from visiting celibate monks based in the Khumbu village of Thami. Less specialised positions rotated regularly between heads of households, including those headed by widows. These positions were ‘heads of stone wall maintenance’, gardzi nawa, and ‘forest guardians’, shingi nawa. The role of providing food in the village temple, hlawa (Tib lha pa), was also rotated among heads of households as it was assumed that even the poorest families could buy the standard sack of cheap millet flour every two or three years. Later, when the Hillary-sponsored school was built, a four-man committee was created and afterwards a Panchayat official, now referred to as ward member for Dolakha district.

36While more men than women served in these positions, it should be noted that women already exercised a great deal of influence over village decisions in 1974 since many young men had started to take part in mountaineering expeditions for months at a time, leaving women in charge of households and finances. I attended a village meeting in spring that year when women who were doing most of the agricultural work were unhappy about the lack of maintenance of stone walls, were trying to keep livestock out of the potato fields and were vociferously airing their negative opinions to the village headman and the few other men in attendance. By 1974, there was also tension between older men and younger mountaineers over village decisions. However, following the latter’s move to Kathmandu starting in the 1980s, economic and political power suddenly shifted to younger, more worldly men.

39The combination of mountaineering skills and flexibility was especially useful during the Maoist uprising in Nepal when Maoist soldiers came to Rolwaling hoping to wage a surprise attack on the Khumbu region by recruiting young Rolwaling men as soldiers and guides over the less guarded Tashi Labtsa Pass. Warned ahead of time, the young men of the village climbed to a high-altitude camp on one of Rolwaling’s 6,000-metre-high mountains where they camped on snow while villagers regaled the Maoists with true tales of how many people, both foreign and Nepalis, had perished on Tashi Labtsa over the years. Finally, convinced that the trip over the pass was too dangerous, the Maoists left by the same, easier route they had come on; it was possibly the first time a beyul provided a refuge within a refuge.

Beyul abandonment

40Rolwaling bears the unfortunate distinction of being the first beyul to have been almost completely abandoned by its inhabitants, which is no doubt due to its harsh environment. While Nepalese mountain villages in general, not just beyuls, have long relied on seasonal labour migration to supplement their agricultural income and, more recently, have seen young people leave in pursuit of an education (Childs et al 2014), no other beyul has experienced such a dramatic drop in its population. A rough estimate suggests that over 600 people live elsewhere and less than 20 still live in Rolwaling, almost all of them elderly people. Langtang and Yolmo, both seriously damaged in the 1915 earthquake, have certain advantages over Rolwaling. As a national park, Langtang has more employment opportunities, while Yolmo is only hours away by car from Kathmandu and consequently attracts tourists and weekend commuters. Equally important, it has a first-rate boarding school. Lapchi has always been a pilgrimage site for the Kagyu sect which now includes members from the West who arrive by the motorable road only a short distance away. Inhabitants of Khembalung took to the mountaineering business later, but face the same problems as the inhabitants of Rolwaling regarding remoteness and the lack of educational facilities. The building of a road along the Arun River will only hasten the depopulation process (Coburn 2020). As for Kyimolung, this process is only just beginning because a road – a source of controversy – is now being built (Butler 2024).

41When questioned, Rolwaling people uniformly answer that they moved away for the sake of their children’s education. Their Hillary-sponsored school has never provided classes beyond the 4th grade and there has been a perennial problem of getting schoolteachers from lower altitudes to stay in such a remote and cold place. If questioned further, people explain that the capital offers better job prospects and that running their own climbing and trekking business is possible only there. They almost always frame this in terms of ‘more facilities’, although some people mention the former Maoist insurgency in the countryside. They complain about the pollution in Kathmandu and some mention that they would like to retire to Rolwaling; however, movement has so far been one way. When elderly parents grow frail, they move to live with their children in Kathmandu, rather than the other way around. More and more young Rolwalingpas have immigrate to Canada and the United States, and some have become citizens of those countries.

42Young people from Rolwaling say that they might consider moving back if there was a road, electricity, a phone service and internet. However, strong doubts remain. There are even young people from Rolwaling families who were born in Kathmandu and have never been to their home village. As inheritors of the beyul tradition and its supposed custodians, many older Rolwaling people express guilt about this situation. The decision to rebuild all the houses and the village temple in exactly the same way as before, or even better, after the 2015 earthquake is a sign of their serious concern. This rebuilding was accomplished with the aid of foreign donors, and today Rolwaling has never looked better with its colourful roofs and painted wooden decorations. Nevertheless, all but two or three houses remain empty for eleven and a half months of the year. Other beyuls that have lost large numbers of people are Langtang and Yolmo, both close to Kathmandu and devastated by the 2015 earthquake. Neither, however, is as empty as Rolwaling.

43Rolwaling’s extreme environment has even taken its toll on Lama Lapsum’s school which has taken up winter quarters in nearby Lamabagar to facilitate attendance because poor boys from Dolakha district who attend the school, have grown up at lower altitudes. Lamabagar is a north-south valley at an altitude of 1,806m, unlike the school buildings in Rolwaling that are situated at 4,200m. Given that Rolwaling was the last of the high-altitude beyuls to receive settlers because of the harsh conditions, it is not surprising that it is the first to see the number of inhabitants decline.

44Since Rolwaling became part of the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, wildlife has proliferated. The killing of wildlife has been forbidden since the earliest days of the settlement. Rolwaling people have persuaded the Dolakha district government to decree that no domestic livestock or animals brought in from other areas by tourist groups can be slaughtered there either. A monastery in Kathmandu recently bought 108 yaks from markets in other Sherpa areas with the aim of setting them free in Rolwaling so that the animals’ lives would be spared; another gesture associated with the sacredness of the beyul (Jinpa 2012). It therefore seems that Rolwaling is reverting to the status it held for many centuries, primarily as a place for religious practice, its permanent settlement having lasted only 125 years out of a history of 900 years.

45Meanwhile, Rolwaling identity and solidarity in Kathmandu and abroad remains strong. This is common among other peoples from Tibetan cultural areas in northern Nepal. Some scholars wonder why these culturally Tibetan people have not banded together as have other scattered ethnic groups, to form a larger united political entity since the restoration of democracy (Ramble 1997). From the Rolwaling perspective, even though they are proud of being part of the now world-famous Sherpa ethnic group, they are equally proud of being from Rolwaling beyul. Likewise, the Yolmo people of Helambu are proud of their beyul heritage, as are the Langtangpas and Khembalung inhabitants. Religious and regional identity remains stronger than ethnic solidarity among Tibetan populations in Nepal (Ramble 1997, Clarke 1995), especially for those associated with specific beyuls.

The uncertain future of human habitation