Ghunsa () is a village of
Taplejung
Taplejung District ( ne, ताप्लेजुङ जिल्ला ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Province No. 1. It is remotely located in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with Tibet to the north across the ...
,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
at elevation of 3,475 m and is a major check point for Mt.
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the ...
. This village came into attention after the helicopter accident that killed 24 passengers including most prominent figures in conservation work.
Inhabitants
The local called themselves
Gunsa(wa)pa. They can be classified under larger
Walung-ngas tribe.
The local language spoken by Gunsawa is Ghunsake, a variation of
Walungge family,
[ Walungge . Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-02-14. "Walungge"] of Central Tibetan language.
Most inhabitants involves themselves in
subsistence farming
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
and
yak grazing. The main crops grown are
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
and
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es. Until recently, many households were semi-nomadic in their quest for capital, with the exception of a few trading families. But thanks to the opening of the
Kangchendzonga circuit, more young people are now employed in the tourism sector.
Access
Ghunsa can be accessed from Taplejung in three days walk along the bank of
Tamur River
The Tamor River is a major river in eastern Nepal, which begins around Kanchenjunga. The Tamor and the Arun join the Sun Koshi at Tribenighat to form the giant Saptakoshi which flows through Mahabharat Range on to the Gangetic plain
Koshi rive ...
. The trail passes by numerous waterfalls and rivulets making it popular among the trekkers all around the world.
Facilities
*Hotels: There are few hotels that serves for the tourist and local travelers.
*Health post: There is one health post in this village
*Education: The Ghunsa community is currently served by a six-government-staffed school that was built with the support of a group of climbers from San Francisco.
*Microhydro:
35 kw microhydrohas been constructed and is under operation. Water from Ghunsa river is used to run the turbines of this plant. The energy has served to reduce local deforestation and also helped to flourish tourism in neighboring village.
References
{{Reflist
Populated places in Nepal