Exploring Tukche in Nepal’s Mustang Valley

Walking down the cobblestone lanes of an ancient village, Tukche in the Lower Mustang region of Nepal, I am on my way to a distillery that produces the best apple brandy I have ever tasted. I pass whitewashed brick homes, the sweetest looking children who wave and smile at me to reach the 37-year-old Tukche distillery, owned and operated by Kalpana Sherchan and her son NirjharMan Sherchan. It lies in a region famous for apple cultivation and in a house that is more than two centuries old.

The charming village tucked along Himalayan slopes is one of the stops on our mission to explore the Thakali trail in Mustang. The Thakali people are one of the ethnic groups of the tiny nation. They were originally traders and their food has emerged as one of the most popular cuisines of Nepal. In fact, Tukche also happens to be the ancestral village of GauravMan and Vivek Sherchan who own Jimbu Thakali, one of the most popular restaurants in Kathmandu. They show us their home in the village as well.

Our first halt is the distillery where I down a couple of glasses of apple brandy that has 43.8% alcohol content and boy it is smooth and does not burn my throat. “In a year we make about 10-15,000 litres but since the weather is not favourable, it is a slow process. The fermentation takes a month in summer and about three months in winter. We are exploring ways to expedite it, ” says NirjharMan Sherchan. Available for sale only in Mustang so far, they plan to sell this in Pokhara and Kathmandu as well later this year.

The highlight of visiting such places is learning about the culture, history as well as traditions and rituals that have gone into the evolution of what is still a relatively unknown cuisine outside Nepal. As we sip brandy, I learn that the Thakali is very much a matriarchal society, so women play an important role in the production of this alcohol. Interestingly Kalpana, who is 82-years old has never tasted brandy in her life but her sense of smell is so strong that she can tell if a batch has gone wrong by the sheer aroma.

The house where the distillery is located is steeped in history. It is believed that Japanese monk Ekai Kawaguchi visited Tuckhe in 1889 and stayed here for six months. His well-known book, Three Years in Tibet in which he writes about his journey to India, Nepal and then finally Tibet mentions the village. “After travelling twelve days more and only making a distance of one hundred miles, we reached a Himalayan village called Tukje, where then lived the local Governor named Harkaman Suppa, ” he mentions in the book.

After the brandy tasting and munching on Thakali sausages along with it, we move on to another place in the village for the traditional Thakali thali. The food is basic, simple but very wholesome and comforting. A typical Thakali thali, which I was eating on a daily basis on our 9-day trip thanks to the kitchen team at Jimbu Thakali, consists of dal, rice, bitter gourd, saag, fried potato, radish pickle, papad, sweet curd and a bowl of mutton, chicken or fish. Not too heavy on spices, it has unique flavours. Eating it in the midst of the Himalayas – in the region from where it came was a refreshing change from having it in a restaurant in Kathmandu.

This is one of the places I visit along the Thakali trail but the entire experience of exploring Upper and Lower Mustang with a team and crew of about 25 was so overwhelming that it still gives me goosebumps to think of this highly unusual exploration of an ancient people and their traditions.

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