Harka Gurung

Harka Gurung was a prominent geologist, anthropologist and political leader of Nepal. He was born in Bhulbhule in a small village on the banks of Marsyangdi river. Harka Gurung frequently used to travel from Nepal to get proper education from schools in India. His stories and anecdotes were later were published in a single book called "Vignettes of Nepal". In 1965 he set his Ph.D. research about the geography of Pokhara valley which was based carried out under the supervision of University of Edinburgh. In his lifetime he became a minister of education, industry, and tourism and has always been known to stick to the point and act objectively based on facts and figures. He has carried out projects for international agencies such as USAID, The World Bank, UNICEF, and WWF. Harka Gurung has left behind an immense volume of research works on geography, demography, ethnography, environmental planning, and political economics. In Pokhara, out of his efforts, tourists can visit the International Mountain Museum (IMM). Some of the books left behind by Harka Gurung are: Pokhara: A Geographical Survey Annapurna to Dhaulagiri: A decade of Mountaineering in Nepal Himalaya (1950-60) And over 500 published papers on culture, demography, development planning, environment, geography, political economy and tourism.