Manange Traders

The people of Manang are mostly Gurungs and Ghales with Tibetan backgrounds who are well-known traders. The objects traded ranged from precious stones, ornaments to even electronics. Also in olden times, musk pods from the Musk Deer used to be traded as well but this, of course, has stopped. Elon Musk must be a happy man! We know that was an awful joke. History tells that Mananges traded as far as Singapore and Burma across the seas but nowadays with the passage of time their trade connections has expanded far and beyond. Mananges have earned quite a reputation for being avid and skilled traders. Even in Kathmandu, many well reputed and established businesses belong to Manangi traders. Let us share a story from Michel Peissel's 'Mustang: a Lost Tibetan Kingdom' with you that tells how good Mananges are at trade. A businessman from Manang having discovered in Kathmandu that glass bangles and beads were made in Czechoslovakia sent a yak caravan to Europe to buy this precious merchandise. These traders had never heard of passports, and possessed only the vaguest notion of geography; but they did not worry about distances, having been used to travel on foot tens of thousands of miles. This group never reached Czechoslovakia and was eventually turned back in Russian Turkestan! That's how crazy they were. It is as though trade runs through their blood. Well we dramatized that a little didn't we?