The Ghost Village of Gorkha

The epicenter of the Nepal April 2015 earthquake was near Larpak Village; in this area, around 600 families lost their homes, and the area was declared a disaster zone. 

Larpak received a wide range of attention and would change the fate of this little-known landmark village. However, a dream to create a model village turned into a nightmare leading to a ghost village; this is a sad story of aid failure while adding salt to the tremendous injury. 

Non-residential Nepalis (NRN) decided to build 573 identical, evenly spaced, two-storied brick buildings on government land that started in January 2016 while the locals hoped to receive the houses by the Autumn of 2016.  

The blueprints had everything from a guest room to a small garden but the ground reality was dull and dark. The location where the model village was proposed was Gupsi Pakha, a land formed by a landslide and therefore was unstable.  

The journey to Larpak is a tedious one, and shipping the goods to the Larpak was a Herculean task that was equally slow. If the local materials and knowledge had been used then the entire project would have been faster and cheaper. 

The houses in Barpak received financial subsidies from the National Reconstruction Authority, but the locals of Larpak suffered as the government refused to assist them because NRN had promised to reconstruct an entire settlement for them. 

The project went three years behind schedule and the structure had no toilets, no water supply system, and no paved roads more specifically no one was willing to move in. These structures lacked storing space for harvest or animal sheds- these weren’t designed by architects who understood local necessities. 

Locals also weren’t very comfortable abandoning their ancestral homes for religious and spiritual reasons and living in cold winters forced them to create an alternative settlement. 

In 2019, when the NRN decided to wash their hands of their failed project, the majority of the locals of Larpak had already created their alternative settlement and weren’t interested in spending money on completing the unfinished project left by the NRN. In total, around 20 families decided to settle in the model village. The Larpak has been a destination for YouTubers, still maintaining a stunning view,  

It remains a reminder of a design failure, shipment of materials, and delays that sealed the fate of this picturesque city. 

The Nepal Army eventually built a road in the region and a beautiful five-foot-tall statue of Buddha was built in the Buddha Park of Barpak, the epicenter of the Gorkha earthquake. 

There remains hope that one day, the ghost village will become a booming tourist destination and not just an abandoned failure. It’s an outstanding location for a film shoot and a story of aid that failed. 

Note: the image in AI generated.