How the Drug War Destroyed a Hippie Paradise in Kathmandu

Nixon's pursuit of draft-dodgers and pot smokers fueled the communist ideology it was trying to contain.

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Whether it's mountaineering or marijuana, trekking to Everest or tripping on LSD, getting as high as you can has always been part of the Nepal tourist experience. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to nip communism in the bud by destroying a Himalayan hippie Shangri-La. But in stopping the smokers, he sparked a Maoist blowback.
As the last country on earth to forbid the sale, cultivation, and consumption of drugs, Nepal promised a mind-bending trip. But in an era when few could afford round-the-world airfare, frugal flower children took a rougher route to the most far-out destination on the planet.

The Hippie Trail followed the footsteps of the ancient Silk Road. Some travelers fled the Vietnam War draft; others came to find themselves. For whatever the reason, from 1965 to 1973, tens of thousands of young people bused or hitchhiked the overland route from Istanbul, Turkey, to Kathmandu, Nepal, annually. The end of the Hippie Trail was a single bustling urban lane called Jhonche, rechristened as Freak Street by its new inhabitants.

Over time, the hippies created their own community in Kathmandu. In a fascinating look at Nepal's hippie history, Mark Liechty, author of "Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal", describes Freak Street as a Haight-Ashbury or Greenwich Village on the other side of the world. Hippies lived in a fantasy Nepal that existed in their imaginations: a land where old traditions didn't apply, where they could live freely and create themselves anew. A culture that was too shocking for 1960s America found a welcome home in a faraway religious monarchy.

But paradise is not of either side of this earth. Two years after President Nixon declared an international "war on drugs," Vice President Spiro Agnew was dispatched to Asia. Agnew toured every country on the Hippie Trail before arriving in Nepal. Nixon threatened to withhold economic aid from countries that held a permissive attitude toward the drug trade. Months later, Nepal enacted the first anti-drug laws in its ancient history.

Kathmandu's hashish shops were closed. American narcotics agents roamed Freak Street, surveilling drug takers and draft dodgers for arrest on their arrival back in the United States. And in a move that would have consequences for decades to come, Nepal's marijuana fields were torched.

The hippies weren't the only ones angered by prohibition. In western Nepal, far from the capital city of Kathmandu, hashish cultivation was the main source of income. Sellers and growers were arrested. Private property with marijuana growing on it was forfeited to the state. Tens of thousands of farmers were pushed to the brink of starvation. Promised development aid to the region never materialized.

Seeing political opportunity in economic collapse, the Communist Party exploited local grievances and persuaded residents that only a violent overthrow of the government would solve their problems.  Nixon's global war on drugs fueled the communist ideology it was trying to contain. 

By 2006, the Maoists controlled 80 percent of the country. The insurgency based in the agricultural heartland had grown into a national political force that paralyzed the nation with a series of national strikes and armed resistance to the king. After a decade-long civil war that claimed 17,000 lives, Nepal's monarchy was abolished and the communists were elected to power.

Today, the civil war is long over, but Nepal's war on drugs continues. It remains a hub for heroin and hashish, with stories of drug busts, addiction, and violence, mainstays of Nepal's television news coverage.

Despite a small political movement to legalize hashish, marijuana is legal one day a year for religious purposes only. The rest of the time, locals and tourists take their chances on the black market.

These days, the real action has moved to Thamel. A short walk from Freak Street, Kathmandu's nightlife hotspot offers visitors every kind of indulgence that was available during Freak Street's heyday and many more that the hippies couldn't have imagined on their wildest trip.

Produced by Todd Krainin.

Music licensed under Creative Commons, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US.

"Malashree Dhun" by Sringar Nepal.

"Bass Bansuri" by Hamsadhwani.

"Eastern Thought" by Kevin MacLeod.

"Holiday (instrumental)" by Silence is Sexy.

"Aspirato" by Kai Engel.

"Long Time Gone" by Amaya Laucirica.