Ranjana Niraula
Kathmandu, ‘Shailung’ is a destination for domestic tourists. ‘Shailung’ is a mountain of a hundred hills. In the Tamang language, ‘Shailung’ means a hundred and ‘lung’ means a hill. Legend has it that Shailung was formed from this literal meaning.
Spread over an area of 128.67 square kilometers, Shailung Rural Municipality is a rural municipality of Dolakha district with historical, religious, cultural and tourist importance. The rural municipality is named after the Shailung mountain, which is known as the center of faith of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Bon believers. Various legends are prevalent among the locals related to Shailung. Since the first Buddha Sange Mahmorche gave knowledge, this mountain was previously called Sangelung. Later, it became corrupted and became Shailung.
Shailung is located at 3150 meters above sea level, from Annapurna, Manaslu, Lamjung in the west to Ganesh Himal, Langtang, Gaurishankar, Sagarmatha and Numbur and the mountains of the Tibetan region. Along with the natural structure, there are many religious sites here, including the figure of Bhimsen’s sword, Buddha’s footsteps, cow stone, tiger stone, and Jure stone, among other religious sites, which are attracting foreign and domestic tourists, says Rimalbabu Shrestha, chairman of Shailung Rural Municipality.
Shailung, which has 100 different-shaped peaks in the large plain of the highest Shailung mountain under the Mahabharata, on the border of Dolakha and Ramechhap, has been attracting any tourist who reaches there. To reach Shailung, you can travel directly from Kathmandu via Mudhe and Charikot, a distance of 125 kilometers from Kathmandu, to Kalapani in Shailung via Mudhe Bazaar. Alternatively, you can walk for some time from Kalapani to reach Shailung.
