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The Glory That Was Hippie-Era Kathmandu Finally Died in the Nepal Earthquake

6 minute read

Though the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck last Saturday has now claimed more than 7,000 lives, modern, workaday Kathmandu — the Kathmandu of ring roads and malls — has come through.

Fabled Kathmandu, however — that mystical waypoint on the Himalayan hippie trail with its promise of enlightenment and cheap, potent hash — has been devastated.

Anyone who has been to the Nepali capital will know the red brick color of the old city. Today, those bricks are dust, and their trademark red coats the arms and faces of workers digging through rubble in the mournful search for bodies.

According to Nepal’s UNESCO chief Christian Manhart, who has just completed a thorough assessment of the city, 60% of all heritage buildings were “badly damaged” in the quake. With them, a whole way of life has finally vanished.

The Kathmandu valley lies at an ethereal altitude of 4,600 ft. (1,400 m), and, besides the natural beauty of the encircling Himalayas, boasts some 130 monuments, including several Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites, and seven UNESCO World Heritage sites. Or perhaps we should say “boasted.”

It was “like the Shire from Lord of the Rings,” says James Giambrone, who moved to Nepal in 1970 after dropping out and leaving his home in New York City. “All the clichés you’ve heard — wonderful people, art abounding, a living museum — I got to experience.”

The 1975 Bob Seger classic “Katmandu” immortalized the escapist allure of Kathmandu. “I’m tired of looking at the TV news,” sang Seger. “I’m tired of driving hard and paying dues/ I figure, baby, I’ve got nothing to lose/ I’m tired of being blue/ That’s why I’m going to Kathmandu.”

Those who took their lead from Seger’s jaded protagonist snaked halfway across the globe from London to Bangkok via Istanbul, Tehran and Kabul. They were sandaled beatniks, shunning Western trappings for a life of self-medication and self-reflection, plumes of ganja smoke billowing in their wake.

In this heady heyday, cannabis (which continues to grow wild over much of Nepal) was peddled from government-run hash houses. Most pilgrims “were so blasted on temple balls that they couldn’t get their tongues around the word Swayambhunath, so this ancient Buddhist shrine became known in freak-speak as The Monkey Temple,” reminisced Jonathan Gregson for the U.K. newspaper Independent in 2001.

For the same reason, Jhochhen lane, in the old Palast and Temple area by Durbar Square, became known as Freak Street. The hippie contingent liked to congregate on its worn paving slabs, but many of the ancient temples they would have known in the vicinity collapsed in the April 25 quake.

Cannabis was made illegal in the mid-1970s, but its use was tolerated and the hippies kept coming. “The hippies didn’t get arrested for hanging around smoking joints on the temple steps,” Jim Goodman, who spent a decade around the Kathmandu Valley from 1977, tells TIME. “Smoking was part of Nepali culture and they were pretty lenient about it.”

Goodman, a 67-year-old Ohio native, describes his time in the ancient Newar city of Bhaktapur, just 8 miles (13 km) outside Kathmandu, and where at least 270 people were killed in the most recent quake, as like “living in medieval Europe in the 13th century.” (Dramatic footage shows tourists at this UNESCO World Heritage site as it crumbled.)

“I used to wake up around 7 a.m. to the sound of birds at the window, distant temple bells and giggling girls at the water tap by my house,” says Goodman. “I’ve never woken to a nicer sound in my life.”

According to Goodman, who made and sold traditional textiles and wrote books (he has written five about Nepal), there were very few tourists at this time and electricity only reached villages just outside the capital by the mid-1980s.

“It was a pretty laid-back place, as you didn’t need much money — I could get by on a dollar or two a day — and it was an interesting city,” he says. “Eight-year-old girls would be carrying around their little brothers on their backs and have the keys to the house while their families worked in the fields.”

Witness the Aftermath of Nepal's Devastating Earthquake

A Nepali boy stands amidst earthquake damage in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese boy stands amid earthquake damage in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, April 28, 2015, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake had hit the country. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Nepali man carries recovered belongings through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese man carries recovered belongings through the streets of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, April. 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
People atop damaged buildings in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
People stand on top of a damaged building in Durbar Square in Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in the earthquake.Adam Ferguson for TIME
Hindu Nepali women mourn the loss of four family members who were killed in the earthquake on April 25th, at the site of funeral pyres on the river Kathmandu on April. 28, 2015. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A group of Hindu Nepalese women mourn the loss of four family members who were killed in the earthquake at the site of funeral pyres on the river of Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A crowd watches Indian forces excavating collapsed apartments looking for bodies and survivors of Saturdays Earthquake, in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A crowd watches Indian forces excavating collapsed apartments, looking for bodies and survivors in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. This as well as historic Durbar Square, both UNESCO world heritage sites, were severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. The building, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in the earthquake. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali people flee buildings during an aftershock in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese people flee buildings during an aftershock in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Indian and Nepali forces attempt to identify a body after it was recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Indian and Nepalese forces attempt to identify a body after it was recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015.Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Hindu Nepali man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Hindu Nepalese man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. This as well as historic Durbar Square, both UNESCO world heritage sites, were severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, April. 26, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces clear fallen bamboo from ruins in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces clear fallen bamboo from ruins in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali children walk through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese children walk through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, in the Kathmandu Valley, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Workers repair power lines in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Workers repair power lines in Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Indian and Nepali forces excavate a body from collapsed apartments in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Indian and Nepalese forces excavate a body from collapsed apartments in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepalis retrieve belongings from earthquake damaged homes in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April 29, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese people retrieve belongings from damaged homes in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepal_Earthquake_2015_03236.JPG
Nepalese women mourn relatives lost in the earthquake in Bhaktapur, in the Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepal_Earthquake_2015_03113.JPG
People walk through the damaged streets in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A displaced Nepali family take shelter in a tent in a park in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A displaced Nepalese family takes shelter in a tent in a Kathmandu park, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A mother looks at her son who was injured in the April 25th earthquake, at the Nepal and India Trauma Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 29, 2015. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A mother looks at her son who was injured in the earthquake, at the Nepal and India Trauma Center in Kathmandu, April 29, 2015.Adam Ferguson for TIME
Earthquake, Kathmandu, Nepal
Emergency rescue workers clear debris and search for survivors in Katmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A body recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A body recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Nepali man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME

Those halcyon days began to fade towards the end of the 1980s. The government made visas harder to obtain, and many long-term expatriates, like Goodman, were strong-armed into departing. The Iranian Revolution and civil war in Lebanon made the old overland route to Nepal far more difficult. New arrivals had to come by air, and thus needed deeper pockets. Later, Nepal’s own civil war, which raged from 1996 to 2006, deterred many visitors.

Kathmandu also began to modernize. Large swaths of farmland were converted into sooty industrial estates, with the resultant smog hanging low in the valley, obscuring the once fabulous view of the mountains.

Today, income inequality has soared and land values within the Kathmandu ring road rival those of New York City, according to Giambrone, who now runs the city’s Indigo Art Gallery. The flophouses of yore have migrated from Freak Street to the tourist-friendly Thamel region and morphed into high-end hotels, with Berghaus-attired European families replacing wastrels in kaftans and bell-bottoms. While the trickle down of tourist dollars has helped some, particularly the Sherpas, “marginalized groups who are not in the trekking areas do not receive any of the benefits,” says Giambrone.

Modernization was already contributing to the degradation of traditional architecture, with historic houses and gardens being turned into modern concrete buildings. This trend will only accelerate after the quake. Giambrone has been watching with trepidation as bulldozers and cranes lurch through the rubble, damaging fixtures like intricately carved doors and wooden balconies and who knows what hidden artifacts.

“Construction people are moving idols, but why are they moving them? Where are they moving them to?” asks Giambrone. “There is so much around now in the rubble that people can just pick up and carry them off.”

And once all the rubble has been cleared (or looted), there seems almost no chance that the traditional but vulnerable red brick and timber structures will return. The old city will be rebuilt in reinforced concrete and hippie Kathmandu will become merely a memory. The Kathmandu of an even earlier era may not return either.

“The government of Nepal and UNESCO does not have enough funding to pay for the reconstruction of the heritage sites,” says UNESCO’s Manhart. There will be money, however, for new roads and tower blocks.

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Write to Charlie Campbell at charlie.campbell@time.com