Dolpa
More actions
| Dolpa | |
|---|---|
| Dolpo | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Regional Complex | Hindu Kush Himalaya |
| Growing Region | Central Himalayas |
| Geography | |
| Country | Nepal |
| Province/State | Karnali Province |
| District | Dolpa District |
| Coordinates | 29.17, 83.05 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 7,900 km² |
| Terrain | Mountain valleys of north-west Nepal, between Mustang and Jumla; approximately Dolpa District |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Dolpa is a cannabis growing area in the mountains of north-west Nepal, named after Dolpa District in Karnali Province, which lies between Mustang and Jumla. In the early 1970s the anthropologist James Fisher wrote that cannabis was extensively cultivated there by the Magars, who pressed its seed for cooking oil and did not use it to intoxicate themselves.[1] A seed lot named after the district, collected in 2021, is held by the United States National Plant Germplasm System.[2]
Seed oil among the Magars
Fisher's chapter on cannabis in Nepal, published in 1975, sets the district apart from the rest of the country. Among the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Magars of Dolpa, he wrote, cannabis had no ritual, social or medicinal use.[1] There, he wrote, "Although it is extensively cultivated, it is never used as an intoxicant."[1]
The seed was separated from the rest of the plant and pressed into a moist, dough-like mass. This was worked at the top of a sloping board, ridged like a washboard, and the oil ran down to the foot of the board, where it was collected. It was the main cooking oil of that part of Nepal; without it, Fisher wrote, food could not have been prepared, and the oil itself had no intoxicating effect.[1]
The Magars knew the plant's effects in other forms, and had no qualms about drinking alcohol, which they did often, but did not smoke ganja or charas. In the same area the low-caste blacksmiths and carpenters (kami) did smoke both, and Fisher put the Magars' abstinence down to their avoiding behaviour that belonged to that caste. In a footnote he adds that elsewhere in western Nepal, in the Jumla area for one, Hindus of high and low caste both smoked cannabis and pressed it for cooking oil.[1]
Fisher notes that on 16 July 1973 the government of Nepal revoked every licence to cultivate, buy or sell cannabis, and that a new law then expected in 1974 was to allow cultivation for traditional uses.[3]
Since the 1970s
A herbarium sheet of Cannabis sativa collected at Tarakot, in the district, on 5 July 1973 by S. Einarsson, L. Skärby and B. Wetterhall is held at the Lund University Biological Museum (LD 2055992).[4]
The seed lot, named "Dolpa" and numbered G 33704, was received by the Northeast Regional Plant Introduction Station at Geneva, New York, in August 2023. Its donor, Angus Pretty, writes that it was collected in Karnali Province in November 2021, and calls it a multipurpose Himalayan landrace grown for seed (eaten), fibre and charas, and presumes it a pristine landrace, since to the donor's knowledge no modern hybrids have been introduced to Lower Dolpo. In trials in New York in 2024 the curators found it very late to flower and among the tallest accessions at 100 days after sowing.[2]
Between 25 and 30 June 2026 joint police teams from Kaigaon, Tripurakot and Hurikot destroyed cannabis plants growing on about 10 ropani (roughly half a hectare) in public places in the district: about 3 ropani at Hurikot, in Jagadulla Rural Municipality, and about 7 at Tripurakot bazaar, Ralli, Madu and other places in Tripurasundari Municipality. The district police said that the drive against illegal cannabis cultivation would continue.[5]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
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See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Fisher, James F. (1975). "Cannabis in Nepal: an overview". In Rubin, Vera (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 251–252. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.247.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "G 33704, Cannabis sativa L., Dolpa". GRIN-Global. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Fisher, James F. (1975). "Cannabis in Nepal: an overview". In Rubin, Vera (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 253–254. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.247.
- ↑ "Occurrence 2012690230: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "डोल्पामा १० रोपनीमा लगाइएको गाँजाका नष्ट" [Cannabis planted on 10 ropani destroyed in Dolpa]. Onlinekhabar (in नेपाली). 1 July 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.