Honey Hunting in Nepal

Honey hunting in Nepal is an age-old tradition where Gurung and Magar people hang from the handmade rope ladders over 300 metres high from sheer cliffs to collect wild honeycomb made by the largest honeybee, Apis laboriosa. Conducted twice a year (spring and autumn), this ritual results in ‘mad honey’ – a rare reddish honey that contains grayanotoxins derived from the nectar of rhododendrons and produces mild psychoactive effects when consumed in excess.

Anyone who has seen a man in a cloud of smoke hanging off a cliff face with bees about the size of thumbs has seen a honey hunter! This is no show-action travel. It’s a way of life, a tradition of faith, and a way of life that is now a way of life threatened.

What is honey hunting in Nepal?

Hunting is the act of collecting the wild honeycomb from its natural location without using a managed comb, rather than from a managed comb or apiary. In Nepal, that involves scaling exposed rock faces in the mid-hill areas of the mountains to get to the nests constructed by the Himalayan giant honeybee.

There are no boxes, no smokers that are convenient to use, and no safety harnesses in the traditional way of beekeeping. They use bamboo ladders stacked up with hemp lines, hemp lines woven by hand, long bamboo poles (tangos) to loosen the comb, and baskets to collect the falling honeycomb.

Who are the honey hunters?

The tradition is mainly practiced by the indigenous Gurung (also known as Tamu) and Magar ethnic groups of the mid-hill districts of central and western Nepal. The Gurung migration from the north is said to have taken place many centuries ago by oral tradition, and in writing, there is little documentation available, and dates remain uncertain among the historians.

Hunting of honey is usually a collective activity of the villagers and is handed down by apprenticeship. It takes years for a young guy to learn how to handle a rope ladder, how to help, and how to gain the trust of the group before he is given permission to climb down the cliff himself. It is getting phased out in some of the villages. The younger generations are migrating to the urban areas and overseas to the job markets, while some of the most seasoned ones are now in their 60s and 70s, having practiced hunting for decades.

Where Does Honey Hunting Happen in Nepal?

Honey hunting takes place across the mid-hill regions of central and western Nepal, generally at elevations between 1,000 and 2,500 meters. The most well-known hunting grounds include:

Not every nest is hunted. Some sites are considered too dangerous or too sacred to touch, and local hunters will deliberately leave certain colonies undisturbed for years.

Apis Laboriosa, is the scientific name of the Bees

The queen of all things traditional is one species: Apis laboriosa, the world’s largest honeybee from the Himalayas. A worker bee can reach a length of about a human thumb, while the colonies erect crescent-shaped combs that can extend more than a metre and a half across, hidden beneath a rock overhang where predators can’t get to them.

The honey’s unusual and sometimes objectionable chemical characteristics are derived from the blossoms of rhododendron that these bees forage in the spring.

How the Honey Hunt Actually Works

A traditional hunt is more of a three-day trek than a quick kill. This is a summary of how it works:

• Ritual and blessing. Prior to a hunter touching a rope, he or she will usually conduct a small ceremony, seeking the protection of local water, earth, fire, wind and cliff spirits.
• Building the ladder. Locally handwoven or imported from the village, rope ladders are fixed at the top of the cliff.
• Smoking the nest. Below the hive the leaves or grass are burned in bundles by the hunters. The rising smoke confuses the bees and drives them away from the comb for a short time; however, it does not necessarily expel them from the comb.
• The descent. A lead hunter is on the ladder, usually barefoot for better grip and colleagues are hoisting and bracing the ropes from above and below.
• Cutting the comb. A long bamboo pole equipped with a blade or hook (the tango) is used to cut a piece of comb free, and drop into a basket or net held by hunters below.
• The climb back up. Stings are common. The biggest risk in the tradition is the risk of falling – which is rare, but can happen when hunters are experienced.

The whole ritual to the end of the harvest takes up a full day at each cliff face and the hunt can be performed over two or three days with several sites to be targeted.

What is “Mad Honey” & Is it dangerous?

The red and bitter-tasting honey that the giant bees of the Himalayas make from the nectar of rhododendrons is known as “mad honey.” The nectar contains naturally occurring substances, called grayanotoxins, that cause temporary, mild intoxication in small quantities and disrupt sodium channels in the body.

The effects are not fun at higher doses: Dizziness, nausea, heavy sweating, lowered heart rate, lowered blood pressure, and rare, severe instances of heart problems that need medical attention. There’s a bizarre history of mad honey in military history, too: Reports from ancient Greece recount how the honey from the area was used to stun invaders during the war.

Small amounts are used locally as folk medicine for diseases such as high blood pressure, joint pain, digestive ailments, etc., but not as medicine, as it is traditional medicine. If you want to try mad honey, do so like you would with anything that might affect your mind: only take a small sample, be aware of its origin, and don’t mix it with alcohol, blood pressure, or heart medication.

What’s the reason the tradition is being lost?

Honey hunting is facing a number of forces that are threatening its survival:

• Bee populations have been declining due to the use of pesticides, habitat loss and alteration, and changes in the bloom cycles of rhododendrons due to climate change.
• Commercialization, in which the demand from outsiders for the “mad honey” as an exotic or medicinal product has resulted in overharvesting and exploitation of the resource by less scrupulous individuals who are not as concerned with sustainable harvest.
• Infrastructure development, such as new roads and hydropower dams, that affect the remote ecosystems in the forest that are essential to bees.
• As younger people move away to find employment in the cities or overseas, there is a risk that fewer people will take on the skills as apprentices.

Many conservation and cultural heritage organizations have started documenting the practice and promoting community-based sustainable tourism models, which welcome guests to the hunt instead of selling honey that is not limited.

Can Tourists Watch a Honey Hunt?

Yes, in specific villages that have opened the tradition to visitors, most notably around Ghalegaon and parts of Lamjung District. A few things to know if you’re considering it:

• Hunts are seasonal, happening in spring (roughly April–May) and autumn (roughly October–November), tied to when the comb is fullest.
• Access usually requires arranging a trip with a local guide or trekking operator familiar with the specific village and its hunting schedule, since hunts aren’t run on a fixed public calendar.
• Respect matters more than spectacle: this is a livelihood and a ritual for the host community, not a performance staged for cameras.

If you wanted to see the honey hunting expedition, Alliance Treks can organize this expedition for you.

Frequently Asked Questions