It is also believed that Drabya Shah with the help of his friends secretly killed the local who were ahead of him and thus secured first position in the race.

The ultimate unifier was Prithvi Narayan Shah who, from his base in the Gorkha hills, succeeded in putting the Shah dynasty in the history of Nepal by subduing Newar kings of Kathmandu Valley and making Kathmandu his capital.

A half century ago, the residents of Liglig and surrounding villages and hamlets were first introduced to modern agriculture, education and health development.

In the late 1950s, several Western missionaries showed on the eastern flanks of Liglig mountain at a tiny ridge-top village called Amppipal (named for two trees: "Amp" or mango and "pipal", a type of fig).

In one of his books, Dr Thomas Hale describes how the first missionaries asked the people of Amppipal what they needed.

Two schools were opened, one on the ridge at Amppipal and another nearby at Luitel on the south slopes of Liglig mountain.

It opened in late 1969 AD and ran for many years under the leadership of Dr Helen Huston, a dedicated and greatly admired Canadian medical missionary.

For half a century, missionary doctors, nurses, teachers and agriculture workers came from Europe, North America, India and Australia to work at Amppipal, Luitel and the vicinity.

Similarly, the former mission schools, and many new ones around the mountain, fall under the auspices of the government’s District Education Office.

And where mountain trails used to connect the villages of Gorkha, fair-weather roads now criss-cross the hills and valleys.

The roads are bumpy at best and are quagmires during the rainy season, but they are well-used by tractors and trucks to move people and haul supplies, and to send fresh farm produce to market.

There is now a road to the hospital, and on over Amppipal bhanjhyang (where the trail crosses the ridge), and another leads to the villages of Luitel, Liglig and the vicinity.