As Nepal celebrated Tihar festival earlier this week, families across the country were preparing to reunite, decorate their homes with garlands of marigold and globe amaranth flowers, and exchange colourful tika. Even those who had been unable to return to their villages for Dashain were making plans to go home.

But for Anjani Bohara of Chhangru, a village on Nepal’s northwestern edge, the festive season was a time to leave home.

Before her family could move out, it had to store its harvest and make preparations for six months away. “There’s so much to do before we leave. We have to get everything in order, both at home and on the farm,” she said last week.

Her 13-member family was busy gathering firewood, cutting and drying fodder for livestock, and collecting dried leaves to use as bedding when they returned in April.

For six months each year, the long winter brings heavy snowfall and extreme cold to Tinkar and Chhangru. Snow remains on the ground for long periods, making life in either village difficult. To escape the harsh conditions, residents leave in November for Khalanga, the district headquarters of Darchula, and other lower-lying areas.

Because they will not return until April, families rush to complete their preparations before setting out. The seasonal migration, known locally as kuncha sarne, is an annual ritual, but leaving home still requires considerable work. Residents must store enough food, arrange care for their livestock, and prepare their fields so that farming can resume as soon as they return. Their houses remain locked and the villages deserted throughout the winter.

With the departure date approaching, residents are working round the clock to finish their tasks. In Chhangru and Tinkar, which lie along Nepal’s borders with China and India, few people can be found idle. Some are threshing buckwheat harvested in April and May. Others are tying napal, a Tibetan variety of wheat, into small bundles with their stalks intact before storing it. Some are setting aside potatoes, beans, flour, and other food for the winter, while others are making dried preserves from choto, a large variety of radish.

Every household must complete its farm work before leaving. “Most people have already brought in their crops. Now we will start carrying manure from the cattle sheds to the fields,” said Bhupendra Tinkari of Tinkar. “Once that is done, we will sow coriander and mustard greens. By the time we return, they will have sprouted and be ready to eat in April.”

Residents also sow garlic and peas before leaving. Manure piled in the fields now is spread over the soil after their return, before the next round of cultivation, Tinkari said.

Tinkar has 75 households and Chhangru 124, with a combined population of around 1,200. Both villages fall under ward 1 of Byas Rural Municipality in Darchula district. By mid-November, both will be completely deserted for the next six months.

“We may leave because of the cold, but we have to come back in the monsoon. That is why we must make arrangements not just for now but also for when we return,” said Hitesh Budhathoki, an elected member of ward 1 council of Byas Rural Municipality. “Getting everything ready before leaving makes things easier when we come back.”

Chhangru and Tinkar, both in the high Himalayas, have only one farming season a year. Livestock rearing is the main source of income for residents, and the animals also move with their owners during the seasonal migration.

The journey to the lowlands takes about a week on foot, through Indian territory.

“We take the milking cows with us wherever we go,” said Droupati Aitwal of Chhangru. “We leave the other animals at places along the route where there is good grazing, under the care of herders. We bring them back with us when we return.”

Families hire herders collectively and share the cost according to the number of animals each household leaves behind, she said.

The journey is particularly difficult for children, new mothers, pregnant women, elderly people, people with disabilities, and women travelling with livestock.

“It is difficult, but we have no option. This has been the practice since our great-grandparents’ time. We cannot stay in the villages because the snow and cold make it impossible,” Aitwal said.

Before setting out, each household performs rituals to worship its clan deity. Families invite the wider community and host feasts. A collective worship ceremony is held at the end, and residents leave the villages on the same day.

“We pray for the safety, well-being and prosperity of our families and community. Only after the worship is completed do we consider the preparations for departure formally finished,” said 80-year-old Devalal Budhathoki of Tinkar.

When families return around April, they unlock their houses and resume their routines. Garlic, mustard greens, coriander, and peas sown before their departure will have sprouted and be ready for tending. Farming, livestock rearing and village life gradually return to their usual rhythm. When winter comes again, the preparations to leave begin anew.

The cycle has continued in Chhangru and Tinkar for centuries.

But travelling through Nepal is far from easy. Landslides have damaged several stretches of the trail connecting Tinkar and Chhangru, while the mule track from Chhangru to Dumling is also in poor condition.

Residents say movement for both people and livestock is difficult because sections of the trail around Budi Khola, Mausyabhir, Ghatibagar, Dopkhe, Tambaku and Kaljul have been damaged.

Some sections of the route between Tinkar and Chhangru have been patched up with help from residents, the Armed Police Force and Nepal Police, but the trail remains far from fully repaired, Dan Singh Tinkari said.

The federal, provincial and local governments have spent money on repairing and rebuilding the mule track, but the problems persist. Four years ago, around Rs15.4 million was spent on the route, including Rs10.8 million through the Nepal Army, Rs3 million from the Sudurpaschim provincial government and Rs1.6 million from Byas Rural Municipality.

Yet the route remains difficult to use, forcing residents to continue travelling through India.

In previous years, residents were even held up in Khalanga when they tried to move their villages for the winter because of poor roads and problems at the border crossing. They staged a sit-in outside the District Administration Office, bringing their livestock with them.

For the Byansi community, the absence of a safe and reliable mule track has made the twice-yearly seasonal migration increasingly challenging.

The distance involved makes it difficult for the rural municipality to build a durable route using its own budget, said Dharam Raj Joshi, chief administrative officer of Byas Rural Municipality.

“We will discuss in the executive committee what can be done as an interim solution,” he said. “The municipality’s own resources are not enough to build an all-season road, so we are seeking support from the federal and provincial governments.”