KATHMANDU, JUNE 14
As spring gives way to early summer across Nepal's high Himalayas, villages in districts bordering Tibet have fallen silent. Homes are locked, streets are empty, and the only signs of life are found hours away, on alpine meadows above 4,000 metres, where entire communities have pitched tents and set up temporary camps in pursuit of one of the world's most valuable natural commodities: yarsagumba.
The annual yarsagumba collection season is underway across Nepal's northern districts, drawing men, women, children, and the elderly alike to some of the most remote and inhospitable terrain in the country. In Gorkha's Chumnubri Rural Municipality alone, all 812 households of Ward No. 7 have moved to high-altitude meadows, departing camp at 8 in the morning and returning only after 6 in the evening. Some families have hired caretakers from lower villages at monthly salaries of up to Rs 20,000 to watch over their homes while they are gone.
Known scientifically as Ophiocordyceps sinensis, and colloquially as the "Himalayan Viagra" or the Himalayan Sanjivani, yarsagumba is neither purely plant nor purely animal, but a remarkable fusion of both. The name itself comes from the Himalayan language: yarsa meaning plant and gumbu meaning insect.
The organism forms when a fungus of the Ophiocordyceps sinensis variety infects the larva of a ghost moth beneath the soil. The fungal spores enter the larva, spread through its body as thread-like mycelium, and gradually consume it from within, ultimately killing it. From the dead larva's head, a brownish fungal stalk between two and four inches long emerges above the ground each spring as the snow begins to melt. Collectors dig it out with small tools or fingers, clean it, and dry it in the shade before it is ready for use.
Yarsagumba is found at elevations between 3,600 and 5,000 metres and above, across districts including Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha, Gorkha, Darchula, Bajhang, Bajura, Jumla, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Manang, Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa, and Dolakha. Of the 100 species found globally, Nepal hosts two, China 21, and India seven.
Yarsagumba's use dates to ancient times in Nepal's Himalayan communities, where Sherpas used it as a herbal remedy for ailments ranging from diarrhoea and headaches to joint pain. Tibetans have consumed it for centuries, ground and mixed with other ingredients, for respiratory conditions, kidney ailments, and heart disease.
Its formal scientific discovery, however, is relatively recent. In 1952, British Museum botanists Polunin Sycle and William encountered it on a collection expedition at Chyakhur meadow at 4,200 metres in Nepal, bringing it to the attention of the wider scientific world.
But it was a moment on a German athletics track that truly put yarsagumba on the global map. At the 1993 World Track and Field Championships in Stuttgart, three Chinese women athletes won gold medals and set five world records across the 1,500m, 3,000m, and 10,000m events. When their coach revealed that the athletes had been consuming yarsagumba as part of their daily regimen, global curiosity, and demand, exploded almost overnight. Prices have risen sharply ever since.
Yarsagumba contains a potent mix of compounds including cordycepin, nucleosides, cordycepic acid, amino acids, fatty acids, polysaccharides, Vitamin B12, carbohydrates, protein, sterols, and melanin. Recent scientific research has reportedly confirmed that some of these compounds show promise in cancer and tumour treatment.
Nepal exports yarsagumba to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it commands prices of lakhs of rupees per kilogram. The collection season is the single most important economic event of the year for tens of thousands of high-altitude households, a brief window that determines the financial fate of entire communities for months to come.
