Domestic tourists prefer 'Sunrise View Point' in Taplejung

The Sunrise View Point, which is the closest to Samdamukam in Taplejung, is developing as a tourist destination. Recently, with the spread of propaganda, a crowd of foreign and domestic tourists has started coming here to watch the daily sunrise at Guptedanda in Ward No. 9 Suketar.

This viewpoint is becoming the first choice of domestic tourists. As soon as the sun rises, Sarangkot of Pokhara and Sri Antu of Elam in the east come to our mind, but locals say that there is less time to see the sunrise from Taplejung's sunrise viewpoint compared to other places. Now there is a rush of tourists coming to watch the sunrise in the morning.

Lately, residents have started promoting it by naming it 'Sunrise View Point', and domestic and foreign tourists have started coming to watch the sunrise. Now at 6:10 in the morning, tourists can see the sunrise directly from the viewpoint, so they reach there at 5 in the morning with tea and snacks in a thermos.

With the observation of the sunrise, one can observe the world's highest mountain Everest, Makalu, and the world's third highest Kanchajungha snow peak shining like silver. The famous religious place Pathibhara area as well as other mountains can be directly observed, so the crowd of people taking pictures and making TikTok from here is increasing. Sunrise View Point, which was not publicized in the past years, is now a major tourist destination in the district, said Ghanendra Maden, member of Ward-1 of Fungling Municipality.

Narrating his experience of going to watch the sunrise at Nagarkot in Bhaktapur and SriAntu in Ilam, he said, "One can observe the sunrise in the same way as from SriAntu in Ilam and the sunrise viewpoint in Taplejung." He said that since the viewpoint here is also a natural view tower, it is necessary to build a sky bridge and make a pillar on another hill to observe the sunrise from that place as well.

Taplejung is also a religiously known district. Every year, thousands of pilgrims come to visit the goddess Pathibhara. Devendra Baniyan of Sidingwa Rural Municipality-2 said that the sunrise viewpoint is also in the Pathibhara area, so one can watch the sunrise from the view of Pathibhara.

Among other tourist spots in the district, watching the sunrise from the sunrise viewpoint of Suketar Guptedanda is also suitable, said Paktanglung rural municipality-6 Vishas Limbu. To promote it as a tourist spot, the municipality has already built the necessary structure at the place where the sunrise is observed for Rs. 10 lakhs. Even though the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has provided Rs.10 lakh for the construction of a footpath to reach the said viewpoint, the footpath has been built but the view tower has not been built. Naturally, there is a big stone on the hill. A fence has been installed on that stone part. Mayor Amir Maden said that there is a plan to build a three-story view tower to promote tourism. He said, "In my election manifesto, it is mentioned that the sunrise viewpoint will be made a tourist spot and the necessary physical infrastructure will be built during my tenure", Mayor Maden said that the municipality plans to prepare a DPR immediately for the construction of the view tower. There is a plan to build a tea house near the viewpoint for domestic and foreign tourists who come to see the sunrise.

Suketar Airport is located at a distance of five kilometers from the headquarters of Fungling through Kalopatre road and Gupte Danda is located about one kilometer from Suketar. A car parking lot has been built in Gupte to go to see the sunrise, and after parking the car, you can walk for about 10 minutes to reach the view tower.