Honey hunting is an activity of collecting the honey of wild bees, particularly from those on rocky cliffs. It has been one of the centuries old traditions of indigenous groups of Nepal, which is done twice annually from the Apis Dorsata and Apis Laboriosa Hive. These hives are found in the high altitude and usually located on a rocky cliff, which makes the honey hunting process a thrilling activity to witness. Considering the risk, one would wonder what makes this honey so exceptional that it inspires generations of Nepalese to scale such heights?
Unlike in Turkey, where the wild bees are domesticated, Nepal rather follows the traditional way of honey hunting. That is, suspending themselves by the cliff on a rope ladder made up of bamboo and harvesting the honey using traditional tools with minimum to no protective gear. Before commencing with the harvesting, a ritual sacrifice, typically of a chicken, goat, or sheep, is made to Forest God to keep the hunters safe during the harvest. After the harvesting is done, the honey is separated from the wax by using a cloth as a strainer. Everyone present during the harvest is offered fresh honey at the site, and the rest is distributed among the hunting team and the villagers.
Yearly, hundreds of tourists visit Nepal to experience this thrilling event as well as to taste this divine nectar. The cliffs of the regions such as Kaski, Lamjung, Khotang, Gorkha, Rolpa, and others present the rarest adventurous sight to see across the world. This spectacular vision is not only about what you see but also the involvement of the physical and strategic capability of the hunters you get to witness. And this cultural legacy continues to display the Nepalese courage, skill, and tradition worldwide.
Unlike other honey, this famous honey of Nepal, also known as wild honey or Himalayan mad honey, differs from others due to its properties such as taste, location, hunting method, and its effects after consumption. From the cultural perspective, it is also said that mad honey is called mad due to the risky way the native people used to hunt the honey. Found in high cliffs between the altitudes of 3000 m and above, this wild honey has a rich, reddish hue and an unmistakable floral taste, but what makes it truly extraordinary are its effects. It has been traditionally used as a potent home remedy/natural medicine to treat health conditions such as hypertension, gastric, diabetes, and so on. So why do you think the mad honey of Nepal is called mad honey? Let’s dive deeper into it and find out what makes this honey so special:
As the formation of this honey is undomesticated and occurs wildly in a natural environment, the formation involves various elements that make the honey what it is. It needs the confluence of 3 natural elements to emerge, which include wildflowers, rare bees, and the season.
Among various wildflowers, rhododendrons are the ones bee pollinate to form mad honey. Grayanotoxin of rhododendron plays a major role in its formation. Out of 700 species of Rhododendron in the world, only 2 species contain the grayanotoxin: Rhododendron Luteum (Yellow) and Rhododendron Ponticum (Violet). And luckily, it is found in Nepal and Turkey only, among which Turkey uses the domestication approach to collect the mad honey, whereas Nepalese obtain it from the natural hive. When bees make honey from the nectar of these wild rhododendrons, it is contaminated with grayanotoxin and hence called the Mad Honey.
Nepal provides habitat for diverse bee species, including wild honey bees, which are also known as Bhir Mauri. Unlike the bees of domestic honey production, the wild honey bees can sustain seasonal low temperatures. There are two special kinds of bees that are able to produce the mad honey, which are:
Wild honey is harvested twice a year during Late April - End of May (Baishakh-Jestha of Nepali calendar) and Late October - End of November (Kartik-Mangsir of Nepalese calendar), depending upon the cliff of harvest. The harvest in fall is said to be not as notable as in spring for mad honey. The spring season is when the rhododendron blooms, and honey harvested during this season is said to be the most fresh and potent one.
Mad honey is consumed for its believed medicinal properties used to treat various health conditions. The native communities where the honey is harvested use it in small quantities for the treatment of various diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and pain relievers for various kinds of abdominal pain and dyspepsia. It has been found that the average mad honey dose ranges from 5 to 30 grams (generally half a tablespoon full) and is believed to be beneficial for general health. Hence, if taken in small quantities, wild honey works as medicine.
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Treatment of various health conditions |
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Hypertension |
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Diabetes |
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Abdominal Pain |
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Treatment of Gastric |
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Coronary artery diseases |
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Cold, viral infections, and so on. |
As the saying goes, anything taken in small doses is a medicine; this wild honey having different neurotoxins is to be consumed in a very small amount. Even the locals who harvest the honey do not use it themselves; rather, they sell it to others. Due to the presence of grayanotoxin, this honey, when taken in small amounts, can provide health benefits, whereas if consumed in high dosage, then people suffer from excessive sweating, vomiting, diarrhoea, and even hallucinations. In an interview, a local honey hunter said that he took 4 to 5 table spoons full of the wild honey and could not walk for 24 hours. This demonstrates the risk associated with this Himalayan delicacy.
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Side Effects of Wild Honey |
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Visual Hallucinations |
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Blurring vision |
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Dizziness/Weakness |
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Hypotension |
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Bradycardia |
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Diarrhoea |
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Vomiting |
Traditionally, honey hunting was a cultural practice and just another way of living for the local communities of Nepal for centuries. As the interest in wild honey keeps on growing, the thrilling hunting activity has become commercialized, making it a communal event determined to let the visitor experience this generational legacy. In regions like Kaski, Lamjung, Gorkha, and others, each indigenous group of their respective locality has their own way of preparation, majorly using local materials to harvest the honey at the time the villagers find it right. The process of honey hunting in these areas involves preparations that are rooted in indigenous knowledge passed down through generations. Now, due to the commercialisation of honey hunting, the preparation has evolved to accommodate the tourists and visitors for their safety and provide the experience at its finest.
The villagers understand the seasonal patterns of bees and when the bees produce the most honey, which usually happens during certain flowering seasons. Villagers during their day to day work have to pass through the forest quite often. During their commute, villagers notice these hives from afar. Once many of these sites are identified, honey hunters select the site with most hives that are mature for harvesting. The determined eyes of the hunters can tell when a hive is ready for harvest. Just by looking at the honeycomb, they can tell whether it is harvesting time. The maturity of the hive can be determined by the excess honey dripping from the hive. Timing the hunt during the peak season ensures that there is enough honey in the hive to make the effort worthwhile.
It is a tradition in various cultures of Nepal to choose an auspicious time and date while commencing any traditional event to ensure that the event is successful. Same goes for the honey hunting, as it is a huge event attracting hundreds of interested travellers from around the globe. These dates are usually chosen by an elder priest (pujari) of the village according to the tradition of the specific region.
The hunting team themselves are a valuable resource for the harvesting as it involves high risk suspending themselves along the high cliff. Each member of the team has their own role to play physically and strategically from top of the cliff to bottom. The honey hunters use locally sourced material to create the tool they need. The tools include items such as a rope ladder, rope, bamboo basket, cutting stick, rope with hook, and many more for a successful harvest. Even though some tools have been modified over the years, like the wooden hook in the bamboo stick being replaced with a knife and the sheep skin at the bottom of the basket being replaced with plastic, the local materials continue to keep the harvesting legacy intact.
Harvesting the wild honey is not an activity for the faint hearted. It is actually a perilous activity, as the hunter has to dangle alongside the cliff of around 50 to 100 feet on a bamboo rope ladder with few to no protective gear. This is why there are only a handful of hunters in the locality with the skills and heart to brave this climb.
Before commencing the harvesting, there are certain preparations to be done to make the harvest safe and successful. All the necessary tools are properly checked and repaired if needed, and the rope ladder is soaked in water beforehand so that it retains its flexibility. On the day of the hunting, once all the equipment is gathered together, hunters proceed towards the bottom of the cliff. Once all of the hunting team and the observers gather at the site, a ritual sacrifice is given to the Forest God, either sheep, goat, or chicken, and offer fruits, flowers, and grains of rice for a successful harvest and safety of the hunters. The animal sacrifice is cleaned, cooked, and eaten at the same site after the harvest is completed. Whereas the fruits and flowers are left as a tribute to the forest god.
During harvesting, smoking out plays an important role in scattering the bees out of their hives. It assists the hunter who is making the climb approach the hive without getting stung. To start a fire, dry material is used, and then green leaves are added to make smoke. The smoke is created below the nest in a huge quantity to distract the bees, making the hives clear from the bees and safe to be harvested. Once the bees are dispersed, the harvesting begins.
The harvesting process begins with the rope ladder being set up from the top and tied at the ground with ropes so that the ladder doesn’t swing as much. The head hunter makes his way towards the beehive, climbing the rope either up or down depending on the landscape of the site. Once the designated height is reached, the hunter fastens himself to the ladder with a rope for safety purposes. Then the team above lowers the tools required to separate the honeycomb from the cliff. And the honey collecting basket is also lowered down with a rope. The hunter uses a long stick to push wooden hooks into the brood portion of the comb. After securing the comb, the hunter slowly makes the cut all while balancing the basket right below the comb. Once the basket is filled, it is then lowered down to the ground, guided by other hunting members placed strategically at different places of the cliff using long sticks. The basket is emptied out and again pulled above to refill it. The same process is repeated multiple times until the harvesting is finally completed.
After the harvesting is done, the hunting team reassembles, clearing out the site. After that, the collected honey is separated from the wax using a cloth or strainer to remove the wax and materials other than honey. All the observers present during the hunting are offered fresh honey for tasting. While the sacrificed meat is cleaned, cooked, and eaten by the hunters and the observers after the event. From the collected honey, a bigger share is distributed among the hunting team, and the rest is used appropriately towards the benefits of the villagers, either by selling it and using the sum for the benefit of the village or distributing it to the villagers.
In recent years, the tradition of honey hunting has become not just a cultural practice of the villagers but also an opportunity to attract a huge number of visitors during the harvesting season due to the commercialisation of this event. As much as visitors enjoy the unique honey hunting method performed by these indigenous groups, the thrill behind the harvest presents difficulties more than what meets the eye. The challenges include factors such as location, harvesting process, the physical strength it demands, the bee stings, and many more.
The wild bees, especially the Apis Laboriosa, often look for places where fresh running water bodies like rivers or waterfalls are within 50-100 m of their reach. Additionally, they also search for places where sunlight falls at least once a day and where rain cannot affect the hive. Meeting all of these requirements, the perfect place for making a hive is on the high cliffs. As the wild bees choose to make their hive in these high cliffs, the location itself is one of the challenges for honey hunting. With the location comes the difficulty of reaching the site, harvesting in the cliff, and other physical demands it presents.
The major challenge of wild honey hunting is the harvesting process, as the hunters risk their lives to harvest the honey from high cliffs. Hunters use handmade rope ladders to climb these cliffs where the hives are built. They rely on basic local materials such as bamboo sticks, bamboo baskets, knives and others for harvesting. The climbers must carefully cut and separate these honeycombs all while balancing themselves on the narrow edges of the ladder steps. The formidable height of the cliff, the weight of the honeycomb, the risk of bee stings, and the challenge of bringing down the honey safely make the harvesting task challenging for the hunters.
As a traditional activity, in Nepal the honey hunters involved in harvesting wear little to no protective gear, which presents a high chance of getting stung by the bees. Even when smoke is used to disperse bees before harvesting, the risk persists since bees are extremely protective of their colonies. As the bees sting during the harvesting process, it requires a lot of guts and endurance. The risk of falling is added by the distraction and shock from the bee stings, especially when they are working at significant heights. Without protective gear, the hunters face these challenges as an unavoidable part of their work.
Wild honey hunting is one of the most physically demanding traditional practices in Nepal. The whole process of harvesting depends upon the team involved. No other resources but is solely upon the human resources themselves. The process of climbing up and down in the rope ladder to position themselves steadily for a long time all while separating the honeycomb is all about physical strength. In addition to the climbing, the weight of the honeycomb and the tools they carry add to the physical strain.
As per the research conducted by different researchers, it has been reported the decline in honey yield and number of wild beehives due to numerous reasons. The most important factors of these changes are found to be climate change influencing the decrease in wildflowers, particularly rhododendrons in Nepal, which is the primary source of mad honey. A contributing factor in this has been the explosive growth of cash crop cultivation, which uses pesticides that are then consumed by wild bees, harming the wild honeybee population. As the honey hunting activity has started to come into the limelight, creating new tourism opportunities for villagers contributing to their economy, the decreasing population of wild bees has turned out to be a major concern for villagers.
We offer various packages for Honey Hunting in Nepal, ranging from short to longer periods according to the activities involved in it. Here is the list of it:
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Honey Hunting Observation (4 Days from Kathmandu/Pokhara) |
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Combine Nepal Trip with Honey Hunting (8 Days including Kathmandu) |
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Honey Hunting Filming (12 Days including Kathmandu and two Spots) |
Honey hunting in Nepal is an ancient tradition that reflects the deep connection and respect between the indigenous people and nature. For centuries, these people have continued this practice not just for the honey itself but also for its cultural and medicinal significance. The honey, especially the mad ones produced by the specific species of Honey bee native to the Himalayan regions of Nepal, adds to the allure of this activity.
In today's world, where efficiency and modern tools often dominate, Nepal's traditional honey hunting stands out as a valuable example of ancient practices. It is a reminder that some things are best left unchanged, preserving not just a way of life but also a cultural heritage that is as precious as the honey it yields. For ages, the honey hunters have scaled dizzying heights, risking their lives to harvest honey from wild beehives, and witnessing them in action, daringly suspended from cliffs, is a breathtaking spectacle that only a few have the privilege to experience. The group of brave people who make it all possible deserves much more respect, appreciation, and recognition for all their effort.
This tradition passed down through generations continues to be an important aspect of life for the rural people of various regions of Nepal. However, the practice of honey hunting faces modern challenges due to deforestation, climate change, and declining bee populations, which threaten the habitats of wild bees. While honey hunting has welcomed new opportunities from a tourism perspective and travelers are even more interested in witnessing the honey hunting in person, it has also brought the risk of commodification of the tradition, disturbing the balance between sustainability and overexploitation. Only by respecting and preserving this unique culture while keeping in mind the environmental factors can this activity preserve its authenticity.
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Activity |
Wild/Mad Honey Hunting |
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Major Hunting Locations |
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Harvesting Seasons |
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Altitude |
3000 to 10000 ft |
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Bee Species |
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Native Hunters |
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Hunting Duration |
8-10 hours |
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Tools Required |
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What comes to your mind when you hear the word honey hunting? Hunting Bees? Honey bees? Honey comb? Or something else? Honey hunting might be far different than anything you have thought of. It is the traditional practice of collecting honey from wild bee colonies, often found in cliffs, caves, or tall trees. Unlike the domesticated species, wild honey bees nestle their hives far from human settlements. It is a form of foraging that requires skill, patience, and a deep understanding of both the bees and their natural habitats. So, the gatherers have to hike to the hunting site and scale formidable heights to gather the honey from the hives.
This thrilling activity is not a recent discovery, as the earliest traces of honey hunting is depicted on an 8000-year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain, at Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp. Traditionally, honey hunting was a way of life for the people of a certain region, carried out by using tools made up of natural elements found in their locality. The process involved ascending high cliffs using handmade rope ladders to access the bee hives. The hunters smoke out to disperse the bees and carefully harvest the honeycomb while avoiding stings. This ancient method of hunting is more than just a part of the indigenous people’s livelihood but also deeply intertwined with their cultural heritage and spiritual beliefs.
Practiced and passed down from generation to generation, the art of honey hunting displays not only the thrill of this adventure but also the respect and responsibility the locals have towards their cultural tradition that they have been practicing for ages. Despite all the challenges, this traditional process has come to interest various travellers and adventure enthusiasts alike, and the villagers have started to welcome the visitors to witness these events by organising guided honey hunting tours, which significantly contributes to the economic wellbeing of the locality. Especially in the highlands of Nepal, where the rarest kind of honey, the infamous Mad Honey, is found and the ancient art of honey hunting has been preserved like it was yesterday.
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Wild honey hunting, as a traditional practice, didn’t have fixed seasons to harvest. With the villagers' agreements, the harvesting was done whenever it felt suitable. With the increasing interest of honey hunting among the visitors, they are provided with certain suitable seasons where visitors get involved in the event within these months of harvest. While the fixed dates for the harvesting differ by the regions, the ideal season for the wild honey hunting in Nepal is during spring and autumn, with spring being the perfect one and autumn being less suitable than the other.
The spring season is considered the most favourable and ideal season for wild honey harvesting. For wild honey, wildflowers like rhododendrons of specific species are major elements for the honey formation where the bees pollinate from these plants. The time period from the end of april to end of may is the best month for the harvesting, which falls in the month of Baisakh and Jestha of Nepali calendar. The honey harvested during this season is considered the most fresh and potent one.
The autumn season is one of the two prime seasons for honey hunting, offering a unique opportunity to witness the honey hunting despite being less renowned than the spring. While the absence of rhododendron, which is the major element for the formation of mad honey, makes the season less notable. However, it still offers a rewarding harvest during the season. The season attracting less crowd creates an excellent time for visitors seeking more intimate experience. The harvesting season in autumn starts from late October to the end of November, which is in the months of Kartik and Mangsir of the Nepali calendar.
