When Nepal became a destination for overland travelers in the 1960s, one young man was ready: Trilochan Shrestha, probably Nepal’s first hippie. Born in 1945 as the oldest son to a wealthy Newar family, he grew up in Jhhochen where his aunt lived.

Trilochan used to skip school to swim in the Bagmati at Pashupati, and it was there that he met the Aghori Babas, a cult of Shaivite ascetics. They took him under their wing, and inspired the young boy to grow his hair and to smoke.

“I was always an overexcited child, nowadays I would be diagnosed with ADHD. Ganja helped a lot, it cooled me down. For me, it is a herbal medicine,” says Trilochan, who easily connected with the overland travelers.

“I was a hippie before the word was invented. Hippies are the babas of the twentieth century. I simply loved them.”

Read also: ‘Hippinis‘, Lucia De Vries