In the 1960s and 1970s what was Freak Street famous for in Kathmandu Durbar Square, Nepal?

Presently known as Old Freak Street, but called Freak Street in the 1960s and 1970s, this ancient street was the hippie location for buying and selling drugs. It was the epicentre drawing tourists for the government-run hashish and marijuana shops. Hippies (term to describe a member of the counterculture) from different parts of the world, travelled to Freak Street searching for the legal ‘cannabis’ (Latin word for marijuana) and top-grade hashish.

There was a direct bus service to Freak Street from the airport in the capital of Kathmandu. Since marijuana and hashish were legal and sold openly in government-licensed shops, a young restless population converged on this street attracted by the culture, art, architecture and lifestyle that accompanied the drugs.

Freak Street was also the location of the Kathmandu Durbar Square, in front of the old royal palace of the former Kathmandu Kingdom.

In the early 1970s, the government of Nepal started a round-up of hippies on Freak Street and deported them to India, an action propelled largely by a directive from the government of the U.S. The Nepali government imposed a strict regulation for tourists regarding dress codes and physical appearances.

The hippie movement of Nepal died out in the late 1970s plus the Nepali government subsequently banned the production and sale of hashish and marijuana in Nepal. Hippie tourism was quickly replaced with more conventional businesses of trekking and cultural tourism