NEPAL

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The eagle's view.

Nepalese village, east-central Nepal

I took this photo in about 1966 flying from Kathmandu to the mountain airstrip of Lukla near Mt. Everest. It would be difficult to obtain a similar photo today as many houses in these middle-hill regions of Nepal have replaced their thatched roofs with servicable, and much less picturesque, iron.
The photo is taken late autumn, with most of the rice harvest complete and the fields lying groomed for the next crop. The steep hills of Nepal have been intensively farmed for millenia. Generations of people known to the west at 'Gurkhas' have hardened themselves by reworking this landscape into row on row of terraces that reach towards the Himalaya, 'Abode of the Gods'.
To walk through these hills is to sense the pulse of agricultural life known to generations of our ancestors and now for the most part forgotten. It's a special freedom to be here.

Next month: The yellow bush
Rhododendron campanulatum, Nepal

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revision 18 Mar 2001
http://www.greenkiwi.co.nz/footprints/photo/ph9809.htm