these are pictures from my first ever trip to humla in autumn this year (16-21 September 2014, to be precise!). i'd always wanted to go this furthest western mountain district, so i revelled in every sight i saw... in every person i met... the fresh air... the clear skies -- star-crowded at night -- as well as the flight in and out of this district which still does not have road connections to the rest of the country.
we took the yeti airlines twin otter flight to simikot from nepalgunj. the damage caused by the flood in the mid western region of the country was still visible from the air... the sandy swathes left behind by the babai, bheri and other smaller rivers when it rained for three days in august...
.. tell-tale signs of what the cloudburst did to the hillsides.. mudslips everywhere...
the hills started getting steeper and steeper as we headed northeast towards humla. this is manma, the headquarters of kalikot district...
... wherever the terrain was a little hospitable.. there was human habitation.. some scattered clusters..
... some more dense...
...the karnali 'highway'...
... steep steep hills...
.. and again settlements wherever the land is a bit flatter...
... airstrip of bajhang by the side of the seti river in the distance ...
crops nearly ready for harvest alongside the river banks
...we skim over steep slopes that have forest cover mainly on the northern side...
jagged mountains
through the cockpit we can see snow covered himals
another example of a steep hill with forest to the north.. and with trails cut through it.. who lives in such high places? why?
... as we get closer to simikot , more habitation...
heading for what looks like a settlement and the aircraft zeroes in on simikot airstrip
... on terra firma.. compared to the view from the scratched and dirty airplane window, simikot's air is sharp and clear
we were allowed to take our luggage only after the plane taxied away to take off
the airstrip is a sloping one. that automatically slows down the plane when it lands and aids the run up before taking off.. since it is sloping, the plane disappears from view before becoming visible after take off
... harvest time of 'chinu' in simikot...
the name of simikot, i was told came from this 'sim' (wetland) area, which has been shrinking due to human encroachment
titey phapar (buckwheat) field in simikot
pointy himals to the east-- resembling dinosaur teeth!
.. met this cute grandma and child while walking upwards from simikot ...
chinese coin decorates this lady's fingers.. the teardrop earrings (called chagri?)she wears are worn on by married women... the birauta beads (the woven one) and the other think beads round her neck is work by unmarried women too...
almost like a painting ... the patchwork of rich golden colours of ripening harvest, the bluegreen mountains, and white clouds etched in bright blue skies
...miniature beauties by the wayside...
.. such steep hillsides.. temptation for rock climbing adventurers!
.. looking westwards from ridge atop simikot.. more pointy mountains
... pine logs being carried for construction in simikot
.. these women were taking rest after gathering dried fern leaves to use as 'sotar' for the cowshed. one of them said it is the lot of women to toil from morn to eve while the men loiter around, drink in bhattis, or spends months on end either in kathmandu or in tibet!
people in this area have two homes.. one high up in the mountains, and the other in "aul" , down in the river valley basin. they stay in aul all through the winter, and then come up for the summertime. my conjecture is that aul comes from aulo (malaria). the aul in thaya is more densely packed and is what the kids called "more fun".. the high school and health post are all in aul .
karnali river way down and a faint path that one can make out.. which is the preferred trekking route to go to limi valley near the border with china/Tibet
early morning view looking southwards from thaya village
this is khamu (wild apricot) that the locals gather, let the flesh rot and drop and then break open the seeds, and crush the almond-like seed and in a slow process take its oil out. that oil is supposed to be great for joint pains...
... khamu underneath ram bahadur shahi's tattered and patched canvas shoes (his clothes also had patchwork all over). it seems he had seen much better days, and now, especially after his wife's death he was facing bad times. his philosophy, " everyone dies. only the stones and rocks don't. the only thing inevitable is death and birth-- the two days.. the day one is born and the day one dies..."
one very disturbing trend in the village was what the locals called making 'attar' .. the children would take a handful of marijuana leaves (growing wild all over the hillside), rub it between their hands...
... until it matted their palms...
.. they then rubbed the substance off their palms into hash which they sold to shopkeepers , or passersby for about 1-0 - 20 rupees.... or as some kids said they kept it at home and waited for it to fetch a better price (100 rupees) in the winter, when all vegetation would be covered in snow...
... noodles is overtaking local snacks...
... thaya beauties... taking a photograph means getting all serious, and not showing teeth...
... gathering wild flowers as fodder is another thaya beauty...
.. this cabbage alone must weigh close to 6-7 kgs...
kali sunar, all of 15 years, of dumtole is a mother of a 6-month-old son, whom she gave birth on the wayside as she was trying to rush home from the hillside where she had gone to work
so much of the people... back to nature... blue skies.. that at night teemed with stars.. almost too many to even make out the constellations very clearly!
.. these mountains waiting for the winter rains to be draped in white snow...
nature's rock garden
this is syada village across the karnali river from thaya. a boy i met on the trail on this side when i questioned him about how much time it takes him to reach the village, he said he didn't know because he' never been there. why, hasn't anyone from your village gone there after marriage? he replied , no. how come? "because it's a dalit village" 
.. and this is aul of thaya where the boy lives... when the families move up and down the mountainside as per the season, they have a common caretaker who ensures the security of their homes... they all pay to him in kind...
clouds like puffs of cotton
this is a birauta that septuagenarian ritu singh's daughter had woven which she eventually managed to sell me for 260 rupees
there's running water in the village thanks to the work of an ngo. however, washing behaviour has yet to be developed here!
grandma carries her grandchild and scurries up the lisno to the rooftop because the rooftop was the happening place in everyone's home at that time of the year
women hasten down the hillside to cut grass.. by 9-10 they are back home loaded with ghaans
the grass needs to be cut, dried and stored in the mountain top homes before the family migrates down to the aul for the winter season. this is fodder for the cattle when the family moves up along with the nepali new year, around april / may, for the snow would have just melted, and there wouldn't be enough grass around for the animals.
notice the apple (organic!!) in the trees behind this woman who has walked up the steep hillside with her burden of grass... also notice the seeds of apricot being dried in the sun...
notice the apple (organic!!) in the trees behind this woman who has walked up the steep hillside with her burden of grass... also notice the seeds of apricot being dried in the sun...
the grass is then spread thinly over the earthen rooftops
before sun shines on thaya village (syada across already in the sun!), the rooftops are brown and bare.. that is before the women come back with the grass...
.. and turn the rooftops green !
another very interesting ritual we witnessed was the farewell of a woman in her forties by her relatives. there was a lot of wailing and women were singing songs and waving cloths from their rooftops...
.. the woman, being carried by a relative, was also wailing and waving a shawl until she disappeared around a far off bend. her family kept waving until she was out of sight. so beautiful. the woman it seems had come from bajhang in many years, and the bidaai was bittersweet, because she might not meet many elders after she would come back after a long gap again. it is very difficult for the thakuris in these areas to find girls for their boys who ware not related.. thus they have to give their daughters way to boys in bajhang and also get brides for their sons from there!
.. the woman, being carried by a relative, was also wailing and waving a shawl until she disappeared around a far off bend. her family kept waving until she was out of sight. so beautiful. the woman it seems had come from bajhang in many years, and the bidaai was bittersweet, because she might not meet many elders after she would come back after a long gap again. it is very difficult for the thakuris in these areas to find girls for their boys who ware not related.. thus they have to give their daughters way to boys in bajhang and also get brides for their sons from there!
a gnarled tree in dalit bada (that is what the people in thaya call this settlement just below their village.) they say that only 'chokho' (pure) people live in thaya!)
humli lass waits by the wayside while her goats forage in the forest
another beauty by the wayside
promise of a nice day ahead
on more dawn over the himal
.. and the same during the day...
.. three layers (and 3 colours) of mountains ...
an odd buffalo in the trail leading back to simikot (we only saw cows before this)
part of the yak caravan that brings in stuff from the chinese/tibetean border.. about a week's trek away. they mainly bring in flour.. but a host of other stuff... importing stuff from the nepali plains by plane is very expensive. a bar of laundry soap that costs 20 rupees in nepalgunj costs 115 rupees by the time it reaches these villages!
more logs being taken to simikot
.. back in simikot.. the weather has taken a turn, and is overcast...
saipal himal (7031m) from the plane on our flight back to nepalgunj
.. and then saipal's cousins...
.. more of the family...
..narayan municipality of dailekh spread out over the ridge...
Amazing photoblogue. Recognise some of the places we walked through 10 years ago along the Karanali Highway during the war.
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