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Nepal; town life in the Khumbu, 1986. As N0022572C. Namche Bazar (altitude 3446 metres) under snow. The climate in the Khumbu can be harsh and unpredictable. The tents in the foreground belong to a European mountaineering expedition. The yaks are unperturbed.

Nepal; town life in the Khumbu, 1986. Namche Bazar (altitude 3446 metres), a bustling and prosperous market town, is the largest Sherpa settlement in the Khumbu. Many of its Tibetan-style houses devote the ground floor to animal shelters while the family lives upstairs. Most have windows and doors at the front of the building only, the back being built into the side of the mountain. Firewood is stacked against walls, and small terraced fields grow staples (potatoes, barley, wheat). At left is a Buddhist shrine or stupa, on each side of which is painted the eyes of the Buddha. Prayer flags are strung out from its summit.

Nepal; bridge over river in the Khumbu, 1986

Nepal; cremation on the Baghmati river, 1986

Nepal; Kathmandu Valley, 1986. The Kathmandu Valley is situated in Nepal's Hill Region ('Pahar' in Nepali - altitutides 1000-4000 metres), and is the country's most fertile and urbanised area as well as being its political and cultural centre. The hills, sculpted into a vast complex of terraces, are extensively cultivated. Hill farmers produced food staples, mostly rice and corn, although this is still a food-deficit area. Other crops include wheat, millet, barley, sugarcane, tobacco, potatoes and oilseed. The climate is mild with summer temperatures reaching 30 degrees C and winter temperatures about 10 degrees C. The most common trees are oak, alder, jacaranda and rhododendron.

Nepal; tenements, old and new, Kathmandu, 1986. Builders erecting new apartments on the site of an old tenement block. Once erected, the residents of the existing four-storey tenement block will have their daylight extinguished. A woman picks her way across the building site from her home to the street.

Nepal; village pump in the Terai, 1986

Nepal; town life in the Khumbu, 1986. A street in Namche Bazar (altitude 3446 metres). Men relax outside a store. In the mid-1980s, Nepal was rigidly patriarchical although Sherpa women had more autonomy than other groups. Women generally had limited access to markets, education, health care and local government. Malnutrition and poverty hit them the hardest, and female children were usually given less food than male children, especially during food shortages.

Nepal; yak transport in the Khumbu, 1986. Sherpas drive a pair of heavily laden yaks along a narrow path on the long climb from Lukla (altitude 2827 metres) to Namche Bazar (3446 metres), the main town in the Khumbu region. The yak is the beast of burden in the Khumbu as well as providing wool, milk, cheese and butter. Yak butter is burned in votive lamps and drunk in tea. The animals command a high price and are carefully nurtured by their owners.

Nepal; fruit seller in Kathmandu, 1986

Nepal; wooden suspension bridge over a canyon

Nepal, Sherpa children of the Khumbu, 1986

Nepal; agriculture and subsistence in the Khumbu, 1986. Area as N0022565. Farmland on the lower slopes of the Himalayas (altitude 2900 metres). Sherpas are Buddhists and their houses are surrounded with prayer sticks flying cloth flags. A sherpa group with yaks travel along

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Nepal; wooden suspension bridge over a canyon

Nepal, Sherpa children of the Khumbu, 1986

Nepal; agriculture and subsistence in the Khumbu, 1986. Area as N0022565. Farmland on the lower slopes of the Himalayas (altitude 2900 metres). Sherpas are Buddhists and their houses are surrounded with prayer sticks flying cloth flags. A sherpa group with yaks travel along