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  • Nepal; town life in the Khumbu, 1986
  • Nepal; air transport in the Khumbu, 1986
  • Nepal; Kathmandu Valley, children of Bhaktapur, 1986. Three children stand in Durbar Square. The little boy has genu valgum (knock knees). In the mid-1980s, nearly half of all Nepalese children died before reaching the age of 5, and life expectancy at birth was 51 years for men and 50 years for women. Conditions associated with poor hygiene and sanitation, including gastrointestinal disorders, diarrhoea, and parasitic infestation, were common.
  • Nepal; Sherpa children at a water pipe, 1986
  • Nepal; Kunde village with its hospital, 1986
  • 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; bridge over river in the Khumbu, 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; 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; children of the Terai, Rapti Valley, 1986
  • Nepal; wooden suspension bridge over a canyon
  • Nepal; bullock cart in the Terai, Rapti Valley, 1986
  • Nepal; agriculture and subsistence in the Khumbu, 1986. Sherpa with young yak. The economic emphasis of the Khumbu is on animal husbandry, and the breeding and tending of yaks and cattle was an important occupation when this photograph was taken. Yaks command a good price. On walled, flat terraces, Sherpas cultivate their staple diet of potatoes, barley, buckwheat, and in lower areas, rice. In this picture, taken at altitude 2900 metres, the land sustains the commercial cultivation of medicinal herbs although increases in production are limited by environmental degradation, largely through soil erosion.
  • Nepal; Kathmandu Valley, Bhaktapur, 1986
  • Nepal; child eating rice, Terai, 1986
  • Nepal; street of dentists, Kathmandu 1986. In 1982, there were 17 government-trained dental surgeons in Nepal, some of whom practised in this street. For those too fearful or who could not afford to visit one of these surgeries, a nearby shrine was dedicated to Vaisha Dev, the god of toothache. Surrounding the god was a plank of wood into which thousands of nails had been driven. Planting a nail was believed to get rid of toothache by pinning down all evil spirits and influences.
  • Nepal; deforestation in the Khumbu, 1986. Stacked firewood outside a Sherpa house at Phakding (altitude 3200 metres). Also shown are carrying baskets (bottom right) and prayer flags attached to thin sticks stuck into the ground. In common with many smallholdings, the ground floor of the house is reserved for animals while the family lives upstairs. By the early 1980s, it was estimated that massive deforestation was contributing to the loss of 240 million cubic metres of topsoil in Nepal each year. Sherpas rely on wood for fuel but lack of chimneys in most homes contribute to the coughs and bronchial congestion common to most. Poor hygiene is prevalent because precious wood must be destroyed to create hot water.
  • Nepal; travelling butcher in the Khumbu, 1986. Well-dressed Sherpas buying yak meat from butcher, near Lukla (altitude 2827 metres). Meat is not generally eaten by Sherpas who are Buddhists, adhering to the oldest, unreformed sect of Tibetan Buddhism known as Kar-gyud-pa. Buddhists make up about 5.3% of Nepal's population whilst 89.5% are Hindu. The cultural heritage of the Sherpas, however, has always remained with Tibet.
  • Nepal; washing clothes in the Baghmati river, 1986
  • Nepal; Sherpa porters in the Khumbu, 1986. Well-dressed Sherpa porters prepare for a trekking expedition organised for a party of western vacationists. They will guide, bring up the rear, cook and strike camp. Such expeditions pay cash wages far in excess of anything Sherpas could hope to earn elsewhere and such income is invested in loans, cattle, land, tradeable articles and jewellery. Until the influx of mountaineering expeditions following Hillary's Everest climb (1953), western medicine was unknown in the Khumbu. Distribution of mainly analgesic and antibiotic drugs has led to misuse.
  • Nepal; bridge over river in the Khumbu, 1986
  • Nepal; village pump in the Terai, 1986
  • Nepal; village in the Rapti Valley, Terai, 1986
  • Nepal, Sherpa children of the Khumbu, 1986
  • Nepal; preparing the Bisket chariot, Bhaktapur, 1986
  • Nepal; village well, Rapti Valley, Terai, 1986
  • Nepal; street cleaning in Kathmandu, 1986. In the mid-1980s, Kathmandu was a mix of medieval architecture and urban sprawl. Television was a late-comer to Nepal but by the 1980s, the skyline of urban areas had become peppered with television aerials. Copying western culture and values became fashionable, and drug addiction amongst the young increased significantly during the decade.
  • Nepal; Kathmandu Valley, Bhaktapur, 1986