Photo Documentary - Karmidanda - Nepalese Mountain Village - Alan Stock PhotographyAlan Stock Photography

The photo story below chronicles the people and lifestyle of the the small mountain village of Karmidanda, in Nepal. In late 2012 I had the privilege of being invited to stay with the Neupane family. The father, Jhabraj, is an English teacher at the village school and often has westerners to stay for cultural exchange and to house volunteers for the village – a service he does for the good of the community. Although he’s very humble and won’t outright admit it, he’s effectively the village elder and the locals come to him for advice and guidance.

During my two week stay I observed the lifestyle of the villagers, who were friendly and welcoming. Karmidanda is in a beautiful location surrounded by mountains with views into deep valleys – after some hard travels I took it easy and settled into their pace of life. Like many Nepalese settlements outside of the cities, it is a very poor farming village. But despite their daily hardships the people are some of the most cheery, generous and happy of any I’ve met on my travels. I was lucky enough to be invited to a local wedding and I also tried my hand in the fields for a few days harvesting millet. The villagers are mostly farmers and even the elderly work in the fields every day.

Tragically, the massive 2015 earthquake devastated Karmidanda and a number of people were killed. Much of the village was destroyed or damaged beyond repair including the Neupane’s house. Since then Karmidanda has struggled even more than usual, most still live in makeshift homes, although life seems to be slowly returning to normal. Its a testament to the people’s strength of spirit and community that they have pulled together to weather this hard time. I would like to return one day and properly photograph this wonderful community – and I will forever be grateful to Jhabraj and his family for allowing me a glimpse into the real lives of the villagers of Nepal. At a later date I may write this period in more detail. Under the gallery you can also find links to detailed blog posts I wrote at the time fully chronicling my village experience. Click on an image to see it enlarged.

: View from the walk into Karmidanda

: Jhabraj, my gracious host

: Local boy, what eyes!

: Villagers daily cut grass for their animals and haul it back to their homes

: Traditional Nepalese food, it may not look appealing but it tastes good!

: Januka, the Neupane mother and a very kind person, with one of her baby goats

: The Neupane’s house on the left, sadly damaged beyond repair in the 2015 earthquake, and now demolished.

: The village school which takes classes for a number of the surrounding villages

: The kids were curious about the new westerners

: School volunteer Sophie donated this book and this was the kids first reaction when looking through it!

: I love the colours in some of these Nepalese houses

: Millet is a popular crop here, used for food and brewing the local rakshi – a potent alcohol

: Awijit, the Neupane’s son, plays with a cheeky village girl who used to come round often to play with us.

: One morning Awijit took me up a hill above the village for this amazing view

: Friendly villagers

: Goats are common, mainly bred for meat

: The Neupanes strip the kernels from this corn to use for animal feed. This was really hard work as they were dried!

: Karmidanda has beatiful sunsets with layered mountains in the distance

: The boy next door was so cheeky and funny

: We walked 20 mins to the nearest small town for a haircut

: Ama, Jhabraj’s mother, at over 80 years old still works hard every day. Here she spreads liquid cow dung on the yard to aid weathering.

: Village boys dressed up for the wedding

: In the kitchen this huntsman was a regular visitor, good job I’m not scared of spiders…

: Friend and volunteer Sophie who was my western company in the village.

: I spent this day working with the very funny lady from next door helping her to harvest her millet fields. Its backbreaking work and monotonous but satisfying.