Nepal2019: Bhaktapur

Early morning, about 4:30 AM, I heard a commotion outside my window. Looking down into the square below I could see groups of people setting bonfires atop what looked like huge masses. A short time earlier the water buffalo I had seen yesterday in that location had been sacrificed and now the people were preparing to butcher the carcasses. The bonfires were to burn off the fur and soften the skin for removal. It sounds barbaric to us, being used to buying meat at the grocery store, all neatly wrapped for us. I once heard Garrison Keillor say that people who were involved with the slaughtering of their own meat were more respectful of the animal and more appreciative of the fact that it was about to give its life so we could go on living. I don't know if that was just poetry, but I would like to believe it is true.

After the group breakfast some folks stayed for a workshop with Nathan, going over basic camera functions and Adobe Lightroom usage. The rest of us took a walking tour with our Nepalese tour guide, Bipin, looking for photo ops. Being that I really like photographing people, here are a few of my favorites from the walk.

Lady selling pottery

After lunch we went out again on a different route, where I first came across men playing chess, and a man enjoying his houka. Again I am taking photos of people just doing ordinary things, but what comes through is the smiles. Hardly a person refuses to be photographed, a few ask for money, but most are happy to allow you to take their picture and really seem to enjoy seeing the result on the back of the camera. In some cases, Nathan has brought prints of people he has photographed on previous trips and sometimes he finds those people again and can give the print as in the case below.