_______ This photo was taken on the day we got to the 'temporary' village of Laprak ( an area where some people of Laprak are living, while fixing their damaged or destroyed houses in their traditional village in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, or waiting for a free new home in the 'new' village of Laprak, sponsored by a Nepali expatriate millionaire, a brandnew village where the Lapraki paradoxically don't want to settle down in, because it resembles a monotonous suburb perched at the top of a mountain without any running water and far from their traditional and daily beloved old village!
________ We were warmly welcomed with the villagers waiting for us from the outskirts of Laprak all the way down to the village square, holding 'katas' (traditional buddhist silk scarves) for us, and placing flower garlands around our necks or handing out a single flower to us, freshly picked flowers from the neighbouring slopes and hills, not to mention the shaman dancing and twisting himself to the sound of drums echoing all along our walking to the village square ...
________ Not everyone looks the same in Nepal, for there are quite a few various ethnic groups, depending on where you live in the country.Here, we are close to Tibet, and the vast majority of the villagers are 'Gurung', an ethnic group that speaks a language close to Tibetan, whose religion is also close to lamaism and shamanism. In Nepal, they add their ethnic group's name to their own family names, so everyone is named 'so and so' Gurung!...
_______Thank you so much for your heartfelt comments on my former photo from the Himalayas...Have a nice weekend! Don't forget to zoom in!