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Heaven's Peak
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Warm Caress
At the beginning of summer, the most remote villages of Zanskar, in the Indian Himalayas, are almost empty. The men and some women brought their animals up in the mountains for grazing and stay there for days. So the few remaining villagers take care of the children that didn't go with their parents to the pastures.
When the night comes, Kirghiz herders gather their animals to protect them from predators. Goats are kept safe between walls and yaks are tied to the ground by the yurts.
Backlit silhouette of a young man during a Zanskari wedding. In this Himalayan region, weddings last for at least two days and nights during which people feast and sleep where and when they see fit. Despite the cries of the bride and her close family — once married she has to leave her family to live at her husband's place — it is an occasion for the people of the surrounding villages to meet and spend good time together.
Grandma worrying for one of her grandson. He's been coughing for days and has got fever. Going to visit the doctor would take a day by car at least and they have no medication to give him.
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Birth of a Thought
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Captured during Unu Mondo Expedition 2020 in Greenland on 09 August, 2020 by Julien Fumard
Somewhere in Dolpo, Nepal, a monk allows us to visit a very old gompa (monastery) hours away from the first village — we were not sure we would find someone at that time but hopefully we did! The monk lives here, alone with his family, in a house built on a hill right next to the gompa. With a small vegetable garden for subsistence, he shares his time between meditation and daily chores.
Backstage of a traditional Buddhist festival. In the basement of a gompa, young monks get dressed for their next performance. As the oldest monks will recite mantras and play music, the young ones will dance for the whole day dressed with heavy garments and masks — that they will change betweend each dance — despite the scorching sun.
Young people gathered by the fire in a makeshift camp built to assist to the teachings of a rinpotche. Believed to be the reincarnations of important persons, rinpotches are spiritual leaders. As such, assisting their teachings is paramount for buddhists in the Himalayas. However the lack of preparation in such remote places and the large crowd gathering here for a few days make the living conditions difficult and hygiene related problems arise quickly. Despite this precarious setup, people will come in numbers, often from various villages located days away.
In the mountainous regions of the Himalayas schools are scarce. When the only road to the village is a walking path, bringing furnitures is hard and expensive. Despite being public — which usually comes with bad reputation in Nepal — this school, supported by two small NGO, is beginning to have a good reputation in the region. More and more parents now bring their children here instead of paying higher fees for private schools further away in the cities or even in Kathmandu. Thanks to the involvement of its teachers, the growing reputation of this boarding school now allows them to take care of children from the surrounding villages and of very poor families.
Mountain Dunes
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After a long day walk, we were looking for a place to rest and eat something. The village was mostly empty, everyone was in the fields, but this lady welcomed us in her house. Inside, darkness prevailed, a darkness increased by the soot resulting from the open fire of the kitchen. But the harsh light filtering into the house made the situation photographically perfect, as in an old master painting. The lady was so tired that just after she prepared us a noodle soup she fell asleep sitting, right in front of us.
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Lars prend naturellement la pose alors que lui et sa communauté sont en train de découper un petit rorqual fraîchement chassé. Depuis des millénaires les Inuits se sont nourris de ce que la nature leur offrait, à savoir principalement de la viande issue de la chasse ainsi que du poisson et diverses sortes d'animaux marins. Aujourd'hui encore, la plupart de la nourriture consommée au Groenland provient de la chasse et de la pêche, strictement régulés. Les Groenlandais sont les premiers à comprendre et respecter ces contraintes et ont du mal à comprendre pourquoi ils sont encore parfois vus de travers à l'étranger pour leur consommation de phoque et de baleine.
Alone on the Roof of the World
Up in the Pamir mountains, trees are inexistant. People collect bushes and yak dung in order to cook and keep their house warm.
Established in the 15th century, Phuktal monastery is one of the few monasteries reachable only by foot in Ladakh. Built around a natural cave believed to have been visited by numerous sages, scholars, translators, and monks — including Padmasambhava, the man who helped construct the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet (8th century) — it also maintains a traditional Tibetan medical clinic catering to the local community. Until 2016, the monastery has remained ignored for any modern development. It now has electricity thanks to Global Himalayan Expedition who set up solar micro-grids.
Summer hut at the top of a pass, in the Kanchenjunga region of Nepal.
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View of Aiguille Noire de Peuterey as seen from Helbronner, France.
After a snowfall during the night, the dark rocks of the mountains is covered by fresh snow, creating interesting textures and contrasts. An eternal fight between rocks and snow. Annapurna mountain range, in the Nepalese Himalaya.
Geometric shapes carved on the side of Swargadwari Danda. This is only one tiny piece of the 180° circus of flat stone and steep slope looking like a paradise for avalanches in Annapurna mountain range in the Nepalese Himalaya.