The dense forests of the Himalayan hills are their home, and the cliffs in the dense forests are the worlds where they work. When tired, quench your thirst with honey, fill your hunger with wild fruits when you are hungry, and use fallen leaves as a bed when you are sleepy. They are Nepalese honey pickers. The honey-picking traditions they have inherited are ancient, thrilling, and wild.
■ A boy from a neighboring village of the Gurung ethnic group picks up the bee spleen that has fallen to the ground and eats it. (Above)
■ Most of the Gurung people live in remote villages in the Himalayan hills of central Nepal's Kaski region, nestled deep in the green forest.
■ In order to avoid intruders and direct sunlight, Himalayan bees have built their hives in the southwest of the cliffs, which are extremely hidden. Therefore, honey pickers must collect honey on the edge of the cliff.
■ Honey pickers descend to the rope ladder, and blood on their feet, blisters, and bee bite marks can be seen everywhere, indicating the danger of this traditional craft.
■ When the honey picker changes positions on the 60-meter-high rope ladder, the partner under the cliff nervously looks upwards.
■ An old man of the Gurung ethnic group made a fire to boil honey tea. When the villagers have distributed honey, this is the first thing people start to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
■ After the harvested honey is distributed among the villagers, the villagers store the honey in huge pots or clay pots for the family to enjoy.
■ Honey pickers collect honey after waiting for the smoke to disperse the bees and expose their spleens. As villagers can earn money from other sources, honey picking is no longer an important livelihood for the local area, and the existing honey collectors are older, and the younger generation is rarely willing to take such a hard, adventurous and low-paid job.
At a cliff in Nepal's Himalayan hills, a gurung man balances his body on a nearly 60-meter-high rope ladder, surrounded by pungent smoke and the loud noises of thousands of angry Himalayan bees. The old man struggled to stab the hive with a long sharp bamboo pole, and another long bamboo pole to control the bamboo basket to catch the large nest spleen that had been stabbed down. With a crisp whistle, the old man signaled to his companions who were carrying baskets on the cliff, and the basket full of golden fresh bee spleen landed safely from the air.
Nepal's honey picking tradition is quite long, dating back to 11,000 BC. I had a little early knowledge of the lives of Nepalese honey pickers, but it wasn't until I had delved into the growing threats they faced that I decided to witness and hear the locals talk about the problems they faced, fearing that the fascinating scene might be lost forever.
Nepalese honey is mainly derived from the Himalayan bee, the world's largest bee that likes to build its hive on steep cliffs, also known as the "Himalayan cliff bee". In Nepal, there are about 26 Himalayan bee honey harvesting spots with an annual production of 3053 kg of honey, and 12 villages are engaged in honey harvesting.
The honey picking spot I visited is located in a remote Gurung village in the kaski region of central Nepal, stretching over a mountainside and nestled deep in the woods. During the year, there are two seasons of honey picking in spring and autumn, and outside of the season of honey picking, Gulong men like to hunt or engage in animal husbandry; women weave blankets and carpets at home. The Gurung people, who traditionally believe in shamanism, were later influenced by Tibetan culture and converted to Tibetan Buddhism, and were closer to the Tibetans in terms of clothing, language, and customs. I lived in the village for two weeks, eating and living with the Gurung people and making friends. Fortunately, three of them coincided with the autumn honey picking day in the village, and I was able to accompany them into the mountains and forests to witness the "wild" style of the honey pickers...