Nepal : Souls of the Mountain
- a journey
The need of The Journey is inside all of us. The need to discover, rediscover, conquer and be humbled, like the need for air of the pearl diver. This spring I went to Himalaya, in a quest of a childhood dream, to test the limits of my strength, to Learn.

Once I made up my mind, I was bombarded with fantastic images and rumours : hermits with e-mail addresses, oxen plows peacefuly sharing the green slopes with sattelite dishes, graves of ice for the ones who dared and did not return.

However, nobody knew to tell me of the people, of the women and children, of the life and sorrows and joys of this land. And there they were, not far off the much beaten Everest Trail, villages spread on the terraced hills like wild flowers, places where western missions never get. It seemed to me that the people here live much the same way they did hundreds of years ago.

There is no modern comfort here, no electricity or running water. And neither seems to be the need for them. And the people, they have rough hands and searching eyes that seem to pierce time and wealth, daily stress and vanity. They seem to have discovered the secret of stopping time; you find their faces familiar.

Intoxicated with the trusty glares, I kept shooting away; looking into the children's eyes I could not hide the uncomfortable feeling of guilt as I sensed our slow, inevitabile intrusion in their lives.
Taking these images away I asked myself whether we can relearn happiness from scratch, relearn being humble and human and I also wondered of what they can learn from us, Westerners. I feared our assault is going to change their lives forever. Change them before we wake up, before we find out what mistakes we've done and what we've lost.

We still have something between us, a bridge of hands, our genetic code, the universal myths, the creed in our power to make good without interfering, of respecting and valuing their existence and age-old culture without denting their world with our abrasive knowledge.

Is there a way for them (and us) to have the best of both worlds ? To keep their simplicity and inner peace while growing to learn how technology can ease their lives ? Is there a future for them other than an anthropological museum or a mcdonald-ized global village ?

Once back, many asked me : "Was it hard ?" Yes, it was. The only thing harder than climbing a mountain in Nepal is living the daily life.
But now, after sharing their smiles and listening to their songs after days of hard work, I know that, albeit hard, their lives are whole and joyful.
That is for me the real story of Nepal...

Please meet the faces, the thin air of the mountain and enjoy the Journey ...