Kathmandu, Nepal

Sunita Adhikari holds her 7-month-old daughter, Swastika Adhikari, while Shanta Rai, a health care worker, administers medicine at Shankha Park in Kathmandu, Nepal. The government provides free vitamin A tablets and other medicine to children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years to improve health and decrease child mortality.

Boudha Nepal

Yeshe Thinley, a 16-year-old monk, prepares an altar for worship at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Boudha, Nepal. The altar holds a kudung, the body of a religious teacher believed to be sacred after they pass away. Kyabje Chokling Rinpoche died in December 2020, and his kudung will be kept in the monastery for one year so his pupils and disciples can pay their last respects.

Sancha Maya Limbu cleans the walls of the Bhimsen temple amid reconstruction work at Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, Nepal. The temple was destroyed in the April 2015 earthquake. Reconstruction began in 2019 but was temporarily halted in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Kathmandu, Nepal

In Gairidhara, a neighborhood in Kathmandu, Nepal, Binay Kumar Bista and Barsana Bista, 1, write on the Saraswati temple’s walls with white chalk during Saraswati Puja, a festival that marks the arrival of spring. Barsana is celebrating the festival for the first time, and Bista prays to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, for the infant to gain wisdom.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Sani Pariyar, 17, chops chicken at a shop in Jorpati, a neighborhood in Kathmandu, Nepal. Customers flock to the shop because they only sell local chicken, which they display out front. He says people consume the chicken mostly during festivals and on Saturdays.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Chandra Kesari Bajracharya makes cotton wicks for butter lamps near the Jana Bahal temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. Tourists and locals who visit the city’s temples purchase the butter lamps for prayer.

Dhading Bagmati province Nepal

Man Bahadur Magar, 40, sits beside the Pritivi Highway and waits for customers to buy fish caught in the Trisuli River in Dhading, a district in Nepal’s Bagmati province. As vehicles pass, he waves to the passengers, hoping to catch their attention. He occasionally waters the fish to keep them fresh.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Purushottam Giri Sangeet Acharya, 60, a Hindu holy man known as a sadhu, reads near the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. He says that after the government announced a lockdown and religious sites closed due to COVID-19, many sadhus chose to leave Pashupatinath, where they lived.

Kathmandu, Nepal

A stray dog rests in front of a row of shops near the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. All religious sites have been closed since the end of March due to the coronavirus, including the main gate to the Pashupatinath Temple, a sacred site for Hindus. The shops that line the area are normally crowded with tourists, but owners have seen little business during the pandemic.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Priest Santosh Buddhacharya performs puja, a worship ritual, at Swayambhunath stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. Crowds of Hindu and Buddhist devotees and tourists used to worship at the stupa. But with travel restricted due to the coronavirus, the priests are now the only worshippers.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Saroj Kafle cuts grass with his sister, Sabina Kafle, to feed his cows in Kathmandu, Nepal. Saroj Kafle says his sales of cow’s milk have decreased since the coronavirus hit Nepal.

Tikapur Sudoorpashchim, Nepal

Yojana Chaudhary, 5, and her sister Unnati Chaudhary, 1, play on the sand in a dried-up stream in Tikapur, a municipality in Nepal’s western Sudoorpashchim province.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Dem Sani Tamang balls wool using a handmade instrument called a charka, or a spinning wheel, in Kathmandu, Nepal. She gets paid 40 to 100 Nepalese rupees (35 to 85 cents) per kilo for the balled wool, which is later used to make carpets.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Parmeshwori Devi Mukhiya and her husband, Faltu Mukhiya, who are both blind, stand in front of their home in a settlement on the banks of the Bagmati Riverin Kathmandu, Nepal. They moved to Kathmandufrom Bandipur, about four hours away, looking for better employment opportunities.

Amaltari, Nepal

Despite the rain, Dhani Ram Mahato picks up organic lemons that grow in his backyard to use in the kitchen in Amaltari, a village close to Nepal’s border with India. Most people in this area grow their own produce since the land is so fertile.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Mohammad Sainula repairs an umbrella in Kathmandu, Nepal. Sainula repairs umbrellas during monsoon season and makes quilts and mattresses during other seasons. He has worked from this spot for 15 years.

Ranighat, Nepal

Bhagwati Buda (front) and her daughter, Jamuna Buda, cross the Bheri River to reach their home in Ranighat, a village in Nepal’s Surkhet District. The pair were returning from Birendranagar, a nearby city, and consider themselves lucky to have access to a bridge for travel ease.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Manoj Patel (right) and Ganesh Patel (not related) use iron rods to construct the support beams of a new home in Kathmandu, Nepal. The pair have come to work from Bara, a district south of Kathmandu, and return to their homes once a year to see their families.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Anish Shakya collects offerings in a basket during a festival celebrating Rato Machindranath, a deity believed to have power over rain, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Surkhet District, Nepal

Laxmi Buda cleans outside her home in Matela, a village in the Surkhet District of Nepal. Buda uses red clay found abundantly in this area to keep her house looking its best.

Bardiya District, Nepal

Mamta Chaudhary takes goats to graze at her family’s farm in Nepal’s Bardiya District. The family sells goats for their livelihood.

Bardiya District, Nepal

Sunita Chaudhary, 80, is helped onto a bicycle by her husband Prabhu Chaudhary, 82, as they head to a hospital checkup for her in Nepal’s Bardiya District. Since there are no bus lines running from their village to the hospital, biking is the couple’s best option.

Surkhet District, Nepal

Manikala Buda (pink shirt) and her children Shiva Buda, 3, and Pabitra Buda, 6, receive treatment from Kastura Buda, a traditional healer, in Matela, a village development committee in Nepal’s Surkhet District. People often go to faith healers, known as Dhami in Nepali, when they believe they are suffering from negative energy, an ailment which can’t be cured by other forms of medicine.

Belwabajja, Bardiya District, Nepal

Radha Chaudhary and Pyeari Chaudhary clean the floor of their home in Belwabajja, a community in Nepal’s Bardiya District, with a mixture of mud and cow dung. It is believed to purify the home, in addition to killing bacteria and repelling mosquitoes.