Kathmandu, Nepal

Kumar Rasaili embosses the figure of a goddess in a singing bowl at his shop in Swayambhu, Kathmandu, Nepal. Rasaili says tourists are his typical customers and the coronavirus pandemic has hampered his business.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Shrestha says he usually drives around the city to look for customers, but because of an increase in gas prices, he cannot afford to waste fuel.

Kathmandu, Nepal

People, aged 64, line up outside a school to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal. The government has distributed vaccines in phases to people since January 2021.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Police check citizens for identification to enforce nonessential-movement restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic in Chabahil, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kathmandu, Nepal

A cremation attendant in Kathmandu, Nepal, tends to the body of a 61-year-old woman who died of COVID-19 earlier in the day.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Sandeep Lama, Ram Magar and Raj Chhetri, from left, lay underground cables in Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal. During the coronavirus lockdowns, workers for the Nepal Electricity Authority take advantage of the quiet streets to improve infrastructure.

Lalitpur, Nepal

Pigeons scatter across Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, Nepal. The streets were empty except for patrolling police during a second lockdown in April as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Students practice taekwondo during a class in Kapan, a neighborhood in Kathmandu, Nepal. Shyam Thapa Magar, who teaches classes every morning and evening, also trains members of the national team.

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.