Global Press Journal Connections: The World in Photos

Kavrey District, Nepal

Students push a scooter that got stuck on a muddy road in Nepal’s Kavrey district. In monsoon season, between June and September, unpaved roads can become muddy and trap vehicles.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Rakwana, Sri Lanka

Dharmapala Ralahami, a volunteer with the Rainforest Protectors of Sri Lanka, holds a “wanda,” or praying mantis, that he found while working with a group to remove invasive plants from threatened rainforest near the Melawatte temple in Sri Lanka’s Rakwana mountain range. In the Sinhala language, wanda means “one who worships.”

Photo by Nirasha Piyawadani

Kathmandu, Nepal

Women perform Nepalese folk dances during the Teej festival, celebrated by Hindus in Nepal and India on Aug. 24. These Nepalese women also celebrated by wearing new clothes and fasting.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Bardiya District, Nepal

Laxmi Chaudhary, 20, holds her 1-year-old child while her 3-year-old child watches as she collects water in Bardiya District, Nepal. In Bardiya’s indigenous Tharu community, in the Terai plains, some family members cook food and bring it to others who work in the fields.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Kathmandu, Nepal

Performers danced in a parade during the Gaijatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, on Aug. 8. The Hindu festival honors those who have died in the past year. The festivities coincided with this year’s Pride parade, organized by LGBT rights nonprofit Blue Diamond Society, to also memorialize recently deceased members of the LGBT community.

Photo by Kalpana Khanal

Kandy, Sri Lanka

During the Kandy Esala Perahera festival on Aug. 7, a dancer performed a traditional routine that involved balancing a spinning hand drum, or Ath Raban, on his finger. This 10-day festival in Kandy, in central Sri Lanka, celebrates the city’s Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha, and features a procession of dressed-up elephants, acrobats and musicians, along with a variety of local and cultural dances.

Photo by Sahana David Menon

Gulariya, Bardiya District, Nepal

Farmers harvest paddy seeds from their land in Gulariya, a municipality in Nepal’s Bardiya district. During the off-season, the seeds are sold to farmers in the Terai lowlands, where rice is the main crop.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Wadduwa, Kalutara District, Sri Lanka

Lal Perera, 60, a toddy tapper, walks between coconut trees, from which he extracts the sap of the coconut flowers for a beverage called toddy. He works in Wadduwa, a town in Sri Lanka’s Kalutara district. Perera, who has been toddy tapping for 30 years, says he taps around 80 trees every day, except during heavy rains. Learn more about toddy tapping here.

Photo by Manori Wijesekera

Bardiya District, Nepal

Shyam Yadam, 36, plows his land in the Terai area of Nepal’s Bardiya district, where most of the farmers grow rice. Planting occurs during the monsoon season, from June to September.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Bardiya District, Nepal

Farmers plant rice in the Terai lowlands of Gularia in Nepal’s Bardiya district. The crop-planting season coincides with the monsoon season, which generally occurs between June and September.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Jaffna, Sri Lanka

A lagoon fisherman sorts his prawn catch by size before placing his haul for auction at the Gurunagar fish market in Jaffna, a city at the northern edge of Sri Lanka. Fishermen can auction large quantities of their seafood at this market, and they group the bigger specimens to sell at a higher price.

Photo by Manori Wijesekera

Mandandeupur, Nepal

Voters in Nepal’s Mandandeupur municipality attend a celebration organized by the Nepali Congress party after its panel won the local election. In May, local elections were held for the first time in 20 years, and this was the first election for Nepal under its new constitution.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Bali, Indonesia

Balinese Hindus and tourists perform Melukat, a holy water ritual, in the holy springs of Tirta Empul, a temple and national cultural heritage site in the village of Manukaya on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Performing Melukat symbolizes eliminating negative energies and influences that may affect a person’s mental and physical state.

Photo by Sahana David Menon

Mustang, Nepal

Men from South India perform a form of worship called puja at Muktinath, a holy pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists in Mustang, Nepal. Devotees come to Muktinath to do different types of pujas, and these three are performing sharada, in which they chant prayers and offer water and food to their deceased family members.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Mustang, Nepal

Pasang Gurung, 49, uses a hand loom to weave traditional clothes and accessories for herself and her family in Mustang, a district in northwestern Nepal. Hand looms are common in Mustang villages, and some residents sell their products to foreign tourists for extra income.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Upper Mustang, Nepal

Chimmi Rinzing Gurung, 50, and his horses travel around Lo Manthang village in Upper Mustang, a region in northwestern Nepal. Gurung charges tourists 1,500 Nepalese rupees (about $15) for a round-trip horseback ride to their destination, where he tends to the horses while the tourists go sightseeing.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Karma Tashi, 50, takes his chyangras, or mountain goats, to graze in the hills outside of the Lo Manthang village in Upper Mustang, Nepal. The chyangras are kept and sold for their wool.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Mustang, Nepal

A sadhu, a Hindu who has renounced the worldly life, sits outside the Muktinath Temple, waiting to receive alms from the pilgrims who came to visit the holy site in Mustang, Nepal. Sadhus spend their time traveling to different Hindu temples and holy sites, and Muktinath is one of the oldest Hindu temples.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Upper Mustang, Nepal

On the outskirts of Lo Manthang, a village in Upper Mustang, Yanzen Gurung hangs a khada, a ceremonial scarf, as an offering to the gods that protect her maternal homeland. She was about to return to Kathmandu, where she lives with her husband. People in the Upper Mustang region believe the gods protect the lands and the hills, and they offer prayers and khadas to them and hang Buddhist prayer flags.

Photo by Shilu Manandhar

Weliweriya, Sri Lanka

Children with special needs from 12 schools in the Gampaha education zone play a traditional game at the Kanthi Ground playground in Weliweriya, a town in Sri Lanka. Team members are pulled to the finish line on sheaths made from the leaves of the areca palm tree. Traditional games were part of a festival celebrating the Sinhalese Hindu New Year, which began on April 14.

Photo by Nirasha Piyawadani

Badulla, Sri Lanka

A train traveling to Badulla, a city in the lower central hills of Sri Lanka, crosses the Nine Arches Bridge. The bridge, which is 30 meters (100 feet) tall, was constructed in 1920 and is made without steel and entirely of rock, stones and cement.

Photo by Manori Wijesekera

Birendranagar, Nepal

Ram Sunar, 26, casts his vote in the local election in Ward 6 of Birendranagar, a city in the Surkhet district of Nepal. Despite the death of their mother the previous day, Sunar and his brother (not pictured) came out on May 14 to vote in the first local elections in Nepal in 20 years.

Photo by Yam Kumari Kandel

Kathmandu, Nepal

Rajdev Yadav, 29, lays incense sticks out to dry in the sun while working at the Bodhisattvas in Action (BIA) Incense Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal. The BIA Foundation comprises eight different institutions run by people with disabilities. Yadav, who is missing a leg, has been working for the BIA Incense Institute for two years. The incense sticks are used in Hindu and Buddhist worship.

Photo by Kalpana Khanal

Colombo, Sri Lanka

This house was dislodged during a landslide on April 14, following the collapse of the Meethotamulla garbage dump in Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. As of April 27, the Disaster Management Center in Sri Lanka reported 32 deaths and eight people missing after the nearly 300-foot-high trash pile fell onto surrounding homes. The streets flooded when garbage clogged the drainage systems.

Photo by Nirasha Piyawadani

Connected

Sort by

Location

Topics

Editor's Choice

Kavrey District, Nepal

Rakwana, Sri Lanka

Kathmandu, Nepal

Bardiya District, Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kandy, Sri Lanka

Gulariya, Bardiya District, Nepal

Wadduwa, Kalutara District, Sri Lanka

Bardiya District, Nepal

Bardiya District, Nepal

Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Mandandeupur, Nepal

Bali, Indonesia

Mustang, Nepal

Mustang, Nepal

Upper Mustang, Nepal

Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Mustang, Nepal

Upper Mustang, Nepal

Weliweriya, Sri Lanka

Badulla, Sri Lanka

Birendranagar, Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Colombo, Sri Lanka