WORDS Manju Maharjan and Yuvash Vaidya IMAGES Sheetal Vaidya and Shashank Shrestha We are Newahs, the Indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. We are worshippers in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions and belong to several different ethnic groups, but historically we all spoke a common language, Nepalbhasa. While the language is prevalent among

Manju Maharjan, Yuvash Vaidya, Prakash Khadgi, and Sheetal Vaidya About twelve kilometers southeast of the city of Lalitpur in Nepal, an urban village called Badikhel sprawls over an area of nearly six square kilometers. Surrounded by a dense forest, the village harbors about 3,600 members of an Indigenous community, the Pahari, whose unique dialect, Pahibhae,

During a pandemic, Indigenous communities are often among the most vulnerable, given their often-limited access to water, food supplies, adequate healthcare, and other factors. In this special “Pandemic Perspectives” series of our Dispatches, we’re sharing stories from around the world to shed some light on the obstacles Indigenous Peoples face in light of COVID-19 lockdowns—along

Story by Manju Maharjan and Yuvash Vaidya (Newar, Nepal), ages 23 and 28 We are Newars, the Indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. We are worshippers in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions and belong to several different ethnic groups, but historically we all spoke a common language, Nepalbhasa. While the language is prevalent

by Sheetal Vaidya, Manju Maharjan, and Prakash Khadgi . Evolutionary studies of the human brain conclude that intelligence is directly linked to meat consumption  —  not because of its nutritional qualities but because of the cognitive abilities that are needed for the strategic sharing of meat within groups. The intellectual capacity needed for such sharing

Photos and text by Sheetal Vaidya and Asha Paudel Dakshinkali is a sacred grove located at 1550 m of altitude about 22 km south of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. It is a local symbol of divinity, devoted to the Goddess Kali. Hindus consider Kali to be the supreme, dark female power whose role is to destroy

by Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin “My heart is still shaking,” said Ram Bahadur when we spoke with him the day after the first massive earthquake  —  7.9 on the Richter Scale  —  struck Nepal on April 25, 2015. Almost five months later, he and other members of the Indigenous Thangmi community in Nepal are still