Women of Nepal - Bhaktapur

These pictures were taken during a short walk around the city of Bhaktapur in Nepal. This city of 80,000 people was once the capital of a separate kingdom, and is now a “satellite” of Kathmandu. Bhaktapur, like many other localities, was heavily damaged by the 2015 earthquake. The rubble there is still being cleared, historical monuments and residential buildings are being restored. In Nepal, women work on construction sites equally with men. They carry heavy loads, shovel, and wash bricks.

Old bricks collected from ruins are washed like dishes in order to put them back into use and build new houses and temples from them.

And two steps away from the bricks, women wash real dishes and vegetables. It is convenient to do this on the street, and not in the house, since there is a source of water and a sewer, but in houses there are no these amenities.

For exactly the same reasons, in the middle of the street, many women not only wash the dishes, but also bathe themselves. The Nepalese sun replaces the hot water tap. And to maintain decency, people shower here with their clothes on.

By the way, the sheets of crumpled tin slate in the background are not fences, but temporary huts of refugees - victims of the earthquake.

In the center of Bhaktapur, the development is very dense, with no courtyards or other protected spaces near the houses. Therefore, children play either right there on the street, in the middle of a construction site, or on the flat roofs of their houses.

Where construction work has not yet begun (or has already ended), all free space is taken over by trade. In spontaneous markets they sell cheap Chinese clothes, peasants sell vegetables and fish directly from the land, and on the central streets they sell souvenirs to tourists.

Nepal is a progressive country; here you can often see a woman driving. Of course, most often we are not talking about tractors (as in the photo) or buses (this is very physically difficult), but about motor scooters (the most popular type of transport) and cars.

It seems to me that very few women in Nepal can afford such a luxury as an abstract hobby (a hobby that does not bring in money). For example, if you meet a girl with a huge camera in Nepal, she will almost certainly not be Nepali (but Chinese, Japanese or Korean).

But they take selfies and generally use smartphones here as massively as throughout the world.

Another popular pastime is studying. In Kathmandu and other large cities there are a huge number of universities, various courses and trainings. And more or less wealthy parents try to send their children to study in other countries (England, Singapore, Korea).

And of course we can’t help but talk about fashion. Women of the older generation, as expected, prefer traditional outfits - saris, bloomers, thick Tibetan skirts.

At the same time, no one is stopping young people from wearing short shorts, T-shirts and other relatively revealing “Western” outfits.

Adidas tracksuits are also appreciated here))

Religious rituals and customs play an important role in the life of Nepalese people.

But no gods can replace simple human communication.

Kirill Yasko, October 2017.

P.S. My reasoning in no way claims to be 100% reliable. This is just a free interpretation of what you saw, a kind of mental exercise, and at the same time a formal reason to show you my photographs and invite you to Nepal