Lost Nepal

This book describes the authors’ experiences living in Kathmandu between May 1984 and May 1985. It is about a country and a culture that has undergone significant changes driven largely by growing economic inequality and turmoil, in large part caused by governmental mismanagement and corruption and punctuated by the disastrous earthquake of 2012. It is a country that anyone, who lived there forty years ago, may perhaps no longer recognise, a Nepal that is lost forever. Much of the book dwells on intimate details of life in the Kathmandu Valley, its people and their environs, including places of worship, mostly represented by thousands of “power places” known as “Shaktipita” that are scattered all over the valley. The images of the two great stupas, Swayambunath and Boudhanath, capture the haunting beauty of their ancient architecture and spirituality unifying art, religion, and nature. The book ends with an account of a trek to 18,519-foot high Kala Patharr for a spectacular view nearby Mt. Everest. The images display the majesty of Nepal’s snow-covered mountains and also hint at the dangers that humans face when seeking to conquer them. Along the way, the authors meet and photograph the Sherpas, renowned for their unparalleled mountaineering prowess, physical stamina, adaptation to extreme altitudes, and expert guiding skills.

Bernis and Peter Von Zer Muehlen began photographing in 1972 and have widely exhibited in the US and abroad, in public spaces, private galleries, and Museums. Bernis’s work has also been published in a dozen anthologies.