Ganga Bahadur Gurung is praying quietly to the gods. He is asking the water god, earth god, fire god, wind god and snake god for their blessing with a honey hunt: members of his hunting group are about to climb down a 50-metre-high cliff on a swaying handmade rope ladder and prise honeycomb away from the world’s largest honeybees.
“The wild honeybees make hives only in the safe cliffs where there are gods,” explains Ganga, as he asks the deities to make the hunt safe and successful.
Harvesting honey from the cliffs is an ancient tradition in the foothills of the Nepal Himalayas. Men from the Gurung ethnic group, who live in the hills and mountains of central Nepal and northern India, have been risking their lives this way for thousands of years. The hunt, which happens twice a year in autumn and spring, is tightly woven into the Gurung’s culture, with festival celebrations in villages.
Honey hunting customs in Asia:
In Nepal, the honey of the Himalayan giant honeybee, or Apis laboriosa, is predominantly hunted by the Gurung, according to Surendra Raj Joshi, a senior resilient livelihoods specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. The species is mainly found in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region…
