Make Your Heart a Place of Prayer – Ghandruk, Nepal

Photographs and narration by Mustafa Habib Chowdhury

Ghandruk is a Village Development Committee in the Kaski District of the Gandaki Province of Nepal. Situated at a distance of 32 km north-west to Pokhara, the village is readily accessible by public buses and private taxis from the provincial headquarter. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census, it had a population of 4,748 residing in 1,013 individual households [1]. Ghandruk is a common place for treks in the Annapurna range of Nepal (Annapurna Base camp and Annapurna Circuit treks, in particular) [2-3]. The peaks of Mt Annapurna, Mt Machapuchare, Gangapurna and Mt Hiunchuli can be seen from the village, and it is also the gateway to the Poon hill. Gurung communities comprise the major inhabitants of the village [2-3].

My trip to Ghandruk was from May 1^st – 2^nd, 2022. We arrived at Ghandruk on the afternoon of the 1^st and left on the morning of the 2^nd of May. Ghandruk village is at an elevation of 2,012 m (6,601 ft) above sea level [3]. This is now the pre-Monsoon season in Nepal and so scattered thundershowers are almost a daily occurrence in Nepal, particularly in the evening time. Hence, bright clear blue skies were a rare event during my trip. As expected, it was raining in Ghandruk when we arrived on the afternoon of the 1^st of May. The rain stopped at about 5PM and I managed to go out take some photographs in the dying evening light for about an hour or so. Unfortunatley, due to the overcast nature of the skies, it was not possible to obtain the golden evening light or clear blue skies in my photographs taken on May 1^st. That was not much of a problem as I found the post-rain ambiance in Ghandruk village quite enchanting and fascinating. Another important thing to note is that there are no motorized vehicles allowed in the roads of Ghandruk village. The primary means of transportation is either on foot or on the backs of common domestic beasts of burden such as horses or donkeys. This lead to a very clean and quiet environment and it was easy to listen to the sound of different kinds of birds on trees and insects as one walked down the village roads.

Although I could not see the big mountain peaks of the Annapurna range the first evening due to the heavy cloud cover and mist, I was pleasantly surprised at the soft ambient lighting conditions after the rains ceased. Hence, many of my photographs that were taken on the first evening (evening of the 1^st of May) have a greyish tone with white/gray skies. I woke up the next morning very early (around 5AM) and to my great delight and surprise, I discovered that we were blessed with a clear skies early in the morning with a small tinge of clouds only. The magnificent white snow-covered peak of Mount Annapurna and was clearly observable. I proceeded to take several landscape photos with Mount Annapurna. Some of the compositions made were of the snow-covered peak themselves and other compositions were made using the Annapurna range as a backdrop to Ghandruk village scenes. Another advantage of the light in the morning of May 2^nd (Day 2) was that I was able to properly wonder around Ghandruk village and take lots of photos of the local inhabitants of the village going about their daily lives. Hence, the photographs presented in the series are a mix of cooler photos with greyish/white clouds taken in the evening of May 1^st and warmer photos with blue skies and golden light taken in the morning of May 2^nd. I wanted all the photos in the series to have a similar tone but unfortunately due to the lack of co-operation by nature, I was fortunate to only get sunlight on the second day of my stay. Another point worth mentioning is that since we spend such short time in Ghandruk, I did not get too much time to establish a friendly relationship with many of the local inhabitants. Hence, I was not able to get good portrait shots of single individuals. All the photos taken with only one person in the frame are candid natural shots.

The takeaway experience of this trip is not actually photographic or anything to do with aesthetics. I actually felt the power of nature to rejuvenate my senses and my soul. The sounds of nature, the silence, the wind, the cool fresh breeze all relaxed me and put me in a rather spiritual frame of mind. When one encounters such magnificent beauty in nature from so close, it is not possible to avoid being a little philosophical. One feels that language itself in not sophisticated enough to explain such kind of magnificent beauty and the best thing is to enjoy nature in silent contemplation. Ghandruk village, nested deep inside the Himalayas, is certainly a place where one can make his/her heart a place of prayer.

Bibliography:

1. “Nepal Census 2001”. Nepal’s Village Development Committees. Digital Himalaya. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
2. THE BEST Ghandruk Bed and Breakfasts of 2020 (with Prices) – TripAdvisor”. www.tripadvisor.com. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
3. Ghandruk – Wikipedia. Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghandruk#cite_note-1

Contact:
Mustafa Habib Chowdhury
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mustafa.h.chowdhury
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mustafahabibchowdhury/