Dharche’s honey-hunting tradition lives on

Honey hunting on the Gorkha cliffs is a skill passed down the generations.

Dambar Bahadur Gurung sits on a bank of the Nimrung stream in Gorkha, his eyes trained on his son Surya Bahadur, who is hanging off the cliffside of a treacherous rockface. Surya Bahadur is concentrating on breaking a beehive jutting out of the rock. The 77-year-old father’s face lights up with pride as he observes his son deftly breaking off the hives of the wild bees dangling on a rope in the middle of a narrow opening at the top of the cliff.