Meet Dorje Dolma, the first female writer from Dolpo

Twenty-five years ago, Dorje Dolma was living in a remote village of Dolpo, battling a life-threatening disease. Now, she’s a teacher, artist, and one of the first people from Dolpo to write a memoir.

As the oldest of 11 siblings, Dorje Dolma spent most of her childhood taking care of her younger brothers and sisters as well as herding yaks and goats. This was in the early ’90s, when Dolpo had just started seeing visitors. Rich local city dwellers and foreign travel enthusiasts had started to travel hundreds of kilometres just to witness Dolpo’s pristine beauty, faraway in a corner in western Nepal.