Kagbeni, an Oasis in Mustang

Your comments are highly appreciated. Karl

very pleasing to the eye. the flow of water from the top right draws you eye through the res of the image. The colors and textures all lend to the overall high rating of this image(In my opinion of course!)

Nice panarama view of the foothills, mountain & river.

Excelente color y composicion, saludos.http://www.hectorbrandan.com/images/julio-carmona.gif

Karl, I like the concept of terraced fields in their regularity as opposed to the sharp and somewhat chaotic lines of the mountains and of the river. This is even strenghtened under a chromatic point of view (green versus gray) on a logical point of view (vegetal versus mineral) and so on.

 

Was there a way to frame it also from the right bottom with something gray? A stone in the foreground or something like that... that would really pull out the best of the "oasis" feel to it.

Thanks Salvatore for your comment. You help to see more than what I have seen before. On the right side there have been more dark green trees and shrubs. I have removed them except one, because they added one more element to the photo. But I see now that for framing purpose they could have been there. Karl

Karl, I really have been enjoying your images, and appreciate totally your dedication, work and interest in capturing fine documents of far-away lands it's geography, development and it's peoples.

Apart from the photographic value of this and your other excellent panoramas, one thing on this image that struck me almost immediately was what seems to me the land-slips and the de-forestation on the mountians around this valley. I wonder if you have care to comment on the impact of this phenomena on the inhabitants of the remote places you travel to and document. Regards ~ Mike

Dear Mike, thanks for your comments. In fact what you see here is a centuries old example of agriculture land, reclaimed from the desert. Where water is available, the inhabitants of Mustang have built terrasses and are planting crops, bushes and trees with care and dedication.

The Kali Gandaki river flows from behind the main Himalaya range towards South. In geological terms the rivar was able to keep its flow between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna mountains despite the growing of the mountains to over eight thousand meters.In this part of the world, landslides, erosion and deserts are a natural phenomenon, aggravated by deforestation and over-grazing.

By profession I am a forester. My current job is to support coordination of the efforts to combat desertification in Mongolia. A huge task indeed. Karl

Hi Karl, I've enjoyed looking through your fantastic Nepal images, they brought back a lot of wonderful memories for me as my wife and I did the "Circuit" 25 years ago. We spent a couple of nights in the red building in the center of this photo and tried to sneak upriver into Mustang but were turned back by army guards. Kagbeni looks unchanged but I noticed in your "Pilgrims on the way to Muktinath" photo that there are power poles along the trail now. I guess that's a good thing.

Dave

Fabulous. Thanks for sharing!