How to collect the honey of wild bees in the Himalayas

Documentary photographer Andrew Newey during his travels in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal made a series of remarkable photographs of collecting wild honey. The hunt for honey - an ancient tradition of ethnic Gurung in central Nepal. Honey of wild bees are collected twice a year in the mountains the Himalayas. Honey collectors are virtually climbers not because of lust for pleasure but out of necessity. These people really are risking their lives while collecting wild honey from the world's biggest hives high in the Himalayan rocks.

Andrew Newey during two weeks spent time living in a Nepali village in the foothills of the Himalayas to learn this ancient tradition of the dying, which is threatened by commercialization.

"For hundreds of years, the skills required to carry out this dangerous work, handed down from generation to generation" - says Newey.

Every year, these brave and desperate hunters for wild honey is getting smaller, because more and more people prefer to breed domestic bees. So safer and more profitable.

This work is extremely dangerous also because wild bees make their hives on the steep cliffs. So the bees are protected from predators and exposure to sunlight.
Collector honey screams to his companion, guiding its work.