A Dream Come True

How a charity imagined by a Buddhist monk and set up by a Scottish climber helped to change the lives of people living in the Himalaya

- Cameron McNeish

THE Sherpa people of Nepal are well-known for their fortitude, but natural disasters can stretch human resilience to the limit.

On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal - killing almost 9000 people, injuring 22,000 more and making 3.5 million homeless.

As well as World Heritage Sites in the country's capital of Kathmandu, many mountain villages were flattened by the force of the earthquake and subsequent mudslides.

One of those villages was Langtang, a community I had visited twice. I have fond memories of lazy afternoons on the slopes above the village, listening to farmers and yaks.

Dogs barked and smoke rose into the sky from a complex tumble of huts and homes, a tremendously peaceful and uplifting scene, and one that probably hadn't changed much in centuries - a way of life perhaps lacking those things that we in the West deem to be important, but offering something much older, much wiser and certainly more timeless.

After the earthquake Langtang was changed out of all recognition. One moment it was a bustling place, full of trekkers, porters, guides, farmers and yak herders. The next it was gone. Such is the sheer power of nature.

A large glacier and a frozen lake lay on the slopes of Langtang Lirung, high above the village. The earthquake brought down much of the glacier and the entire frozen lake, gathering giant boulders in its avalanche - an estimated 40 million tons of rock and ice - which funnelled down a couloir into the village.

Only a few villagers survived - 243 people died, including 27 local guides and porters, and 41 foreign trekkers. Many villages in Nepal suffered similar losses.