Youth, Tengboche Monastery - Nepal During the autumn Mani Rimdu Festival at the Tengboche monastery, young Buddhist monks perform music, recite prayers, and act out out complex stories through dance, where symbolic demons are conquered and dispelled, as positive forces clash with those of chaos.

Stone Walls, Khumbu Valley - Nepal Tiers of hand-stacked river stones create both terrace foundations and pasture walls. Here, just above Pheriche, winter moss clings to the older walls, and bright stone mark a more recent creation. The Sherpa people are masters of this kind of construction. I have seen very few wall breaches - except when the occasional zesty yak, giddy with spring, jumps through one by accident.

Ama Dablam, Khumbu Valley - Nepal Winter in Nepal. A small group of Buddhist Monks travel up the serpentine valley path toward the village of Pangboche. Above them rises the massive ice walled peak of Ama Dablam (22,600 ft).