harvesting

The woman has nine family members who she supports by herself. On this day she got up at six in the morning and came to the fields to harvest the crops. Hand sickles like the one she uses are usually bought from the county town.

Women cut a small handful of wheat at a time. This is then placed on the ground in a line. A group of handfuls are tied together with a simple knot of wheat stalk, and the bundle is then ready for transportation back to the threshing ground.

After school boys tie the wheat onto the donkeys and mules, the little girl (seen in the corner) will drive the laden animals back to her home, which is about two kilometers away.

My cousin, Rekshie Drolma (left) is a middle school girl. Her mother got stomach cancer and passed away last winter. She abandoned her study and has since worked in her family’s fields. She is also the main carer for her seventy year-old grandmother. The boy in the foreground is Tashi, her brother.

This photo shows me adding to the pile of straw that we save after threshing our crops. During the winter families need to feed their animals with this straw. The straw is also used as fuel for cooking, so people treat it as a precious commodity.