The ancient kingdom of Nepal is the focus of the short black-and-white film, “Gateway to the Himalayas.” Dubbed “the last of the forbidden lands” by the narrator, the camera pans across numerous temples and shrines as we are told at mark 00:30 how it marks a meeting place of Buddhism and Hinduism. The narrator marvels at the intricate architecture of the structures and at mark 01:37 the familiar pagoda-style buildings of Tibet as we then watch children spinning a temple’s prayer wheels at mark 02:05. For hundreds of years, we are told, residents of Nepal have had very little contact with the Western world, leading to a “primitive” yet untainted culture as the camera shows us scenes from daily life. A traveling Hindu yogi is shown at mark 03:14 wearing a turban made out of hair rather than fabric, while another resident with only a top knot appears at mark 03:36 which would “lift the youngster to Heaven should he die.” We see a variety of festivals and religious ceremonies beginning at mark 04:25 were “almost day’s a holiday” — including those holidays involving decapitating hundreds of buffalo as a sacrifice to the Hindu goddess Durga. Scenes from a wedding follow before the story switches to hard life endured by many Nepal, and at mark 05:22 we see lines of young and old tilling working the hard soil and hoping their crops are not attacked by roving bands of sacred monkeys (mark 05:28). Kathmandu is visited beginning at mark 05:38 and we see a temple honoring the Hindu god Pashupati, a cremation ceremony, residents cleansing their souls (and their laundry) in the Bagmati River, and at mark 06:20 see the Gurkha — Nepalese soldiers. In an ever-changing world, Nepal remains a land of “savagery, simplicity, and beauty.”

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