Himalayan Expedition

When you step out of your tent, the rain-soaked landscape reminds you that a sleet storm blew through camp during the night. Makalu's peak is still hidden in the clouds. Before long the rest of your teammates are awake and you gather around the fire, eating toast with butter and drinking hot tea. Now that you've met some of the people of Makalu-Barun and learned a little about their surroundings, you begin to think about the relationship between the two. Do these mountain people use the natural resources found in Makalu-Barun to survive? Do any of the plants you've seen have medicinal or other uses?

Of course! You didn't even have to set foot in Makalu-Barun National Park to know that. It only takes a moment to conjure the image of walking through the Kathmandu market. Carts were overflowing with clothes, paper, woodcarvings, and wild edibles made from the products of these mountain forests. There's no doubt about it, these Non-Timber Forest Products--as they are called--play a very important role in the lives of mountain people.

Wild edible mushrooms. Photo: Alton Byers

Over the past two days of climbing, you've been able to see where many of these products originated. Right from the beginning of the expedition, in fact. In the Sal forest, you saw farmers collecting seeds from the evergreen tree, Pinus roxburghii. Every once in a while a farmer would eat a seed, but you knew they were really intended for roasting. You definitely will have to buy some roasted pine nuts when you're back in Kathmandu at the end of the expedition!

When you arrived back at base camp that evening, Laxmi had collected the first leaves of Castanopsis indica and Castanopsis tribuloides for dinner. These were the chestnut trees you recognized earlier. Some of the leaves were roasted and some were eaten fresh. After dinner, he brewed a delicious tea made from the flowers of Rhododendron anthopogon.

The edible fiddlehead fern. Photo: Alton Byers

Before the expedition you had no idea how many different plant parts people could eat. Snacking on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, surrounded by villagers who are eating bamboo and fern shoots, you try to inventory what plant parts you eat during a normal day in the United States. This sandwich alone is made from the seeds of peanut and wheat plants and the fruit of a strawberry plant!

Setting out again, you realize the people of Makalu-Barun have a use for the plants growing at every elevation. At just 2,650 feet (800 meters), you come across Swertia chirata. This plant, also called Chirayata, is the most frequently used medicinal plant in the Himalayas. As a matter of fact, a vendor at the Kathmandu market suggested you buy the juice of this plant in case you contracted malaria on the expedition and needed to reduce your fever. You remember giving the vendor a skeptical look. In response, she explained that many modern medicines were once made using some of the same natural ingredients being sold in the market. In fact, 40% of modern medicines still are. You thought about the aspirin you took earlier to get rid of a headache. Although it is now made from synthetic ingredients, the first aspirin was made from the bark of the willow tree. You left the juice behind but now decide when you go back to Kathmandu you will buy some dried Chirayata which is used to treat coughs, colds, and diarrhea.

Not too much farther along you come across the tree that produces cinnamon bark, Cinnamomum tamala. You didn't even know that cinnamon spice came from bark! One of the porters explains that this isn't the same species that produces the spice. Instead, the oils produced from the leaves and bark of this tree are given to people suffering from rheumatism and gonorrhea.

As you are looking at the bark, a porter pulls some seeds from a neighboring tree. You recognize them from earlier in the expedition. They're Rudrakshya beads from the Elaeocarpus ganitrus tree. One of the villagers you ran into yesterday demonstrated how you could place the beads on your skin to lower your stress level. Apparently they have very powerful magnetic properties that will help you calm down. They can even reduce your blood pressure!

After talking to the vendor in Kathmandu, you are curious about how many of these same plants are used to produce medicine and vitamins sold in the United States. You decide to keep track of the medicinal plants in your journal and check when you get back home.

Nepalese woman weaving allo cloth. Photo: TMI

You've entered a forest of oaks and maples. Suddenly your legs start to sting. You realize that you are walking through a huge patch of giant stinging nettles (Girardinia diversifolia). Ouch! As you concentrate on avoiding this plant, called allo, you come upon several men harvesting it. You've seen what happens next. The men bring the harvested plants back to their village, where they will strip off the bark and leave it in the sun for several days to dry. Next, the women boil the bark in water. After a woman washes it in a river, she removes the silky fibers from the bark and mixes them with limestone. Rolling the fiber around her waist, she will hold the free end in her teeth. Moving quickly, she rolls the fiber through her teeth and onto a spinner. For centuries, the Rai women of Nepal have used this method to produce the fiber that is used to make ropes, mats, cloth sacks, and fishing nets.

As you climb higher, the oaks get smaller and the maples are replaced by laurel trees and rhododendron shrubs. You notice that in this section of the forest, several plants are dying because all of their bark has been stripped off. The bark, called lokta, has been removed from these plants (Daphne bholua and Edgeworthia gardneri) to produce paper. In much the same way that the allo fiber was

Young girl collecting bamboo. Photo: TMI

prepared, this bark will be dried in the sun, boiled, and washed in a river. The fibers will then be beaten to a pulp and mixed with water. This mixture is spread on a mesh cloth and placed in the sun to dry before the paper can be peeled away. The end product is beautiful and in high demand because it is used to produce greeting cards, calendars, and other paper products. You are left to worry whether these forests can support that growing demand.

Up ahead you hear what sounds like sticks breaking. As you get closer you realize the sound is the clattering of bamboo poles being harvested on a steep slope. Mountain pheasants, who make their home in bamboo stands, are scurrying away and flying off. While some bamboo grows naturally in Makalu-Barun, it is also planted by local people. It's no wonder-the Rai have 57 uses for bamboo! So far on this expedition, you've seen bamboo being used in the construction of houses, bridges, and roofs. You've also seen mountain people sleeping on bamboo mats, using bamboo tools in the garden, and eating bamboo shoots. Bamboo is also planted to prevent bare land from being eroded.