A group of men who live in the foothills of the Himalayas risk their lives to collect precious honey from the world's largest honeybees. Using ropes and latters to support their weight, the hunters venture up the mountain side to collect the honey from the beehives, carrying on a tradition that dates back to 11,000 B.C., the Daily Mail reported.
The men are from a remote village on a hill in the Kaski district in Nepal. The entire process, which takes three days, begins with an animal sacrifice to honor the gods of the mountain cliffs, The New York Times reported.
The beehives are also harvested too much because of demand from the tourism industry. The harvest is only supposed to take place twice a year. The excessive exporting of lucrative spring "red honey" to places like Japan, China and Korea is also to blame.
One photographer who documented the honey hunters for The NYTimes didn't even want to reveal the name of the village because, "if the name comes out, tourists will flock here," Andrew Newey said. "That would be a disaster."
