The Last Death-Defying Honey Hunter of Nepal | Hacker News Reader

The Last Death-Defying Honey Hunter of Nepal

nationalgeographic.com

108 pointsnickles20 comments

Anecdote: my grandfather's house had a tree with a pretty big beehive. The bees would be everywhere in the garden. He was least bothered by them and considered bee stings to be only marginally more annoying than mosquito bites. However, me and mom were not so nonchalant about the bees (this was during our annual visit during summer vacations in school so we were not really used to the bee scene).

A honey collector happened to be going around looking for honeycombs and grandpa called him to collect honey from the hive (probably to get rid of the bees). We watched as the guy skillfully climbed the tree (the hive was located fairly high) with just a net as mask while wearing normal clothes - no protective suit etc. Bees probably stung him hundreds of times but he didn't really care - if he flinched, we didn't see any of that from that distance. He got a whole lot of wax and three jars of honey of which he gave us a jar as payment. I enjoyed the honey but couldn't have too much of it at any time. Once I had more than a few spoons and started feeling hot and sweaty. Grandpa told that it was an indicator of it being "good" honey. He would daily eat a spoonful of it during winters.

> I enjoyed the honey but couldn't have too much of it at any time. Once I had more than a few spoons and started feeling hot and sweaty. Grandpa told that it was an indicator of it being "good" honey.

Your comment set me off googling, trying to link "good honey" with the symptoms you were describing. The furthest I got was the reminder that raw (unpasteurised) honey (as yours certainly was) can contain all sorts of pollen and spores, and commonly gives people food poisoning. In fact, it turns out that the health service in the UK recommends _not_ giving any honey to babies because of this.

tldr: Your Grandpa might be grading honey based on its botulism content.

[1] https://www.livestrong.com/article/167554-side-effects-of-ra...

There was a Vice documentary about this a couple of years ago too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDOvmhqvIA8

The honey is from Rhododendron pollen and apparently very easy to overdose on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayanotoxin

I had read another article (may or not have been in NatGeo) some time ago, about another tribe in Nepal, roughly similar to the one mentioned in this OP, in the sense of living off the forest and land (honey gathering, fishing, etc.). The tribe was called the Raji. I remember a rather stark quote from a Raji tribe member in the article:

"You fall when your life is over."

He was referring to the fact that sometimes the honey gatherers who climb high trees to get it, slip and fall.

Though it might sound fatalistic to some Westerners, who think that Asians are so, I thought it was, rather, realistic, in acknowledging that not everything in life is in our control, though many people like to delude themselves that it is.

>Though it might sound fatalistic to some Westerners, who think that Asians are so, I thought it was, rather, realistic, in acknowledging that not everything in life is in our control,

You really think you're in control? Well, I think you're craaaaaaa-aaaaazzzzzyyyyyyy...

It's not just a "Far East" thing.

No, you are ... nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttzzzzzzzz.

Gnarls Barkley, buddy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

I spent time in a remote village in Western Nepal back in 2009. During the 70's, the Peace Corp had installed 2 hydro generators to provide electricity for the village. Over time the generators broke down, and no outside notice was given, or request for assistance. My understanding from conversations with some of villagers was that the prevailing attitude was "alas, such is life", and they wen't back to no electricity. They had no electricity in 2009, but people seemed content enough.

Yes, I agree, that happens a lot in Asia, and it bugs me no end. That's not what I meant by my Raji example, though.

This.

"You fall when your life is over" == false

'When you fall, your life is over' == true

Completely different philosophies.

Also, IIRC, there are some pretty huge catfish in those rivers. I think I remember the photos in the article.

And there are some pretty huge catfish in other areas too, like the Mekong giant catfish and others.

The part about the changes in barometric pressure / the camera failing is interesting. At first it sounded like a dramatic enhancement to the story, but intriguing that things went back to normal once leaving the enclosure.

I bought a sturdy camping lighter. It was the most reliable lighter I'd had, first time every time. Until I tried to use it at 14,000 feet. Nothing. Wouldn't work at all. Luckily I had a cheap, disposable lighter as backup. It worked fine above 20,000 feet.

Where were you climbing?

Aconcagua.

Same happened to me! I was in Nepal a few years ago and weird spots and lines started showing up on my camera screen around 15'000 feet. Luckily they went away when coming down to lower altitude!

And it never adapted? I would have thought after a while the outside pressure and inside the camera would equalize.

FYI this is not the last guy harvesting psychedelic honey. My girlfriend was just in Nepal, tons of families have it. They sold it to her in a used Pepsi bottle. It kind of fermented once we got it home. Kind of... Zingy.

Maybe he's the last one desperate enough to defy death for it? But it's possible that they just lied or are wrong.

He's the last in the lineage of those who do this within this specific group:

"“For the Kulung, the ethnic group that lives in Saadi, for them to be able to go onto the cliff and touch the honeycomb and the honey, you have to be selected by this wrathful forest spirit called Rongkemi through a special dream. And Mauli Dhan was the last person in the village to have this dream. There’s a very specific narrative dream you have to have about being stuck in a spider’s web on the cliff, and you’re rescued by this large white monkey. So he told his father and the village elders about the dream, and they said, ‘You’re the one. You’re the honey harvester.’"

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