This book is the culmination of a year spent living and photographing in the Kathmandu Valley, the economic and political center of Nepal, once synonymous with the country itself and traditionally known as Nepal Mandala. The book ends with images from a memorable trek through the Himalaya toward Mt. Everest. When we arrived in Spring 1984, we quickly realized that we had been transported into another time, into the Middle Ages, but the Middle Ages with cars and transistor radios. For the first few weeks, Kathmandu was a blur of color, sound, and smells. Gradually, as our experiences assumed greater depth and meaning, we began exploring with our cameras. Although materially poor, Nepal resonates with the riches of a culture that has thrived for nearly 2 millennia, raising temples and palaces, and giving form with stone and metal to the vast pantheon of Hindu and Buddhist deities scattered all over the valley. Fast-paced modernity had only recently been intruded upon a placid seeming, deeply religious society, producing the usual stresses associated with westernization. Our photographic images can only touch surfaces, but they also tell us much about this ancient and beautiful land and its people, as well as the east-west anomalies that find visual expression in surprising juxtapositions of old new and new. The images are accompanied by a text describing our experiences and the Nepal’s rich and unique culture.