Dwarika Das Shrestha fell in love with the Himalayas as a young man. His grandson, Kashish Das Shrestha, carries on the family tradition.
Snow Photography Allowed
Black and white images by Dwarika Das Shrestha, fromt he second advanced and fourth basic courses of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute
In November 1954, Darjeeling hosted the inauguration ceremony of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary had conquered Mount Everest the previous year. There was a real buzz around mountains and their exploration and Jawaharlal Nehru himself was a patron of the new institute. Darjeeling was Norgay’s hometown, and was thus a natural choice for HMI.
Dwarika Das Shrestha was a mountaineering enthusiast and a friend of Norgay’s. The images presented here were made by Dwarika from the early training expeditions undertaken by HMI. By the late 1950s, he would move to Kathmandu permanently and establish the Das Studio, helping pioneer photo studios in Nepal and the nascent postcard industry. His son, Gyanendra Das Shrestha, later greatly expanded the studio business and the postcard and poster catalogue Asia Pas. It was after two years of persuasion, in 2004, that Dwarika finally agreed to let his grandson, Kashish Das Shrestha, catalogue his works and exhibit them. Unfortunately, he passed away that year.
Dwarika continued to travel the hills and mountains of Nepal well into the early 1970s. Now, Kashish carries on the tradition. His love for the mountains manifests itself in the Himalayas at Night Series.
The Das archive of images by Dwarika, Gyanendra and Kashish, is the City Museum of Kathmandu’s founding and permanent collection.
Star Parking
From Himalayas at Night. Everest in the back, Nuptse in the centre, and Ama Dablam to the far right. Photographed from yeti Mountain Home, Kongde, at 4,250 metres. Kashish Das Shrestha, November 2011.
Kashish Das Shrestha is a New York-based writer and photographer. Born and raised in Nepal, he is a 4th generation photographer whose family photo heritage dates back to 1927. In recent years he has used his work as a photographer in New York to fund his research on contemporary environment issues in Nepal. He occasionally reports for the BBC Nepal Service.
