The other day I was sitting in the monastery when I heard the distant sound of Highland pipes. I took my camera and traced it to its source: boys in a Nepali ethnic group called Tamang playing on a Saturday, the day of rest here, when they aren't working in the fields. They were brothers and cousins who had been taught by their uncle for 3 months, they told me and were quite good.

Like Scots pipe music, they were accompanied by snare drums, though played a bit differently. Unlike Scots pipe music, Nepalis' is less martial and much more melodic. One of the more interesting things wa how the tempo changed, getting faster toward the end, and the boys all kept in time with each other, miraculously (to me) in synch with each other and the beat got faster and faster.











Does anyone recognize the tartans?