Dec. 9, ’76: Dr. Harka Gurung, the renowned geologist, anthropologist and author, had advised Sumitra Manandhar Gurung to use her time in the National Development Service (NDS) to see more of Nepal’s countryside. He told her that being a Kathmandu resident and a woman she wouldn’t get too many opportunities to travel to Nepal’s remote corners. Dr. Gurung also believed a geographer needed to see as much of the country as possible. He suggested Taranche, his home village. Taking his advice, Manandhar trekked from Chiti Tilahar, the village she was posted to as a NDS volunteer, to Taranche. In this photo, she is standing with a bride’s wedding party in Taranche.

The instruments of their labor and a day’s work behind them, Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and her friend sit with Jagmohan Shrestha’s daughter. The students lived in Shrestha’s house during their Chapagaon survey. Shrestha gave a room in his newly-built house to the girls; the boys were lodged in his old house. He was fond of music. He entertained the students from the city with songs in the evenings. Here, Manandhar and the girls are listening to him sing.

Sumitra Manandhar Gurung using a theodolite during a survey in Chapagaon.

June, 1976: A group photo of the faculty members of Tribhuvan University’s geography department and their students taken in 1976. Sumitra Manandhar Gurung is one of only three female students in the group. Many of her classmates went on to become academicians, scholars and ministers. The photo was taken during a picnic organized by the students as a farewell to their American professor, Robert Stoddard (last row, third from right), who was in Nepal on a Fulbright program. Professor Stoddard’s daughter is second from left in the second row.

The students were given Saturdays off during their survey trip to Chapagaon. Sumitra Manandhar Gurung and her friends used the holidays to go on short trips to nearby places. This photo was taken during one such trip to Tika Bhairav.