Kathmandu, Aug. 6 -- This article was originally published on The Third Pole under the Creative Commons BY NC ND licence.

Ganga Bahadur Gurung is chanting prayers to the Water God, Earth God, Fire God, Wind God and Snake God for their blessings with the day's risky honey hunt.

Members of his group are about to climb down the 50m Kamcho cliff on a swaying handmade rope ladder to prise honeycombs, as the world's largest bees swarm all around.

"Wild honey bees make hives only on safe cliffs where the gods reside," explains Gurung, as he waves incense sticks at the sky. The Himalayan giant honeybee (Apis laboriosa) can be up to 3cm long, build large hives on south-facing cliffs, and forage up to 4,100m in upland meadows.

Harvesting wild h...