survive living in the lower valleys

in the deep valley of the Himalaya.

And, so I went to Pakistan,

the area called Hunza in Northern Pakistan,

bordering with China to the right

and Afghanistan, the Wakhan Corridor.

We are down below where people can

actually grow, have agriculture.

Subsistence agriculture, it's very difficult.

It's a harsh environment, you need

hard work in order to grow anything.

The Burusho, they are also called Hunzakuts,

they are the people of Hunza.

And there is about 80,000 or so of Burusho.

They speak their own language

which nobody really knows where it comes from.

The only link they found with that

language was in the Basque Country.

Imagine the connection, it's just incredible. Nobody knows.

So, subsistence agriculture.

This is Samhina tending to a potato field

below the Altit Fort, over 1,000-year old fort.

Down below is the Hunza River, 1500-feet below.

And so this is subsistence agriculture.

You find any land possible to grow.

Potato since fairly recently .

And the village right behind, fortified villages

often for cold, for protection. It's part of the old Silk Road.

There used to be lots of raids traditionally from caravans.

And so they live in a very strong community atmosphere

because of this closeness they have.

And if we go into that house that is up there

you know, you walk into this kind of beautiful scene.

So this is life in Hunza indoor.

Very simple kitchen .

And then you get offered tea like

anywhere there, salted tea.

So, this rock, you see that it's rock salt.

So you get-- pour your milk tea

and you take the rock and use it to

stir your milk, your tea in there

and it will give salt to your tea.

You know, traditionally salt is,

has always been fairly easily accessible.

You can find areas with this rock salt.

But sugar is not part of the,

you know, traditionally their diet.

It's just... it needs to come from far away.

This village you saw is really Hunza, is Central Hunza.

I wanted to go a bit further

to really walk away as much as possible from market food.

So we went further north towards the

border with China over this lake

that was formed by a huge avalanche

in January 2011, I think.

And now we have the 30-miles and about a mile deep lake

that was formed by this whole

mountain that fell in the valley

basically in the Hunza Valley.

So, in winter it means crossing with a boat.

The lake receded a little bit in

winter and left this carcass of a boat

which was quite surreal in the mountains to see that.

If you look down while you drive after you've left the boat

you see the Hunza River

and you see this hanging bridge and

often there's people walking on them .

They are going from the village to the pastures.

Both in winter and in summer they go to the pastures.

I don't know if you can see but there's

about this gap between each step

on the bridge, with the wind it's often moving.

And you get this 60-year old grandma

you know, coming, just cruising through

there and you arrive and are like, "whoa".

Very impressive. So, let's zoom in to this woman.

I arrived and I crossed that bridge

and I arrived in the pasture.

This woman brought me apples.

This is a Poplar forest that was grown by,

you know, ancestors of this woman here.

If you zoom in a bit more, this is what they are doing.

They go there, most in winter, mostly to cut wood.

They are cutting this sea buckthorn

that grows very quickly

and they have a rotating system within the community.

So it's sustainable and it can regrow.

And these grandmas they go around,

you know, these older ladies or younger ladies, whatever

they go in the pasture to cut wood every day.

They walk about two hours round-trip

to bring back and they use it

they need that wood for cooking and for heating the house.

The sea buckthorn has these berries on it

that are easily gathered in winter

when the berry are frozen.

Because in summer if you take them, they break.

The skin is too thin.

Great heart tonic and lower cholesterol.

You know, they eat that all the time there.

The women also bring back hay for

the animals, to feed the cows.

These women go out every day and

they are just having a blast.

They are laughing all the time, talking all the time

they really look forward to these outings.

They are going to walk away from the men,

walk away from the village and gossip all they want.

They got this funny guy walking around following them.

We had a blast that day.

It was really just a fantastic, you know...

Just really great.

It is work but to them it's just...

they do that every day.

Soon enough I get invited

right and left into houses.

Great atmosphere, very tight family bonds in North Pakistan.

This woman is preparing flat bread, "chapati".

And they do all kind of different variation of that

around chapati, with this flat bread.

It's the main thing.

It's grown always locally .

On the upper left it's called "Chap churo" ,

layers of flat bread

it's a bit like a pancake with diluted milk and apricot oil.

There's buckwheat on the upper right with mulberry syrup.

And then apricot down there.

There's places where I went where there was no real dinner.

The act of eating wasn't a ritualistic kind of...

experience.

But in North Pakistan, it's really people gather round.

There's usually one common plate,

so you reach out together into one plate.

It's a very important moment to get together.

Apricot is very important. They make this--

Apparently pasta came from that part of the world

from Western China, not too far away.

They roll out this chapati very thin and

then cut it in slices, and make pasta,

and then mix it with dried apricot from the summer.

They dry a lot of their fruits and vegetables

so that they can keep all year round.

And they mix it together with the pasta, the apricot

and get this quite delicious dish.

Rarely do people hunt there

because they are herders as well.

But some time ducks that fly over from Siberia to India

get stranded in valleys and then they cook them.

This guy Yahyah Naig on the right has been

hunting the whole day to get this duck.

Their tractor is the bull, they use manure for fertilizer.

In every duration, whether it is

peace, whether it is trouble,

whether it is earthquake,

whether it is something calamity.

So, Inshallah the world will come

very peaceful and we shall be one.

And because the world is becoming now

a universal village, a global village.

Being a teacher I have been teaching my students to be

to be very, very, very cooperative

and think about universality.

So that we can live together peacefully.

Just a little talk with your average, you know, farmer.

It happens a lot in Pakistan and I love it.

But this is part of my, you know,

excitement of being a photographer .