Eighth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

This paper explores post-disaster food security in the wake of the earthquakes that rocked Nepal in April and May of 2015. Based on ethnographic research undertaken during the fall of 2017, it focuses on the high mountain valley of Langtang, which is located on the border of Tibet in the north-east sector of the Langtang National Park. An east-west running valley that has been inhabited by agro-pastoralists for at least 500 years, Langtang was badly impacted by both the earthquakes and their aftershocks which set off a series of landslides throughout the valley, including an enormous avalanche that wiped out the main village and buried the greater part of its agricultural fields and lowland pastures. Both the tremendous loss of life and land has greatly impacted food security in Langtang, and may spell the end of a way of life that has endured for centuries.