Dorte Verner Photography !

Layap People live in

the high Himalaya
Mountains in Bhutan
At 3800 meters, the small settlement of Laya
can only be reached by foot, as there are no
roads leading to the village. It is a muddy multi-
day trek from the nearest town. The Layap
people and their animals carry everything that is
needed in the roughly 100-house-big village up
through the mountainsides.

The Layap is small indigenous group of about

3000 people and their ancestors were displaced
to Bhutan from Tibet in the 1500-century.
Today, many are semi-nomadic yak herders or
collect the high-value cordyceps, a fungus that
lives on certain caterpillars in the high mountain
regions of East Asia.

The Layap women wear a distinctive hat that is

made from woven-bamboo strips with a pointed
and painted colorful wooden top. There is only
one hat maker left among the Layaps.

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