The 108 Fountains of Muktinath - overland 1985
40 years ago I was traveling in Nepal and did the famous Annapurna Circuit. At those times the trek took 21 to 24 days to complete. One of the highpoints was reaching Muktinath, a sacred place for both Hindus and Buddhists. To reach Mukthinath one had to walk over the dreaded Thorong La pass at over 5400 meters.
After the pass the climate changed drasticly to that of the Tibetan plateau. it was also a cultural transition; from Nepalese Kingdom to the Mustang Kingdom.
This is a composite picture of a monk filling his bronze cup from the holy fountains of Mukthinath. There are 108 bronze heads of various creatures spouting fresh water from the upper glaciers. One source of the wild Kali Gandaki river and further downstream the mighty Ganges.
I remember the scene vividly, but took only some slides from various angles, some of them unsharp, some of them with motion blur - the light was of late afternoon and the fountains in deep shadows. This image is compiled with the help of those pictures, enhancing them with various AI tools, filling gaps with generative AI and stiching all together in photoshop.
Original slides were photographed with my Nikon FE camera and 50 mm lens in 1985 using Fujichrome film. I photographed the slides bracketing them with a Nikon D850 camera and enhanced the picture in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Topaz before stiching and compositing them further in Photohsop
The 108 Fountains of Muktinath - overland 1985
40 years ago I was traveling in Nepal and did the famous Annapurna Circuit. At those times the trek took 21 to 24 days to complete. One of the highpoints was reaching Muktinath, a sacred place for both Hindus and Buddhists. To reach Mukthinath one had to walk over the dreaded Thorong La pass at over 5400 meters.
After the pass the climate changed drasticly to that of the Tibetan plateau. it was also a cultural transition; from Nepalese Kingdom to the Mustang Kingdom.
This is a composite picture of a monk filling his bronze cup from the holy fountains of Mukthinath. There are 108 bronze heads of various creatures spouting fresh water from the upper glaciers. One source of the wild Kali Gandaki river and further downstream the mighty Ganges.
I remember the scene vividly, but took only some slides from various angles, some of them unsharp, some of them with motion blur - the light was of late afternoon and the fountains in deep shadows. This image is compiled with the help of those pictures, enhancing them with various AI tools, filling gaps with generative AI and stiching all together in photoshop.
Original slides were photographed with my Nikon FE camera and 50 mm lens in 1985 using Fujichrome film. I photographed the slides bracketing them with a Nikon D850 camera and enhanced the picture in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Topaz before stiching and compositing them further in Photohsop