Mauli Dhan, the last honey hunter, at the first of three harvest locations. The team at the base lights smoke to smoke out the bees and Mauli makes his initial climb up the free hanging ladder. After cllimbing up the ladder from below his must first tie himself off to a small vine tree to get him closer to the hive on this severly overhanding cliff. The frist step is to chat a mantra for the bees to leave peacefully and brush off the bees with a bamboo pole in gaint clumps. He pokes cotter pin-like pegs through the six-foot-wide, half-moon shaped hives, then attaches the pegs to a bamboo rope managed by an assistant above. The final step is to sever the hive from the wall. Maule cries out 'Yuwa ke!' "(it has fallen!)" This call, echoed by the other honey hunters, rings out across the jungle, while the hive is carefully lowered to the ground. Then he must scrape the best honey off from the roof of the overhang. His basket has ropes going to the top for his team to take the weight as he controls it and communicates. Each time he communicates with his team above he must lean back to yell up. Its an intese core wrenching position and the small rope he has hooked around his armpits for protection cuts his skin to near the bleeding point.
Processed with VSCOcam with a2 preset
