BIKRAM RAI
Sonam Gyaltsen, 74, from Ghoda Tabela miraculously survived when the 25 April earthquake triggered an avalanche that wiped out Langtang village. Nearly 200 people were killed, among them Gyaltsen’s 12 relatives and neighbours. Hundreds of survivors were airlifted to a monastery in Swayambhu, but Gyaltsen has now gone back to Langtang with 15 others to take care of his yaks. There is nowhere else they would rather be than in their holy valley.