An encounter with poison honey
In the summer of 1982, I was conducting ethnographic research on Tibetan pastoralists in Langtang Valley north-west of Kathmandu Valley. When I was not conducting interviews, studying the Kyirong Tibetan language, or recording life histories, I immersed myself into Langtang community life working (usually with my friends Tengyal and his wife, Tsiring) in the fields and herding camps, and accompanying Langtang Tibetans on their trading trips down to mid-hill Nepali communities. I also joined Tengyal, a tall, thin man of 32, with piercing black eyes, on some of his trips to visit relatives and friends in the village of Syabru Besi, which lies at a day´s walk to the west of Langtang.
One chilly December day, while walking with Tengyal back from Syabru Besi through the forest below Langtang, I noticed a large honeycomb sticking out from the face of a cliff, about 20 feet above, "Do the Langtang people ever gather brang? I asked Tengyal (Brang is honey in the Kyirong Tibetan language). "Only occasionally, since most of the combs are high up on the cliffs," he replied. "Also, it is not always worth the effort because there are two kinds of brang in Langtang. One kind, sabrang, is delicious, just like the honey you buy in stores in Kathmandu. But the other kind, zeebrang, is very different."