Hands folded in a namaste, Britain’s Prince Harry interacts with Nepalese families displaced by the 2015 earthquakes at a makeshift camp in Bhaktapur, east of Kathmandu, on Sunday.
On a four-day tour of Nepal, Harry also visited heritage sites devastated by the April and May earthquakes last year. Nearly 9,000 people were killed, 22,000 injured and close to a million homes destroyed in the Himalayan kingdom.
Tens of thousands of survivors are still living in huts made from tin sheets and tarpaulin as reconstruction has been delayed by political bickering over a new constitution.
“I pay my respects to those who perished and hope to do what I can to shine a spotlight on the resolve and resilience of the Nepalese people,” Harry said at a government reception celebrating 200 years of ties with Britain.
The 31-year-old prince, who is fifth in line to the British throne, visited the Patan Durbar Square, a Unesco World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Kathmandu, to review damage to an ancient royal palace and surrounding temples because of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25. The second quake of 7.3 magnitude struck on May 12.
The restoration of monuments is going on with traditional craft skills like wood-carving and gilding. Visiting artisans working at the Patan Durbar Square, Harry tried his hand at wood carving (in picture top) on Sunday.
Later, he travelled to the temple town of Bhaktapur and visited a pre-positioning site for quake emergency supplies, including shelter kits, water and sanitation equipment.
Since arriving in Nepal on Saturday, Harry has met Nepal’s first woman President, Bidya Devi Bhandari, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. He will also meet families of Gurkha soldiers with whom he had served in Afghanistan at the lake city of Pokhara, 125km west of Kathmandu. (Reuters report, AP and AFP pictures)
