The bodies of his wife, one of his children and his aunt are still buried under ice and snow and the debris of his house in Langtang. He can't even turn to anyone to help him get back to the village or bring the bodies here because the entire settlement has been wiped off the map.
"The whole village collapsed in just two minutes of the earthquake. I don't know how to find the bodies of my family members because I can't even spot where exactly my house was," Tamang told Republica.He tried very hard to find the bodies, but to no avail. The hotel entrepreneur who was based in Langtang was evacuated to Kathmandu following the disaster.
A deadly avalanche from the Langtang Lirung glacier triggered by the catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake of April 25 swallowed up the entire settlement of Langtang Valley, burying hundreds. Located around 40 km north of the capital, the valley was a popular stop for trekkers.
Tamang, 32, was in a relaxed mood that fateful Saturday, as was every other local. Suddenly, just before noon, he felt the earth shaking. In no time, the avalanche destroyed the entire settlement and Tamang was witness to it all. Right in front of his eyes his beloved wife, his child and an aunt became buried
Similarly, Nima Lama is like someone without a soul. His brother is still missing in Langtang. Lama searched for him for over 10 day but could find no trace of him.
"I have accepted nature's fury and just want to find the body and carry out the funeral rites," he said in his grief.
Following the catastrophy of April 25, all the surviving inhabitants of Lantang Valley have now taken temporary shelter at the Yellow Gumba at Sano Bharyang, Swaymbhu.
Some 125 households - around 515 souls - are living in makeshift tents at the Gumba premises. Almost all the families have lost at least one member in the deadly earthquake.
According to Chhiring Finjo Lopchan, another Langtang local, the death toll in his village has reached181 and 60 of the bodies have been identified so far.
"The bodies of 121 people are yet to be recovered from the site. We are planning to go back to Langtang sometime soon for the salvage work as we don't expect any help from the government," said Lopchan.
Survivors told Republica that most of the causalities occured as people tried to rush back into their houses to collect belongings and their money as soon as the quake struck.
"When they tried to get back inside to retrieve their money, they were buried by the avalanche that instantly followed the quake," added Lopchan.
Temba Lama, 32, also a Langtang local and a tourism entrepreneur, informed that people usually kept their cash in their houses as there was no bank in Langtang Valley, and each household had at least Rs. 1.5 million.
Most of residents of Langtang Valley are hotel entrepreneurs and dependent heavily on internal and external tourism.
Those who have somehow managed to survive and are now displaced in Kathmandu look utterly listless. Waiting to recover one's dead is no easy ordeal. On top of that, they don't feel any presence of the government in this crucial hour of their need. "We lost everything in the avalanche. However, the government has not showed up for us. Neither has it attempted any search activity nor has it thought of providing us any relief," Lopchan lamented.
According to the Chief District Officer of Rasuwa, Uddav Prasad Bhattarai, a death toll of 581 has been recorded in Langtang.
"Out of the total number of deaths in Rasuwa district, 128 bodies have been identified in Langtang alone, including 10 foreign nationals," Bhattarai said.
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