HONEY HUNTERS

Images of people collecting honey from wild bees date to 10,000 years ago.  At some point humans began to keep colonies of wild bees in artificial hives made from hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels and straw baskets.  Traces of beeswax have been found in potsherds throughout the Middle East beginning about 7,000 BCE.  The basic idea throughout the ages and in different cultures has been to give the bees a place to live, let them make their honey and then take it away from them.

An 8,000 year old cave painting from Cuevas de la Arana, Bicorp near Valencia, Spain 

Despite the commercialisation of beekeeping all over world, there are still some remote communities, mostly in Asia, where indigenous peoples continue to collect wild honey from remote places.
The Gurung peoples of Nepal have been collecting honey from cliffs in the foothills of the Himalayas for generations.  They use rope ladders and long poles called "tangos", in death defying feats of gymnastic ability, to reach the honeybee's nests, which are built on steep inaccessible cliffs to avoid predators and to catch the most sunlight.

The species of bee which is hunted is Apis Laboriosa, the largest honeybee in the world, a bee can measure 3cm long and a single comb can contain upwards of 60,000 bees.  The honey hunters  collect the honey in the autumn after performing a sacrificial ceremony to placate the cliff gods.  They sacrifice a sheep, offer flowers, fruit and rice and pray to the cliff gods to give them a safe hunt.  Many tribespeople are drafted in to aid by supporting ladders, ropes and baskets to catch the honeycomb.

At the start of the hunt fires are built at the base of the cliffs to drive the bees out of their nests.  When bees sense danger they release a pheromone which alerts other bees  to be ready to attack,  smoking interferes with their sense of smell and disorients them so that they leave the hive.  The hunters, who are on rope ladders hundreds of feet above ground, then proceed to cut the honeycomb away from the cliff side using a tango with a sickle shaped wooden knife at the end.  At the same time adjusting a basket, to catch the honeycomb, which is hanging on a rope beside him.  Once back in their village the honeycomb is divided up amongst the villagers.


This enterprise is now under threat by commercialism and tourism.  Travel and Trekking companies offer organised staged honey hunts as “add-ons”.  They charge up to $1500 for an event, little of which reaches the indigenous communities.  Hunters are tempted by this short term financial reward to harvest outside the normal season, with tourists using climbing gear to accompany them so damaging both the cliff face and nesting sites in the process.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), with funding from the Austrian government, is addressing problems associated with the commercialisation of honey hunting and the impact of tourism, through the Himalayan Honeybees Project.  They aim to work with traditional hunters to preserve their sustainable techniques and hope to find a way to regulate harvests by only licensing those with proven knowledge and experience.  Their overall aim is to help the communities reap financial benefits from an indigenous resource, whilst preserving a bee species that will ensure local crop pollination and biodiversity in the long term.

Comments

  1. JeanieMay 17, 2021 at 3:51 PM

    They must be mad! My worst nightmare - heights and swarms in one go.

    ReplyDelete

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