High mountains and deep gorges may no longer daunt the 3 million Nepalese who have to travel extensively in the trading season. A Swiss organisation, Helvetas, is building bridges there and training engineers. It was all praise for the indigenous bridge builders, especially from Baglung.

"We studied the Nepali bridges and were convinced that the villagers had unique bridge-building skills. All they needed was material support like cement and steel cables to make the bridges more durabl4, said Robert Groeli, in charge of Helvetas in Nepal. They are so impressed that they have adopted certain techniques of the Baglungs. The Swiss Organisation has already completed 80 bridges in the Himalayan Kingdom.