Nepal's last car carrier died

Dhan Bahadur Gole, 92, carried cars in Nepal when the landlocked nation was cut off from the rest of the world. He was one of a team of porters carrying cars when the landlocked mountainous nation was cut off from the rest of the world. Dhan Bahadur helped ferry his first car, a Daimler, when he was only 17. He was in a team of 64 other porters and the journey from Bhimphedi to Thankot (see map) took eight days. He would typically receive 5 aana (less than a rupee) as payment, so despite his name, Dhan Bahadur did not get rich carrying cars. The cars were secured onto long bamboo poles and bigger cars required up to 96 porters to heave up the trails. “We didn’t even know the model of the cars we were carrying, we just called them 32, 64, 96 depending on the number of people carrying them,” Dhan Bahadur remembers.