Khashing Chandra Rai
MA, Rural Development and BSc Environmental Science
Khashing loves three things the most: wheels, mountains, and memories.
As a kid growing up in Kathmandu, Khashing would embark on an adventurous journey of his own on his tiny little bicycle — wandering and wondering through the nooks and crannies of the city. Later, when he got selected as an International British Council Climate Champion (IBCCC) for 2011, he got an opportunity to take his adventurous bicycle journey to the next level. As an IBCCC, he traversed Nepal on his bicycle travelling around 1400 km conducting climate change awareness campaigns at various places in collaboration with the local organizations. Khashing’s adventure with his bicycle is still going strong till the present day.
His adventure with bicycle is not only limited to physical geographical terrain but also social terrain. He has served as a board member for the “Cycle City Network Nepal” (CCNN) till 2020 and participated in the campaign to make Kathmandu a cycle friendly city. He also helped CCNN conduct cycle rallies, awareness programs, and cycle training workshops.
Khashing is also a freelance mountain bike guide and has led many mountain bike expeditions.
Unlike with bicycle, Khashing’s close acquaintance with mountains began a little later. It was only after completing his Bachelors that he first decided to visit and view the mountains up close. And, it was a love at first sight for him. Since then the mountains and Khashing has been constantly keeping up with their tryst.
He is also a certified trekking guide and leads trekking trips during his free time. Traveling to the rugged terrains and meeting the warm people of the mountains has helped him become who he is today — indefatigable and tough yet humble.
Khashing cherishes memories and loves sharing them. He would take photographs and videos of the places and people he meet during his travels as a memento. This simple practice of capturing the memories took a serious turn when his photograph taken during one of his travels won 2nd Runner up Prize for the daily life category in the Mega Bank Photo Competition organized by the Photo Journalist Club. He then started honing his photography and videography craft further and began experimenting with different cameras and techniques. He even got opportunities to display his photography and videography skills in various projects. He worked as a cinematographer for Life of the road Nepal (TV Movie), Chinntang 2036 BS (documentary), and as a drone pilot for Forever Everest (Documentary film).
He has also worked as a high altitude photographer/videographer for “Indian Army team for Everest 2021” and help the team capture one of the precious moments of their life.
Khashing also enjoys living with local communities, learning their culture and documenting it. He also cares about nature and strictly adheres to LNT principle “Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.”