Kara Jylga, Little Pamir, beginning of September. Drinking the common “shir choi” (tea with milk) at Abdiwali’s camp, he is the eldest son of the deceased leader of the Kyrgyz, Abdul Rashid Khan. © 2016 Tobias Marschall

Spices and plastic sandels sold at the Afghan border market in Ishkoshim, Tajiksitan. © 2013 Martin Saxer

Monks on the way to lunch in Rinchenling Gompa, near Kathmandu. Three months after the Nepal earthquake in April 2015 some visitors are still sleeping in a tent outdoors. © 2015 Martin Saxer

Staff quarters in the silver mines of Bazar Dara, Tajikistan. Equipped with central heating and thorougly tested by the Soviet army in Siberia, the tube is home to a single family guarding the mining camp during winter. © 2015 Martin Saxer

Seki Kalon, Little Pamir, beginning of September. Ethnicity and generalisations: Qurbon came to the Little Pamir twenty years ago as a bride from a distant valley in Afghan Badakhshan that is, unlike the Little Pamir, usually not referred to as “Kyrgyz place” in the media, though she considers herself and her kins elsewhere Kyrgyz by ascent. © 2016 Tobias Marschall

Dulong Valley, Yunnan, in mid May. Mist is hanging in the forest after the rain. © 2015 Martin Saxer

A brief stop in Sary Tash on the way to Osh. © 2013 Martin Saxer

Poppler treas near Khorog, Tajikistan, on the last day of October. © 2014 Martin Saxer

Bozai Kümböz, Little Pamir, beginning of September. Team leaders of an expedition are surveying pastures for the Wildlife Conservation Society. © 2016 Tobias Marschall

Full moon in Murghab, Tajikstan. When I passed by a year later, the construction site still looked the same. © 2014 Martin Saxer

A collector in Humla, Nepal, shows his find of Fritillaria bulbs he plans to sell in China. © 2011 Martin Saxer

Bathing day. A family of Kyrgyz herders gets ready to ride down to the nearby hot springs of Altyn Arashan. © 2013 Martin Saxer

Crumbling concrete yurts at Lake Karakol, Xinjiang, China. © 2013 Martin Saxer

Kara Dömür, Little Pamir, mid of September. Sopu Bai tells his children the story of the 1978 emigration of their relatives to Turkey in showing a book published in Switzerland. © 2016 Tobias Marschall

Ganjkhotun, Great Pamir, beginning of October. A woman applies grease on a yak’s horns as part of rituals while leaving the summer pastures. © 2016 Tobias Marschall

In a restaurant in Karakol, Tajikistan. Boiled mutton and a tropical dream inside the cosy house. The wind outside smells of snow. © 2013 Martin Saxer

At the fuel station in Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan's Alai region. The road, part of the Pamir Highway, leads to the Tajik border. © 2013 Martin Saxer

Ergail, Little Pamir, in mid of September. Making participants literally participate: Er Ali Bai, current leader (khan) of the Pamir Kyrgyz, photographs his children in his camp with the researchers’ camera. © 2016 Tobias Marschall