The Manang Artist Residency is situated in the historic village of Ngawal, located in the Manang Valley of Nepal, which lies north of the Annapurna massif and south of Tibet, at an altitude of 3,675 meters. This past spring, Nepalese writer and educator Niranjan Kunwar (metronir) spent two weeks at the artist residency, which yielded unexpected discoveries. During his stay, a mundane horizontal hill in front of the Annapurnas kept capturing his attention. "And so, I gazed at the hill, imagining all kinds of things," writes Niranjan Kunwar. "If the Annapurnas are celebrities in the limelight, the horizontal hill is that lady sitting quietly on a sofa. You feel comforted by her warm eyes and soft smile. But her form is not human. Nor does she resemble an Eastern goddess or a Western superhero. She is a friend from another world, just like the residents here in Manang. When we gathered in the common room, exchanging anecdotes around a black wood-burning stove, I finally understood why ...