winnow, winnow, a lovely word

whenever i talk about winnowing i have a clear image in my head of the only time i've ever seen it done the old-fashioned way, where you toss the grain around in a basket and toss it up in the air and the wind blows away the chaff (hey, i wonder if the word "winnow" has to do with "wind"?). It was in Tibet, and we were driving past a village and I just got a glimpse of a woman tossing the grain in the air, the fine golden dust flying on the wind.

Wow... I went googling for an image and came across this page of amazing photos. They were taken in northern Nepal (apparently by a geologist or something--the captions say things like "Quaternary terrace, with Thakkhola deposits and the western basin-bounding fault in the background," whereas most people would something more along the lines of "In the high-altitude clarity of the air, the stunning mountain vistas undulate in deep, intense blues and purples.")

Anyway, taken in Nepal, but the people and buildings shown are Tibetan, and the landscapes are very similar to what I saw in Tibet, so if you go to this page, you can see not only some women winnowing, looking very similar to what I saw, but you can also see all the other fantastic scenery etc. that I was seeing at the time. So go already. It's fucking gorgeous.