With no bodies to bury, families use straw dolls in symbolic funeral of missing in Nepal

Nepalese families held symbolic funeral ceremonies on Wednesday to "liberate" the souls of their loved ones missing after the devastating avalanche that, a week ago, engulfed their villages in the Himalayan region, on the border with China. A week after the tragedy, calculations revealed that the Himalayan landslide released energy greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb. More than a thousand people died after flooding and landslides between Nepal and Tibet. On August 26, a gigantic wave of icy water, rocks and debris, caused by the collapse of a glacier, caused the tragedy that left more than 1,100 dead in both countries and approximately 4,500 missing, according to authorities. Family members mourned during symbolic funerals held for victims of the floods still missing, while cremating Kush grass effigies according to Nepalese Hindu rites at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, on September 2, 2026.