Photo gallery and slide show: What most often gets foreign backpackers reaching for their cameras in the Kulu Valley are the lined and character filled faces of its villagers, in particular those of the older people into whose weather worn features are etched a long story of lives of toil, joy and sorrow lived close to nature and in the shadow of the mighty Himalaya.

Although modernity is creeping into the Kullu Valley, most aspects of daily village life continue much as they have for centuries. In the rural areas outside the immediate vicinity of Manali, most people's lives still rely to a large degree on agriculture, with apple and other fruit trees producing cash income, and harvests of grain, corn and vegetables providing a substantial proportion of the diet, both for the villagers and the (near obligatory) cow.

Most village people - especially the older men and majority of women - wear traditional dress; for men the trademark Kulu cap and a jacket made of homespun wool; for women a headscarf and a pattu, a brightly coloured and heavily patterned blanket dress.