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A Nepalese couple have exchanged wedding vows on top of Mount Everest, the first people ever to marry there.
They briefly took off their oxygen masks and put on plastic garlands, while the groom symbolically applied red powder on the bride's forehead.
Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa were part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition earlier this week.
They had kept the plan secret as there was no guarantee they would reach the top of the world's highest peak.
Arriving back in Kathmandu, the bride said it would not have been possible to meet all the religious requirements, so they did what they could with what was available.
"We were there only for 10 minutes, just enough for us to get married and our friends to take pictures of us," Ms Mulepati said.
They plan to hold a more formal ceremony soon.
Mr Dorjee said other couples had wanted to do the same in the past, but none had managed because they could not get up on top of the peak together.
Fearing the same possibility, they had kept their own plan secret.
The surprised families have welcomed the marriage, which is also unusual because it cuts across Nepal's deep-rooted caste and ethnic divisions.
"With our interracial marriage, we also wanted to give the message that caste and race has no barriers when it comes to marriage," Pem Dorjee, is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
One Nepalese paper joked that this was a marriage which, if not made in heaven, was solemnised closest to it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4605711.stm
maximus otter
They briefly took off their oxygen masks and put on plastic garlands, while the groom symbolically applied red powder on the bride's forehead.
Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa were part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition earlier this week.
They had kept the plan secret as there was no guarantee they would reach the top of the world's highest peak.
Arriving back in Kathmandu, the bride said it would not have been possible to meet all the religious requirements, so they did what they could with what was available.
"We were there only for 10 minutes, just enough for us to get married and our friends to take pictures of us," Ms Mulepati said.
They plan to hold a more formal ceremony soon.
Mr Dorjee said other couples had wanted to do the same in the past, but none had managed because they could not get up on top of the peak together.
Fearing the same possibility, they had kept their own plan secret.
The surprised families have welcomed the marriage, which is also unusual because it cuts across Nepal's deep-rooted caste and ethnic divisions.
"With our interracial marriage, we also wanted to give the message that caste and race has no barriers when it comes to marriage," Pem Dorjee, is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
One Nepalese paper joked that this was a marriage which, if not made in heaven, was solemnised closest to it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4605711.stm
maximus otter