Mailrunner in the Himalaya

For the German newspaper Die Zeit I visited the Indian Post in the Spiti valley, a distant border region in the Himalaya, which is strongly influenced by buddhist traditions. Here so called mailrunner deliver letters to the remotest villages via a courier system. Many of the letters started their way as an email, are printed out in the post office and go to Spiti in sealed sacks. What the German Post is now introducing as e-post is since long time a common thing in India.