Mountains Painted with Turmeric tells the story of a peasant farmer named Dhane (which means, ironically, "wealthy one") struggling to provide for his wife and son and arrange the marriage of
his beautiful younger sister. Unable to keep up with the financial demands of the "big men" who control his village, Dhane and his family suffer one calamity after another, and a series of
quarrels with fellow villagers forces them into exile.
In haunting prose, Lil Bahadur Chettri portrays the dukha, or suffering and sorrow, endured by ordinary peasants; the exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful; and the social
conservatism that twists a community into punishing a woman for being the victim of a crime.
