The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

People cross a street against strong wind and heavy rainfall under the influence of Typhoon Haiyan, in Sanya, Hainan province November 10, 2013. One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region's main city. Despite weakening, the storm is likely to cause heavy rains, flooding, strong winds and mudslides as it makes its way north in the South China Sea. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

People walk in a field of California poppies and other wildflowers outside of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, after recent rains moved the region's second-driest winter on record up to its seventh-driest, near Lancaster, California, on April 2, 2022. The California Department of Water Resources reported that about one-third of the Sierra Nevada snowpack's water equivalency melted last week under higher-than-normal temperatures, leaving the statewide snow-water equivalent at 38% of normal for the date. (Photo by David Mcnew/AFP Photo)

Palestinian groom Mohamed abu Daga and his bride Israa wear face masks amid the COVID-19 epidemic, during a photoshoot at a studio before their wedding ceremony in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2020. Authorities in Gaza confirmed on March 22 the first two cases of novel coronavirus, identifying them as Palestinians who had travelled to Pakistan and were being held in quarantine since their return, as the United Nations warned of potential disastrous outcomes to an outbreak given the high poverty rates and weak health system in the coastal strip, under Israeli blockade since 2007. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP Photo)

Waves triggered by Typhoon Hato are seen in Hong Kong, China on August 23, 2017. A powerful typhoon barreled into Hong Kong on Wednesday, forcing offices and schools to close and leaving flooded streets, shattered windows and hundreds of canceled flights in its wake. Typhoon Hato came within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of Hong Kong, close enough to be considered a direct hit under Hong Kong's storm warning system. It was headed toward the western side of mainland China's Pearl River Delta. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Men are sent down into the sludge to clear the sewers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on May 23, 2018. The people who do the work aren’t even given any protective clothing or goggles and have to dig out the clogged-up muck with a stick or their bare hands. (Photo by Rehman Asad/Barcroft Media)

Andrew Ling's inspiring photographs showcase the splendor of the natural world, using people to highlight the beauty and scale of these epic landscapes. Each image features a person photographed from hundreds of feet away, seemingly insignificant in comparison to the breathtaking landscape that surrounds them – whether beneath gushing waterfalls, under millions of glittering stars or atop of gigantic cliffs. Andrew, 22, said, “I hope these images will help remind people how beautiful the world we live in is”. Here: Second Beach, La Push, Washington, March, 2015. (Photo by Andrew Ling/Caters News)