From correspondents in Kathmandu, Nepal
AFP, 11 Aug 02
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4882056%255E1702,00.html
Some 200 women farmers in south-western Nepal ploughed their fields naked in hopes of bringing much-needed rain, reports said.
The women locked the gates and shut the windows of their houses with their husbands inside, and then bared it all as they tilled the fields in a ritual to appease the Hindu god of rain Indra, the state news agency RSS said.
The superstitious farmers were trying to bring rain to their fields in the Banke district, as they have been unable to plant rice and their maize has begun to dry.
Ironically, 46 of Nepal’s 75 districts have been hit by too much rain, with floods and landslides claiming at least 333 lives this monsoon season.