"It's the only explanation that makes sense to Jia Son, a Tibetan farmer surveying the catastrophe unfolding above his village in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. 'We've upset the natural order,' the devout, 52-year-old Buddhist says. 'And now the gods are punishing us.'"

Brook Larmer reports for National Geographic with photography by Jonas Bendiksen in the April 2010 issue.

Source: National Geographic, 03/19/2010