culture
In the language of its natives, "Mustang" (smon thang) refers only to the small walled capital city of the larger territory of Lo (glo bo). Lo's territory embraced all of the upper Kali Ghandaki valley, from what is now called Baragaon up to the highest elevations in its watershed. The lands which Mustang's rulers controlled in the 15th century included all of Upper and Lower...
The rationale for this paper is that it is necessary for rural development planners and workers to have knowledge of the structure of rural Nepal and the functions and processes of its various parts. There is a lot of knowledge that exists, but it deserves to be systematised and disseminated for application in national development planning.
It is suggested that in carrying out rural...
The Ban Raja (Forest Kings) or Kusunda have always maintained a notoriety in Nepal far out of proportion to their numbers. Even a century ago they most likely did not exceed a few hundred in population. But they nevertheless have given rise to stories heard throughout Nepal, and they name is known to many a villager who never set eyes on a Ban Raja. "Kings of the Forest" is a grandiose title...
The world of Frank has for the first time provided researchers with a comparative picture of the varied populations living throughout the central regions of Nepal, but as the author points out, it is a task which by its nature is never finished for populations are in a state of continual flux. Moreover the demographer can only paint a very broad picture, leaving it to others to fill in the...
Among the high castes (Brahman and Chhetri) of Nepal, a healthy, growing family brings substantial social reward, while childlessness is punished. Yet childlessness is not only feared because it incurs negative social and cultural sanctions, but also because of the lack in Brahman-Chhetri society of viable, institutionalised alternatives to having one's own children. This combination in Nepal...
Various types of taxes played their role in public finance in the ancient economy of Nepal. Taxes were levied on produce at the point of origin. There are numerous references to production taxes on a wide variety of commodities. Among these, the most frequent reference has been to the Mallakara.
In the Lichhavi inscriptions so far available, the oldest mention of the ...
This simple descriptive paper is offered in the interest of all the visitors - scholarly, local, or curious - to the old but still very active monastery of the southern Solu region, Chiwong gompa. Although primarily intended as a take-along guide to that most striking but often least understood feature of the monastery, its paintings, the paper starts with a brief description of the monastery...
This article is written in the style of 'notes preliminaries' pioneered by French social scientists in Nepal. It is a by-product of a larger research undertaking under the auspices of and with a grant from the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University.
Information collected on this group of untouchables, the Chirimar, who were encountered incidentally in the course of...
The special position of the cow in Hindu religion and society is well known. The symbolic connotations of the cow are varied and complicated. Even so, whatever specific meanings and values pertain within the religious traditions themselves, it is a more general sense of the sacred and inviolable nature of the cow which functions in everyday life. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the...
The major social function of the shaman in Tamang society is the diagnosis and treatment of illness. This paper has two purposes: first the author investigates the indigenous categories of illness and examines the unique relationship that exists between modern medicine and shamanism in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. Then the author turns to the curing practices of the Tamang shaman, comparing...
Pages
