traditional knowledge
The villager in Nepal has ideas about what medicine should be, respect for specialists who can diagnose and cure, and a faith in the basic validity of the system. This paper explores the methods of healing within a village in central Nepal. As can be seen, there are various techniques of curing - herbal, ritual, western - all of which are integrated into a system designed to deal with the...
The research on which this description of illness and its treatments was carried out in the village of Dhungagaun, which is located about 50 miles north-west of Kathmandu in Nuwakot District, in the Bagmati Zone.
Predominently a Brahman-Chhetri village, over half of its 2,000 inhabitants are of the high (sacred thread-wearing) castes. Apart form Brahmans and Chhetris, other high caste...
This report documents different approaches to conservation of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge in Bolipara union of Thanchi upazila of Bandarban hill district. This initiative involved the collection of baseline data on medicinal plants and their uses, motivating people towards the uses and practices, identification and knowledge sharing with the traditional healers,...
There are, no doubt, definite signs of the overexploitation of the natural environment and the thus resulting damage to the landscape in the Himalayas of Nepal. Hover, it is not the destruction which is the dominant aspect, but a type of mountain agriculture, based on a long tradition of farming experience, optimally adapted to geological factors. Some examples are regular crop rotation, the...
Traditional phytotherapy with herbal drugs plays an important role in the healthcare of the people in rural areas of Nepal. More than 90% of the population reside in the rural areas where the developmental activities are insufficient.
The study was conducted during the pre-monsoon of 1991 and post-monsoon of 1992. In the course of the study, 7 villages in the Baglung district were...
The collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter on July 16, 1994 sparked media coverage all over the world. Radio Nepal covered the event. The Kagpa listened to Radio Nepal. But it was not the only source of information concerning the impending 'disaster'. The monks were talking about the implications and ramifications of the event. The Kagpa listened to the monks. A third source of...
The date for this paper was gathered from several Jirel Phombos. For comparative purposes, the authors also interviewed and videotaped the performances of two Sherpa Jhankris and one Tamang Jhankri living in the Jiri Valley. The principal informant was Jirel Nir Bahadur, a Phombo trained by Pusing Lama, a notable magico-religious practitioner and Lama who...
Over the previous six years, in the course of documenting the grammar of the Thangmi language, the author has found the lexicon to be replete with indigenous names for local flora and fauna. Many of these indigenous terms are falling into disuse, or being replaced by Nepali words as fluency in the national language increases. Older Thangmi speakers have encouraged the author to document the...
Migratory herding is still an important part of the livelihood of a significant section of the Bhutanese people; but it was central to our traditional pastoral economy. Cattle, grazing land, labour and cultivatable land were the four primary sources of wealth in the past. A balance among these four factors of production had to be struck for the agrarian society to be sustained. Obviously, the...
Life without natural products is unimaginable. It has provided mankind with oxygen, water, fire, food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Its public health impact is considerably high, especially of traditional medicines and nature-based modern drugs. The traditional medicines, despite its limitations, are addressing the health needs of millions of people worldwide. It is estimated that about 65-...
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