Culture

A study of the different races that inhabit Nepal is both interesting and rewarding to a student of Nepalese history. Many travellers who have visited no other part of the country except the Kathmandu valley have tried to give us pictures of the racial complexity of Nepal. These attempts have not been quite successful, because, out of the scores of travellers who have written about Nepal, only two were serious students of ethnology, namely Brian Hodgson and Sylvian Levi.

Tibetan blood is predominant in the north and east of Nepal and Indian Rajput and Brahmin blood, as distinct from earlier Nepali blood, in the valleys of the Karnali and the Rapti, while some other parts of Nepal preserve to a certain extent the same racial complexion that they did about 1,000 B.C.

The earliest known inhabitants of Nepal are the Chepang, the Kusunda, and the Hayu tribes. Hodgson thought that they were "like fragments of an earlier population." Their numbers are very small, they are decreasing in numbers, as the civilisation of a more vigorous type approached their homesteads in its gradual expansion and search for more living space. These tribes live in the wildest imaginable state of nature. They have no material possessions except their bows and arrows and skins used as warming material for their bodies. They themselves claim to be the masters of the uncultivated wastelands they subsist in. They sometimes procure arrow-heads made by the 'village blacksmiths near their forest homes in return for the "Kastura" of the musk deer or other produce of the jungles. Their homes are mostly in the mountain caves, which are closed and opened every day in winter with the help of tree trunks, branches, pieces of rock, etc.

Their only means of subsistence is hunting wild beasts with the bow and arrow, snaring them and catching wild fowl. Cultivation is an art unknown to them. So also are the arts of spinning threads, weaving cloth or pressing wool into felt. Little else is known about their social life and customs and they are said to bury their dead. Their figures are not very pleasing to the eye and people who have seen them say that they are actually a dirty and ugly race. Hodgson thought the Chepangs to be slightly above the Kusundas and thought that the former were beginning to hold some slight intercourse with civilised beings and to adopt the most simple of civilised arts and habits. He added that "compared with the mountaineers, among whom they are found, the Chepangs are a slight but not actually a deformed race: they are about the same in height but in colour are very decidedly darker or of a nigrescent brown." It is difficult to decide whether the Kusundas, the Chepangs and the Hayus are all representatives of the protoaustraloid race or whether the Kusundas represent an even earlier race - the Negritos - and the Chepangs and the Hayus the protoaustraloids who inhabited parts of India either at the same time as or after the conquest of the Negrito race by them.The Kusundas and the Chepangs are rarities in Nepal.

The Tharus, the Boksas, and the Mechi belong to the protoaustraloid race; and the Newars and the Khas belong to the Mediterranean race. The Tharus and the Boksas are found in the tarai and bhabar areas. They call themselves Hindus, and Brahmins officiate in their religious ceremonies. They usually burn their dead but are also known to bury them especially if the death is due to snakebite, cholera or small-pox. Their main occupation is the cultivation of rice.

The Mechis live in the hills to about 800 meters above sea- level. They inhabit also the hottest valleys with immunity to malarious fevers. They call themselves Hindus, but little Brahminism is in evidence among them. They use no sacred words or prayers and the old men of the tribe themselves officiate as priests. Hodgson said of them: "In their dark-hued skin, slender forms, oval faces, elevated features and peculiar dialect- barbarous patois as the last now is - may be traced, however, the indispensable signs of a southern origin." They are akin to the Tharus and Boksas, and it seems that their material difference from the Tharus and the Boksas is that of habitat - the Tharus inhabit the western half of Nepalese tarai and the Mechis the eastern half.

The Newars are a civilised people. They are agriculturists and cowherds by occupation and they devote their lives to the arts of peace and the enjoyment of life rather than to military glory. The similarity between Newars and Nayars and the looseness of sexual morality among both these peoples is a hint that at one time the greater part of India was inhabited by these polyandrous tribes of the Mediterranean race. However a common origin for the Newars and the Nayars is not claimed but it seems that both these peoples originally sprang from different branches of the same race. These people were of the Mediterranean type and form to this day the largest component of the Nepalese population. Some remnants of their speech and forms of worship are still to be found throughout Nepal. The temperament of the Newars and their psychological make-up owe a great deal to their early civilisation which must have flourished at the same time as the Mohenjodaro and Harappa civilisations."

Afterwards new races invaded Nepal. The snows of Tibet sent the Bhotias across the mighty Himalayan heights. They came mostly as peaceful settlers from the North, and settled in the upper regions of the Himalayas at heights ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level. Their only possessions were flocks of sheep and yak and their occupation was to look after their flocks, which formed their only wealth and main source of food. They also brought their own culture and language with them but in course of time many of them became bilingual.

Murmis, Limbus and Rais are all, to some extent, the descendants of Tibetan newcomers to Nepal. They have gradually submitted to Brahminical influence and especially the Gurungs and Magars are now almost completely Hinduised and rank as Kshatriyas. At present any member of these races will feel offended if he is not called a Hindu. It is an honour to be a Hindu and a Kshatriya in Nepal and, although these races have a great deal of Tibetan blood and a large number of words of Tibetan origin in their vocabularies, yet they all call themselves and want others to call them Hindus. And therefore, they are Hindus now.The evidence of comparative vocabularies also shows that most of these races are of Tibetan origin.

Thirdly, the creeds, customs and legends of these races also point to the same conclusion. Their legends indicate a transit of the Himalayas from 35 to 45 generations back-say 1,000 to 1,300 years. Hodgson preferred the remote period, because, in his view, the transit was certainly made before the Tibetans had adopted from India the religion and literature of Buddhism in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. This fact is as clearly impressed upon the crude dialects and religious tenets of the Sub-Himalayas as their Tibetan origin is upon their peculiar forms and features.

Lastly, we come to the penetration, through South-Western Nepal, of the Brahmins and the Rajputs from different parts of India. Tradition has it that most of the high caste Brahmins came to Kumaon and Nepal from Maharashtra or the Doab. The Pants are said to have come from Maharashtra, the Joshis from Jhansi, the Tripathis from Kanauj and the Pandes from Kangra. Even today the Gurus of the Nepalese royal family and the nobility in Nepal are Kamaoni Brahmins who themselves trace their original homes outside the Himalayas. Similarly the high caste Kshatriyas trace their origin back to the Surya and Chandra Vanshi Rajas of Udaipur and other States of Rajasthan. The facts seem to be that Rajputs and Brahmins, of great tenacity and full of idealism, voluntarily retired from the plains of India when they had been defeated by Muslim soldiers on the battlefields. Some of these refugees were very capable men, and succeeded in creating honoured places for themselves among the people NepaI. The Rajputs sometimes carved out petty principalities for themselves and the Brahmins, by their learning, established themselves as the ministers and preceptors of the local chiefs. Gradually by the mixture of this foreign blood with the local blood a number of sub-castes of Brahmins and Rajputs grew up. At the same time a number of hill people slowly adopted the titles and manners and creeds of either Brahmins or Rajputs, and inter-marriage sometimes followed between these new Brahmins and Rajputs and the outsiders on terms of equality. But still the main distinctions remained. The hill Rajputs and Brahmins were considered to be not quite, their equal by the Rajputs from Rajasthan and the Brahmin from Prayag (Allahabad) and Benares. Thus arose in the Himalayan principalities innumerable sub-castes of Brahmins and the large groups of Kshatriyas collectively called the Khasiyas or the Khas.

The Khas are in fact the backbone of the Himalayan population. They might be called Khasiya Rajputs in Kumaon, and Gorkhas in Nepal (Gorkhas include Khas, Thakurs, Gurungs and Magars). In Doti the Khas blood is more mixed with Kshatriya blood from India then elsewhere in Nepal. The Thakurs claim royal descent, i.e., they claim to possess the blood of royal houses from Rajasthan or Nepal itself, but outside connections are always supposed to show the highest social standing.

The Khas race is mentioned in many ancient books. Asoka is said to have given his daughter Charumati in marriage to Devapala-the King of Nepal-who was most probably a Khas. It seems that the Newars and the khas were two branches of the same Mediterranean race that in early times inhabited the Eastern and the Western parts of the modern kingdom of Nepal. The Khas came more into contact with Hindus from India, the Newars were partly overwhelmed by Tibetan invaders especially in the Eastern extremities of Nepal, and the Tibetan influence in language and blood penetrated even to the tribes which we now call as Gurungs and Magars to the west of the valley of Kathmandu.

Not much is known about the lower castes of Nepal. They are called Doms, and represent perhaps the remnants of the protoaustraloid inhabitants of the country who were subdued by the Mediterranean race (Khas, Newars etc.) and who accepted a lower and servile position in the social organisation of their conquerors. They thus became parts of the dominant Hindu pr Buddhist communities and shared some of the benefits of their civilisation whereas the other members of their race who retired to the hills are still as barbarous as they were l000 B.C or earlier.

Source: Cultural History of Nepal (B.R. Bajracharya, S.R. Sharma, S.R. Bakshi)

The Culture of Nepal

The people are highly religious and the practice of religious rituals is a part of everyday life. Hinduism is the main religion of Nepal. 86.5 percent of the people are Hindus, 7.8 percent Buddhists, 3.5 percent Muslims and 2.2 percent Jains, Christians and others. There is a unique blend of Hinduism and Buddhism. The two religions have overlapped and harmonized to an extent that Hindus and Buddhists worship the identical gods.

Nepali is the national language of the country and is written in Devanagari script. Other languages are Maithili, Bhojapuri, Newari, Gurung, Tamang, Tharu, Magar, Limbu, Rai, Kirati, Bhote and so on. English is spoken and understood by people in urban centres.

Nepal has preserved one of the world's oldest and richest continuous cultures. Her culture finds exquisite expression in the fields of religion, art, music, dance, social and socio-religious festivals. There are thousands of temples, shrines, pagodas, intricate wood carvings and bronze and stone images of great elegance.

There is not a single week, not even a single day without observing some festivals. All of the religious festivals of the country are based on Lunar Calendar. Some of the important festivals are,

Dashain (Durga Puja): This is the biggest and national festival of Nepal and lasts in all fifteen days. It is a time for family reunion and for rejoicing. One of the fascinating features of this festival is the animal sacrifice.

Tihar: This festival celebrates for five days in late October. Various animals and Gods are worshipped and houses are lit up at night with candles. On the third day, the cows as an incarnation of Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity is honored. The fifth and last day of the festival is Bhai Tika which is for brothers and sisters, a small ceremony in which they mark each other forehead with tikas.

Basant Panchami: This is a day for the worship of Goddess of learning, saraswoti especially by the students. Hundreds of people flock to the Saraswoti Shrine around the country.

Shivaratri: This is one of the highly spectacular festival. The birthday of Lord Shiva in which people from all over Nepal and the Western part of India come to pay homage at Pashupati and take ritual bath in the holy river, Bagamati.

Rato Machhendranath Jatra: This chariot festival is one of the major festivals. There are many facinating legends and rates woven around this Hindu and Buddhist deity. One of the most strongly supporting elements in the composition of his popularity is that it has been a long tradition to worship him as the all compassionate god of rain and food grain.

Buddha Jayanti: Nepal is a birthplace of Lord Buddha. His birthday is celebrated with great veneration through out the country. Special ceremony take place in Swoyambhu and Boudha Pilgrims come from all over Nepal to these sites to celebrate the festival and they make very colourful scene.

Gaijatra (Cow Festival): In this festival, families in which deaths occurred during the previous year will send a cow or a young child masquerading as a cow in procession around the streets of the city as a tribute to the departed sole and to assist their entry into heaven.

Krishnastami: Lord Krishna considered as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu deity of presentation has a large following in Nepal. The best place to match the celebration of this festival is at the Krishna Temple in Patan. Sacred devotional music is played all night. You only have to stay awake.

Indrajatra: The Indrajatra festival, perhaps one of the most important and spectacular, celebrated by both Hindus and Buddhists. The living Goddess, "Kumari" is taken in procession through the streets of Kathmandu and the King receives blessings from her. The image of white Bhairab, one of the fierce manifestation of Shiva is unveiled for three days.