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Nepalese Chiefs and Gods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Gisèle Krauskopff
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What Nepalese village or plot of land does not have a sacred tree or grove? The altar devoted to the earth gods is often the only collective shrine in a locality. Usually it is a natural site on the outskirts of the village, combining rocks and trees, and sometimes wooden shapes instead of rocks. It can also be associated with a cavity or hole in the earth. Thus among the Tamang of West Nepal: “The site of worship, which is known by the Nepalese term bhumithan, is located on a sharp incline overhanging the village; it is set up in a small sheltered area in the rock and divided into two areas by a raised flat stone.” Furthermore, we might add B. Pignède's description of the sanctuary as one finds it among the Gurung on the southern side of the Annapurna: “Three walls of rock hold up a little roof of flagstones, the facade being open to the outside. The wall at the back is cut by a large tree that covers the whole area with its shade, with the tree and rock forming a single mass … Three raised rocks, the top of which is crudely rounded, are placed on a kind of tier. In the left corner is a little stone statue of a four-footed animal … Finally, on the outside, in front of the sanctuary's open facade, a wooden post is set up … The ensemble of the sanctuary includes a mixture of Indo-Nepalese and local elements.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 44 , Issue 174 , January 1996 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. A. Höfer, "Notes sur le culte du terroir chez les Tamang du Népal," in: J.M.C. Thomas and L. Bernot (eds.), Langues et techniques, nature et société II: approche éthnologique, approche naturaliste, Paris, 1971, p.147.

2. B. Pignède, Les Gurung. Une population himalayenne du Népal, Paris-The Hague, 1966, p. 300.

3. J. Kawakita, The Hills Magars and Their Neighbours, Tokyo, 1974, p. 343.

4. G. Krauskopff, "Naissance d'un village tharu, à propos des rites de claustra tion villageois," in: L'Ethnographie, Vol. 83, No. 100/1 (1987), pp. 131-58; also in: idem, Maîtres et possédés, les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal), Paris, 1989, pp. 110-17.

5. The Tharu live in the plains bordering India - a region more directly influ enced by the popular Hinduism of Northern India. In comparative perspec tive, it should be noted that among the Reddis of India (see C. von Fürer-Haimendorf, The Reddis of the Bison Hills, London 1945) Bhume, who does not have a sanctuary and is clearly identified with the protecting mother earth helping to secure good harvests, stands completely apart from the vil lage goddesses, such as Gangamma Devi and Mutielamma, who by contrast are represented on the outskirts of certain villages through rocks or woodden posts.

6. E. Chavannes, Le T'ai Chan. Essai de monographie d'un culte chinois (Annales du Musée Guimet 28), Paris, 1910, pp. 471, 477.

7. V. Bouillier and G. Toffin (eds.), "Classer les dieux? Des panthéons en Asie du Sud," in: Purusartha, 15 (1993).

8. See V. Bouillier, "Mahadev himalayen," in: ibid., p. 178.

9. M. Lecomte-Tilouine, "About Bhume. A Misunderstanding in the Himalayas," in: G. Toffin (ed.), Nepal. Past and Present, Paris, 1993.

10. Ch. Ramble, "The Founding of a Tibetan Village: The Popular Transformation of History," in: Kailash, Vol. X, No. 1 (1983), pp. 279f.

11. B. Pignède (note 2 above), p. 308.

12. V. Elwin, Bondo Highlanders, Bombay, 1950, p. 182.

13. M. Oppitz, "The Wild Boar and the Plough. Origin Stories of the Northern Magar," in: Kailash, Vol. X, No. 1 (1983), pp. 187-226.

14. M. Lecomte-Tilouine, Les dieux du pouvoir. Les Magar et l'hindouisme au Népal central, Paris, 1993.

15. As has been well demonstrated by M. Höfer (note 1 above), p. 147.

16. M. Lecomte-Tilouine (note 14 above), pp. 95-99. See also A. de Sales, Je suis né de vos jeux de tambours. La religion chamanique des Magar du Nord, Nanterre, 1991.

17. M. Höfer, Tamang Ritual Texts I. Preliminary Studies in the Folk Religion of an Ethnic Minority in Nepal, Wiesbaden, 1981, pp. 26, 36.

18. B. Steinmann, Les Tamang du Népal; usages et religion, religion de l'usage, Paris, 1987, p. 172.

19. M. Gaborieau, "Introdution," in: idem (ed.), Caste, lignage, territoire et pouvoir en Asie du Sud, L'Homme, Vol. 18, No. 1/2 (1978), p. 23.

20. The system of the Panchayats represented a radical reversal from the princi ple of universal suffrage to elect the pancayat, the village committee, and its head, the pradhan panc. Previously, the chiefs had been nominated by the cen tral government. The village units were redrawn and divided into wards. With the exception of a brief democratic period, the system of the Panchayats followed the autocratic regime of the Rana and was abolished in the "revolu tion" of 1990 that resulted in the return to political parties and to the election of a parliament on the basis of the universal suffrage.

21. See M. Höfer (note 17 above), p. 10.

22. Ph. Sagant, "Le pouvoir des chefs limbu au Népal oriental," in: L'Homme, Vol. 18, No. 1/2 (1978), pp. 69-107.

23. However, harvest cults and in order to "satisfy the earth" (yoba-tama) are being held twice per year under the guidance of subba (in fact corresponding to a group of houses belonging to a segment of the clan): they reunite the men of the clan and are performed by the "tribal high priest" on temporary altars. They involve an atonement of the forest spirits to "enclose the land" and among the Sansari to keep out epidemics. During sowing time, they allow the "power of the grain" to assure abundance. I thank Ph. Sagant for giving me this information.

24. N.J. Allen, "The Thulung of the Bhume Sites and Some Indo-Tibetan Compar isons, " in: C. von Fürer-Haimendorf (ed.), Asia Highland Societies in Anthropo logical Perspective, New Delhi, 1981, pp. 168-82.

25. C. MacDougall, The Kulunge Rai. A Study in Kinship and Marriage Exchange, Khatmandu, 1979, p. 33.

26. M. Gaenzle, "Ancestral Types: Mythology and the Classification of ‘Deities' among the Mewahang Rai," in: V. Bouillier and G. Toffin (eds.) (note 7 above), pp. 197-218.

27. B. Pignède (note 2 above), p. 45.

28. M. Gaborieau (note 19 above), pp. 37-67.

29. Ph. Ramirez, Patrons et clients. Etudes des relations politiques sur le site d'un ancien royaume indo-népalais, Argha (Népal central), PhD. thesis, University of Paris X, 1993, p. 265.

30. The Kali Gandaki basin where the "Twenty-Four" Hindu kingdoms existed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is also known as "Magar country" (maga rant) or in certain documents as magar visaya, occasionally also as bara maga rant ("the twelve magar countries"). Our knowledge is poor as to how the succession among local chiefs and Hindu chiefs worked: marriage alliances or political alliances; military conquest or elevation of the head of a clan to the position of "Hindu king." It is possible to think of a variety of scenarios.

31. N. J. Allen (note 24 above) pp. 169-72.

32. B. Steinmann (note 18 above), p. 90.

33. This is the Tharu term for identifying land not owned by anyone.