THE PEOPLE OF NEPAL CONTEXTS
The people of Nepal The number of travellers who return from Nepal and say that, for all the breathtaking scenery, it was the people they liked the most – is astonishing. Nepali friendliness is proverbial, and hospitality is deeply embedded in the national culture. “Guest is god” is a much-used saying, and children are taught early to press their hands together in the namaste greeting. Alongside this refined courtesy culture exists a tough-minded, proud independence and a rare talent for laughing in the face of hardship. But the fascination of Nepal’s people is about more than charm. Despite the country’s modest size, it has a continent’s share of ethnic groups, with more than fifty languages and as many cultural traditions. Much of this diversity is owed to geography. North of the Himalayan wall live the Mongoloid peoples of central and east Asia. To the south, beyond the malarial plains, are the Indo-Aryans of the subcontinent. The people of Nepal are the descendants of daring or desperate migrants.
The Newars The Kathmandu Valley has its own indigenous group: the Newars (see p.153), whose tight-knit communities are recognizable by their distinctive architecture of warm brick and carved wood. Newars are found across Nepal, however, as their enterprising merchant class founded the bazaars around which so many hill towns grew. The Newars could be said to represent a mixture of all Nepal’s cultures: they are Hindus and Buddhists at the same time; they look by turns “Indian” and “Tibetan”. But it would be more true to say that they created the culture that is Nepal – including the culture of extraordinary religious and ethnic tolerance, which persists, admirably, today.
Sherpas, Tibetans and other mountain folk Nepal’s most famous ethnic group, the Sherpas (see p.342), makes up less than one percent of the population. Alongside other “Bhotiya” peoples of Tibetan origin, such as the Humlis of Humla and the Lo-pa of Mustang, they live at the harshest, highest altitudes, traditionally herding yaks and growing barley, buckwheat and potatoes. All follow the Tibetan school of Buddhism (see p.401), and are in many ways indistinguishable from Tibetans – as are their communities, with their stone houses, and their chortens, prayer walls and prayer flags. Bhotiya people are noticeably less tradition-bound than Hindus, and women are better off for it. Looks aside, they’re recognizable by their clothing, especially the rainbow aprons (pangden) and wraparound dresses (chuba) worn by married women. ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs=
The hilly heartlands The Middle Hills, or pahad region, are occupied by an extraordinary mixture of peoples, sometimes known collectively as pahadiyas. Some areas, especially further west, are quite ethnically homogenous; further east it can be extraordinarily mixed: in one valley you might find a Chhetri (caste Hindu) village at low elevation, Rai and Gurung villages higher up, along with adjacent Dalit (untouchable) hamlets, and Tamangs or Sherpas occuping the high ground. Traditionally, however, the Middle Hills are the homelands of distinctive ethnic groups, known as janajaati or tribal peoples: the Gurungs and Magars
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