Mero Dhangadhi

do you know if only nepali women practise this chaupadi pratha? also i cant believe that women in nepali actually used to burn themselves to death when their husband died. i can't believe that my great-grandmothers probably died this way. i dont dare to ask my parents about this though ugh. why is our culture so ugly sometimes?

Nope, it’s not just Nepali women. There are many Indian and women of other nationalities (mostly Hindu) that follow it. There was another article outlining it that I posted a while ago..let me see if I can find it. 

I think Sati (the burning in the pyre ritual) was not as popular in Nepal as it was in India. It was practiced but people weren’t forced to do it. (source: DR Regmi (1983), Inscriptions of Ancient Nepal, ISBN 978-0391025592, page 11) I think it was practiced more in Southern Nepal compared to the north. Of course, there are exceptions to these statements. It’s absolutely cruel. Ask your parents about it. Start a conversation. Hell I bring up so many things and we have family arguments/debates all the time about how inhumane our culture is. 

You ask why our culture is so evil, and there are still south Asian men (and in a lot of cases women) who think women shouldn’t have so much “freedom”. This is mind-blowing to me. Not just south Asians, yesterday this white (Canadian) girl got angry and stormed off because I was telling my friend that men to women violence is much higher than the other way around (reported and unreported according to studies). We live in an insane world, my friend. 

do all nepalese practise this digusting thing where they isolate girls/women during their menstruation? or is it just the hindu part of the society?

A lot of Hindus don’t even practice it. I know I have a few friends who were shocked when they came over to my grandma’s place when I went to visit her 3 years ago (and I was on my period so I was forbidden from going into the kitchen). But a lot of people do practice and it depends on how extreme people follow it. In Kathmandu it won’t be that extreme like you’ll won’t be banished to a shed outside the house. The more educated people get about how nonsensical this is, the less it’ll happen I think.

I don’t know if non-Hindus follow it. Perhaps my followers might know.

i know from a limbu coworker that the limbus practise chaupati as well :/ in school my friends used to not touch ay flowers during their menstruation because they thought that would kill them ugh

Thanks for letting me know! It’s very sad but that’s what they were taught by the society around them. If one person decided to stand up against it and try to break it the entire community would rally against them. Thankfully things are changing now, albeit slowly. 

So yeah, non-Hindus practice the banishing custom too. 

is there any way to learn newari if my parents don't speak it neither? i live in the US btw?

Your local Nepali community in the states might have classes, or someone available to teach the language so you can send them an email or call them to  see if something like that is possible. If not, here are some online resources:

• Find Newari Pen Pals that you can talk to or email 
  
• Google Play App for learning Newari
• This forum has info from the Tribhuban University’s Newari language course and a link to the University’s Newari lessons
• Here are some basic Newari vocabulary words and phrases
• This is a very short video in Nepali that teaches basic Newari Phrases and pronounciations. You can hear an actual Newari speaker pronounce the words so I think that might be helpful.

There are lots of resources available. These should me more than enough for you to get started with. If you want me to get you in touch with a Newari speaker to practice with, perhaps you’d feel safer with someone I personally know rather than finding someone from the website above, then please come off anon, and send me a message. 

do all nepalese practise this digusting thing where they isolate girls/women during their menstruation? or is it just the hindu part of the society?

A lot of Hindus don’t even practice it. I know I have a few friends who were shocked when they came over to my grandma’s place when I went to visit her 3 years ago (and I was on my period so I was forbidden from going into the kitchen). But a lot of people do practice and it depends on how extreme people follow it. In Kathmandu it won’t be that extreme like you’ll won’t be banished to a shed outside the house. The more educated people get about how nonsensical this is, the less it’ll happen I think.

I don’t know if non-Hindus follow it. Perhaps my followers might know.