Mero Dhangadhi

as you're discussing this whole desi/central-asian thing at the moment: i wouldn't really call nepal desi. if you look at the cultural heritages of nepal, the vast majority of them was made by non-desi folks of nepal. temples in and around the Ktm valley were made by the Newars, stupas and bihars also don't have a "desi origin". the only thing that makes nepal look desi is the high percentage of hindus. but have you read about the forced sanskritization by the gurkha kings and ranas?

(part 2) Previous hindu rulers of Nepal forced people to leave their buddhist/animist/kirati traditions behind. They even prosecuted those who didn’t sanskritize themselves. The Ranas also persecuted buddhist monks and oppressed buddhist movements. In the 20th century, statistics were faked by making the number of hindus larger than it actually is and by counting people who practise two religions as hindus

The Ranas screwed over a lot of people to put it blankly. They were tyrants who pretty much had no care for the common people or anyone who wasn’t like them to be honest. I am aware of the forced sanskitization and a lot of other Nepali tribes and ethnicities faced extinction or near-extinction. But being said, there are still a lot of “desi” influence and aspects in Nepal. Hindus make up a very large part of the Nepali population regardless and they have “desi” heritage or many of them would identify as part-desi. I don’t think it’s fair to erase their cultural identity. There are many people, especially in the Terai region of Nepal who are Nepalis of Indian heritage, and there are also Marwari (sp?) Nepalis who are similar (they are part of the Marwari ethnic group from Rajasthan area). 

So, I am going to stick by my original statement, Nepal has both “Desi” and Central Asian influences but has emerged with a unique culture of its own, and some Nepalis would identify as Desi while others would not. It’s a mix of both and I don’t think it’s fair to erase anyone’s cultural identity by omitting one or the other. 

can you explain this whole dashain thing? my uncle once told me that dashain was shifted from spring to autumn by some malla king because the autumn offers more food (especially rice). what's left over from the original dashain is chaite dashain. is that really true?

The Malla kings had a lot of cultural influence during their reign. Many of Kathmandu’s landmarks and historic temples (like Hanumandhoka and pretty much all three of Kathmandu’s Durbar squares) were set up by them. The shifting of Dashain from chait (spring month) to fall is a real thing and it was changed because people kept dying and getting real sick because they ate too much during the festival and then the summer heat made it worse. I’m not sure if this shift was introduced by the Mallas, or why exactly it was put in place. Chaite Dashain is supposed to be as important as the fall Dashain.

You can read more about the influence of Malla dynasty on our culture and about Chaite Dashain in the links below: 

http://ecs.com.np/features/where-have-all-the-mallas-gone-the-descendants-of-the-mallas

http://www.weallnepali.com/nepali-festivals/ram-navami

Probably the dumbest question ever but what is traditional bahun attire/folk music/dance/ornaments/culture/arts in general? I myself am a ~bahun~ but I can't figure out anything that makes them distinct in any way?

There isn’t much that makes bauns openly distinct. They share a lot of cultural similarities with Chettris. Things like chaunbandi-cholo, chadke-tilhari for married women, nose piercing on the left side etc etc are some baun things but again these things are not at all exclusively bauns and are shared with lots of other ethnicities. The main difference comes in religious ceremonies and how weddings, bartamans, pasni, nuaran etc etc are carried out. The nitty gritty details of the rituals differ based on your ethnicity and “gotra” (what clan you belong to). For example in Bahun bartamans, the guy has to wear a thread called (janai), other ethnicities have bartamans too but most of them don’t have the janai ritual, with the exception of a priestly class of Newars. And there are other religious things like when it comes to being a priest, only baun men are allowed to do it or the priestly class of Newars as I mentioned earlier, and traditionally in Hinduism only Brahmin men got to teach the Vedas (everyone except the shudras could study it but teaching was a brahmin-only thing)…this might have changed now I’m not sure. Main difference is in religious occupations, as bahuns are traditionally the “priestly class”, and ritual specifications that are specific to someone’s “gotra” (clan). 

Probably the dumbest question ever but what is traditional bahun attire/folk music/dance/ornaments/culture/arts in general? I myself am a ~bahun~ but I can't figure out anything that makes them distinct in any way?

There isn’t much that makes bauns openly distinct. They share a lot of cultural similarities with Chettris. Things like chaunbandi-cholo, chadke-tilhari for married women, nose piercing on the left side etc etc are some baun things but again these things are not at all exclusively bauns and are shared with lots of other ethnicities. The main difference comes in religious ceremonies and how weddings, bartamans, pasni, nuaran etc etc are carried out. The nitty gritty details of the rituals differ based on your ethnicity and “gotra” (what clan you belong to). For example in Bahun bartamans, the guy has to wear a thread called (janai), other ethnicities have bartamans too but most of them don’t have the janai ritual, with the exception of a priestly class of Newars. And there are other religious things like when it comes to being a priest, only baun men are allowed to do it or the priestly class of Newars as I mentioned earlier, and traditionally in Hinduism only Brahmin men got to teach the Vedas (everyone except the shudras could study it but teaching was a brahmin-only thing)…this might have changed now I’m not sure. Main difference is in religious occupations, as bahuns are traditionally the “priestly class”, and ritual specifications that are specific to someone’s “gotra” (clan). 

what are some typical muslim nepali names? when i first saw the statistics and read that 4% of our countrymen are muslim i was really surprised because i've never met anyone

Yes, we do have a sizeable Nepali Muslim population, predominantly in southern Nepal and some in Kathmandu! I don’t know the exact number from the latest census. I knew one very very nice guy in Kathmandu when I was in elementary school, his name was Salman (he helped me out with a question on a final exam in grade 2 lol). The guys I buy Nepali arts and crafts from, Hasin (we call him Akhtar bhai as that’s his last name), and he has a shop ‘Neva Crafts’ in Thamel (near Paknajol area) that he runs with his brother Nasim. So just I guess normal Muslim names, possibly more similar to Indian or Pakistani names. 

There is a mosque in Kathmandu (near Ratnapark), and I know there are mosques in major Southern Nepali cities. In Biratnagar, they had a mosque in the city and every morning at 5am there would be a call for prayer that would be recited with giant mega-phones (a common practice in many Indian cities as well..I witnessed it in the city of Guwahati in eastern India) and the sound travelled very far. At first it was a bit disorientating but you get used to it later on.