John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series NEPAL |
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244-277 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series NEPAL |
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244-277 |
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| 244. While altitude itself is not a problem in the Midlands, not like it is in the high country to the north, there is very little level land here. [Video Extract 01] |
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| 245. In addition to being warmer, much of this hill country is also better watered, and it was forested prior to settlement. (Rhododendrons at Chitre) |
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| 246. There are significant variations in rainfall even here, though, depending on exposure: and leeward slopes, as usual, are significantly drier. |
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| 247. Though the few decent roads that exist in Nepal follow valley bottoms, many (if not most) villages in the hill country are located on gently sloping ridge tops. This allows land close to the river to be used for irrigated cropping (and it also saves the village from the possibility of flooding. (Near Pokhara) |
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| 248. My second visit to Nepal began in Ramja Thanti, the village of a friend named Gopal whom I met on my first trip. Ramja lay a day’s walk from Pokhara, Nepal’s third largest city, and from his home on a clear day you could see two of Nepal’s best known peaks -- Annapurna and Machhapuchhare (Fishtail Mountain). |
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| 249. The village itself was, as usual, built on top of a ridge, the highest point of which was occupied by a small temple (the red building in the distance) joined in more recent times by a secondary school. |
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| 250. The village has a population of almost one hundred : but many more people live on farms close by, set into the terraced slopes below. |
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| 251. The majority of those who live in or close to Ramja Thanti are high caste Brahmans. Lower caste members of the community and “untouchables” live outside the village in simpler dwellings like this. |
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| 252. And, given Brahman commitment to ritual purity, it was only to be expected that the lower castes should have a source of water separate from that used by Brahmans and Chetris. |
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| 253. To reach Ramja Thanti it is now possible to get a taxi of some sort to carry you half way, along a new road which follows river valleys westwards from Pokhara. |
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| 254. After that we had to walk, on trails laid out long ago. In places long flights of steps tested the fitness of those who used them. |
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| 255. But they were no obstacle to the porter delivering this wardrobe -- a wedding present for a couple about to be married. |
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| 256. Fortunately, at appropriate intervals, the trail was equipped with rest stations where travellers could rest in the shade of the traditional pipal and banyan trees planted and “married”with much ceremony long ago. |
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| 257. The main street of the village was lined with business enterprises, in which commercial and residential functions were combined. [Video Extract 14] |
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| 258. There was a general store that sold kerosene (for lamps), grain, toilet articles, and a range of hardware items, including batteries for torches and radios. |
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| 259. The owner of the general store and his family lived, cooked, and slept at the other end of the room. |
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| 260. The family that managed this tea house also lived where they worked. Their daughter was in charge that day because her mother was menstruating and was, for four days, considered “unclean” and a source of contamination. |
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| 261. Her family owned another room next door which they rented to a tailor, who lived at the back of his shop but worked outside whenever possible. |
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| 262. No tailor I’ve ever visited offered his customers a better view! He did not rely on paper patterns but used a tape measure to determine the size of his customers and produced garments which were traditional in form. |
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| 263. Tailor s here do not sell cloth, though. This is purchased from another small shop. |
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| 264. The owners of the sweet shop popular with school children also lived in the room where they worked. Their’s was a two-story building, however, and a farmer and his family lived upstairs. |
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| 265. The woman who operated this liquor store and bar also lived where she worked. |
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| 266. This man sold beauty products -- bangles, fancy tikas, nail polish, hair clips and such like. |
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| 267. His sleeping space was suitable decorated with pin-ups but far more modest than those popular in America or Europe. |
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| 268. The other services available in Ramja included a clinic which provided advice, to women mostly, and some basic medications. |
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| 269. In addition to a small post office, a government veterinary officer from Pokhara was also based in the village. |
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| 270. Within walking distance there was a small mill now, in which grains could be turned into flour -- corn especially. |
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| 271. And the settlement on the fringe of the village which was home to lower occupational castes and untouchables provided additional services essential to the farming community. This was the blacksmith’s forge. [Video Extract 09] |
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| 272. The blacksmith's business looks simple but was essential to the successful operation of the surrounding farming community, making and repairing farm implements. He is shown turning the handle of the mechanical bellows needed to make the fire hot enough to soften the iron -- and village blacksmiths only work with iron. |
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| 273. Blacksmiths are untouchables and no other caste performs this type of work. He made sickles and hoes, and several kinds of knives, as well as the points for ploughs: and in doing so he supported a large family. |
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| 274. There were at least three more tailors. None of them owned a treadle machine like the man at the centre of the village, but at least two had machines. And some worked by hand. |
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| 275. Traditionally, since no Brahman would sew his/her own clothes, each household had a long-term contract with one or other of the tailors to sew two new sets of clothing each year for each member of the family. And because of such arrangements, a family’s tailor and their blacksmith had the right, traditionally, to attend major family celebrations. |
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| 276. Though Brahmans are prejudiced against this kind of work, the production of wooden farm tools (baskets also) was clearly not confined to the lowest castes for the man who made this plough was an old soldier who sill wore a Gurkha sweater. Carpenters also make furniture and build houses. |
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| 277. I never saw a leather worker in Ramja, but I did meet one outside a Gurung village. This skin was being tanned, but it is such a despised craft that no one wanted to be photographed near it. |
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