| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| GurL_Interrupted | Posted
on 26-Aug-03 08:27 PM
Hi all, :-S! Some more questions :-s! Pweeze :-s! 1) What is the meaning of "NEPAL?" Does it even mean something? 2) What are the popular sites in Nepal? For example, Mount everest, kathmandu, pokhara etc etc.? Which are the places most visited by the tourists or the places, majority of the world is aware about? 3) How many ethnic groups are there in nepal? Is it more than 34 or more than 61 groups? I am confused. *sigh!* 4) Is magar, gurung, thakuri etc. etc. a tribe or an ethnic group? Actually what is the difference between ethinc grouip and tribe? I hope, this time again, you will be kind enough to reply if you know an answer to any one of the questions above :-s! I looked for the information on the net but each one seems to have a different information so now am confused. Plz. help this confused soul :-s! :'-(! I will appreciate it a lot. The information I got on my last post was very-very helpfuL! God bless u all! Thanks a lot guys! Take care. ,G_I |
| authentic_angel | Posted
on 26-Aug-03 09:29 PM
well i can only answer one of ur question..coz thats all i know for sure...NEPAL means..NEVER END PEACE AND LOVE...aight gurl..thats all..later |
| terimabajiya | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 07:23 AM
damn! angel.. N= never E= end P= peace A= and L= love re we used to do this when we were kids.... *sigh* reminds me of my childhood love...... u must be my lost one... "COME TO TERMIMABAJIYA" |
| hansy420 | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 08:10 AM
ahile NEPALT bhayecha..Never Ending Peace And Love Talk.... |
| psychodreamer | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 10:28 AM
TERIMABAJIYA Your name is awesome. It cracked me up :) Anyways G_I I am askin you this just out of curisioty. Are your parents from Nepal???? If they are and if you ask them these question, I am sure they will be proud of you :) |
| dhananjya | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 10:56 AM
Dear GI, 1.I have heard so many stories about Nepal word. To me nothing sounds convincing but i am putting here one of them. Kathmandu valley was a lake known as Nagh Daha, this is lately proved by geologiests. they studied the soil of different layers and concluded this. A Rishi, known as Ne cut the Chovar hill and let the water our and establish the settlement. Ne+Pal=the settlement established by Ne=Nepal In old kirati or Newari ( I am sorry I forget) language Ne means wool. the area used to be occupied by the people having a lot of sheep, source of wool. so it is said that the traveller named it as nepal. somebody associate its name with bodhisattava Manjushree and give their own logic. 2. for me there is one very nice place to visit i.e lumbini, birth palce of my hero, gautama the buddha.but many people like to see pokhara, chitawan national park, kathmandu, goshainkunda, and langtang and annapurna himal range. there are some other places where there is no transportation facilities like Khaptad, hiding paradise in the earth. In fact if mind is in peace everywhere is haven if not haven is also hell. 3. I don't know how many ethnic group are there 34 or 61. But Magar and Gurung were before there when Hindus came from India. Magar used to rule the western Nepal by then. they were also found to come through Kashmir valley. One group came to this side of the valley and sattled in nepal where as another group went to next side of valley and end up in Hungery. so now there is a place known as Magarat in Hungery. Gurungs are Himalayan kings of ever. I don't know where they come from but some anthropologist consider that the japanese people are origionally from nepal and they are brother of Gurungs. they are also ethnic group. kirat( rai limbu) are first known ruller of kathmandu valley, they are also ethnic group. newar are said to came from Newa of India, were ethenic. In kathmandu valley, you can find different stages of migrated people. for example lichhivis ruled there aftar kirat, they were from Vaisali, now Muzzapharpur, bihar, India. those who lived in kathamdu valley adapted Nepal vasa which seems tibbetian origion. after muslim attack, many brahmans and chhetriyas came to nepal to save their life and religion with cast system. vaishyas hardly followed these two casts but suddras did as their servent. Thakuris are chhetriyas, who rulled defeating magar king in western reason. the word thakuri came from Thakur, which means main person of the community. later cross of kumai brahman n magar princeses were considered as Kshetriyas, they share caste with magars. now it is division, some are considered as upper caste some are lower casts. but actually all families that are found in nepal are from civilized origion. ego always differenciate, but love binds together. 4. i guess the difference between tribes and ethenic groups is just simple group and civilized group. i don't know how the related people difined this. I am neither anthropologist nor historician. please correct me if i am wrong. GI, i gave you these informations because i think you are the one country loving nepali who live most of the time abroad. but when i see your command in songs...... dhananjya |
| goredai | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 10:59 AM
GI Meaning of Nepal- Its a coutry formed by a Rishi named Ne. Pal means to look after. So a coutry looked after by Ne Rishi is named Nepal. (I'm not kidding). The Rishi came to the mountain from malaria infested plain for meditation. He fell in love with the place and started taking care of primitive people and the mountains. Nepal was a trade passage between India and Tibet for centuries. If you want to know the history(not the crap written about shah dynasty) I can look for it. Popular sites- gorkhali, sajilo, thamel, sajha, nepalnews, kantipuronline and few others Nepal 4 barna and 36 jat ko sajha phul bari ho( prithvi narayan shah), which is full of crap. Its not a sajha phulbari, but thula-thalu's phulbari and commener's hell. Magar, gurung, rai, limbu and few others(chinki eyes) declared them as janajati, which does not belong to main jat(bahun, chettri). Janajatis were forced to become hindu after Prithvi Narayan Shah(founder of Nepal, shah dynasty) took over the country. Janajati's had their own religion and after democracy was reinstated in '90, religious freedom was also resumed and janajati stoped practising hinduism(which is completely okay but few had problems with it). I don't see any difference between tribe and a group though tribe sounds so primitive. People still call the indegenous people like Chepangs ethnic tribe and others a group. It can be unintentional. |
| authentic_angel | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 11:42 AM
lol@terimabajiya...no...termibajiya ji i m not one of ur lost ones..heeh sorry.. |
| HUNG_LO | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 12:24 PM
I don't know all the answers to G_I's question, but I thought the Chovar Hill was cut by Manjushree..What about that story? Well I've heard of lots of version, but don't remember them at this time..sorry G_I..I'm sure my cousin hangu will tell you all about the story "personally"... Damn Terima, Authentic is my new found love, not you lost one.. peace ya'll.. |
| terimabajiya | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 01:22 PM
sorry g_i, i was never good at nepali or samajik so i can't be much of a help here. all i know is that nepal is a small beautiful country where people carry laligurans in their hands and sagarmatha on their heads (or something like that...remember chadani shah's poem.) hmmm... authentic_angel, if ur not the one... why do all these events haunt me? i see and hear angel all around me... boy, in my dreams, in commercials, i turn on the radio and the song 'angel of harlem' is on, i turn on HBO and the movie 'city of angels' is on. all the signs are pointing at one direction... my angel |
| GurL_Interrupted | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 01:49 PM
Aunthentic_angel sis, Terimabajiya, Hansy420,Psychodreamer, Dhananjya, Goredai and Hangu_Lo, Thank you for ur replies guys! Hmm...interesting views! Esp. Dhananjya ji and Gore dai's. Very interesting indeed! I had heard 'bout 'magyars' in Hungary from baba (my dad) but never really paid attention to it. Hm...interesting! Are the physical characterstics between the magars in Nepal and Magyars in Hungary same? I think it's not... right? Or am I wrong? Yup, that's what I used to hear that Magars used to rule the western Nepal. Hm....! And, I think now I know the difference between 'ethnic group' and 'tribe.' Ethnic group is one group that stays together at one region where as tribes can be located at different regions but all of them tend to follow the same practices, values, culture and beliefs...Uhm...am I right? or wrong? Hm...! Yup, sure Goredai, I would like to know more...! That will be grreat indeed! 4 barna means 4 castes...36 jaat means 36 enthinc groups? Hm...! Yeah, yeah Hangu_Lo, ur cousin hangu will tell me everything personally. Ofcourse! rite! He hardly has any time from fishing! As u already are aware of...he's always on run...trying to catch fishes! Thankfullly, I was a mermaid! *sigh*! "nepal is a small beautiful country where people carry laligurans in their hands and sagarmatha on their heads" Nice sentence! What is the english word for laligrans? Hm....very interesting views indeed! And oh yeah dreamer, Yup, I am 100% Nepali...I hope they are! *sigh*! Thank u so much guys! Take care! |
| authentic_angel | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 05:56 PM
hey g_I...teh english word for laliguras is rhododendron < |
| authentic_angel | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 05:57 PM
ohhooooo terimabajiya....i tell ya m not the angel that'z been hauntin u..it muss be some otha angel..coz there'z a lot of angelz...good to kno that its an angel whose been hauntin u and not a devil!..haha |
| goredai | Posted
on 27-Aug-03 09:40 PM
GI, you got me wrong ethnic group and tribe are just western way of identifying 4 barna means- bramhin, chettris, baisyas, sudras(They all had different role in society) 36 jat means- bahun, chettri, rai , limbu, magar, gurung, newar etc etc in which there are thousands of sub-caste. Within magar there are 64 subcaste. Gurung has char jatis(higher) and sorah(lower) subcaste. Nepali caste system is so deep-rooted that you won't believe it. It has so much effect in everyday life in most part of Nepal. |
| ujol sherchan | Posted
on 29-Aug-03 05:19 AM
1. God knows what Nepal means. In the 'The Six Voyages into Persia and the East Indies', first published in French in 1676, Tavernier makes a reference to the Raja of Nupal (Nepal). He spells it N-u-p-a-l. Whether he heard the name right or not is debatable; also debatable is whether yesterday's N-u-p-a-l came to be called Nepal today. If indeed Nepal was called Nupal back then, then we would be better served by asking what 'Nupal' could have meant and take it from there. Also how far back in the myth-and mist-shrouded past do you want to go to locate the authentic meaning of the word 'Nepal' or its proto-variant...if indeed authenticity is to be defined as a function of time, among other things. 2. You can look up popular sites by visiting travel and trek-related websites. The Annapurna Trekking Route is probably the most popular area for tourists...followed by the Everest area. However, reliable data and figures are hard to come by in Nepal. You are better off taking everything with a pinch of salt. 3. Also there is no consensus on the number of ethnic groups in Nepal for the reason mentioned in 2...and question 2 is politically loaded. However, there are more ethnic groups than Dor Bahadur Bista's 'People of Nepal' would let on - as he had clearly omitted many groups which were later discovered or studied, eg. the Kusunda. Many of today's Nepali minorities are mentioned under the category 'others' in the Census...so tell me how far you can go with that. The Census leaves much more to be desired. 4. Can't answer 4 - that is better left up to the anthropologists. |