HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

Volume 2 Number 2 Himalayan Research Bulletin, Article 8 Monsoon 1982

1982

Research Projects

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Recommended Citation . 1982. Research Projects. HIMALAYA 2(2). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol2/iss2/8

This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. m. RESEARCH PROJECTS

* Music and Ritual in Nepal

Researcher: Ter Ellingson (Ethnomusicology, University of Washington, Seattle)

Project: A National Endowment for the Humanities Grant will support Elling~on's comparative study of music and ritual in Nepal, , , and Japan. This study, "Intercultural Continuity in ," is a continuation of his previous work on Tibetan music in Nepal and Buddhist chanting in Thailand. The basic rationale for the project is . that Buddhist music is a large-scale intercultural artistic tradition, exerting influence on music and the arts throughout the regions of Asia touched by .

Research in Nepal will focus on the Vajracharya traditions in the .Kathmandu Valley as the last surviving representative of a language canonical tradition and an artistically rich variant of the ritually oriented Mantrayana tradition. Ellingson will be in Nepal from July-December 1982, followed by short comparative research trips . to India, then approximately five months working with Tradition in Sri Lanka, and a somewhat shorter period of study in the East Asian traditions in Japan.

*Household Dynamics and Fertility in Nepal

Researcher: Nancy Levine (University of California, Los Angeles)

Project: The proposed research is concerned with intrasocietal and intersocietal variation in fertility among three ethnic groups - Nepalis, Tibetans and Buras - in Humla, a district in northwestern Nepal. The assumption underlying the research is that households are flexible, task-oriented units which respond in systematic ways to external constraints. Anthropological models of household dynamics and household decision-making will be used to focus on how external, economic constraints in combination with cultural norms and social structure affect households and their fertility, and how ·this, in turn, affects rates of population growth. Specific hypotheses to be tested derive from a preliminary study in Humla carried out during 1973-75, which demonstrated the utility of the household framework for analysis.

Primary data sources for this research will be gathered during fifteen months of fieldwork and will include basic ethnographic surveys of social structure and household systems, collection of vital statistics, censuses and formal interviews on the topics of household circumstances and demographic events over time. This will permit cross-sectional and retrospective analyses of the interrelations between economy, household and fertility. Conceived in broader terms, the research will provide a test case for assumptions about social structure and population variables, one which is relevant for the study of other rural, peasant societies.

-9- *Regmi Research, Kathmandu

Resear cher: M.C. Regmi (Kathmandu)

Project: Mahesh Chandra Regmi r epor t s that Regmi Research Limited has a number of regular publications of interest to specialists on Nepal (see publication news). In addition, he reports the completion of a manuscript entitled, The State and Economic Surplus: Production, Trade, and Resource- Mobilization in Early NineteeRth- Century Nepal. He describes its contents as follows:

"The first Chapter of this study describes the geogr aphical, histor ical, and political b ackground t o the state's resource- m obilization policies in early nineteenth century Nepal before the commencement of Rana rule, while Chapter IT presents a broad outline of those policies. Chapter m examines the gener al of the Gorkhali state and administration in so far as they pertained t o the implementation of those policies. Chapters IV and V describe the general pattern of pr)mary production, as well as of handicrafts and manufactures. Questions relating to the ownership and control of nature resources (land, f orests, and mines) that determined the institutional frame work within which the production system operated are discussed in Chapter VI. Chapter vn contains a description of the general pattern of regional and export trade in both primary commodities and handicrafts and manufactures.

Having thus sketched the general pattern of production and trade in nineteenth­ century Nepal, the book next deals with the taxation of production (Chapter vm), commercial taxation (Chapter IX), and personal obligations (Chapter X) as the main s ystems under which economic surplus from private an act of exchange. Chapters XI and xn discuss the different systems through which the state garner ed the surplus through the process of exchange: compulsory procurement, monopoly trade, and state trading. An attempt has been made in the final chapter t o draw some broad conclusions on the nature of production, exchange, and resource-mobilization policies in early nineteenth- century Nepal."

M. C. Regmi is now engagned in new research on "Revenue and Taxation in Nepal, 1846-1901."

These new contributions succeed Regmi's landmark publications on importance to all scholarship in Nepal: Land Tenure and Taxation in Nepal (Berkeley, 1963- 1968); A Study in Nepali Economic History, 1969- 1846 (New Delhi: Manjusri Publishing House, 1971 and 1978); Landownership in Nepal (Berkeley: Univer sity of California Press, 1976); and Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces: Peasants and Landlords in 19th Century Nepal (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1971).

*Centre of Himalayan Studies, Ranchi, India

Researcher: M. Jha (Ranchi Univer sity)

- 10- Project: M. Jha, Professor-in-Charge of the Department of Anthropology, Ranchi University, r eports a Centre of Himalayan Studies was formed there in 1980. In March of 1981, they organized a seminar on Himalayan Studies which has since been

published. Dr. Jha further reports that they are planning a national workshop on "Himalayan Ecology, Economy, and Religion" at Naintal, Uttar Pradesh.

Dr. Jha is now engaged in a comparative study of villages in t he .Kathmandu valley and the Terai. This research succeeds two decades of research activity in the Himalayas.

Dr. Jha's publications include the following of interest to Himalayan specialists: The Sacred Complex of Janakpur (Nepal) (United Publishers, Allahabed, 1971); Aspects of a Great Traditional City in Nepal (Kishor Vidyaniketan, Varanasi, 1978); Transactions of the Centre of Himalayan Studies (edited jointly, 1982).

*Research News from the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi

Indera Singh, Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, reports that they have been engaged in anthropological studies of Cis-Himalayan people for the past three decades. They have recently completed a project on "Impact of Technological and Economic Development Programmes on Biocultural Heritage of Gaddis and Pangwalas Population Groups of Himachal Pradesh" and they are now engaged in a project on the "Impact of Human Activities in Eco-systems and Vice­ Versa with Reference to Sikkim Himalayas."

*Himalayan Studies in Japan

There are several centers for Himalayan studies in Japan. One of the major research centers is at the Institute for the Studies of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (21 -51-4 Nishigahara, Kitaku, Tokyo 114). Professor H. Kitamura, director and linguist at the Institute, along with Professors Shigerti Iijima and Hiroshi Ishi, and Yuiji Yamamoto have conducted field research in Nepal and India. Their works have been published in Monumenta Serindica, Journal of Asian African Studies, and other publications. Recent publications by the Institute faculty include: Changing Aspect of Modern Nepal by Shigeru Iijima (editor); Newari Lexicon by Mantaro Hashimoto (editor ); Glo Skad: A Tibetan Dialect in the Nepal Himalayas by H. Kitamura (editor); and Social Structure and the Change in a Newari Village by H. Ishii. Dr. Shigeru Iijima is spending Fall 1981 at the University of Kentucky on a Fulbright grant. Along with P.P. Karan he is completing a book on Environment, Ecology and Man in the Himalaya, and preparing several research reports and maps based on field research in the area.

At the National Museum of Ethnology (1 -41 Yamado-Ogawa, Suita City 565, Pref. Osaka) Professor T. Sasaki along with other scholars have conducted research in geography, anthropology, mater ial culture, linguistics, and musicology of the Himalayan area. Their works have appeared in the Journal of Ethnological Studies - 11 - and other publications. Professor J. Kawakita of the Institute for Human Technology, Tsukuba University (1-1 Tennodai, Sakuramura, Niiharugun, Pre£. Ibaragi 300-31) is one of the pioneers of modern Himalayan studies in Japan. His principal works in English are Peoples of Nepal Himalaya, and The Hill Magars and their Neighbours, Tokai University Press, 1974.

Professor C. Nakane, the Director and anthropologist at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Tokyo University (1 - 3- 7 Hongo, Bunkyoku, Tokyo 113), has done field research in Sikkim, Assam, and Bhutan. Her wor k has been puolis:Qed as A Study of Families (in Japanese), and in the Japanese Journal of Ethnology. Some of the staff members of the Institute and the Faculty of Sciences are also interested in the fauna and flora of the Himalayas.

At the Water Research Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya City, the group of scholars headed by Dr. K. Higuchi have conducted studies in climatology and glaciology of the Himalayan area in collaboration with Hokkaido University, Sapporo. Their research reports have been published in both Japanese and English. The members of the Fauna and Flora Society at Kyoto University are pioneers in exploration in the Himalayas. Their classic works include Fauna and Flora of Nepal Himalaya edited by H. Kihara. Several scholars in the Faculty of Sciences at Hokkaido University are interested in glaciology and botanical studies. At the National Research Institute of Polar Area (10- 9- 1 Kaga, Itabashiku, Tokyo 173) several staff members are working on the glaciers of the Himalayas. P r ofessor S. Nakao, Head of the Integrated Research Center for Southern Asia at Kagoshima University, Kagoshima City, is working on vegetation and diet patterns in Nepal and Bhutan Himalayas. (by Shigeru Iijima and r eprinted from Bulletin of Asian Geography, no. 10, courtesy of Dr. P.P. Karan, ed.)

*Sikkim Research Institute

(The following guide to the Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology and other was kindly submitted by Dr. A.C. Banerjee, Director of the Institute).

The Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok occupies a unique position as an important center of learning in the world of Buddhist scholarship. His Holiness the Dalai had laid its Foundation Stone and our beloved late Hon'ble Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India had opened it years ago.

The. establishlllent of such a highly academic and cultural organization in Sikkim provides a suitable place and a tranquil atmosphere congenial to serious study and research in the vast domain of Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetology. It should thus be consider ed as the most glorious period in its history.

H.E. Shri Homi J . H. Taleyarkhan, the Governor of Sikkim who is the President of t his Institute, takes keen interest in its development and is constantly guiding its growth.

-12- As the visitor enters the vast grounds of the Institute through a recently constructed arch, he will notice the eight lucky signs of Sikkim on the outer gate. The Institute is beautifully located on an elevation in sylvan surroundings and on extensive grounds. On the walls of the verandah are paintings depicting the symbols of Guru , Santarakshita, Lotsawas and Patron King Thisrong Dentsan, as also the eight auspicious signs in vase- form.

Just as one enters the impressive building constructed in typical Buddhist style of architecture, one finds the walls painted with Buddhist designs. The main entrance to the General Library on the ground floor hall is dominated by the majestic silver image of in dazzling brilliance. Here the visitor respectfullly places a khada (scarf) on the idol. The Hall contains about 3,000 non-Tibetan books and periodicals on Buddhism and Central-Asia including Prajnaparamitasutra in Chinese and Tripitakas in and Burmese languages.

MUSEUM The Museum Section is also located in the same hall. It contains a representative collection of precious icons, ritual objects, traditional art objects, old and rare thankas (Painted Scrolls) and ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and Lepcha languages.

There is a casket containing the relics of two great Asokan Missionaries, Madhyama and Kasyapago tra, displayed in the showcase. It is one of the several priceless antique objects. Five sandalwood images, specimens of Sikkimese art and new objects of traditional art are constantly being added to the collection.

Here adjunct t o this hall is a Microfilim Unit containing microfilmed copies of rare and precious Buddhist literature. On the ground floor there is a Reading Room adorned with portraits of national leaders wherein are kept various literary magazines, journals, daily papers, periodicals, and catalogues for the use of SRITOBS Members, scholars, etc.

In the Hall on the first floor is the big Tibetan Library Hall which has the largest collection of Tibetan texts. It contains over 30,000 books in the form of xylographs, manuscripts and printed works on all the four Sects of . On the verandah are paintings depicting the images of Eight Great Mahayana Masters: Aryadeva, , , Dignaga, , Gunaprabha and Sakyaprabha.

The imposing image of Mahaguru Padmasambhava flanked by the two Tantric deities, Cakrasamvara on the right and Usnisavijaya on the left, adam the high pedestal. Here also the visitor respectfully places khadas.

Several rare and precious icons and exquisite thankas (Religious Scrolls) embellish the entire Library Hall. His late lamented revered Holiness the Gyalwa recently donated 103 priceless volumes on Kah- gyur and 55 other valuable treatises and tracts. They can be seen in a special panel.

It is worthwhile to mention here that the vast wealth of literature pertaining to all the Sects and Schools of Tibetan Buddhism is stored in one single repository. The like of one which is perhaps non-existent in any Institutions of its kind in the world. The Institute is second to none in its authority on Tibetology in the world. -13- Also on this floor sit our scholar who are constantly researching into various old manuscripts.

On the top floor is the Ajanta Hall. It contains two sandstone images of Buddha in - expounding his sublime teachings and Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in a standing posture with lotus in hand.

These are the precious gifts from the Government of ~dia. The walls are embellished with faithful reproduction of some of the Ajanta frescoes.

PUBLICATIONS AND VISITORS The Institute has many important publications to its credit. It prints many Buddhist and Tibetan books. It also publishes a quarterly journal, Bulletin of Tibetology, covering a wide range of subjects dealing with Buddhalogy, Tibetology, Central- Asian and Indological studies.

The Institute has become a center of attraction for many indigeneous and foreign visitors who take much delight in going round and feasting their eyes on its valuable contents which indeed constitute a rich cultural heritage.

Also located on the grounds of the Institute are the Chorten (the ) and Monastery marking the spot where Guru Padmasambhava rsted on his onward journey in the 8th century. There are huge statues in the lower hall where prayers are regularly held. There is also an Orchid Sanctuary in the complex where visitors can saunter around and admire some of the orchid treasures of Sikkim, the best in the world.

*Tibetan Translation

Researcher: Richard P. Hayes (unaffiliated, Canada)

Project: A translation of Dignaga's Pramanasamuccaya from Tibetan sources has received support under the National Endowment for the Humanities Translation Program.

*Research Report Films on the Cultural Heritage of Nepal

Research Coordinators: Lain S. Bangdel (Chancellor, Royal Nepal Academy) and E. Richard Sorenson (N ational Human Studies Film Center, Smithsonian)

Project: The unusual cultural richness which characterizes Nepal is one of its valuable national assets. Contributing to a distinctive national identity, this complex

-14- traditional her itage, emerging from thousands of years of its own development, forms the foundation of a noteworthy approach t o life.

Now, under the technological pressures of the late 20th Century, most of these traditional ways of life are rapidly changing - many are vanishing - a process which is happening everywhere in the wor ld. When this happens, reliable information about how these people lived and managed their lives may well become an indispensable humanistic resource for us and posterity.

It is for this reason that the Royal Nepal Academy and the National Human Studies Film Center began its joint, binational effort to pr epare comprehensive r esearch film studies of the rich cultural range of Nepal. The agreement encompases eight traditional cultures which have been selected on the basis of the representative range they present.

The first in this series, "Jyapu: Industrious Productivity as Lifestyle," has been completed and will be shown at the Royal Nepal Academy on the occasion of its Silver Anniversary.

The Jyapu, a subgroup of the Newar people, have received the most intensive effort · to date because of their importance: they are a last representative of an ancient agricultural and human organization which differs considerably from other agricultural communities of the world. Flourishing in splendid isolation until very recently, it provided the economic foundations which spawned the great Newar civilization of Nepal.

The National Human Studies Film Center, founded at the Smithsonian Institution in 197 5 by Dr. E. Richard Sorenson with grants he raised for that -purpose, now operates under a Congressional mandate to "record crucial reserves of traditional ways of life and culture in Third World nations." The first sizeable continuing funding came from Congress, but, as well, the Institute for Humanistic Studies, a non-profit organization, has established a support program for the funding of filming projects of the National Human Studies Film Center. Those interested in contributing to the development of new projects, or those underway, may obtain further information from the Institute (202-338- 5837) or from the National Human Studies Film Center (202- 357-3349), at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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