HIMALAYA RIFLESSI DAL PROFONDO – THE GRAMA DEVATAS OF SOUTH INDIA – HIMALAYAN MASKS IN GENOVA COMING SOON

Himalaya Riflessi dal Profondo, Palazzo Imperiale. Genova.

The figure of the man in tribal and village art,it’s normally used to connote itself, to represent the human being as he is 

seen in the every day life, in the dreams and trances experiences…by the artist, that represents preeminently his spirit, 

the Ancestor

HIMALAYA

RIFLESSI DAL PROFONDO

GENOVA

PALAZZO IMPERIALE

COLLEZIONE MORDACCI

MORDACCI COLLECTION

ETHNOFLORENCE 

2012

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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(Photo Ron du Bois)

https://ethnoflorence.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/larger-than-life-the-terracotta-sculptures-of-india-ron-du-bois/

Outside the human temporality of man-shaped things,no man-made sign, a simple rough stone marks the presence of the deity,

daubed with red colour which holds the memory of blood sacrifices, placed under the branches of sacred tree is part of the Indian

landscape,in this way also the presence of Aiyanar, the Lord, was marked in principle, by a rough of stone, the works of art, small or

gigantic, made of clay, larger than life, arrived after, proclaiming his exhistence.

(Photo H.H.)

THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

COMING SOON

ETHNOFLORENCE 

2012

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

https://ethnoflorence.wordpress.com/category/aiyanar-village-gods-of-south-india/

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HIMALAYAN MASKS

AT 

PALAZZO IMPERIALE 

GENOVA

COMING SOON

ETHNOFLORENCE 

2012

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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TRIBAL ARTS

A

CROSS CULTURAL HERITAGE

COMING SOON

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HIMALAYAN PEOPLE NEPALESE TAMANG BHOTIYA PEOPLE ON AMONG THE HIMALAYAS L A WADDEL 1899

Ethnoflorence

Indian and Himalayan

Folk And Tribal Arts

***

Selected Bibliography

HIMALAYAN PEOPLE

Tamang Bhotiya People

 ON

Among the Himalayas

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

L A WADDEL

1899

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

Bhotiya Women selling Eggs

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

Nepalese Woman Moorni or Tamang-Bhotiya Tribe

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

Shar-pa Bhotiyas

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Last Updating 11.25.2020

HIMALAYAN PEOPLE LEPCHA PEOPLE ON AMONG THE HIMALAYAS L A WADDEL 1899

Ethnoflorence

Indian and Himalayan

Folk and Tribal Arts

***

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

HIMALAYAN PEOPLE 

LEPCHA PEOPLE

ON

AMONG THE HIMALAYAS

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

L A WADDEL

1899

*

The “Lepchas” as they were called by Europeans, call themselves “Rong”, and are known to the Tibetans as “Mon-ba” or “Mon-rik” which means “people of the Mon country” – a general name used in Tibet to designate the lower Himalayas area.

Their house, with the exception of the log framework, is built almost entirely of bamboo.   The floor, the walls, the roof and the thatch are all of bamboo, as well as the vessels and cooking utensils. On the ground floor,
in the angular space between the sloping hill- side and the platform or floor of the hut, are housed the pigs, fowls and other live stock. 

Photo Credit http://www.archive.org

A Lepcha Woman

*

There is no division into rooms, as the family sleep altogether,
untroubled by the Western scruples on such matters ; and
they never think of undressing when they retire to rest, probably from the need of remaining ever ready to defend themselves and their cattle from wild beasts.

At one end is an open fireplace formed of a few stones and baked mud. Beside it are a few bamboo vessels, and leaves for plates ; above it hangs a frame for smoking meat, though, considering that the room is constantly filled more or less with smoke, this contrivance seems superfluous.

There is also a primitive loom and spindle ; but no table and no beds, for the inmates dine and sleep on the floor. At the other end is the granary, containing a few baskets of grain, with a large collection of Murwa millet and yeast for brewing beer; yams and miscellaneous roots, berries, tender shoots of ferns and other forest produce.

For their ordinary food consists mainly of roots which they dig up in the forest, supplemented by berries, fungi, and spinach of boiled leaves, with
occasional game; but even frogs are not refused. 

Photo credit http://www.archive.org

A Lepcha

*

Salt is the only article they need which they do not find ready to hand ; and this they get by barter—not by money. Amongst the rafters and on bamboo brackets on the wall are stored away some bright golden heads of maize
as seed for next year’s crop ; one or two spare garments, a bamboo smoking-pipe, a bamboo flute and harp., and a few nick-nacks—including charms against devils. There are also some bows and arrows, and some aconite root to make a deadly paste for poisoning their arrows when used in war or against tigers and other big game.

The family relations of the Lepchas show traces of

MATRIARCHY

in which the children trace their descent through
their mothers and not through their fathers.

Lepcha has usually

ONLY ONE WIFE

and there is no

 CEREMONIAL MARRIAGE

The 

WOMAN’S  IN-DOOR DRESS

 is a close-fitting gown without sleeves, and this was probably their full dress originally. But now,  for the

(WOMAN’S) OUT OF DOORS (DRESS)

they wear over all a long, loose, wrapper like white cotton gown with long wide sleeves turned up in Tibetan fashion at the cuffs to show the red lining—a dress which effectually masks the figure and has little grace in
its drapery.

Their HAIR

is parted in the middle and done up into two pig-tails which are usually gathered in a knot on the crown and secured with a silver pin. And over the head is thrown a gaudy silk handkerchief, drooping negligently over the neck, somewhat in the fashion of a Spanish peasant-girl’s.

Around the neck they wear as much jewellery
as they can afford.

Their stocking less feet are unshod.

Their “TEA”, is not made from the tea plant, which these poor people cannot afford to buy, but it is a decoction brewed from the
leaves of the maple, vaccinium, wild vine and other trees and herbs. 

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Last Updating 11.25.2020

NEPAL NEPALESE LIMBO PEOPLE ON AMONG THE HIMALAYAS L A WADDEL 1899

 ETHNOFLORENCE

INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN

FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS

***

(1)

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

NEPALESE LIMBO PEOPLE REPRODUCED ON

AMONG THE HIMALAYAS

L. A.  WADDEL  1899

AMONG THE HIMALAYAS

L A WADDEL

1899

Photo http://www.archive.org

***

(2)

I Quaderni della Collezione

Extracts from our Photo Archives

I Quaderni della Collezione no 4 – Extract – 

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Last Updating 11.25.2020

TRIBAL PEOPLE: SUNWAR OR SANWAR an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNAMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

 

SUNWAR OR SANWAR—NEPAL

 

 

Sunwars is a tribe mostly found north of the Magars and Gorung, and

near and among the Cisnivean Bhotias. 

 

Hodgson  assigns them the Gandaceam basin, below the mountain peaks of Gosainthan, 

as their seat.

 

They are among the principal Alpine tribes of the sub-Himalayas between the Kali,

where the aboriginal tongues are merged into the Prakrit, and the Dhausri, where

they begin to pass into monosyllabic-tongued races of presumed Indo-Chinese

origin. 

 

“They inhabit the central and temperate parts of the mountains,

and may be said to occupy a very healthy climate ; but one,” says Hodgson,

” of exact temperatures, as various as the several elevations (4,000 to 10,000 feet) of the

ever-varied surface, and which, though nowhere troubled with excessive heat, is so

by excessive moisture, and by the rank vegetation which moisture generates with

the aid of a deep fat soil.”

 

 

TRIBAL PEOPLE: NEWAR an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

 

NEWARS

 

 

 

NEWAR is the name of the bulk of the inhabitants of Nipal, who were

the rulers of the valley before the Goorkha conquest, and are, indeed,

believed to have been its first inhabitants. 

 

Their original country has not been ascertained, though the Tartar cast of their 

physical form, and the monosyllabic structure of their language, point to Tibet ; 

their traditions, however, indicate India as their previous home. 

 

They now constitute the great mass of the agricultural and artisan population ; 

and the ruins of their well-built towns and temples attest the civilization to which 

they had attained before their conquest by the rude mountaineers,

who now consume in military idleness, the fruits of their fields. 

 

About two-thirds of the Newars are Buddhists, the remainder Brahminical Hindoos.

 

They are a cheerful and industrious race, possessing a skill in agriculture far 

exceeding that which exists in Hindostan, and presenting a marked contrast to the 

sour looks and arrogant demeanour of the Goorkha on the one hand, and to the melancholy

and apathetic countenance of the inhabitant of Hindostan on the other.

 

 

TRIBAL PEOPLE: MAGAR an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNAMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

MAGARS

 

 

 

 

The Magars are a tribe of not very great magnitude, resident in Nepal. 

 

They are “unquestionably a people of this (the southern) side of the snows

( Himalayas), and their original country is Sikkim, from which they were first driven

west by the Lepchas across the Meehi and Konki rivers, and thence further west by

the Limboos beyond the Arun and Doodkooshi.

 

While in Sikkim they were not Hindoos ; they ate fowls, pigs, and everything except the cow, from which I believe

they abstained. 

 

They had no priests, or ‘puja,’ of any kind. 

 

Now, however, they have the Brahmins, and are, I believe, reckoned very good Hindoos in Nipal.”

 

(Han Sing, Dewan of Sikkim, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal., v. xi., p. o.)

 

They are largely enlisted into the Nipalese army, and are excellent soldiers, having

formed a considerable portion of the Goorkha regiment enlisted by Sir C. Napier

in 1850. 

 

Their attachment to the house of Goorkha is but recent, and of not

extraordinary or intimate nature. 

 

“They have acquired the Khas language, though not to the oblivion of their own ; and the Khas habits and sentiments,

but with sundry reservations in favour of pristine liberty.”

 

They are divided into fifty-three different septs, or families.

 

 

TRIBAL PEOPLE: LIMBOOS OR LIMBO an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

ETHNOFLORENCE

INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN

FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS

2008 – 2016

*************************************

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNAMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

LIMBOOS.

 

 

The term LIMBOO is a corruption of Ekthoomba, and is generally used to

designate the whole population of the mountainous country lying between

the Dood-Koosi and the Kanki rivers, in Nepal. 

 

Their original country is Chung, in Tibet. 

 

The Limboos are found in smaller numbers eastwards to the Mechi

river, which forms the boundary of Nepal and Sikhim. 

 

In still fewer numbers they exist within the Sikhim territory, as far east as the Teesta river, beyond

which they very rarely settle. 

 

In Bhootan they are unknown, except as strangers.

 

They doubtless belong to the great Mongolian family of the human race. 

 

This is clearly evidenced in their form of features, absence of beard, and yellow colour of

the skin; but to which of the numerous divisions of this family, to be found

between the Himalaya mountains and the Yellow Sea, they especially belong,

or of which they are an offshoot, remains to be decided by further comparison of

their language and their religion, with those of other Mongols. Their language

has no written character, nor does it impress the hearer as having any resemblance

to the Lepcha or Mech dialects. 

 

There is, however, reason to suppose that it once

had a written character peculiar to itself (Journal As. Soc. Bengal., ii., 4.)

 

Although they have been long in close contact with the Hindoos, there is not

any perceptible mixture of the blood to be observed, whether in more regular

features, or in the absence of the small low nose of the Mongolian races, and

presence of the beard. 

 

In religion they are neither Hindoos nor Buddhists ;

though they outwardly conform, as their locality requires, to the practices of either

creed. 

 

They believe in one great god, called SHAM-MUNG, and worship many

minor deities. 

 

Their marriage ceremonies are simple, involving little but a sacrifice

and a feast. 

 

Their funeral proceedings are thus described:—Just as the vital

spark has taken its leave of the mortal tenement, it is usual among the Limboos,

for one who can procure a little powder, to fire a gun.

 

The report is supposed to give intimation of the event to the gods, and to speed the 

soul of the deceased  to their keeping. 

 

They burn the dead, selecting the summits of mountains for

the purpose, and afterwards collect and bury the ashes, over which they raise a

square tomb of stone, about four feet high, placing upon it an upright stone.

 

On this is engraved a record of the quantity of largess distributed at the funeral of the

deceased. 

 

This inscription is either in the Dev-Nagri or Lepcha character,

according to the comparative facility of procuring an engraver in either. 

 

It is an act of virtue in the relatives to give largess, but it does not appear to be considered

of any efficacy to the soul of the departed. 

 

The Limboos do not make offerings, or sacrifices for the dead, nor have they any belief in the transmigration of souls.

 

They mourn the dead by weeping and lamentations at the time, and by avoiding

merry-makings, and adorning the hair with flowers for a month or two. 

 

They are a warlike race, and occasionally enlist in the British native army.

 

TRIBAL PEOPLE: KHAS or KHUS an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

ETHNOFLORENCE

INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS

2008 – 2016

************************

KHAS or KHUS

an Himalayan Tribe

  in

THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868 

 

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

KHAS OR KHUS 

 

 

“THE Kas, or Khus, now the dominant population of Nepal, were, until 1816, the

ruling tribe of the entire tract from the Sutlej to the Teesta.

 

They are called Purbuttiah, or Highlander, from their residence in the Hills ; 

the term being chiefly confined to them, though equally applicable to other 

tribes similarly located.

 

Their aboriginal stock is Turaniam ; a fact, says Hodgson,

” inscribed in characters so plain upon their faces, forms, and languages, that 

we may well dispense with the vain attempt to trace it historically in the meagre 

chronicles of barbarism.”

 

When the tide of Musulman conquest and bigotriy, from the twelfth century downwards, 

swept multitudes of the Brahmins from the plains into these hills, they endeavoured to

make the natives converts to Hinduism, and thus to confirm the fleeting influence

which their learning and refinement gave them over an illiterate and barbarous

population.

 

In order to secure their end, they granted to their earliest distinguished

converts, in defiance of the creed they taught, the lofty rank and honours of the

Khastriya order, which they also communicated to their progeny by the Hill-women.

 

Thus originated the now numerous, predominant, and extensively ramified tribe of

the Khas, which, favoured by the Brahminical system, became entirely devoted to

it.

 

Subduing the neighbouring tribes, they “gradually merged the greater part of

their own habits, ideas, and language, but not physiognomy, in those of the

Hindoos, and the Khas language became a corrupt dialect of Hindi,” concealing

froom all but curious eyes its barbaric origin.

 

They are excellent soldiers, and form a considerable proportion of the Nipalese

(Goorkha) army.

 

Though more liable to Brahminical prejudices than other military

tribes of the country, they have no religious feelings which prevent them from

becoming excellent servants in arms, and they possess pre-eminently that masculine

energy of character and that love of enteiprise which distinguish so advantageously

the Nipal soldiery.

 

Despatching their meals in half-an-hour, and “satisfying the

ceremonial law by merely washing their hands and face, and taking off their turbans

before cooking, they laugh at the pharisaical rigour of our (Bengal) Sepoys, who

must bathe from head to foot and make puja ere they begin to dress their dinner,

must eat nearly naked in the coldest weather, and cannot be in marching trim

again in less than three hours. 

 

The former will carry several days’ provisions on

their backs, the latter would deem such an act intolerably degrading.”

 

The present royal family of Nipal belong to the Sahi, or Sah, branch of the

Khas.”  

 

TRIBAL PEOPLE: GURUNG an HIMALAYAN TRIBE in THE PEOPLE OF INDIA RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDISTAN LONDON 1868

THE 

PEOPLE OF INDIA.

A SERIES OF

PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS,

OF

THE RACES AND TRIBES OF HINDUSTAN,

 

ORIGINALLY PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

THE GOVERNAMENT OF INDIA,

AND

REPRODUCED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

EDITED BY

J. FORBES WATSON AND JOHN WILLIAM KATE

 

VOLUME ONE

 

LONDON 

INDIA MUSEUM,

1868

 

THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES

 

GURUNG

 

 

“The Goorungs of Nipal are a division of the “Purbuttiahs,” and therefore

nominally Hindoos. 

 

They live on the hills, uniformly selecting an altitude of

5000 or 0000 feet, especially between Jumla and Kirant, where they rear immense

flocks of the Barwal goat. 

 

They exhibit, in common with most of the aboriginal

tribes of Nipal, a modified form of the Mongolian type, retaining, like the Magars,

their own vernacular tongue, though, from long intermixture with the Khas, they

have also acquired the language of the latter. 

 

Their original seat is supposed to be in the valleys around the peak of Gosainthan ; 

and they retain to a certain extent the the manners and religion of their ancestors, 

though the latter has in some degree

been mixed with Hinduism ; mainly, it would seem, because this is the religion

of the reigning family, whom they serve largely in the capacity of soldiers.

 

From their “energy of character, love of enterprise, freedom from the shackles of

caste, unadulterated military habits, and perfect subjectibility to discipline,”

they are eminently fitted for a military life. 

The Goorungs are subdivided into no less than forty-two banches.”