Ritual, Space, Mimesis among the Rai of Eastern Nepal

The aim of this project is an ethnographic documentation and comparative study of the ritual traditions among a Kiranti group in Nepal, the Dumi Rai, under conditions of cultural and political change. At a time when a new constitution is being drafted, the concepts of ancestral space, landscape and territory are of special topical significance, inasmuch as ethnic activists are demanding an autonomous homeland for the Kiranti. Through such ritual performances as priestly offerings, shamanic journeys or collective dance, cultural spaces are being claimed and (re)appropriated. The ethnic activists, who have organised themselves into the Kirat Rai Yayokkha association, are trying to counter a loss of ancient Rai culture by transforming and reforming Rai culture and `religion`: in particular, they are striving for a standardisation, scripturalisation and greater public display of local languages, ritual texts and mythological accounts, and for the political staging of a specific form of ritual lay dance, the sakela. Making use of recent approaches in ritual studies which highlight ritual change, transfers, recontextualisation, instrumentalisation etc., the project will focus on ritual performances in two sub-projects carried out each by a postdoctoral researcher: 1) The sub-project "Ritual and Space" (Alban von Stockhausen) will examine the construction of an ancestral geography through the ritual tradition. It will look at the indigenous mappings of space as expressed in the domains of ritual action, mythological narration and social practice. 2) The sub-project "Ritual and Mimesis" (Marion Wettstein) will examine the construction of ethnic self-images through collective dances. Taking sakela performances as a multi-layered foundational (cosmological) `text`, the sub-project will document oral and gestural recitation, mimetic movement, and the performative contexts as a whole. Moreover, the change in the current context of political instrumentalisation will be analysed. Taken together and supplemented by a comparative study of Puma data from the Chintang and Puma Documentation Project (CPDP), the two sub-projects can be expected to result in detailed ethnographic studies with an emphasis on those features that are currently being most intensely instrumentalised by ethnic leaders in their search for identity and their demand for an autonomous Kiranti homeland. They will contribute substantially to a more comprehensive and comparative understanding of the rich but endangered ritual traditions in eastern Nepal.

The major result of this project is the detailled ethnographic documentation and comparative study of the ritual traditions among the Rai in Nepal (mainly the Dumi Rai and, to a lesser degree, the Puma Rai) under conditions of an increasing politicisation of ethnicity and identity. In order to understand current claims and strategies of ethnic activists and practitioners the focus was on two highly publicised domains of cultural practice: the shamanic rituals linked to the landscape and local territory, and the community dances which have become a major symbol of Rai identity. The subproject on Ritual and Space highlighted the construction of an ancestral geography through the practice of ritual journeys, performed by shamans and local priests. It could be shown that the routes of these journeys mark out and define an ancestral territory, which traditionally was largely mythic but today has become increasingly associated with political claims, expressed, for example, through the establishment of new pilgrimage practices. Moreover, it also became clear that the mythic journeys are highly varied, ranging from local ones on the village level to travels which reach distant places, such as in India. Thus a rather large ethnic landscape is construed which allows to define new identities. Likewise the subproject on Ritual and Mimesis, which examined the construction of ethnic self-images images in the dance performances, demonstrated a changing link between mythic ideas and contemporary practices of bodily movements. Rather than being simply an ancient ancestral tradition, the dances, which can be seen as social expressions of emotions, could be shown to have undergone rapid changes in recent times. They have become instrumentalised as markers of ethnic distinction, but they also have become expressions of a changing, modernising ethos, which increasingly permits romantic and erotic feelings. Similar developments as among the Dumi could be shown in the case of the Puma tradition. Thus the project as a whole documents the transforming modalities of an ethnic culture in Nepal, in which traditional ideas and practices are transmitted, modified, and used to construct a new ethnic identity and engage in a public presentation of claims to ethnic rights.