The Conflicting Relationships of Sherpas to Nature
Indigenous or Western Ecology?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v2i1.116Keywords:
Sherpa shaman, human-nature interactionAbstract
Based upon recent observations of the Sherpas’ attitudes towards ‘development’ and tourism, this paper attempts to question the parallel transformations of the ecological settings and representations of this ethnic group living in Northern Nepal. The religion and ecology of the Sherpas features a mix of Buddhism, Shamanism, and Animism. While the ecological views of Buddhism (especially aimed at the respect of living animals) have a modest but ongoing impact, the Sherpa shamanistic-animistic beliefs are vital elements of village life and daily human–nature interactions. The environment is ‘stuffed’ with spirits and other transient forces that reside in the physical environment. One might conclude that the Sherpas should be ecologically benevolent, but ethnographic data suggest
otherwise. The animistic manifestations in specific spaces are instructive of the fact that the Sherpas are key actors in the destruction of (spirited) forests because of rather than in spite of their religious beliefs. Yet they nevertheless adopt a language of conservation when speaking about their environment. This paper argues that the apparent contradictions between Sherpa beliefs and practices are owing both to their culture and to the result of development ideologies which parallel the opening of Nepal to a global economy. Sherpa conservation practices are ‘traditional’ as well as infused with Western ideas of sustainability, which the Sherpas have incorporated and reinterpreted.
References
Adams, Vincanne 1996 Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas: An Ethnography of Himalayan Encounters (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Allen, Michael (ed.) 1994 Anthropology of Nepal: Peoples, Problems and Processes (Kathmandu: Mandala Books).
Batchelor, Martine, and Kerry Brown (eds.) 1992 Buddhism and Ecology (London: Cassell).
Bharati, Agehananda 1978 ‘Actual and Ideal Himalayas: Hindu Views of the Mountains’, in J. Fischer (ed.), Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface (Paris, The Hague: Mouton Publishers): 77-82.
Bista, Dor Bahadur 1994 Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization (Himayat-nagar, India: Orient Longman, 6th edn).
Brower, Barbara 1991 Sherpa of Khumbu: People, Livestock, and Landscape (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
Campbell, Ben 2005 ‘Nature’s Discontents in Nepal’, Conservation and Society 3.2: 323-53.
Colchester, Marcus 2003 Nature Sauvage, Nature Sauvée? Peuples Autochtones, Aires Protégées et Conservation de la Biodiversité (WRM, WWF). Online: http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/PA/sauvage.html, accessed 5 May 2007.
Cox, Terry 1985 ‘Herding and Socio-Economic Change among the Khumbu Sherpas’, Kailash 12.1-2: 63-79.
David-Néel, Alexandra 1971 Magic and Mystery in Tibet (Baltimore: Penguin Books).
Descola, Philippe 2005 Par Delà Nature et Culture (Paris: Gallimard).
Fischer, James 1990 Sherpas: Reflection on Change in Himalayan Nepal (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press).
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph Von 1964 The Sherpas of Nepal: Buddhist Highlanders (London: Butler & Tanner).
The Sherpas Transformed: Social Change in a Buddhist Society of Nepal (New Delhi: Sterling).
Geertz, Clifford 1993 ‘Religion as Cultural System’, in his The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (London: Fontana Press): 87-125.
Gellner, David 1997 ‘Tibetan Pride of Place: Or, Why Nepal’s Bhotiyas are not an Ethnic Group’, in D. Gellner, J. Pfaff-Czarnecka, and J. Whelpton (eds.), Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers): 379-413.
‘What is the Anthropology of Buddhism About?’, in The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism, Weberian Themes (New York, New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 45-60.
Ghimire, S., D. McKey, and Y. Aumeeruddy-Thomas 2004 ‘Heterogeneity in Ethnoecological Knowledge and Management of Medicinal Plants in the Himalayas of Nepal: Implications for Conservation’, Ecology and Society 9.3. Online: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art6/, accessed 5 May 2007.
Gurung, S.M. 1994 ‘Historical Dynamics of Resource Degradation in the Nepal Himalayas’, in Allen 1994: 82-96.
Hitchcock, John T., and Rex Jones (eds.) 1976 Spirit Possession in the Nepal Himalayas (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing).
Johnston, Lucas 2006 ‘The “Nature” of Buddhism: A Survey of Relevant Literature and Themes’, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 10.1: 69-99. doi:10.1163/156853506776114456
Karan, Pradyumna P., and Hiroshi Ishii 1996 Nepal: A Himalayan Kingdom in Transition (Tokyo, New York, Paris: United Nations University Press).
Kunwar, Ramesh R. 1999 Fire of Himal: An Anthropological Study of the Sherpas of Nepal Himalayan Region (New Delhi: Nirala Publications, 2nd edn).
Luger, Kurt 2000 Kids of Khumbu: Sherpa Youth on the Modernity Trail (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point/Eco Himal-Publications).
MacLeod, Donald V.L. 2001 ‘Parks or People? National Parks and the Case of Del Este, Dominican Republic’, Progress in Development Studies 1.3: 221-35.
Miller, Casper J. 1997 Faith-Healers in the Himalayas (Delhi: Book Faith India).
Müller-Böker, U., and M. Kolmair 2000 ‘Livelihood Strategies and Local Perceptions of a New Nature Conservation Project in Nepal: The Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project’, Mountain Research and Development 20.4: 324-31. doi:10.1659/0276-4741(2000)020[0324:LSALPO]2.0.CO;2
Nepali, Rohit K. 1993 ‘Culturally Appropriate Development: An Anthropological Study of Villages in Eastern Nepal’, in C. Ramble and M. Brauen (eds.), Proceedings of the International Seminar on the Anthropology of the Tibet and the Himalaya (Zurich, Ethnological Museum of the University of Zurich): 238-47.
Obadia, Lionel 2004 ‘“No King”, “No Drink”, “Power to the People”: Rébellion Maoïste et Conduites d’Alcoolisation dans le Népal Contemporain’, Socio-anthropologie 15: 99-114.
Ortner, Sherry 1973a ‘On Key Symbols’, American Anthropologist 75.5: 1338-46. doi:10.1525/aa.1973.75.5.02a00100
b ‘Sherpa Purity’, American Anthropologist 75.1: 49-63. doi:10.1525/aa.1973.75.1.02a00030
Sherpas through their Rituals (Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press).
High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
‘The Case of the Disappearing Shamans, or No Individualism, No Relationalism’, in D. Skinner, A. Pach III, and D. Holland (eds.), Selves in Time and Place: Identities, Experience, and History in Nepal (Lanham, MD; Boulder, CO; New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield): 239-67.
Paul, Robert 1976 ‘Some Observations on Sherpa Shamanism’, in Hitchcock and Jones 1976: 141-51.
‘Dumje: Paradox and Resolution in Sherpa Ritual Symbolism’, American Anthropologist 6.2: 274-304.
Pigg, Stacey L. 1995 ‘The Social Symbolism of Healing in Nepal’, Ethnology 34.1: 17-36. doi:10.2307/3773861
‘The Credible and the Credulous: The Question of “Villagers’ Beliefs” in Nepal’, Cultural Anthropology 11.2: 160-201. doi:10.1525/can.1996.11.2.02a00020
Pradhan, Rajendra 2002 ‘Ethnicity, Caste and a Pluralist Society’, in K.M. Dixit and S. Ramachandaran (eds.), State of Nepal (Lalitpur, Nepal: Himal Books): 1-21.
Rogers, Paul, and John Aitchison 1998 Towards Sustainable Tourism in the Everest Region of Nepal (Kathmandu: IUCN Nepal).
Samuel, Geoffrey 1993 Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies (Washington, DC; London: Smithsonian Institution Press).
Stevens, Stanley F. 1993 Claiming the High Ground: Sherpas, Subsistence, and Environmental Change in the Highest Himalaya (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Tucker, Mary Evelyn, and Duncan Ryuken Williams (eds.) 1997 Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Tylor, Edward B. 1873 Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom (London: John Murray, 2nd edn).
WWF 2007 Sustainable Livelihoods: Building on Good Governance: A Case Study on the Interlinkages between Conservation, Livelihoods and Good Governance Practices in Dolpa, Nepal (Kathmandu: WWF Nepal).
