A rich cultural heritage

Nepal’s geographic and ecological diversity is as vast as its topography. Within a compact territory between two big neighbors, Nepal features nearly every type of global climate and vegetation. The country is home to the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, standing at 8,848.86 meters above sea level. At the other extreme, the landscape drops to as low as 200 feet above the sea level in Dhaijan, Jhapa, located in the easternmost part of the country bordering India. This striking contrast highlights the exceptional ecological and geographical variety that Nepal encompasses.

The topological variation has been the contributing factor in the cropping of the diversified races of people within the country. One of the squarely predominant races of people of Nepal are the Newars who had and have yet eminently sacrificed generation after generation for the making and growth of Newar heritage worthy to contribute in establishing several world heritage sites in Kathmandu valley alone.

The Newars are a community in Nepal, composed of both Mongoloid and Aryan ancestry. It is believed that those who trace their origins to the northern regions of Nepal are of Mongoloid descent, while those from the Indo-Gangetic plains are of Aryan heritage. There is also a prevailing belief that the Jyapus of the Kathmandu Valley and the Dhimals of eastern Tarai share a common origin. The Dhimals hold the belief that a branch of their community migrated from the eastern plains to the Kathmandu Valley, contributing to the formation of the Jyapu community. However, there is also a possibility that a group of Jyapus migrated eastward to the plains. The more widely accepted view, however, aligns with the Dhimal’s belief that the Mongoloid people migrated from the northern belt to the valley, shaping both communities.

The Newars, compounded with multiple casts and creeds divided into occupational groups, had established the specific identity with an enormous wealth of cultural heritage both in terms of tangible and intangible culture.

The tangible cultural treasures like structural designs encompassing settlements, houses, palatial structures, temples, the stupas monasteries, water spouts, dug wells both deep and shallow ones, Jibus (the platforms for performing arts), color combination in murals, frescos, paintings and Thankas, indigenously traditional skills and craftsmanship used in potteries, stone and wood carvings, metal crafts, remarkable accessories of life used in all different events of life giving moments are being accepted as invaluable human heritage. 

Intangible, yet, adhered in all tangible modes of Newar heritage: the philosophy of life,

value orientation, normative conceptions, and belief systems which grossly give impetus in all domains of life have remained the basic building blocks of cultural heritage throughout the ages and for all the time to come. And the cultural heritage that has been inherited from generations to generations has turned into cultural heritage. In this sense, culture bears the phenomenon of heritage and the heritage of the culture. Under the domain of cultural heritage, Newar cultural ecstasy could well be sensed through audio instruments, visual performances, oral testing and physical being together as well.

Each mode of cultural behavior and conduct bears serious philosophical impact on the Newar lifestyle. In other words, multiple aspects of intangible heritage are profoundly engraved into the tangible norms and values attached to the beings of the Newar heritage. Early in the morning, the juniors would pay regard to the seniors by bowing down to their feet. As the juniors would do so the bride does the same to the grooms. In absence of the know-how of the philosophical values attached to the practice of bowing down, one might consider them the symbols of domestic tyranny or male domination. But the fact of the matter would remain away from truth. Neither bowing down to the feet mean male domination nor submission. The implication that the practice casts upon societal value has a serious meaning. It bears the symbolic implication to the preparedness in extending mental support over the significant steps taken either by the husband in case of wives and/or in case of the juniors to the superiors. Life is a movement needing support of many in several ways.

The feet are the organs of the human body to make the body move to a destiny. With the help of the feet, we tend to carry ourselves to a certain destiny we assert ourselves to. The feet are the bodily organic mechanism to make ourselves capable of carrying or moving toward destiny. And it is all but symbolic to pay regard to the seniors by bowing down the feet. Regards and honors are expressed in terms of bowing down to the feet of the seniors and the honorables in the form of cultural practice. 

Sincere homage is also paid to the demised souls through offering of the Pinda,  an oval-shaped ball of wheat flour coated in black sesame seeds quite symbolic of the embryo inside the womb of a mother or a pregnant woman. As all Hindus believe in the cyclical process of birth and rebirth, so do the Newars—in incarnation and reincarnation. The values and beliefs rooted in such a philosophy need profound and serious analysis.

Cultural heritage is adopted by the practitioners either through a process of thorough understanding of the philosophical concept and symbolic meaning attached to them or without understanding them even. Philosophy without practice and practice without philosophy may not exist in any society, yet it is hard for everybody to keep a neat sense of the concept that one might even be practicing. The need for giving expression to the underlying meaning attached in them, thus, becomes an incredibly immense task.

As is the case with most of the cultural concerns, so is with the Newar culture that the symbols play a central role in interpreting the philosophical and conceptual bearing upon them. The philosophies of life and conceptual values have mostly been reflected through the symbols or the symbolic designs. The symbolic designs have mostly remained like an exquisite piece of artifact or even as simple as a log or a stone block. It could be glanced through a symbolic prism wherein one can enjoy a connoisseur's test. In most cases, the Ganesh or the Bhairav have remained in the form of a rock, a boulder or a stone block. The insider participants can without hesitation make sense of them. Thus a boulder would remain the symbolic presentation of the Ganesh or the Bhairav.

Cultural image and symbol could thus be created upon an object of nature either through carvings, paintings, crafts or even in abstract form. And cultural objects take turn in a noble piece of craftsmanship popularly accepted and adopted by the cultural participants irrespective of insiders or outsiders. Logically convincing or convincingly logical, proven scientific or scientifically proven interpretation and reinterpretation of the cultural objects or phenomena adds lively flavor on the human heritage of a given culture. Culture changes with time, innovation and interpretations that make sense. Likewise, the ecological impact on the Nepali hat the Topi bears a deep sense of meaning that reflects the mountain ecology. The Nepali black hat, Bhadgaunle Topi which has remained a marvelous piece of Nepali costume, bears a symbolic design after the mountaintop. The hat is designed after the dark rocky mountain top so as to reflect the ecological impact on it. The multi-coloured hat worn by most of the Nepalis has been designed after the summer peaks covered with beautiful wildflowers, projecting a very beautiful image of the country internationally.