Panel 8 papers
”Representing Local Histories in the Himalayas”
convened by Martin Gaenszle and Gisèle Krauskopff
(sponsored by the European Bulletin of Himalayan Research)

In 1980, the Shin tribal elder Haréq told Manzar Zarin that the Darmá lineage of Kohistani Shins originally migrated from Chilas to Palas and Jalkot in Indus Kohistan, at a time when the Sikhs ruled these valleys and the region still lay in darkness, i.e., the light of Islam had not reached it. According to Haréq, the Palas Valley was then ruled by a Sikh named Dam Sing, and the Jalkot Valley by a Sikh named Bóti.

Razwal Kohistani has recorded another version of the same story, which mentions that Bóti Sing used to collect taxes from as far away as Sunaáki [the Shina-speaking region above Seo]. According to Kohistani, Bóti was not a Sikh (but neither does he seem to have been a Muslim, as according to both versions of the story, the first Shins to convert to Islam were Tóolo and Dodoóko, who killed Dam Sing and Bóti Sing.) The motives of Tóolo and Dodoóko are variously cited: according to Haréq, Tóolo and Dodoóko wanted to remove the Sikhs and introduce Islam. According to Kohistani, Tóolo and Dodoóko were taking revenge for their father Darákan, who was killed by Dam Sing for failing to pay taxes.

This founding myth of the Darmá Shins addresses some of the questions that ethnohistorians have long sought to answer: Where have the Shina-speakers of Indus Kohistan migrated from? When was the region converted to Islam, and what was the previous religion? Where do they fit into the history of the wider region?

How far is it possible to bring these events into the light of history? This paper compares both versions of the founding myth of the Darmá Shins, and examines it from the perspective of of 19^th century British sources, as well as that of modern anthropological research.

Finally I shall discuss comparative linguistic evidence from several Shina dialects and discuss the extent to which this can tell us anything about the migrations of the Shina speakers.

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The deeds of Turqhuli at Catorkhan: valour and cunning as proofs of royal descent in the local history of Hispar (Nager, Karakoram)
Hugh van Skyhawk, Mainz

In the traditions of numerous small ethnic groups and castes from Afghanistan to India the undeserved adversities of the present are often contrasted with the glories of a heroic past. Either the son of the king must flee from injustice or in order to expiate his own wrongdoing. Thereafter, his descendents become marginal men, either as impoverished wanderers or menial servants with low social status. In view of the frequency with which this theme occurs, such traditions might be seen as attempts to restore the dignity and self-respect of a group in their present social context rather than as a narration of historical events. However, a tradition which reflects a high degree of internal consistency and dense correspondance to historical facts tends to overlap the Procrustean confines of the motif-index approach to interpretation. Moreover, distiguishing true claims to royal descent from wishful thinking is not a new problem in the history of the Karakorum or anywhere else. In the "Deeds of Turqhuli at Catorkhan" I intend to show how a fugitive prince proved his claims to royal descent in medieval Gilgit.

Local and Worldly Archaeologies: Making History with the Gurung/Tamu-mai
Christopher Evans and Judith Pettigrew, Cambridge

This contribution will outline the scope and context of the University of Cambridge's Kohla Project - a programme of archaeological survey and excavation investigating Gurung (Tamu) ancestral villages in the Annapurna Himal in West Central Nepal. Effectively, commissioned by the Tamu Pye Lhu Sangh religious and cultural organisation (endorsed by other Gurung organisations), the fieldwork occurs within a broader context of ethno-historical and anthropological research and, while outstanding archaeological discoveries have been made (raising issues of World Heritage protection), documenting the construction of the past in the present viz. local identities is considered to be an equally important objective.

Undertaking such research brings the issue of subjectivities to the fore and an underlying theme is the relationship to 'Science'. At what point - if ever - does archaeology become independent of its ethno-social context? How, for example, is diverse evidence ranging from palaeo-botanical studies and radiocarbon dating through to local ascriptions and interpretations based on shamanic ‘oral texts’ weighted up and by whom? Closely related to this question is the interrelationship between local, national and international interests. Each represents different agendas that variously interweave and diverge, and local context and international interest have, in some respects, stronger affinities than the national.

Rethinking history through the process of creating a new community: the Kirant of East Himalaya
Grégoire Schlemmer, Paris

Kirant is an ethnic label applied to a group of tribes sharing specific traditions, who where integrated by force in the Nepal state two hundred and fifty years ago. They were subjected to these political and cultural control and assimilation up to the nineties, the date of of the establishment of democracy and freedom of expression in Nepal. From this time on, indigenist movements began to flourish all over the country.

In Nepal, Hinduism, Monarchy and Nepali language are usually described as the main ? of the nation. But it is possible to add a fourth one, i.e.: the existence of an History. Lacking the evidence that they have their own, Kirant indigenist intellectuals try to settle all these prestigious characteristics in a process to build up themselves as a dignified nation. Gleaning in Nepalese, Indian, and Occidental as well as their own community's sources, theses intellectuals gathered information and organised it according to a pre-established temporal and logic pattern : a sort of scientific model, but with surprising methods like the use of doubtful etymologies, as those linking Kirant to Sumerians). The structure of such an history is not far from the mythological one. These stories create antique and prestigious origins, around Kings and martyrs. They also offer a proper and respectable religion (based on a specific script), which forms the basis of their 'traditional' knowledge and power. Some of theses points show similarities with messianic ovements, and as often in such movements, it is associated with a political project: ideally to (re)create an independent Kirant state. Wishing to compete with (or at least to gain as much respectability as) the Nepalese nation, Kirant intellectuals borrowed their oponent's weapons to adjust their own culture to the national model. By doing so, they distort their own tradition, and invent a new one, far from villages' realities. One could perceive such reconstruction of culture and history as artificial and ideological ones, but it is not so simple an issue. The Kirant culture is exemplifying its own ability to change its own logical processes, and Kirant intellectuals are justified in claiming their right to build a new vision of their society. It is this complex process I would like to deal with through an analysis of the building processes of history in the villages culture as well as in indigenists' movements.

Migration and Necklaces:Oral Historical Genres among the Apatani of Arunachal Pradesh
Stuart Blackburn, London

Representations of history are based on conceptualisations of history, and prominent among concepts of history are oral genres that are believed to tell the truth about the past. For the Apatani, a Tibeto-Burman people of approximately 25,000 living on a high plateau in Arunachal Pradesh, India, the oral imaginative world is divided into two genres: 'ritual' and 'historical' . Historical texts include migration legends, which narrate the movement of the Apatani and related groups from Mongolia, through Tibet, across the Himalayas and into their present homes. Ritual texts, such as chanting at sacrifices, also include some stories of the past. A recurring motif in many stories is a necklace. Necklaces, all twelve different types, are the only assets controlled by women, are thought to come from Tibet and are highly valued. In this paper (illustrated with slides), I will describe these stories of migration and necklaces, setting them against the historiographical record and exploring the cultural significance of necklaces as both narrative image and physical object.

Traveling Gods and Political Location:
Reading three historical records of ’Bras ljongs (Sikkim, India)
Brigitte Steinmann, Montpellier

Three historical records help us to understand how the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim or ’Bras ljongs was created in the 17th century, how it was established as a sacred kingdom and how, finally, it declined and fell, being annexed to the Indian State in 1974 ; these are :

1) The ’Bras-ljongs rgyal-rabs, or History of the Kingdom of Sikkim, written by the 9th and last Chos-rgyal, Thutob Namgyal and Yeshe Dolma (1860-1914).

2) A rgyal-rabs composed by ’Jigs-med dPa-’bo, 2^nd incarnation of lHa-bTsun Chen-po, the spiritual master of the Chos-rgyal Phyag-rdor rNam-rgyal (1686-1717). This rgyal-rabs relates the history of the most prestigious lineages of the Sikkimese Lho-po who live on the territory of Pemayangtse. It was put to fire during the revolution, before being recomposed.

3) A popular history of Sikkim, written in the local language, lho-skad, entitled « ’Bras-ljongs chags-rabs ». This record tells also about the history of the settlement of the different populations of Sikkim, the wars and the different administrative reforms which shaped the country in its actual frontiers.

The bulk of these texts is composed of stories, legends, anecdotes and excerpts of gnas-yig and gter-ma. They are refered to in different ways by both the priests and the people, as the « History of ’Bras ljongs ».

We rely on excerpts of these records to describe how an organized body of priests could maintain his control over the three main communities of Sikkim, viz. the so called « natives » Lho-Mon-Tsong or « Bhotias, Lepchas and Limbus ». Considering these sources as real historiographies, we can decipher the process of constitution of a modern « identity » of the Sikkimese subjects (promulgation in 1961 of the « Sikkim Subject Act ») through their inexorable absorption into the Indian Nation. We can read the history of the internal wars between the communities progressively deprived of their lands ; and the political strategies outside, between the landlords (kazi, mandal, zamindar) and the colonizers, which turned the country into a British protectorate (1890). We can understand finally how this land was destined to the promotion of exotic tribals and to a policy of mass tourism spreading in the very core of what was considered earlier as the most hidden place of ’Bras ljongs.

"'The Hero with the Thousand Eyes': Locality and Translocality in a Modern Bhutanese Historical Novel".
Christoph Emmrich, Heidelberg

The paper deals with a novel by the Bhutanese civil servant Karma Ura on the life of a court attendant of 'Jigs-med dBang-phyug and 'Jigs-med rDorje dBang-phyug, the 2. and 3. 'brug rgyal (King of Bhutan) respectively. The novel thematizes the historical relationship between the mobility of the royal court in its historical transfer from Central to Western Bhutan and in the recurring seasonal changes of the seat of the royal government between Thimphu and Punakha on the one hand and the relevant local communities on the other. It describes this situation documenting the mid-20th century historical setup and shedding light on divergent local traditions while attempting to construct a specifically Bhutanese narrative. The paper will try to contextualize these aspects of the novel firstly by focussing on the role of the rdzong (monastic fortress), a constructed locality which functions as a medium owing to its local and translocal characteristics, and secondly by analyzing the role of local spaces and local genealogies in contemporary and classical hagiographical and historiographical Bhutanese literature.

My Kind of Variously Local Pokhara
Pratyoush Onta, Kathmandu

Local histories are narrative constructs. As a social product, such constructs are fashioned by the agency of the narrative producer. Such a producer can be a tourist, a historian, a social commentator, a media researcher and a research forum manager. Alternatively he can be a spouse, a brother-in-law, a son-in-law, a colleague and a friend of 'local natives'. The relationships between the narrative producer in any of his above capacities and the 'locality' of his construct are reflected both in the constitution of his agency and its execution during the act of narrative production. Paying attention to such relationships is therefore one way to understand the dynamics of representation in variously local histories. In this paper, I offer a history of Pokhara from a personal point of view (that encompasses all the categories mentioned above) to bring attention to these dynamics.

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