Returned to sajha after a long time.. Anyway.. I have no problem whatsoever if a person (e.g., not just Shiva Shrestha, but also Sachchit Shamsher, Bharat Keshar, Sharad Chandra Shah, Tulsi Giri, Jagat Gauchan... any other ABC perso or even Isolated Freak) says it's their "culture" to bow down to the King, Queen, or Paras the way Shiva is doing here on the picture. As long as they limit such practices to themselves or the followers who are happy to being patronized is fine, but my point here is what the people like Bharat Keshar and Sharad Chandra Shah are upto these days? They do it by choice, but I find it appalling that some people here in the thread ignored the fact that the very feudal people like Bharat Keshar, metaphorically speaking if you will, have used the same concept to COERCE other Nepali to practice the similar acts in the name of 'culture' in the past (i.e., Rana and Panchayat Periods). And, this is where, I think, the problem lies. There no need to discuss how practicing such things would put the person in high moral (the benefits associated with it), and how anyone who opposed to such feudal practices had to run for their life. Look no further than Taleban?s moral policing as the worst example of such feudal, coercive cultural practices. As much as anthropologists indulge the cultural relativity on observing certain practices, NO anthropologists that we know or read of, take my words on this, can accept or valorize for that matter, any COERCIVE cultural practice as the standards of certain cultural groups. One is, however, free to argue about the fine line between what defines a coerced practice. Monarchists best bet would be to get Shaubhagya Shah, an un-orthodox anthropologist, on this. Having said that, if anyone wants to suggest others to read anthropological literature to have so-called ?cultural sensitivity? toward own?s culture (i.e., suggesting Anil to be sensitive to understand his own Nepali, not any other specific ethnic groups culture) s/he has to do much better job than listing some outdated concepts and the book ?patterns of culture? of Ruth Benedict: these are mostly dealt in ANTH101 and some ?history of anthropological theories?. Anthropology has come a long way since the context of World War II, which prompted Ruth to write the book. Interestingly, what many readers do not know is that Ruth was allegedly hired by the US Army to write about complex Japanese cultures, including their toilet training. But that?s besides the point here on this thread. On a side note, I don?t think one can put the bowing down to the royals in the same level as the bowing down to husband or gurus like Sai Baba. The cultural meanings of their bowing down are entirely different. Here is an example: