Posted by: JPEG June 8, 2009
Poll - What do you think about the expansion of Christianity in Nepal?
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As one scholar said "To begin with, the kipat system and the mundhum are traditionally
uncontested metaphors of Kirata culture. Similarly the worshiping of Tagera Nyingmaphuma
or the supreme deity was a pan-Kirata symbol. But with the abolition of kipat system and the simultaneous influence of Hinduism, these symbols have lost their strength considerably. Since
Tagera Nyingmaphuma, is often personified as Shiva, who is not only considered tribal God but
also one of the Hindu pantheon, he cannot be claimed by the Kiratas as their
exclusive God" ---Politics of Culture: A Study of Three Kirata Communities in
the Eastern Himalayas), 1999 by Tanka Bahadur Subba

What Subba is trying to say is since the pre-vedic religion and veda religion has intermingled and overlapped to such a point, that it is very difficult to separate the Hinduism.

Though practice such as Sivaism has been incorporated into Veda, there are still few
pre-vedic religion practices remaining in Nepal today and this can be seen in Kirat communities.
Here's some significants about Kiratas religions that have survived being incorporated into Veda.
While worshiping of nature(snakes, stones, etc has been incorporated into Veda) which relates to Sivaism, Kul Puja or Pitra(ancestors worship) and Ubhaul and Udhauli Puja(mother worship) have escape being incorporated into Veda somehow.

What is Kul puja?

Kul Puja is the worshiping of one’s ancestors.While there are variations in kul devota worship, these activities have one thing in common. They are a means of ensuring prosperity, good fortune, and appeasing the gods and ancestral spirits. Given the importance of the rites for the well-being of the descent group, it was the social obligation of every household that possesses the necessary resources to hold kul devota worship, to sponsor the ritual activities

What is Udhauli and Ubhauli Puja?

Udhauli puja is the worshiping of mother goddess. Udhauli means going down. It is believed that from this day the winter season starts. So people, birds and animal migrate from cold regions to warmer regions. This kind of migration occurs twice in a year. The celebration of migrating downwards during this season is called “Udhauli" and the celebration of migrating upwards during the season of Baisakh (April or May) is called “Ubhauli.
This has been going on since the dawn of the mankind which time is immemorial. In those times people were hunters and gatherers, living in caves and so on.
The Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Shukla Yajurveda refers to the Kiratas as cave dwellers.

Still today, animals and birds do the seasonal migration.

Later the Udhauli and Ubhauli Puja came to be known as Bhumi Puja when Kirat people shifted from being hunters and gatherers to agriculture.
This event is also called Worship of Land where Kirat people worship mother nature and earth asking for good cultivation of crops during the season of April( Ubhauli) where people starts to sow crops and thanking the god for giving good crops during harvesting before the cold seasons start to turn in (Udhauli). This event of Kirati people is stated in the Mundhum (holy book of Kirat people).

Why do the Kirat people burn Tetepati leaves at some of their religious function?

There were no incense in the early period. But the Tetepati leaves are from trees, and trees have been always been there since man was here on earth. That’s why Kiratis are nature worshipers.

Why do the Kirat people used wild bamboo containers to store wine and jaar?

Again there were no luxurious jar or glass containers to store wine and jaar(millet beer). Hence Kiratis made whatever nature gave them. Hence nature worshipers.

How come they don’t use all those religious offerings like Hindus do? why don't Kiratis put on the sacred thread as Hindu brahmins do?

Kiratas worshiped nature and ancestors. They also believed in animism hence they practices are simple and not complex that those of Veda religion. Again Hinduism was a new word given by the scholar to classified all the religion practices in Indian sub-continent. Hindusim= pre-vedic religion + Veda religion
Hence the formation of the Hinduism changed many practices from original practices.

The Vishnu Purana indicates that the "chatur-varna" or four class social system was absent in Kirat desh in the East and the Yavanas(Greek) and Kambojas(Iranian), etc. in the West. Hence Kirat ideology differed from the Vedic teachings again going back to pre-vedic teachings.

As the Kirat people in the beginning were rationalistic idolaters, they neither had temples, altars nor images, conceiving that none of these was necessary, but that the God resided in light and fire. Hence, they worshipped spirits whom they believe to be the residents of fire and the sun. So according to Sapji Mundhum, there are 19 spirits of two classes: the Good Spirit and the Bad Spirit.

Besides the Mundhum of Good and Evil spirits, the Kirat people believe in oracles. They believe in the inspiration of God's spirit in human body. When a person is inspired by the good spirit of God, he or she will be senseless for a while and when the sense returns, he or she will begin to speak oracles. He or she prophecies the good or bad results of a sickness or of projects of any man or woman who consults him/her. He or she recites all the Mundhums of the past days in his/her oracles. These oracles encourage people to do good work for the benefit of the others. They give good advice to people who believe it and direct them how to proceed to good path. They instruct people to use medicine for the recovery of sicknesses. They do not advise blood sacrifice; on the contrary, they instruct them to be pure in spirit, body and in their work. When the God's spirit goes away from his or her body, he or she will fall asleep for a while, but cannot remember what they had said before. This culture can be compared with the Delphi oracles of the Greeks or Yavans in ancient Greece, where the priestess after chewing the sacred bay and drinking water from the sacred spring took her seat on the tripod and uttered oracles.

This culture of animism of the Kirat people seems to have started a very long time back. Jack Finegan of Princeton University mentions in his book of the Archeology of World Religion that during the pre-Aryan period, the Indus Valley Civilization appeared to have much animism in the religion.
 

 LAW OF MARRIAGE
 
  1. (a) The matrimonial connection between father - daughter, mother - son, brother - sister should be prohibited. (b) There should not be any marriage between a step-brother and a step-sister. (c) The system of marrying cousins should also be stopped. (d) No one should break the blood relation from the father’s side. (e) The blood relation from mother’s side should be opened after the fourth generation only. He who violates the above rules will be killed by thunderbolt.  2. (a)  Young girls of a different blood should be bought for wives and their marriage should be solemnized through their priest and his witness would legalize the girl’s status as a legal wife of a legal husband. (b) The children born of an illegal wife or illegal husband will be illegal and they cannot have any rights to parental property. They will be under the disposal of their maternal uncle.  3. (a)  When a woman delivers a male child, she should be purified on the fourth day and the child should be named on the same day. (b) She should be purified on the third day if she bears a female child and the naming ceremony of the female child should be done on the same day.
                                                
DEATH RITES
 
Why do the Kirat communities bury their dead instead of cremating them in the ghats?

It is because it is the right thing to do. The Mundhum states that “God had made your body out of the earth and ashes and today your body is mixing with the earth again.
When a member of a family dies, the corpse should be washed and wrapped with a white shroud and put into a wooden coffin, “ Khong” and should be covered with, “Khuk” in such a way that the face of the corpse can be seen from outside. The head of the corpse should be exposed and be sheltered with a kind of cap or hat or umbrella, “Saklip”. The coffin should then be buried within a stone box under a four feet deep pit. All the mourning members who attend the burial ceremony should offer a last handful of earth to show their last respect to the dead person and the following should be chanted, “God had made your body out of the earth and ashes and today your body is mixing with the earth again.” After covering the pit with earth and stones, the grave should be piled up with four steps of stones for the man and three steps for the woman. A stone pillar should be erected in the middle of the grave. If the man is of high regard, his stone monument should be raised to eight or nine steps high in his honor.

When Aryans first saw the kirat-ashur people in India, they found them as enlightened like themselves and called them Devas or gods or civilized people. In the region of veda, it is mentioned that the deities in the main is conceived as humans. The names for gods appear in Sanskrit as Deva, meaning enlightened one. Another designation used for deity in Rig veda is Ashur or Assura. But in Yajur veda, Athar veda and subsequent Vedic literature, the Ashur-kirat people fought against the Aryans and therefore, they were thought as evils. They classified them as vratya – kshatriyas.

Regarding Yakshas or Yakkhas, the Archeology of World Religion mentions that the Archaeological Museum of Mathura has a statue of Yaksha or Yakka. It is said that it is the oldest known Indian stone sculpture and is eight feet, eight inches high. The Sanskrit word, “Yaksha” or, “Yakkha” was perhaps originally a non-Aryan or at any rate a popular designation signifying practically the same as the Aryan Deva.

The pre-vedic religions as seen is simple, revolving around nature, ancestors and spirits.
It's makes so much sense than the Vedic teachings which seems to make no logic.
There's no hassle and most importantly every human beings are treated and respected equally.

That's why we should better re-educate about Hinduism properly. If not it would be too late and
the last thing one needs to know about Hinduism would be in the museum.

Wake up folks!!! It's our religions that is facing danger now.




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