source: Dabu

address: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/7771/dabu/

Dabuu is a quarterly newsletter of the Nepa Pasa Puchah and is dedicated
to communicating and highlighting the activities of the NPPA. It also provides
a forum to exchange social, cultural and educational activities of the
Newa community. We invite you to write articles and letter to the editor.

Editors: Dr. Tulsi R. Maharjan, Ellen Lindemann

Editorial Representatives: Dr. Devendra Amatya, Ms. Neeva Pradhan,
Ms. Sarita Malakar,
Mr. Daya Shakya,
Mr. Raju Tamrakar

Newari
Children Books

by Amulya Tuladhar

I have the pleasure to bring to the notice of those adults and children
trying to inculcate some culture into our children while getting overwhelmed
by the big TV culture of America.

On a recent visit to Nepal, I bought some wonderful children books to
teach NEWARI language, NEWARI values, NEWARI discursive referents, and
generally to reproduce NEWARI culture. I have been trying to teach my 4
year old daughter some NEWARI while paging through some comic book like
illustrations and nursery rhymes and have been lost in the sweet nostalgia
of old familiar tales that I am doing most of the reading than my daughter.
I have not read all but I recommend all interested in NEWARI culture to
read and enjoy the really pure NEWARI idioms that are so enjoyably deployed
in these books.

1. "Nepayagu pulan bakhan"
[Old Stories of Nepal] by Karunakar Vaidya part III

This is a collection of some 15 traditional stories we grew up with
to shape our values, world view, ethics, etc. Here are some example titles:


a. paju wo bhincha [uncle and nephew]

b. hwen khen dhoma wo gwasi daju [the match making matron..]

c. tiri maiicha [Cute Little Girl]

2. part 5: (26 short stories such as) :

a. nag wo jyapu [the snake & the farmer]

b. kwo wo bwo [the crow and the crane]

c. pyama gajigulu pasa pin [four stoned friends]

d. machaya insaf [the child's justice]

3. Folk tales of Nepal, (part 6, 21 stories)

a. dhwon cholecha ya bakhan [story of the shepherd]

b. kaka ju ya bakhan [story of the uncle]

c. kan, khu, dhusi yagu bakhan [of lame, deaf, and blind]

d. kala dya napalagu [meeting the death god] f. pyema khunta [the four
thieves]

4. Nepal bhasa gwo akha safu: nigugu

This is a do-it-yourself introduction to NEWARI letters and numbers,
a "varna mala" designed for KG level by Bishnu Chitrakar
and illustrated by Sharad Shakya and computer printed by JuJu Tuladhar.
The book taught me the correct NEWARI way to count 1,2,3 as "chi,
nasi, swo, pi..*' all the way to 100 "guisanha". The book
also introduces the children to the real NEWARI script, many of whom are
only exposed to the devanagari script. These scripts are beautiful Ranjana
lipi and nepali lipi, two of the more common among more than 14 variants,
supposedly used as distinctively nepali script to win membership to UN.
This book also has short nursery rhymes.

5. "Chankha ma chakhuncha"
[The Clever Sparrow] by Shyam Lal Shreshta published by Nepal Lipi Guthi
[Nepal script trust]. A delightful comic book type in black and white line
drawing with references to NEWARI scenes of jyapu and kharpan, NEWARI houses
with tile roofs and tikijhya or latticed windows, I must admit that it
is difficult to persuade my daughter to be interested for more than a few
pages with perked up purple commercial monster,Barney, on the a PBS...

6. "macha kyaba" [the
children's garden] This is another delighful children book with nursery
rhymes such as "imu wo mari" [the ant and the bread] illustrated
in musical score, do-it-yourself stories with sequence of pictures, short
intro to river Bishnumati, introduction about the great chinese wall, the
spiny anteater etc. obviously for first grader or above.

7. 'bhya-cha dyo" published
by Nilkanth Shrestha, the pictorially illustrated "comic book' type
book of the folk story of the origin of cross section between Indra Chowk
and Kila Gal. Again delightful language that connects NEWARI kids to the
place, how Newars are attached to the Kathmandu Valley.

8. "dhwo cholencha" another
pictorially illustrated favorite story of animal love, cruel stepmother,
greedy half sister, kind animals, coals and spits that speak, and the origin
of NEWARI idiom, "ma ya samaa, samaaa mhya ya kanla, kanla"

9. "jatak" the story of
the monkey and the crocodile, humours shows how the presence of mind saves
the monkey from the crocs, delicious is the language with which wife croc
speaks to hubby croc "ya yejju, jita wa maka ya nuga syen nayagu ichcha
jugu ta da he de dhunkala" [oh my darling, it has been a long time
I have been wanting to munch that monkey's heart}."

10. "hasi mala ma macha" a
pictorial comic book format folk story the picturesand the print are crude,
what can you expect for publishing only 4000 copies at Rs 4 a copy?

11. "chakhun chiya tangu kaygu" [the
lost pea of the sparrow" another comic book format story.

12."maha satwo" [super
compassionate] one of the favorite stories my mother used to tell me about
a prince who cuts his own flesh to feed a starving tiger to weak to give
milk to her cubs. One of my fantasies is to be eaten by a tiger, so romantic
way of dying...

13. "kata maricha' [the doll
} a collection of 58 NEWARI nursery rhymes a must compiled by Dr. Kumar
Bahadur Jjoshi. It has songs to sooth children when crying, songs to teach
them about birds, about sharing, about bathing, about toddling you name
it, it is there, absolute gem.

14. "surat bajra" the
story of the mythological NEWARI scientist who could do what modern satellites
do now remotely sense that his house was on fire when he was conferring
in Tibet and dousing it with his spit, my inspiration for remote sensing
Himali environment from USA.

15. "Ti bhi bhin kaye yasa dwa dwan wa"
a story of monsters and demons

16. "luti maye ju" about
the great grandmother goddess who had many children but was very poor.
She is humiliated for her poverty.

17. "makha pikha" (the
cobweb), about a king who gets an ear infection with cobweb until a clever
but a lazy boy cures him.

18. "jhigu bakhan" [our
story] a modern story about cleanliness hygience, carpet labor, pollution,
congestion,urban living.

19. "shilu" the celebrated
story also made into a NEWARI movie is about an obstinate woman who insists
on accompanying her husband to Gosaikund although there is a taboo against
it

20. "taleju" another pictorial
comic book format of the story of goddess Taleju in Hanuman Dhoka where
hundreds of animal sacrifices are made on the nawami of Vijay Dashami.

21."kata mari cha ya bivah"
[the marriage of the doll]] Comic.