Posted by: Bob Marley June 29, 2009
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Nepe Ji
The sources on your website are of Sharma and Bista (I'm guessing Lok Bahadur Bista who wrote "People of Nepal" from the 60s). I've been researching extensively about those region and have to say that Sharma (or your website) is very wrong to say Bahra Gaun (12 villages) include all of the Mustang.
Western Scholars from the early 1900 (Michel Peissel, Guiseppe Tucci and many more) makes a clear distinction of Upper Mustang and Lower Mustang (aka 12 villages). Please refer to the sources below. So when NEFIN lists "12 villages" under Himalayan Indigenous Nationalities, it is EXCLUDING the upper Mustang and particularly the capital of Mustang, Lo-Manthang. How bad is that? Forget about the Manangi issue right now. 12 villages is NOT the whole Mustang, just the lower Mustang.
Just because these people are poor in terms of political and economic status does not mean we'll have to exclude them, unlike Sherpas and Thakali.
Hope you'll bring these to the table at the ANA conference that
a) 12 village is NOT the whole Mustang. Either name everybody as "Mustangi" or add "Lo" to represent the upper Mustang to your list.
b) And Manangi are different than the Mustangis as I've explained earlier in my postings.
c) Remove 3 variety of Thakali from the list and include Manangi instead.
Sources:
1.The Mollas Of Mustang - David P. Jackson (1984)
2. Mustang, The Forbidden Kingdom - Michel Peissel (1967) (not to confuse with many magazines, videos with the same titles)
3. Journey To Mustang - Guiseppe Tucci (1952)
Good Luck with your presentation.
Last edited: 29-Jun-09 01:06 PM