Inhabited by Chepang people, Jhamrung village is the site of my research. It lies in
Bhumlichock VDC of Gorkha district. Gorkha is the hilly region of the central Nepal.
Bhumlichock lies just opposite to Jogimara VDC of Dhading district. To reach
Jogimara it takes three hours by bus from Kathamandu. Jhamrung village can be
reached via a cable bridge across the Trishuli River which flows along the Prithivi
Highway and a steep climb of about one hour. The village has twenty two households.
Hodgson (1848) says that amid the dense forests of central Nepal, Chepang and
Kusunda tribes live nearly in a state of nature. They are living in the upper hills of
central parts of the country making respectful relationship with the nature.
The region where the Chepang traditionally live and continue to do so today, consists
of the southern part of Dhading district, the western part of Makawanpur, the northern
part of Chitwan and the southern part of Gorkha. They live in small, isolated
settlements along the steeper slopes of the Mahabharat range at elevations of 500 to
1200m (Bista, 1967: 118). They also live in the upper hills of Lamjung and Tanahun
districts of central Nepal (NCA and SNV, 2008). With changing political economy in
the country they couldn’t remain in isolation as pointed by Bista though they have
their own language, culture and economic activities. I discuss the linkage of Chepang
with national and world economy after my delineation about Chepang’s language,
education, economic activities and marriage.
“Chepangs make a distinction between the economic groups, those who have
developed a purely agricultural and others who still partly depend on food gathering,
hunting and fishing” Bista (1967:120). The former is known as the Pukunthali and the
latter the Kachhare Chepangs. In reality, this distinction seems based on other aspects
as well and now days the impression in both depends on shifting cultivation and