Understanding the Chepangs and Shifting Cultivation: A Case Study from Rural Village of Central Nepal

Abstract

This article attempts to seek the understanding and perception of Chepang on the practices of khoriya cultivation. It tries to explain the relationship of Chepang people to their traditional khoriya land by assessing the socio-cultural and economic importance in their life. Chepang’s indigenousness is closely connected to khoriya cultivation and the land is their ethnic and indigenous identity. The practices of shifting cultivation have to be understood holistically within the domain of social and cultural analysis. However, their relationship to their khoriya land and the agricultural practice cannot be understood only in measurable indicators and specific manners. For Chepang, shifting cultivation is a good ecological adaptation to their surrounding environmental settings based on indigenous knowledge and skills developed in the particular geographical setting on basis of trial and error. To understand culture, history and everyday life of the Chepang, knowing all about their traditional agricultural practice i.e. shifting cultivation is very significant.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v5i0.6367

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 5, 2011: 247-62