68
■Article■
Adaptation
of the Gandharbas
to Growing
International
Tourism
in Nepal
●
I zumi Morimoto
1. Introduction
Nepal has attracted international tourists since its government officially opened the country to the world in the 1950s. International tourism has been developing and has become one of the most important industries in this country. The purpose of this study is to investigate the adaptation of the local people to recent growth of international tourism in Nepal. The main focus is on socio-economic and cultural changes taking place in a musical caste group Gandharbas, generally known as Gaine, who mi-grated to Kathmandu to seek better economic opportunities from tour-ism)) The Gandharbas, a small group considered to be one of the lower castes, have been recognized as musicians in Nepalese society for hun-dreds of years. These people would travel around villages playing music and spreading news for their living. However, the wide exposure of Nepalese society to the outside world and vice versa over the past few decades have had an immense impact on the life and activities of the Gandharbas.
森本 泉 Izumi Morimoto, the Faculty of International Study, Meijigakuin Univer-sity.
Subject : Human Geography.
Articles : "Activities of Ethnic Entrepreneurs in the Formation of a Regional Tourist Area in Pokhara, Nepal", Geographical Review of Japan, Vol. 71 (Ser. A), pp. 272-293, 1998. "The Commoditization of Culture and Tibetan Identity in International Tour-ism: A Case of a Tibetan Family in Pokhara, Nepal", Ningenbunka Ronsou, Ochanomizu University, No. 1, pp. 35-43,1999.
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 69 Studying the socio-economic and cultural influence of international tourism on the Gandharbas is important for the following reason. Previ-ous studies focusing on recent internal migration and development of international tourism in Nepal have only considered particular ethnic groups living in the mountain areas, such as the Sherpas who are widely known as porters and guides of the Himalayas.2) So far, tourism studies in Nepal have concentrated mostly on the Himalayan region. There are also a few studies that touch upon the influence of tourism in Kathmandu, but they focus on several people who migrated from the mountain re-gion, such as the Sherpas, the Thakalis and the Nyishangtes. Thus, very few number of studies have been done on other groups, including the Gandharbas. By focusing on this small group of migrants and their small business activities neglected in existing research, this study attempts to broaden the understanding of the influences of the growth of tourism in Nepal. At the same time, it gives new ethnographic information on lower caste people who have not been hitherto investigated in Nepalese stud-ies.
This paper is based on fieldwork mainly in Kathmandu. The main research was conducted in the period between May 1996 and January
1997. The follow up research was undertaken for about two to three months each year from 1998 to 2001. The data used in this paper was collected mainly through participant observation on and informal con-versation with the Gandharbas.
The following part of this paper has four sections: the next section examines the social situation of the Gandharbas from the perspective of the hierarchical social order still prevalent in Nepal. Section 3 gives an overview of the Gandharbas' traditional way of life in their home villages viewed both by other Nepalese people and by themselves. Section 4 examines their lifestyle as migrant workers in Thamel, Kathmandu. It analyzes the Gandharba's experience in Thamel, a place that is different from their home villages. The last section points out that the Gandharbas in Thamel have felt that their social situation has been changing for the better to some extent through direct relationships with foreign tourists who are more or less unaware of the hierarchical caste system and cul-ture.
70 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
2. An Overview of the Gandharbas3)
Several social scientists have studied the Gaines and many of them have touched on some recent changes in their lives. Concerning the impact of foreign tourists on the Gaines, Macdonald first pointed out that they can extort sums of money from the "Americans" visiting Boudhnath, the largest Buddhist temple in Nepal [Macdonald 1983: 169]. According to his view, the Gaines earned their living by begging even to foreigners. Then, Chhetri revaluated their musical activities as one of the most important aspects of Nepalese traditional culture, rather than a way of begging [Chhetri 1989: 63]. These two studies on the traditional life of the Gaines stressed their untouchability and cultural evaluation from the outsider's point of view. On the other hand, Weisethaunet analyzed the inner conflict of a famous Gaine who faced the dilemma that as long as he remained a 'good' Gaine musician, he could never escape from the cultural stigmatization as a lower caste [Weisethaunet 1997: 145]. This paper focuses on the Gandharbas in a tourist area Thame1,4) Kathmandu, who are not engaged in the tradi-tional occupation considered by the Nepalese people, but have migrated from villages to city areas like other Nepalese. It also analyzes their adaptation to the development of tourism.
Over the years, the traditional activities of Gandharbas seem to have changed considerably especially in the city areas. For example, instead of traveling and singing in villages with their musical instruments, siirarigis, they sell them to foreign tourists on the streets and sing Nepalese folk songs in tourist hotels and restaurants. These activities of the Gandharbas are highlighted in this study and examined within the social context. There are many vendors like the Gandharbas on the streets of Thamel whose activities are classified as the informal activities. Thamel, located in the city area of Kathmandu, has developed and expanded as a tourist area since the end of 1960s, and that has drawn many migrant workers seeking economic opportunities from the villages to Kathmandu.5) Thus many people including the Gandharbas came to Thamel and sought economic opportunities in the tourism sector, such as hotels, restaurants, tourist agencies, souvenir shops, small business of miscellaneous goods, and so on. As the number of tourists visiting Nepal increased, Kathmandu, as the main international gateway for air transportation in this land locked
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 71
country, experienced an explosion of the tourist business during the 1980s. Entrepreneurial activities expanded and diversified to meet the growing needs of international tourism in Nepal.
2.1 The Gandharbas or the Gaines?
The name "Gandharba" is well known in the Hindu world as one kind of divine being. They are considered to be the celestial musicians who play in the court of Indra. The people I focus on in this study call themselves "Gandharba", but they are usually called "Gathe" , the name of a musical caste in Nepalese society. This raises the question as to why the Gandharbas call themselves "Gandharba" contrary to their popular name "Gaine" .
There are some differences in the meaning of these two words. Ac-cording to Nepali Brhat Sabdakos, the word "Gandharba" has two mean-ings [Pokharel et al. eds. 1983/84].
1) a divine being who is accomplished in singing and music playing. 2) a jati which makes a living through singing and playing music. As far as I know, many Nepalese people recognize "Gandharba" as meaning 1). The word "Gaine" also has two meanings.6)
1) a jati which makes a living by traveling and singing in villages and accepting food and money in return.
72 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002 2) a person who is skilled in singing.
In general, people recognize "Gaine" as meaning 1), and link this word to such adjectives as begging, lower and untouchable [Chhetri
1989: 55]. The Gaines usually receive food and money in return for singing songs, and sometimes such activities are seen as begging by Nepalese people. Since this word "Gaine" automatically includes some discriminative meanings,7) the Gandharbas purposely avoid using the word "Gaine" [Morimoto 2001]. This phenomenon will be discussed later in more detail.
2.2 Social Condition of the Gandharbas
According to the 1991 Census, the population of the Gaines8) was 4,484 which constitutes only 0.02% of Nepalese population (18,491,097) [Central Bureau of Statistics 1993]. Map 1 illustrates their distribution in Nepal. They mainly reside in hill areas of western Nepal and Terai area in mid western Nepal, especially in the Gandaki zone. The Gandharbas as asukabis, improvisators, have contributed to the musical culture in the Gandaki zone where many famous musicians come from [Misra 1995: 11-12].
There is a well known story of the origin of the Gandharba. According to Rai, the Gandharbas arrived in the Kathmandu valley with King Prithvi Narayan Shah from Gorkha, when he took over the country in 1768. At that time, the Gandharbas traveled around villages to dissemi-nate a message of patriotism through their songs. Not only the Gandharbas, but other Hindu lower castes also contributed to the formation of the modern Nepalese state through their occupational skills. For example, according to Nepali, a chair person of Dalit Sewa Sarigha,9) the Kamis (black smiths) made khukurl (knives), the Damais (tailor) sewed clothes and the Sarkis (cobblers) made shoes [Nepali n.d.: 1]. In spite of this, they have been cast out as untouchables and impure by the society. According to Hofer, these castes were not included in the varna system and were not considered as Ifidra, though the latter embraced a number of service and craftsmen's castes [Hofer 1979: 115-118].
Since 1846, Nepal was ruled by the Prime Ministers of the elite Rana family. During the Rana period, Prime Minister Janga Bahadur Rana established the legal code Mulukl Ain in 1854. According to the Mulukl Ain, rulers at that time conceptualized Nepalese society hierarchically
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 73 [Hofer 1979: 37]. Since then, the lower status of certain service and . craftmen castes in Nepalese society has been codified legally. In recent years, some Dalits have come to consider that this law has made their social status worse. According to Nepali, under the Ranas, all lower caste people, especially the untouchables, became not just inferior human be-ings but worse than animals. For example, even a stray dog can enter into a house of higher caste people but not an untouchable [Nepali n.d.: 1].
King Mahendra abolished the law based on the caste system and pro-pounded that all Nepalese are equal in the eyes of the law and the consti-tution, and no one should be discriminated on the basis of caste by the Nepalese Constitution established in 1962/1963 [Kanun Kitab Byabastha Samiti 1966: 6]. However, no punishment was declared for any person violating the law by discriminating others on the basis of caste [Nepali n.d.: 1-2]. Although the constitutional laws were established to wipe out caste discrimination, they did not necessarily lead to social equality, be-cause these discriminations had been structured through personal ex-periences among the local people and not through the law. The same applies to the new Nepalese Constitution founded in 1990 after the es-tablishment of democracy, which ensures equality of all people under the law [Kanun Kitab Byabastha Samiti 1992: 8]. This social situation has been internalized by the Gandharbas as the following example illus-trates:
On 25 May 1996, a "Gaine" called Ram Saran Nepali, who was very famous among Nepalese people as a great artist, died. The cremation ceremony was held on the banks of the Bagmati River at the Pashupatinath temple, which is the largest Hindu temple in Nepal. Many people in-cluding friends and well known Nepalese artists, musicians, poets and official cultural representatives came to the ceremony. The radio aired a special program in honor of his memory [Weisethaunet 1997: 136]. In spite of his unparalleled fame as an artist, Ram Saran Nepali had sang his lamentation in the song Mero Karma (My Fate), in which expressed his "own ambiguous sense of being a Gaine, going the 'good way' as a Gaine musician, yet never escaping from the cultural processes of caste stigmatization" [Wesethaunet 1997: 144-145] . In spite of all the changes in legal institutions, hierarchical social situations surrounding the Gandharbas have been reconstructed irrespective of their cultural
es-74 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
teem.
2.3 The Name Gandharba
It is not evident when the Gandharbas began to call themselves "Gandharba"
. There is a possibility that this happened not so long ago, since, as far as I know, almost all the Gandharbas in Thamel are regis-tered as "Gaine" in their citizenship records and not as "Gandharba". This raises the question as to why they did not register their name as
"Gandharba" . A young Gandharba told me that when an officer came to the Gandharba villages to make records about them, he wrote their names as "Gaine" on the forms thus taking advantage of the villagers' illiteracy. Even now the name "Gaine" is used by the Gandharbas, especially by the older generation. For instance, some songs recorded during an inter-view in 1999 sang by an elderly Gandharba, who usually traveled around villages to sing songs, used the word "Gaine". He sang a song narrating the story about a big earthquake that occurred in 1934, where he referred to his people as "Gaine". The title of the song was "1990 sal ko bhuicalo" (Earthquake in 1990)." The story of this song in brief is as follows:
…In 1990, there was a huge earthquake moving from east to
west, destroying buildings and killing many, many people. At
that time, Darahara [Bhimsen Tower in Kathmandu] was also
damaged. Dhan Bahadur Gaine, who composed this song, was
very surprised that the earthquake destroyed his house, too •c .
Evidence that some Gandharbas call themselves "Gaine" in their songs can be seen in the above story. That is to say, some Gandharbas call themselves "Gaine" at least in their songs. Moreover, the Gandharbas in Thamel who use "Gandharba" as their title, recognize that the name "Gaine" is also their title . They also used other titles, for example "Gayak" , "Gandhari"
, "Nepali" and so on. Nevertheless, there are some reasons why the Gandharbas call themselves "Gandharba" and not "Gaine" .
When I asked some Gandharbas about the origin of name "Gandharba", most of them held a consensus on the view that "Gandharba" is a class of divine beings playing music for beautiful dancers, Apsariis, who are spouses of Gandharbas in the Hindu divine world. At the same time, they ex-plained that the Gandharbas came from Rajasthan, northwestern India. The origin of Gandharba explained by the Gandharbas themselves is a
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 75 mixture of myth and history. However, it is clear that the name "Gandharba" does not carry any negative meaning . According to Tingey, after the abolition of the legal code that defined some castes including Gaine as "untouchable", attempts have been made to get rid of the stigma of untouchability by calling themselves Gandharva [sic] instead of Gathe in the Gorkha area [Tingey 1994: 88]. Thus, it can be said that they try to avoid untouchability of the hierarchical Hindu society based on the caste system by seeking their origin in divinity. For the same purpose,
Gandharbas who work as teachers and civil servants sometimes refer to themselves as "Nepali", which is one of the titles used by the Bahuns. This shows that the Gandharbas do not try to get out of Hindu society, but it seems reasonable to suppose that they prefer the name "Gandharba"
or "Nepali" to "Gaine" because they want to seek better positions within Hindu society. In other words, to call themselves "Nepali" or "Gandharba" is a means of protest against the unfair treatment by Hindu higher castes. However, it is difficult for them to accomplish their aim as long as they are engaged in their traditional occupation.
In cities where the people are highly mobile, it is not difficult for the Gandharbas to conceal their origin. When they see that they will be able to get more favorable opportunities, it is not so unusual that they use the names of higher castes instead of their own. It has been observed that this kind of behavior can be seen not only among the Gandharbas but also among other lower caste and even "Mongolian" people, who also embrace some cultural customs of higher castes. Such behavior has been analyzed by using the concept of "Sanskritization".11)
3. Traditional Occupation of the Gandharbas
So far, I have analyzed the social condition of the Gandharbas. This section focuses on their traditional way of life in villages as seen by other Nepalese people as well as by themselves. According to Misra, the Gandharbas live in villages on the road side and can easily travel around to amuse the local people with their songs [Misra 1995: 12-13]. Batulechaur in Pokhara, about 200 km west from Kathmandu, is the most famous "Gaine gilt" (Gaine's village)
, and has the largest Gandharba population. According to Chhetri who carried out her research there in 1984, there were 34 Gandharba households, out of which 24 made their living as
76 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
itinerant singers. Fishing is another important traditional occupation for them. Some of them engage in economic opportunities created recently, such as manual labour [Chhetri 1989: 64]. The latter kind of opportunity has led to migration from villages to city areas.
As far as I know, only Gandharba men, not women, travel to sing from village to village. Occasionally the wife of a Gandharba accompa-nies her husband to go singing. They usually travel during the dry sea-son, from September to April. They may return after two to three days or a few months. In the rainy season, Gandharba men go fishing in a nearby river and work in the fields. Only once did I see an elderly Gandharba woman catching small shrimps with her sari in the Marshangdi river. Women in villages are usually engaged in house work, keeping goats and domestic fowls for profit and growing vegetables around their house. When they have surpluses, they sell them. In addition, women and elderly men sometimes go to fields owned by other castes and ethnic groups to earn money.
The Gandharbas learn to sing their songs and play the sarangi in the traditional way, in which the elders pass on their skills to the younger generations. They travel not only in the hill areas in Nepal but also across to Darjeeling in India. Due to the open border between India and Nepal, many Nepalese speakers have come to dwell in India. They travel by foot or by local buses. Sometimes they get a free ride by singing songs.
The Gandharbas have a striking variety of repertoires of songs [Macdonald 1983: 170]. They sing songs about myth, history related to heroes, love songs, news and so on. They make new songs in compliance with the requests of listeners. One of the most famous Gandharba songs is lahure git (a song of Gurkha soldiers going abroad). They may sing liihure git when they go to Gurung villages, as the Gurungs feel special empathy for this song because many Gurkha soldiers are of Gurung origin.
The Gandharbas have traditionally led a way of life as mentioned above and continue to do so. Recently, however, social development and increasing economic opportunities in the city areas have lured the Gandharbas to migrate there. Chhetri points out that as the Gandharbas go to city areas to pursue economic opportunities, for example manual labor, they lose their traditional culture related to their instrument, the
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 77 sararigi [Chhetri 1989: 55-64]. However, migration to Kathmandu does not necessarily cut off their relationship with the sarangi. The process of this migration to Kathmandu will be discussed in the next section.
4. The Gandharbas in Thamel, Kathmandu 4.1 The Process of Migration to Thamel
As local infrastructures have improved and electrical products have prevailed all over Nepal, life styles of the local people have changed. The Gandharbas appear to be losing their traditional roles in Nepalese soci-ety, i.e., their job of conveying contemporary stories and news, as more people have gained access to them through T.V. and radio. Many Gandharbas, especially the younger generations, migrate to city areas not as wandering singers but to seek economic opportunities. In this process, some of the Gandharbas take part in wage labor and others start to commodify their culture.
The survey area for this study is Thamel, which is now located inside the centre of Kathmandu city area (see Map 2). When international tourists started to come to Nepal in the 1950s, Thamel was at the out-skirts of Kathmandu city area. But now with the improvement in town development, Kathmandu city area has expanded to include Thamel.
Since the 1980s, Thamel has seen a tourist boom which has resulted in the construction of hotels, offices of travel agencies, souvenir shops, res-taurants and so on [Morimoto 1999]. According to my fieldwork in 1999-2000, there were more than 150 hotels in Thamel in which the Gandharbas have sought economic opportunities since the end of 1980s and more so
after the establishment of democracy in 1990. Basically, they have their own houses in villages where their families live. They come to Thamel alone and stay with their relatives who also come from villages. During the rainy season and festivals, they go back to their villages.
Interviews conducted mainly in 1996-1997 during my fieldwork for this study revealed how the Gandharbas made their entry into their ma-jor tourist business, the business of selling seirangis, their traditional
musical instrument. I interviewed the first man who sold a sararigi to a foreigner and he told me the following story. When he came to Kathmandu from his village to sing songs in 1981, he was once approached by a foreigner to give him his sarangi. At that time he did not understand
78 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
upper: Kathmandu City. below: Thamel. Map 2. Study Area Thamel in Kathmandu
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 79 what the foreigner had asked for. Another man who lived in Kathmandu and understood some words that the foreigner said, communicated this offer by the foreigner to him. Without thinking, he gave his sarangi to the foreigner who gave him a lot of money in return.
This story of an accidental occasion motivated the Gandharbas to merchandise their instruments. That is to say, their economic concerns shifted from singing songs and playing the sarangi to selling sarangis, and their customers shifted from Nepalese people to foreign tourists. In this process, they picked up some skills and knowledge to converse for bargaining with foreigners in English and get better prices for the com-modities. At the same time, this process led to a decline in their musical skill.
Rai pointed out this situation and said that "as a result of the wide exposure of our Nepalese society to the outside world and vice versa, over the past few decades, we have lost a lot of our traditional culture. The dominant Western culture has slowly trickled into our society and hence everyday we seem to lose a little bit of our identity" [Rai 1999: 15]. On the other hand, as discussed below, this situation is a process of reconstructing their culture as Gandharbas, which has previously been looked down upon as untouchable, as a cultural commodity.
Some Gandharbas said that the main reason for their migration to Thamel was to earn money. Others mentioned the indefinable attraction of the lifestyle in cities. They said that they could spend money and meet many foreigners in Thamel, but not in villages. In addition, for younger Gandharbas, there are more options available now with the introduction of education. They no longer have to follow the footsteps of their elders; due to education, they can imagine many other possibilities to choose from. For these reasons they aspire to live in cities, rather than travel and sing songs in villages.
In brief, the Gandharbas obtain chances to commodify their culture in a tourist area, Thamel, through their relationships with foreigners. There is another side to this phenomenon. Younger Gandharbas in villages who attend school fail to learn musical skills from the elders, such as singing songs and playing the sarangi. Younger Gandharbas cannot play the sararigi as well as their fathers. In any case, the young do not wish to travel around villages as their way of life. Instead, they migrate to Kathmandu to seek another way of life that is more attractive to many of
80 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
them.
4.2 The Relationship
with the Home Villages of the Migrant
Gandharbas
in Thamel
All Gandharbas who migrate to seek economic opportunities in Thamel
have their own houses in the villages. According to my research, their
villages are located in Lamjung, Tanahu and Gorkha district, Gandaki
zone (Table 1, Map 1). Table 1 shows the background of the Gandharbas
in Thamel. There were 30 Gandharbas in Thamel during my intensive
research carried out in the winter season from 1996 to 1997. Winter is
the best season for foreign tourists12) to visit Nepal as there is little rain
and they can enjoy viewing and trekking in the Himalayan mountains.
There were around 40 Gandharbas who took part in the economic
activi-ties in Thamel. Some Gandharbas stayed in villages longer than in Thamel,
while others returned to their villages only for festivals, especially for
Dasain. They kept their houses in the villages and very few of them
moved to Kathmandu with their families. They usually shared lodgings
with their relatives or other Gandharba friends near Thamel during their
stay in Kathmandu. Before returning to their villages, the Gandharbas
sent oral messages regarding their return to their families through
some-one. Similarly, before leaving the villages, villagers sent messages to
their fathers, husbands or sons living in the town. Sending messages
through another person was the only way of long distance
communica-tion for them due to the lack of basic infrastructure and communicacommunica-tion
facilities in the villages.")
Many Gandharbas in Thamel were in their 20s (Table 1). Younger
Gandharbas started to migrate to Kathmandu after 1990. Most of them
had attended school, some had the "School Leaving Certificate", but
others had dropped out of school. Most of them were literate, at least by
Nepalese standards. So, elderly Gandharbas asked them to write any
documents they had to prepare. On the other hand, younger people
sometimes did not know how to sing songs or even play the sdrarigi.
They have to learn the art of playing the sararigi from the elders. Younger
people learn to play the sdrarigi but they are not good at singing songs.
Table 1 shows that among the Gandharbas now in Thamel, only one,
who was the first Gandharba man to come to Kathmandu, can sing songs
as well as the Gandharbas who make their living by singing songs in
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 81
Table 1 List of Gandharbas in Thamel
From interview in 1996-1997.
82 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
villages. Since he used to travel in villages to sing songs before he mi-grated to Thamel, he had developed the skills beforehand. In fact, he came to Kathmandu to sing songs. During his stay in Kathmandu, he got a job to sing songs for Radio Nepal and earned a salary. Even though most Gandharbas can sing songs, when they formally do a musical per-formance on stage, they bring elderly and experienced Gandharbas to perform as traditional Gandharbas.
Many of the Gandharbas who usually live in villages are also involved in tourism business in Thamel. As Table 1 shows, it is not easy for all Gandharbas to make sdrarigis. Their expertise depends on their back-ground. Before the development of tourism, they did not sell sarangis but made them only for their own use. Thus, they made only a few and most of them were very simple in design. But recently, they have devised sdrangis for souvenir purposes. They put elaborate work on the sararigis to make them look more attractive. The siiraiegi is carved out from a very light kind of wood, locally known as khiro. The wood is cut into about a length of a hand of the sarangi maker. The body is carved into a hollow frame with two openings. The lower opening is then covered with dried sheepskin. Originally, the strings were made out of sheep's intestine. These strings are very easy broken, especially when it rains. Nowadays, however, readily available nylon and steel strings, for example fishing lines, are much more popular among siirarigi makers, as they do not have time to prepare the traditional variety of strings. Wedges like the keys are hammered on to the neck of the seirangi to serve as screws for tight-ening the strings. Horsetail hair was originally used for the bowstring of the siirarigi, but nowadays, nylon strings or bamboo fiber are preferred.
Some new siirangis made for souvenir are carved in the shape of Ganesh, a temple, or a serpent and some are made smaller and convenient for tourists to carry. If a tourist asks the Gandharbas to sell their own simple sdrangis, they might refuse because their own sararigis are not souvenirs, but musical instruments. As the demand of siirangis increased, the Sarkis, tanners and shoemakers started to make the instruments. As they usually tan animal skins into leather as their occupational work, they do not hesitate to work with leather. On the other hand, some Gandharbas feel antipathy to making leather. Therefore some Gandharbas place orders to the Sarkis to make the seirarigis and buy them for their souvenir busi-ness.
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 83 Sdrangis made in villages are brought to Thamel by villagers or mi-grant Gandharbas. Migrant Gandharbas in Thamel buy some sdrangis and sell them on the streets of Thamel or at the Gandharba Cultural and Art Organization. In this way, merchandising of the sarangi has been directly connected to international tourism through the Gandhabas in Thamel and villages.
4.3 The Life of Gandharbas as Migrant Workers
The Gandharba migrant workers spend almost their whole day in Thamel. Many of them rent a room with their brothers or relatives and live in Thamel or nearby areas (Table 1, Map 2). Their business ac-tivities start at around eight o'clock in the morning when tourists come out for breakfast and continue until late in the evening. Around noon , they have lunch in Nepali restaurants around Thamel, which are com-monly used by the local Nepalese. Sometimes they go to see the films or watch football games in the city area. In the evening, those who have contracts with restaurants or hotels go to play in musical performances until night. They have dinner in the places where they play music. Those who have no contract take supper with their friends in local restaurants after sunset. They stay there and have long chats with their friends over drinks until night. It sometimes happens that overseas tourists whom the Gandharbas get to know in Thamel invite some of them to tourist restaurants. When they become close to such tourists, they guide them around the city and even the Himalayan mountains for trekking, and spend all day with them. They close their businesses on such a day. When they are not walking around the streets of Thamel trying to sell their siirangis to foreigners, they gather to take rest at the office of the Gandharba Cultural and Art Organization.
The Gandharbas rent a small room in one corner of Thamel for their office. They spend their time in this office decorated with different kinds of sdrangis, madals (Nepalese drums), ainsuris (flutes) for sale and many pictures of Gandharbas. Some foreigners as well as a few Nepalese take regular seiraligi, madal and bansuris lessons in this office.
The Gandharbas undertake the sdrangi business in the following ways. Firstly, they entertain tourists in Thamel by playing the siirangi on the streets. If the tourists show interest, they display seirangis of various types and sizes specially made for tourists and demonstrate the sound of
84 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
each of these musical instruments. They then start negotiating with the tourists over the price of the sdrarigis. There is no standardized price for any goods, including the sdrarigis, sold on the streets of Thamel. Ac-cording to a Gandharba, the highest price of a sdrarigi sold to tourists was 7,000 Rupees. There is no set maximum price and the actual selling price is dependent on negotiation. The Gandharbas say that they usually sell the siirarigis at 60% profit.
Other businesses in which the Gandharba migrant workers are in-volved are playing the seirarigi in restaurants or hotels and giving lessons in the siirarigi and other musical instruments as part of the activities of the Gandharba Cultural and Art Organization. Sometimes they also play in musical concerts for extra income. The first President of the Organi-zation explained about the sdrarigi business:
"Our businesses on the streets sometimes bring us huge amounts of money, but it is unrealistic to expect that such a thing will happen all the time. So, our businesses are like chasing a dream or trying to catch good luck."
Because of the instability of income gained by selling sdrarigis, the migrant Gandharbas try to ensure steady income by playing in
restau-rants or hotels. By playing in these places, they can gain not only fees paid by the hotels or restaurants but also tips that tourist audiences
sometimes give them. These tourists may also treat them to some beer or spirits. As mentioned above, when the Gandharbas become close to for-eign tourists, the forfor-eigners may invite them for meals or a short trip. Although there are many benefits in this type of work, opportunities to play in restaurants or hotels are limited, and are dependent on the eco-nomic situation of tourism in Thamel. Furthermore, with the increase in the number of the migrant Gandharbas over the years, there is increasing competition for jobs of playing in restaurants or hotels. Some migrant Gandharbas earn only by selling sararigis on the streets. They usually spend almost all their income to sustain their living in the city. Never-theless, they continue to live in Thamel. They do not give up their businesses in the city. This raises the question as to why they continue to stay in the city under such economic conditions. The next section will explore factors that encourage the Gandharba to stay in the city.
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 85 4.4 Thamel: The Special Place
The previous section discussed that selling sarangis on the streets is like chasing a dream. Because of the recent tight economic competition among the Gandharba migrant community in the city, many Gandharbas who are engaged only in selling sararigis have been facing difficulties in making extra income to take back to their villages. However, they have chances to earn further financial benefits by developing friendships with foreign tourists. For example, sometimes foreign tourists may send the migrant Gandharbas some items for everyday use and clothes after they return to their countries. Some foreign tourists may also assist the Gandharbas financially when the latter buy land and improve their houses. Furthermore, some may invite them for a trip overseas. They may also ask the Gandharbas to be their companions for trekking or accompany them to resorts as guides or musical entertainers. Thus, former wander-ing minstrels who used to travel all over Nepal on foot have come to travel by bus and airplane as tourists and enjoy mountain trekking or jungle resorts. Due to this change in ways they travel, they seem to have
gained better geographical knowledge in this process.
International tourists treat the Gandharbas almost in the same way as they treat other Nepalese, but they may have a more sympathetic atti-tude towards the Gandharbas. This is probably because these tourists feel like doing something for people who are socially disadvantaged. Such an attitude has influenced the Gandharbas' identity and behaviour. As discussed below, the Gandharbas try to hide their caste identity out-side Thamel, but inout-side this area, some of them intentionally demon-strate it to foreigners. Showing sdrangis to foreigners is not a stigma for them.
The Gandharbas have a history of being labeled as an untouchable caste and still face discrimination in everyday interaction with the local people. Therefore, they conceal their identity when they foresee a situa-tion of possible discriminasitua-tion against them [Morimoto 2000, 2001]. As discussed above, they come to Thamel to get opportunities to improve their life. In this city, where social and economic development has been most advanced in Nepal, a non-Hindu value system is much stronger than in their villages where the traditional Hindu value system is still prevalent. In other words, Thamel is in a transition phase in the capital-ist value system, which has not originated in Nepal but outside in direct
86 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
connection with international tourism. Furthermore, there are many for-eign tourists who can offer economic opportunities to the local people. Generally they do not distinguish between the high caste people who enjoy political, economic and cultural privileges and the Gandharbas. For overseas tourists, the Gandharbas are not the despised musicians or the Gaine but simply Nepalese. Although foreign tourists may view them as people belonging to a developing country in the global context, they tend to see Nepalese people as homogeneous. To some extent, the Gandharbas feel free from social oppression in Nepal while they are with foreigners and feel liberated. However, in spite of this feeling, the rela-tionship creates other kinds of inequalities, such as economic depen-dency.
Thamel is a special place where foreigners feel that they are outside their daily life. By enjoying various tourist activities, they contribute in making Thamel a special place. By undertaking economic activities, local people under the influence of Hindu culture have adopted to capitalist culture which has prevailed in Nepal in accordance with the growth of tourism in this country, especially in Kathmandu. By doing so, these locals also contribute in making Thamel a special place. The Gandharbas in Thamel are engaged in micro and unstable activities while they expe-rience the global capitalist system through their contacts with foreign tourists. Indeed, their activities suggest that they do adjust to the system of international tourism, but they also change their situation within the context of Nepalese society by using their status as the Gandharbas.
The Gandharbas sometimes strategically tell foreign tourists that they are 'the poor Gandharbas' or 'the Gandharbas who are treated as lower castes in Nepal'. By mentioning this, they expect sympathy or compas-sion from these tourists, and not scorn. If tourists feel sympathy, they may offer the Gandharbas an opportunity to join their trips as compan-ions or guides, or send them money or gifts after returning to their countries. Such strategies towards foreign tourists is common not only among the Gandharbas but also among other low caste members. Thamel is the place which offers the Gandharbas the same or even better chances than higher caste members, by using their low caste status.
The characteristics of Thamel as a tourist area have played a key role in the commodification process. International tourism has attracted to Thamel many non-Hindu international tourists who do not know, or are
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 87 not concerned with, the social connotation of the sdrangi for the locals, which is inseparably connected with the low caste status of the Gathe. In this context, the meaning of the sdrangi has changed from the despised symbol of a low caste to a business commodity. Furthermore, the siirarigi business of the Gandharbas has been protected from people of most other castes because of its negative symbolic meaning within Nepalese society. Especially, in the early stage of the commodification of the siirangi, the Gandharbas were able to dominate the business in Thamel without serious competition from other castes and ethnic groups.
All these factors have contributed towards the Gandharbas becoming migrant workers within the context of international tourism. For the Gandharbas in Thamel, selling the siirarigi has become an important new means of earning money, which is very different from their traditional way of making a living, that is, traveling and singing from village to village. In a sense, international tourism introduced capitalist culture to them. Furthermore, while living in Thamel as migrant workers, the Gandharbas have acquired an urban life style and a capitalist way of thinking. Such non-traditional ways of thinking have encouraged them to stay in Thamel for a longer period than they first intended.
While living in Thamel, the Gandharba migrant workers gained a new autonomous view of life, which is in sharp contrast to the fatalistic one still dominant in the songs of Ram Saran Nepali, a Gaine. This is ex-pressed in the following comment by one Gandharba migrant worker regarding his discovery of new opportunities in Thamel:
"I didn't have another way of thinking before . I didn't know that I would join such a tourist business. I couldn't imagine I would ever have a chance of success in my life".
While he stayed in Thamel, he developed friendship with many for-eign tourists, with whose assistance he established the Gandharba Cul-tural and Art Organization in 1995. He also received financial support to maintain this organization from foreign non-governmental organizations. His other foreign friends whom he met in Thamel invited him to Ireland in 1999, and he made a second visit to the country to stay for six months in 2000. This case provides us with a striking example that Thamel has opened up a new space for the Gandharbas. As the Gandharba quoted above admitted, such success in his life would never have occurred in his
88 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002
traditional world, the hierarchical Hindu caste society. Even though the sarangi business may not become as successful as the Gandharba migrant workers expect, Thamel is still a special place where they can dream about success and feel they have some chance of success in their lives. Because their dreams sometimes come true, they continue to have wishes, which are sometimes unrealistic, and stay on in this area. Thamel is a place structured by the growth of international tourism and the practices of local people living there.
5. Concluding Remarks
Thamel, which has developed as a tourist area along with the growth of international tourism in Nepal, is a major tourist-dominated area in Nepal. For the Gandharba migrant workers, it is a place where they experience a different way of life from the village society where they came from. In this concluding section, I discuss what this place means to them.
The Gandharbas do not necessarily continue to stay in Thamel just for economic reasons. According to my research, they are attracted to Thamel
also because it offers them a space that sets them free from the tradi-tional caste system found in their villages. As I mentioned above, they can make their living in Thamel by selling siirarigis and conducting musical performances for foreign tourists who see their musical instru-ments and performances as an important part of Nepalese culture. In other words, the growth of international tourism in Nepal enables them to stay in Thamel by promoting commodification of the sdrarigi, the instrument indispensable for their traditional occupation of singing.
This study has focused on the lives of the Gandharbas who undertake micro and unstable economic activities in Thamel. An examination of their lives suggests, however, that tourism has created new economic opportunities and another value system, based on capitalist culture, re-garding social status. It also suggests that the effects of tourism may have the power to create new social relations in Nepal. The Gandharbas feel that they can succeed in life if they live in a social world that is domi-nated by an alternative value system to the traditional hierarchical one. Micro and unstable economic activities more or less provide a financial basis for the Gandharbas to stay in Thamel. However, they choose to
Adaptation of the Gandharbas to Growing 89 stay in Thamel even when their living circumstances in Kathmandu are worse than in their villages. They may have to live in one room with four or five people in Kathmandu, while they have their own houses in the villages. Even so, they still choose to make a living on the streets in Thamel because, as the narrative mentioned above, Thamel is a place where the Gandharbas can feel that there are alternatives to the life of Ram Saran Nepali, who accepted his fate as a Gaine because of his identity as a Gaine musician. Indeed, Thamel makes them feel proud of their role even as musicians within Nepalese culture, which has been commodified by international tourism. They are able to play the sdrangi in the restaurants and hotels without following the life of Ram Saran Nepali.
Acknowledgments
First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Gandharbas in Thamel who cooperated with my fieldwork. I am also thankful to Dr. Michiyo Yoshida and Ms. Rupali Saikia in Australia for their helpful comments and suggestions on the manuscript, and to Dr. Katsuo Nawa (Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo), who read through the entire text in its original form and made a number of helpful comments and suggestions.
Notes
1) Earlier versions of this paper appeared in Japanese [Morimoto 2000, 2001]. 2) According to Zivetz, since the 1950s, when the interest in mountaineering in Nepal
arose, "the Sherpas were quick create a variety of opportunities for themselves, and many who began as expedition leaders or sardars, or even porters, went on to estab-lish their own trekking companies, hotels and restaurants in their homeland, Khumbu, and Kathmandu" [Zivetz 1992: 107]. The Sherpas played vital roles in tourism development in Nepal from the beginning.
3) In Sanskrit, "Gandharba", as a name of divine beings in the Hindu world, is usually spelled "Gandharva". However, people who are called Gandharbas in this paper spell their title "Gandharba", not "Gandharva" in the Roman alphabet. Therefore I use "Gandharba" instead of "Gandharva" .
4) Fieldwork in this area was intermittently carried out for two years in total from 1995.
5) See Morimoto 2001 for further details. As I pointed out there, they included many people, not only the Sherpas but also the Gurungs from Manang, the Tibetans and so on.
90 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 14, 2002 (walking). These words were derived from their occupation.
7) As is shown by the following headline of a newspaper, "Thamel's Beggar Singers" [The Kathmandu Post Sunday Post October. 15, 2000], people consider even the Gandharbas in Thamel as Gahm.
8) In the Census, this group is classified as Gaine, not as Gandharba or Gandharva. 9) This organization is built for Hindu untouchable castes. The population of the
Dalits can be estimated as lying between 16-20% of the total Nepalese population [Nepali n.d.: 8-9].
10) In 1934 A.D.
11) Similar phenomenon was observed among the mountain people, like Tamangs, who frequently try to pass themselves off as Sherpas. As Fisher points, the word sherpa without a capital "S" has come to denote a job category [Fisher 1990: 111]. During the past few decades, there has been a rapid development of tourism in Nepal. Trekking has become a sport attracting increasing numbers of foreign tourists. Be-ing experienced in workBe-ing with foreigners and used to long distance travel, the Sherpas proved to be excellent guides and camp servants. They are economically successful in the tourist business, and as a consequence they get social advantages in Nepalese society. Thus Tamangs pass themselves off as Sherpa not only in the context of tourism but also in Nepalese society to seek higher position. 'This process of "Sherpaization" counters the momentum of the much-vaunted "Sanskritization" that has absorbed the upward-mobilizing energies of the subcontinent for centuries' [Fisher 1990: 137]. Evidence that "Sherpaization" has occurred in all over Nepal can be seen in the 1991 Census [Central Bureau of Statistics 1993]. According to Kano, smaller and unknown ethnic groups choose to name themselves Sherpa from among other names prepared for the Census [Kano 1999]. The reason for this is that the Sherpas are well known among foreign tourists and has positive images of being wealthy.
12) In this paper, I distinguish between foreign tourists and Indian tourists who prefer to travel in the rainy season, that is, from May to August. The reason why I distin-guish them is because there are some differences in their purpose of traveling in Nepal. For example, foreigners like to go trekking in mountain areas, whereas Indi-ans seek cool weather even when there is rain in order to avoid high temperatures in their homelands.
13) From my survey of 1998. In my survey of 2000, Gandharba villagers in Lamjung could make phone calls from a bazaar near their village to the office (Gandharba Cultural and Art Organization) in Thamel.
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