Articles

• Bernardo A. Michael

  Statemaking and Space on the Margins of Empire: Rethinking the Anglo-Gorkha War of 1814-1816
  This paper seeks to rethink the Anglo-Gorkha war of 1814-16 by establishing connections between the themes of spatiality and statemaking. To this end it examines in detail some of the disputes over territory and revenue administration that broke out on the Champaran-tarriani section of the Anglo-Gorkha frontier prior to the war. The central argument of this paper is that these disputes encoded struggles over the organization and knowledge of the spatial architecture of the two states-in-formation. Possessing internal divisions that had interlocked bodies and blurred edges, the two states lay entangled on the Anglo-Gorkha frontier. This becomes evident on an examination of some of the tenurial relationships and fiscal practices that went into the production of the internal divisions of these two states, British and Gorkhali. It is over the remains of such precolonial divisions that the English East India Company constructed the geographical template of the modern state.
  pp. 247-294
  Return to 4(2) Contents

• Manjushree Thapa

  With Love and Aesthetics: Notes for an Ethical Translation of Nepali Literature
  Abstract will be added shortly
  pp. 295-326
  Return to 4(2) Contents

• Judith Pettigrew and Yarjung Tamu

  The Kohla Project: Studying the Past with the Tamu-mai
  This article describes the Kohla Project for Archaeology and Ethno-History, an on-going collaborative venture between University of Cambridge researchers and members of the Tamu Pye Lhu Sangh (TPLS), a Tamu (Gurung) religious and cultural organisation. The Kohla Project is concerned with archaeology and ethno-history as a 'community process'. Its multi-dimensional approach incorporates archaeological survey/excavation alongside the analysis of shamanic narratives and oral history interviews with Tamu people about their views of the past. The project brings together migratory histories preserved in shamanic texts and archaeological evidence in an effort to excavate the Tamu past. A 'project within a project', it is also concerned with how history is created in the present, how people use the past for diverse purposes and how looking at the past is an attempt to re-formulate identity and relations of hierarchy in the present. A central feature of the Kohla Project is its commitment to the concept of multiple voices, separate but equal. This article, written by two of the Project's co-directors, social anthropologist Judith Pettigrew, and shaman/cultural expert Yarjung Tamu, addresses the issue of multivocality by exploring the social, religious and historical background to the Kohla Project from two distinct perspectives.
  pp. 327-364
  Return to 4(2) Contents

• C.K. Lal

  Illusions of Grandeur: The Story of the Lumbini Master Plan
  Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddartha Buddha situated in the south of present-day Nepal has been undergoing 'development' for several decades. Even into the 1980s the site of a few simple plaques and a landscape most notably disturbed by some haphazard achaeological digging, it is now an amalgam of partially constructed roads and glittering monasteries erected by various Buddhist countries the style of which some Nepali architects have likened to unwitting Eastern parodies of Hollywood's Orientalist fantasies. After a glance at the history of repeated rediscoveries of Lumbini over the ages, this commentary traces the recent rise of Lumbini to international prominence from the fateful day in the 1970s when the UN Secretary General U Thant reportedly wept at its derelict condition. The commentary concentrates on the successes and failures of the Lumbini Development Trust's efforts to turn Lumbini into an international pilgrimage center by implementing a Master Plan prepared by Prof. Kenzo Tange of Japan in the late 1970s. The author regretfully concludes that realization of the Master Plan continues to remain an illusion despite, or perhaps because of, efforts made so far. He proposes that the Master Plan should be revised to reflect Nepali realities as regards affordability, willingness to pay, capacity for upkeep, and national development priorities.
  pp. 365-381
  Return to 4(2) Contents

• Mary Des Chene

  Notes for an Informed Translation of Nepali Literature
  This brief essay first suggests ways to read the accompanying bibliography for the social historical tales about translation that it can relay. It then takes up several of the thorny issues facing translators that are identified in Manjushree Thapa's article in the same issue, "With Love and Aesthetics: Notes for an Ethical Translation of Nepali Literature". Thapa notes that translators from Nepali into English are engaged in translation into a language that carries a weight within the country distinctly out of proportion to its limited reach among the population. She also notes that English translation generally has deleterious effects on the yet more marginalized efforts to promote translation from and among the many other national languages of Nepal. With regard to the first issue, this essay notes that what is de facto emerging as the "English Canon" of Nepali literature is far from representative of the political spectrum within the literary field in Nepal. It proposes that, whatever one ultimately chooses to translate, ethical translation includes awareness of the cumulative portrait of Nepali literature to which scattered individual acts of translation contribute. Regarding the second issue the essay briefly discusses available translations from other languages of Nepal into Nepali and some resources for familiarizing oneself with the literatures of other languages of the country. It then proposes two activities in which English translators could engage which may partially counter the deleterious effects of Nepali to English translation for minority nationality languages: i) to also engage (even collaboratively) in translation from other languages of Nepal into English; ii) to also engage in translation from other languages of the country into Nepali. It is suggested that translation from minority nationality languages into English may not have the same hegemonic effect as does translation from Nepali, but rather a disruptive and positive influence within current language politics, while translations from minority nationality languages into Nepali can contribute to a much-needed increase of appreciation for cultural histories across language barriers within the country.
  pp. 383-390
  Return to 4(2) Contents

• Mary Des Chene and Bhaskar Gautam, comp.

  Nepali and Nepal Bhasa [Newari] Literature in English Translation: A Reference Bibliography
  This contents and scope of the reference bibliography are as follows:
  

  I. Novels, Plays, Anthologies, Edited Volumes This section is primarily composed of translations that form (singly or collectively) a complete volume in themselves. It also includes a few edited volumes and other works that contain a text in translation. Both poetry and short stories, except for those in periodicals, are found in this section.
  

  II. Poetry in Periodicals Individual poems are given separate entries except those translated by the same person(s) and appearing on consecutive pages. A few poems that appeared in The Nepal Digest, an on-line publication are included.
  

  III. Short Stories in Periodicals
  

  IV. Plays, Essays and Excerpts from Novels This is, in a sense, the miscellany section of works that did not fit elsewhere. For readers of the bibliography, this may however, prove informative. Plays in periodicals appear here only because so few have been published that they didn't warrant a separate section. Although the essay is a vital genre within Nepali literature, we found few essays in translation. Similarly, biographies of and autobiographies by literary figures do not appear to be garnering translation.
  

  V. Folklore, Tales, Oral Literature This section introduces another stream of translation and is intended to juxtapose "high literature" and "folk literature". There are several reasons for its inclusion: i) a good deal of the material translated is from languages other than Nepali, ii) translation in the folktales genre tends to the extreme end of free translation while much of the oral literature is translated by anthropologists for distinctly illustrative purposes (though there are exceptions to this). The styles of both should be worth reflecting on in comparison with literary translation, and iii) the material itself stands in sharp contrast to that of much of the translated literary work and thus brings out other story-telling voices of Nepal. Some works that contain only minor amounts of direct translation (even none in a few cases) are included for the reflections they contain on the nature of oral literature and the task of translating it. Besides folk and oral literature, some translations of religious texts are also included in this section, along with a small amount of material on music.
  

  VI. Writings about Literature This section is almost wholly comprised of pieces originally written in English. It represents, if you like, the English literary criticism of Nepali literature. However, older writings are distinctly underrepresented and it is intended that a supplement will be published in a future issue. This section can be approached with the same kinds of questions in mind as those posed in the accompanying introduction with regard to translations.
  pp. 391-430
  Return to 4(2) Contents