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Robbed of our names
JUL 09 -
A person’s name is interlinked with his or her identity: with the individual’s language, history, religion, culture and tradition. Once it’s destroyed, the whole network of identities supported by the knot of ‘names’ is ruined. So is the fate of the natives of Yhultsodun, Drugtshulung, Lemi, Nhinyul and Tsang in North Humla. It’s dismaying that the terms Bhotia, Tamang, Sherpa and Lama/Lameni (BTSL)—which the hakims (bureaucrats) whimsically tagged on our good names—are being channeled into statistical data, thus distorting, fragmenting, and destroying the network of our common identity—the Bodhrig. BTSL surnames can never identify us. BTSL terms belong neither to our race nor our caste. The usage of Lama as a caste and a surname have misled and robbed the true meaning of the holy word Lama (master/teacher).
In a land of goiterous beings, not having one is seen as a defect. The Great Sakya Pandita, the hakims who first entered our lands, viewed us as defected beings for not having varnas imprinted on our names. Tagged as they were with varnas, they tagged the BTSL goitre-caste to our people, thus undermining our true identity. The law’s blind demand for a caste was fulfilled after the Khas people lumped us all as Lamas. The tag of BTSL has now developed as a goitre dangling on our good names. In this land of goitre-castes, we the goitre-less are stared at as defective.
Veiled by the orthodox varna concept, the ‘experts’ always overlooked and suppressed our true identity. The misleading term BTSL cannot be our identity. The term Bodhrig collectively and truly identifies us. But this does not imply that we accept the term Bodhrig as our surname because it’s our race (rigs), not our caste. The term ‘caste’ is too narrow for our kind. Isn’t it a paradox that caste favouritism is outlawed but the law itself demands caste surnames? Legislators must open the doors for all those who do not want their names goitred with caste surnames by providing legal forms, including citizenship cards and passports, all without the word ‘Thar’. To fulfill the law’s demand for caste surnames, we would much prefer to use our clan names (rus, literally bone or pedigree) as our surnames than BTSL. Those include Druwa, Khyungba, Khangsara, Hushangba, Dhungkara, Dhungbogta, Jhyowa, Darba, Lagyud, Gyalgyudta, Tshoedrel, Tsokorwa, Nhamziya, and Rimziya.
Bahadur-isation (tagging “Bahadur” after all names) or Hinduisation of student names have continued in government schools in the Himalayan regions since the Panchayat era as an anti-indigenous move to wipe out native names. Aware of the severe impact of the deformed names, people here want to revert to their original native names in all legal documents, but biased laws glue the Hindu-cised names together. Entire native names of our places are flawed or Khasa-cised in government records compelling the usage of the distorted names. Some examples:
Our native names carry deep meanings related to our identity—to our language, religion, history, culture and tradition. Yhultsodun (seven villages league) and Drugtshulung (villages of the six rivers/60 gorges) dwell in unison, united by garlands of the classic names. Nhinyul (sunshine villages) feel blessed with the mountain stupas of the sacred Crystal Peak, which in turn scatters Drojyam Nyima (smooth warm rays) over their Phayul (fatherland). The Tsang boast of their origin from the holy land of Tsang Panchen Rinpoche.
Yhulwang means Chief Village while its flawed version Yalbang means ‘Failed People’. Thus, these distorted names threaten to demolish the very structure of our identities formed from the units of our own names. Even the Indian Government has never altered or distorted native names of peoples in places like Ladakh and Sikkim. But why does the Nepal government shave off pure native names? The marginalised and isolated ethnic people cannot get a feel of the so-called secular atmosphere as biased laws do not allow their race, religion, language and culture to prosper. Like the way the yak cannot be mixed with a buffalo by shearing off its fur, we the Bodhrig cannot be merged into the Khasa mass by shearing off our identities.
Before any physical development, before more autonomy, what we long to live with is our own names. We are extremely irritated and agitated by the insulting name ‘Jadan’ that is labelled on our lands, endorsing the tyrannies that repeatedly suppressed our true identities. ‘Jad/Jadan’ is a word that insults us. It doesn’t contain even a semblance of our identities. In ‘Jadan’ and ‘Bhote/Bhotia’ (the corruption of ‘Bodh/Bodhrig’), we do not find the esteemed existence and true identity that we feel in the classic name ‘Bodh’, which includes all Bodhrig ethnics from Lhonak in the extreme east to Lemi in the extreme west of The Great Himalayan Region.
Ethnically, bomb or bullet-backed voices are audible to the government’s ears, violent strikes are visible to its eyes, and the stench of burning tyres reaches its nose. Unless a more acute government sense is developed, New Nepal is but a deceptive fantasy that the power hungry larva-politicians project on the people’s mind to boost their power.
Dorjee is a native of Nhinyul in North Humla.
Posted on: 2010-07-10 08:38
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