Long Road To Gandaki

The English edition of the classic French work by Bernard Pignede, The Gurungs (1966), has recently been brought out by Ratna Pustak Bhandar (see Abstracts, page 39). As an appendix to the English edition, the book's editors have included an original piece of work on the origin of the Gurungs and their encounter with Hinduism. Written by Bhovar Palje Tamu and Yarjung Kromchhe Tamu, the paper is excerpted and adapted here with permission of the publishers.

The history of the Tamu (Ihc Gurungs of Nepal) is preserved in the myths and legends of Tamu Pye (Bonism), which are recited by the Bon priests in a mixture of Tibclo-Burman dialects. Tamu Pye tells of how the first people lived in Cho(Tso) Nasa, which is thought to tie in today´s western Mongolia.  From here  they  dispersed southward, towfards today´s Qinghai, Kansu, Sichuan and Yunnan regions of China.

Some of tthe Tamu settled in the northern Bagmaliregion, having gone through theKcrun and Kuti passes. Acconfeg to Tamu legend, they must have settled in Mustang around the firstcentury AD, just after (he Tamangs settled in Bagmati. These two groups have been separate for no more thantthree thousand years. The Tamu used to hunt long distances following wild animals. They would move their settlements if they found abctterplace to live. While they inhabited the banks of the Mha-ri-syo (Marsyangdi river) in Manang, they adopted a new Klye (master) as their chief or king. His descendents are called Klye (Ghale).

Village of Kohla
Some Tamus crossed the Annapurna range in the course of hunting around 500 AD. They liked the high land and sowed some grain there. When they returned on a second visit, they had. a good harvest. On the^ third visit peoples from three clans came and settled there in their three groups, calling it Kohla Swomae Toh. This was the first historical village of the Tamus on the southern slopes of the Himalaya and it became the last united village too. Other Tamus migrated later from Manang and Mustang. Those remaining in Mustang became the Thakali when other Tibetan groups, and probably some Tamangs, arrived.

After some centuries of peace, politics began to affect development! An increase in population caused great problems at Kohla. Groups of people moved on, to the southeast, south and southwest, to start new settlements. It would appear that there wereno other tribes in ^he Gandaki zone except forsome neolithic Kusundas (now extinct). The Tamu ate Beef before their contact with the Hindu castes. A legend tells how some of the Kwonma clan went from Siklis to Nar in Manang to learn Lamaism from recently-arrived Tibetan Lamas. On their return those who had learned well were called Lam, those who had not, Lem. Then the Kwonma divided inio three sub-clans, Kw.on, Lam and Lem, according to the closeness of their kinship connections with each suib-clan. Lamas introduced the word Guru, indicating high prestige, and it became die familiar term (distinguishing the tribe from other tribes or castes, eclipsing the word Tamu.

Contact  with Hinduism
In the 13th century, some Rajputs and meir Brahman priests fled to Khasan (western hills of Nepal) from Muslim rule in India. There they converted the Lamaist Khas peoples to Hinduism. During the 14lh and the 15th centuries, they extended their influence to the Magars of Magarat (mid-western hills). In the 16th century, they moved into Tamuwan or Tamu territory (Gandaki zone), bringing with them Magars and Thakalis.

TheTamu were most resistant to the new faith, having a deep belief in the efficacy of their own priests and rituals. However, the Hinduised Khan Thakuris founded small kingdoms inSyangja and gradually their people took over the lowlands in the Gandaki region, which were notsettled by the hilltop-dwelling Tamu. The literate Hindu Aryans were experts in exploitation and domination, introducing the idea of caste, making slaves, and pursuing a policy of divide and rule. They studied the Tamu andnoted the weaknesses in their system of government. They introduced and applied the law of dominant castes and attempted to erase the original elements of social structure, trying to make Tamus touchable Sudras under Hinduism.

Until the 16lh century, theTamu peoples knew nothing of the Hindus, having their own Ghale kings in tlie Lasarga, Nuwakot, Kaskikot, Arghou, Kohla, Pojo, Liglig, Gorkha, Warpak, Syartan, Atharasaya, and other regions. There were no kings in certain areas due to the bad impression given by the dissolute Samri Klye of Siklis.

Legend tells how Jain Khan came to the banks of the Kali Gandaki fromSringa.Gulmi. There he married the daughter of a Kaski king, and with his help, crossed then ver. He defeated King Bhyag-sya Klye and founded the first Hindu Thakur i kingdom in Lasarga (southwest Syangja) with the help of the Ranas and Thakuris. His son, Surya Khan, became king of Khiiung, and his grandson, Mincha Khan, of Nuwakot, Syangja. Mincha´s son, Jagati Khan(Kulamandan SaM) had seven sons and, in time, became king of the whole of Kaski.

Pseudo Genealogy
Four members of the Dura clan and one Ghimirc met on the banks of the Madi river ¦(Karputar) and made plans to adopt a Sahi prince to become their king in Lower Lamjung, in opposition to the Thansi Ghale (Rag-sya) king of Pojo (Ghanpokhara). So Ihe five men went to Nuwakot in Syangja and asked Jagati -Khan for one of his sons. They look the second ´son, Kalu Sahi, together with officials of various clans, and made him king of Purankot in Lamjung. After three months, the Ghale king invited kalu Sahi to Sulikol on the pretence of makiang a treaty with htm. Together they went to the forest of Sisidhunga to hunt, and there Kalu Sahi andhis companion, Naran Dura, were murdered.

Six other Hindu and Hinduised clans went to Nuwakot to take princes for their kings. King Jagati Khan was much troubled by his lack of success in defeating the Ghaley king of Lamjung. And so, political policies were adopted to encourage domination and exploits tion by theHindus, and the obliteration of the existing social system.

A royal priest, Bhoj Raj Purohit, composed the first pseudo-genealogy of the Gurung (Tamu) on 9 Falgun 1594 (around 1537 AD). In that false genealogy, the ancestors of the Gurungs were said to be Aryan, not Mongol, the migration said to be from the south instead of the north, historical Tamu characters weTe made Hindu. By means of the false genealogy, the king intended that his third son, Jsabam (Yasobrama) Sahi, would take the kingdom of Lamjung.

A successful attempt was made to elevate the smaller number of the Swogi clan and add them to the royal clan, Klye, which resulted in longlasting conflict between them and the Kugi. Meanwhile, four Swogi chieftains were called secretly and the genealogy and its implications were described to them. With the promise of more land and power, they agreed to the murder of their uncle, Thansi Klye.

The four went to Pojo and told the Klye that the second Sahi king was very brave and clever, could not be killed by deception, and therefore it was better to make a treaty with him concerning the boundary than be defeated in battle. The Ghale king believed them and wenttoBaluwaBesi(nearBesiSahar) without weapons as invited. The Sahi´s men then drew their weapons from their hiding place and killed the Ghale king and his Kugi officials. His body was tossed into the Marsyangdi river. Even today, some men of the Ghale clan refuse to drink water from that river.

Jasbam Sahi and his elder brother´s pregnant wife, Jasatawati, were hidden in a cave near the junction of the Midim (Gaumati) and Ramunche (Ram) rivers. After the death of Thansi Klye, they were brought to Sindure Dhunga and married there, then they were taken to the capital, Purankot. The four Swogi chieftains were made "descendants" of Chanda Rajput of Chittaur like the Khans (rather than Nha-tsan, the ancestor of Song-tsan Gam-po of Tibet) for their part in the deception.

The chieftains used to introduce themselves as Maha Guru (borrowed from Lamaism), but the word Guru was used solely for Brahman priests, and they were given a new title, "Gurung" (Guru + Ange: part of a Guru). The Kwon changed their clan name to the Hinduised Ghotane (Gotame or Gautam), and then Lem, to Lamichhane. The four chieftains got the power they had been promised, sincewhen the Kwonmaof Lamjung have dominated the other clans on the basis of the false genealogy. The Lem also increased in power so that they became known as Plon (boiled).

Through the use of the false genealogy, King Jagadi went on to capture the whole of Kaski. That genealogy was stronger than hundreds of arrows and swords. Pratap (Pasramu) Sahi, son of Jasatawati (or Kalu Sahi), was sent across the Dordi river to be king there, as previously promised. The elder son of Jasbam, Narahari Sahi became king of Lamjung and the younger, Drabya Sahi, became king of Gorkha. Their motheT, Jasatawati, ordered that neither of her quarrelling sons cross the Chepe river which formed the border between them. The six clans, Adhikari, Dura, Khanal, Bhandary, SuyalandGhimire, formed the royal assembly of Lamjung.and another six clans, Pande, Pantha, Arual, Khanal, Rana and Bohara, formed the royal assembly of Gorkha. There was no Gurung in either. Ram Saha, the grandson of Drabya Sahi, changed the title of Sahi to Saha. His descendant, Prithvi Narayan Shah, conquered Nepal.

~Bhovar Palje Tamu, Yarjung Kromchhe Tamu