Gatekeepers of cultural memory: Televising religious rituals in Tansen, Nepal

Abstract

This paper examines the coverage of religious festivals by a local cable television organisation in Nepal. The fact that the programmes made by this organisation feature only some of these festivals is significant if we consider the complex role that mass media play in the mediation of socio-political relations between different sections of the town's diverse population. Nevertheless, it is argued that the examination of other processes of cultural mediation, including the festivals themselves, enables a better understanding of how mass media are incorporated into the construction of community and social identity in the public arena. The paper contributes both to the understanding of media, religion and community relations in South Asia and to media anthropology in general.

Keywords:

• Television
• mediation
• community
• religion
• identity
• Nepal

Acknowledgments

Fieldwork for this research was conducted in July and August 1994 and from September 1995 to September 1996. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the University of London, which made the fieldwork for this research possible. I would like to thank Allen Abramson, David Gellner, Ian Harper, Anita Lundberg, and David Morley for their comments. The comments of the anonymous reviewers of this paper were of great assistance in revising it for publication. My greatest debt is to my informants and friends in Nepal. I do, of course, take full responsibility for the contents of this paper.

Notes

1. We must also consider community elites' struggle to position themselves within the fields of political, economic and cultural power of the nation as a whole, which is outside of the immediate scope of this paper (but see Wilmore 2001).

2. The ethnic, linguistic and cultural composition of Nepal is complex and of necessity this paper uses simplified descriptive terms. We can distinguish regionally between hill (Pahari) and plains (Tarai) groups, but within each region there are many ethnic subdivisions. Native Nepali-speaking hill peoples (Parbatiya) are subdivided into Hindu caste groups including Bahun (Brahmin), Chetri (Kshatriya), and ‘untouchable’, Occupational castes, such as Damai (Tailors), Kami (Ironsmiths), Sarki (Leather Workers), and Sunar (Gold and Silversmiths). The Kathmandu Valley is home to the Newar who also have a caste-based social system, although they are also subdivided into Hindu and Buddhist kinship groups. The last major distinction centres on the many indigenous or tribal Groups (Janajati) with their own languages, customs and, often, religious systems (although many adhere to either Hinduism or Buddhism), which includes the Magar who are natives of Palpa and surrounding hill districts. Comparative ethnographic information about the different peoples of Nepal can be found in Bista (1967) and Salter and Gurung (1996).

3. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer of this paper for drawing attention to both the points made here.

4. Many commentators (e.g. Lutgendorf 1995, Mankekar 1999, and Pinney 1997) have made the connection, which is undoubtedly reflected in everyday practice, between the act of viewing deities in television programmes and the conventions of darshan which form an integral component of Hindu devotional practice (see Eck 1985). (Nepal Television and rctv showed programmes based on legends of both Krishna and Rama during the time of my fieldwork.) Pinney (2002:365) also comments that ‘the overlying of a purely visual perception with tactile extensions that feed into a broader haptic field is apparent in other modes of image customisation. The application of glitter or zari (brocade) or the adhesion of paper surrounds or plastic flowers moves the image closer to the devotee’.

5. We can also see this happening during private rites conducted by Parbatiya Occupational caste households in Tansen during Janai Purnima (Wilmore 2002:349–352).

6. This questioning took place routinely during participant observation, but in the last months of 1995 I also conducted a systematic survey of 195 households, just over 6 percent of the total of 3211 in the municipality area of Tansen. I reinterviewed 40 individuals selected from this sample of households in rough approximation to the proportion of those who said that their household did or did not have access to the local television programme and questioned them on their attitudes to the local programme, amongst other subjects. None of these interviewees expressed any overt criticism of the local programme or the organisation during these interviews.

7. A highly pertinent question noted by one of the anonymous reviewers of this paper, whose contribution I gratefully acknowledge.

8. The interesting exceptions to this were a few informants who had previously worked as volunteers for the organisation producing the local television programme but subsequently left after personal disagreements with other members.