In search of the global child
Lapcha childhood and the implications of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Master's thesis by Shanti Tuinstra
Examiner: Loes Schenk-Sandbergen
Co-examiners: Olga Nieuwenhuys and Chris de Beet
Tuesday l 9th December 2000, 11.00 Hours Spinhuis Amsterdam
A Sufi tale
Hassan of Basra relates:
'I
had convinced myself that
I
was a man of humility and
less than humble in thoughts and conduct to others.
'Then one day I was standing on the bank of a river when I
saw a man sitting there. Beside him was a woman and before
them was a wine-flask.
'I thought, "if only I could reform this man and make him
like I am instead of the degenerate creature which he is!"
'At that moment, I saw a boat in the river, beginning to sink.
The other man at once threw himself into the water where
Seven people were struggling, and brought six of them safely
to the bank.
'Then the man came up to
me,
and said:
"Hassan, if you are a better man than
me,
in the Name of
God save that other man, the last remaining one."
'I found that I could not save one man, and he was
drowned.
'Now this man said to me:
"This woman here is my mother. This wine flask has only
water in it. This is how you judge, and this is what you are like."
'I threw myself at his feet and cried out:
"As you have saved six out of these seven in peril, save
me
from drowning in pride disguised as merit!"
'The stranger said:
Contents 3
Foreword and acknowledgements
5
Chapter 1 Lapcha, a people of the Eastern Himalayas TheLapchas
How the Lapchas got their name Literature about the Lapcha Lapchalanguage Lapcha religions • Animism/Shamanism • Buddhism • Christianity Lapchas oflndia Lapchas of Nepal 9 9
11
12
13
14
1820
Chapter 2 Analytical framework. research and research methods 23
Analytical framework 23
• The concept of childhood
• From childhood to global childhood • The convention on the Rights of the Child
Composition of the thesis 27
The research 27
Research methods 28
Chapter 3 Theoretical contexts 30
Tribals in transition 30
Pre-modem and modem childhood 32
The process of development thinking 33
Chapter 4 Lapcha Life cycle and the meaning of childhood 35
Ideal family structure 35
• The settlement
Life
cycle• School going age • Marriageable age • Changing patterns Deviant childhoods
• Orphans and semi-orphans • Orphanages
• Servants
• Disabled and handicapped
Lapcha childhood and the Convention on the Rights of the Child on family responsibilities
37
45
Chapter 5 Formal education and Lapcha alternatives Reasons for schooling
• Sikkim
, • Middle Class Lapcha Alternatives to formal education
• Child monks • Muns
Problems of education
The impact of education on culture Tradition of schooling
Who are we teaching
Lapcha notions of education and the notions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Chapter 6 How applicable is the concept of Global childhood Changing ideologies Epilogue Dutch summary Bibliography 52 52 55 59 59 60 61 61 63 65 67 68
74
Foreword and acknowledgements
Doing fieldwork among the Lapchas1 was a special but sometimes also troublesome experience. Lapchas are one of the many tribal groups living ·in Nepal and India. Lapchas live in the area surrounding Sikkim, which stretches from the east of Nepal to the West of Bhutan. In the first instance it appeared to be very difficult to locate the Lapchas. We have spent several weeks to find out where the Lapchas were "hiding," especially the Lapchas of Nepal.
In total I stayed seven months with my husband in Nepal and India. My husband is also a student of Cultural Anthropology and we both studied the Lapcha, although we both had our own research plan.
Although we were not officially married we presented ourselves in the field as a married couple. In Nepal and India having a boyfriend is not the same as being married whereas in the Netherlands nowadays living together as a couple is considered equal to married couples living together. To avoid difficult questions or misunderstanding from the local people we chose to present ourselves as a married couple. The only thing people didn't understand was that after four years we were still childless. We have tried several times to explain that it was our choice to wait some more years. These efforts were all in vain.
We had chosen to research the Lapcha tribe because they fit our picture of a rural Buddhist · people living in Nepal. We wanted to go to Nepal because I was born there and because of my wish to conduct research in a developing country. Throughout my study of anthropology I have mainly focussed on topics concerning children of the South. Out of many tribes living in the Himalayan middle hills we chose the Lapchas for they were quite unknown and the fact that they had their own script made them even more interesting to us.
Via Heleen2 Plaisier we found out that Lapchas of India practiced archery in the winter season. Because my husband wanted to study archery among the Lapchas we were obliged to conduct our research in Darjeeling district, India. But we remained curious about the Lapchas of Nepal, about whom we couldn't find any literature in the Netherlands and even Heleen Plaisier who speaks the Lapcha language better than. many Lapchas themselves had never visited the Nepalese Lapchas. We are the first Dutch people who have researched the Lapchas of Nepal.
The first three months we have spent on learning the Nepalese language in a small village in the extreme east of Nepal. This was merely a period of preparation. We were told that Lapchas lived in the east of Nepal in the Ilam district. It was true that they lived in this district, but· the district
1
In literature many authors use the name "Lepcha" instead of "Lapcha." In this thesis I will use Lapcha, for this was how the Lapchas ofNepal preferred to be called.
2
Heleen Plaisier is a linguist at the University of Leiden. She has researched the Lapcha language and script in Kalimpong. Lapchas who knew her told us that she could speak it very well and she had learned it very fast.
appeared to be divided into forty subdistricts, of which only seventeen were inhabited by Lapchas. The subdistrict, Ilam bazaar, where we had settled down was not inhabited by Lapchas, but mostly by Hindus. After one day we already found a room to rent with a Newar3 family. Although there were no Lapchas in Ham bazaar we decided to stay for it was not necessary for us to live with Lapchas to learn Nepali.
We soon found out that Lapchas in Nepal were quite unknown even in the areas where they live. It looked as if they were hiding from outsiders. After two weeks we had our first visit to a Lapcha community in a very remote area. This first contact was not a very pleasant one, we didn't feel comfortable in their presence, and people were constantly staring and laughing at us. The Lapchas here didn't speak one word of English and our Nepali was far from basic, so communication was very difficult. The first time we came alone without a proper guide or translator, this was not such a very smart move. This event turned out to be a very worthy but painful first contact, fortunately, we would be luckier in our following efforts.
While in Ilam bazaar we were often annoyed by the rude manners and behavior of many Hindus towards our presence. Tourists were not very common in the area, although since years development workers from America and Great Britain had come and went. Despite the constant presence of some foreign faces it seemed that the local people were not interested in outsiders. The few Nepali people we had contact with had settled in Ilam bazaar only recently. They were usually high educated and spoke English well.
Because of my appearance4 I was stared at non-stop. People watched me from top to toe for about five minutes without any shame. I felt much embarrassed by this. Some women who found my appearance very interesting tried to make me into a real Nepali woman. I had to wear a sari and a tika5, in their opinion. If I was indeed wearing a sari many people complimented me and they let
me know that they didn't like my Western clothes. Wearing a sari I experienced as uncomfortable and I preferred to wear the Tibetan dress
(called boku). Especially women appreciated this very much. Another reason I wasn't really fond of wearing a sari was that I was afraid of Hindu women starting to make more and more efforts to turn me into a "real" Nepali woman. I had chosen clearly to present myself in the field as a non-Nepali, for I have not been raised there, I was not familiar with the Nepali language and culture from an insider's point of view. I didn't want to be more confusing to people than I already was.
Being a while in Ilam people got a little used to us, they knew we wanted to study the Lapcha tribe, although they could not imagine why in the world we wanted to study such a backward and uneducated people. After two months. we were introduced to a professor living in the bazaar who
3
The Newars are an ethnic group belonging to the Vaisya caste, most of them are traders.
4
I was born in Nepal, but later adopted to the Netherlands where I grew up with my adoptive Dutch parents.
5 Sari is the dress Hindu women wear, tika is the spot Hindu women wear on their forehead. A dark red spot
was interes~ed in the life and history of the Lapchas for more than ten years. Mr. Juddha Prasad Vaidya knew many Lapchas and had good contact with them. It was because of him that we have gained real access W the Lapchas of Nepal.
Together with Mr. Vaidya we have visited many Lapcha communities and we have had a great time. With the three of us we have done a small research on the side6 on Lapcha placenames in Ham and we have discovered that many names which are now in common use do have meaning in the Lapcha language. All the data we have gathered have been written down by us in a booklet, titled The Lapp ha of Nepa/7
For this wonderful experience and the good times we shared with Juddha Prasad Vaidya, I would like to thank him here generously. Thank also goes to his wife who has encouraged us throughout the whole process of writing. During our stay in Nepal we have also had great help from Shyam Bandari who has· proven to be a worthy translator and friend. He also let us use his computer to complete our booklet on the Lapchas of Ilam. Last but not least I like to thank all the Lapcha who have been willing to talk and give us a lot of interesting and useful information for writing on The Lapcha of Nepal.
After ow· three months stay in Nepal we went to Kalimpong in India to ,start our official anthropological research on Lapchas. We thought it would be easier to do research in India because obtaining an Indian visa was less expensive and longer valid than a Nepali one. But this appeared to be harder than we'd thought it would be.
Finding Lapchas in India was easier, they were well known throughout the area. Within Darjeeling district and Sikkim Lapchas are legally acknowledged as the original inhabitants. They are also registered as a scheduled tribe8, which gives them some opportunities in obtaining access to
higher education and jobs.
In Kalimpong we stayed almost three months. We rented a room with a Tibetan family and two to three times a week we taught English to Tibetan monks, who had asked us for this. With the junior and senior monks we have spent a pleasant and fruitful time. They have taught us about their version of Buddhism and let us experience their daily routines from very near by.
From Kalimpong I would like to thank all the Lapchas of Mani Gumba, where we have spent a lot of time and where we have always been welcome. I would like to thank Dorje and Lazen in particular for their patience and their time. Here I also like to thank James Karthak, who has taken the responsibility of being my guide and translator on various occasions.
6
The research we undertook with Mr. Vaidya had nothing to do with our fieldwork, but we thought it interesting to do anyway.
7 This booklet has been published in Kathmandu, in March 2000.
8 Scheduled tribes and scheduled castes are groups of people who have been acknowledged by the Indian
government for being backward and are given some special treatments concerning education and job reservations.
In Kalimpong I have visited some orphanages. The owners of these residences have been very kind and willing to answer my questions. They have given me information on the topic other people were not able to give. By name I like to thank Miss Kipu9 · of the Lapcha cottage in Gangtok
(Sikkim) where I stayed for four days. I also thank the sweet Lapcha children· of the Cottage who really made me feel at home by accepting me so easily as their playmate. I also thank the owner of the Albella boys home in Kalimpong and Mr. and Mrs. Dondmp from SEARCHED10, a project
especially for the poor children ofBom Bosty (Kalimpong). ·
The last two months of our fieldwork we have conducted again in Nepal, for we had to leave India because our visa had expired. We went back to Ilam again but this time we settled in another subdistrict, namely Fikkal. In Fikkal and surroundings many Nepali Lapchas lived. This time we lived with a Rai family and our neighbors were Lapcha, despite the awful cold and moist weather we have enjoyed our stay with these people as well. Both with the Rai 11 and the Lapcha family we were always welcome to sit in their kitchen to drink tea and talk about many things in our mixed language of English and Nepali. I would like to sincerely thank both families for making us feel at ease.
I would also like to thank all the Nepali Lapchas who have received us and were willing to share their precious time and attention. By name Ran Bahadur of Fikkal, Jagat Bahadur of Antu and the Lapchas of Chindepani, who were the proudest of all Lapchas I have seen.
In the Netherlands Loes Schenk guided me during my fieldwork and the writing of my thesis. I'd like to thank her very much for this. I'm also indebted to Amanda Stougie, Esther Sarphatie and Ilse du Pied. I also thank Jeffrey Schwerzel for joiriing me in the field, he was always there, together we have learnt a lot and shared a valuable time among the Lapchas of both India and Nepal.
9 Miss Kipu is a Lapcha woman herself. In Gangtok she is called the Mother Theresa of Sikkim. 10
SEARCHED stands for Society for Educational Agricultural Rural community Health and Economic Development.
11
Rai are one of the many tribal groups living in Nepal. In contrast to the Lapchas many Rai have converted to Hinduism.
Chapter 1 Lapcha, a people of the Eastern Himalayas
In this chapter I will give a general introduction to the people, their land and their culture. I will give a short review on the histo1y and the religion of the people and the process of political and economical change, which is taking place for many tribes living in the rural at~ea$ -0f India and Nepal.
The Lapchas
The Lapchas are a small tribe living in the hills of the eastern 1fiiJillay:as.
Th~
live in the lap.Q. they, call Mayel Lyang "originally comprising the whole ofsilirun
'state, Darje61ing Disttjct, t4t1ea~tem
'; ''·'.- ''.· . ''1~
pati of Nepal up to Arun and Tambur rivers12 and the Western part of Bhutan
up
to thf? whole ofHa province" (Thakur and Lepcha 1981: 221 ).TIB
TI
HIN A
.I
N
The natne Lapcha is in fact given to the tribe by outsiders, the origin of how the Lapchas got this name is unsure. Several explanations have been given by scholars, but non of these theories have been proven right. But Lapchas themselves actually never use the natne "Lapcha" amongst their own people, only to outsiders they would refer to themselves as Lapcha. In fact atnong each other they speak of "Rong" or "Mutanchi Rongkup."
12
As far as I know, there are no and never were any Lepchas that far West in Nepal, and locating the borders at Arnn and Tambur is an exaggeration.
Lapchas are one of the many Mongoloid tribes in the region, besides Tibetans, and several other Nepali tribal people such as Sherpas, Rais, Limbus and Tamangs. In the region also many Hindu people are living. Their physical appearance is typically Mongoloid although they can easily be recognized from other Mongoloid tribes, like Tibetans or the Nepalese Rai ..
Their traditional dress for men consists of pants and a shirt over which a woven cloth is worn, called dampra.
Women wear the nam bun, which is a cloth of 5 meters, which is draped around the woman's body in a special manner. Traditionally the nam bun used to be plain black and worn with a red belt, but nowadays the fabric used can be any color possible.
The Lapcha have their own language and script, many can speak some Lapcha but only very few can read and write the script. Nowadays the lingua franca of the area is Nepali. All Lapchas can speak Nepali or at least have sufficient knowledge of the language to survive in daily life.
Long ago Lapcha used.to hunt in the forest, but the life of hunting and gathering has vanished. Nowadays hunting has become impossible, there is way too little forest and there are way too many people living in the area. Today Lapchas are mainly peasants, because they were the first inhabitants of the area they all have some land of their own, although the times are slowly changing. Land is becoming scarce and therefore Lapchas, just like many other people in the region, have to join jobs other than farming.
In general the Lapcha are a very friendly and hospitable people, we have always been welcomed heartily. In the beginning they can be a little shy and not ve1y talkative, but after a while they become more open and accessible to outsiders. It will take a while to get to know a Lapcha, but it is certainly worth while to take that time.
How the Lapchas got their name
Several scholars have given several explanations, of which non can be said to be the right one. We have told Lapchas several stories of how scholars think the name Lap cha or Lepcha have come into existence. They have not been able to subscribe any theory or story and they were also not able to give an explanation of their own. Although the stories made up or at least written down by authors are may be not true as such, but some are indeed very interesting to mention.
It is true, like many authors stated as well, that the name "Lapcha" is indeed given to the people by outsi~ers, most probably by Nepalis, because most theories related to how the lapchas got their name refer to the Nepali language. According to general Mainwaring (quoted in Thakur 1989:22) the name has been given to the Lapcha people by the Gurkhas. 13 At least it is sure that the Lapchas did not invent this name themselves, until today among each other they will identify themselves as Rong.
Das and Banerjee (1967: 3) assume that the Nepalis used the name ''Lapcl;le", to denote the Lapchas. According to them "Lapche" meant "vile speaker" in Nepali language, but not one Nepali we have met could confirm to this. Das and Banerjee are both Indians and they probably do not speak the Nepali language. The word "Lapche" is in common use among Nepalis, but the meaning of the word is not what the authors have stated. During our stay in Nepal we have met several Hindu people who asked us what we were doing in Nepal. When we answered that we were researching Lapcha people they would say: "Oh Lapche, Lapche people." Our Lapcha informants also told us that the suffix -e is derogative in the Nepali language. After we knew this we have made it our task to tell non-Lapcha people very specifically that the people we studied were called "Lapcha" and not "Lapche." But I don't think we could really change anything in this matter.
Another explanation Das and Banerjee (1967: 3) gave was that the name Lapcha has been derived from a fish called Lapche, which can be found in Nepal. This fish is believed to be very submissive in nature, just like the Lapcha people. Later the name Lapche has been taken over by the British, who slightly changed the pronunciation, and so Lapche became Lepcha. The name Lepcha is indeed the name mostly used· by outsiders, it is also the.spelling used by authors. ·But during our fieldtrips among the Nepali Lapchas we have been asked on several occasions to use the name Lapcha instead of all other .versions. They didn't like the name Lepcha because it was the name the British used and they didn't want to be reminded too much to the British and the other reason they gave was because the word "lep" in the Lapcha language itself meant cave and the name Lepcha would make them into something like cave people, which is also not very flattering. To respect the wish of our Nepali informants I will here make use of the term "Lapcha" instead of the more common "Lepcha."
13 The name Gurkhas is derived from the city these people have come from: Gorkha. The Gorkha also invaded
Darjeeling in the of the British occupation in India. The British won the battle, but appreciated the way these "Gurkhas" could fight. Nowadays there is still a Gurkha regiment, fighting for Britain.
Another ~tory that can be found in many sources is the name Lapcha being derived from the Limbu word Lafche. The story goes that one day a Lapcha boy would marry a Limbu girl and according to Lapcha tradition the future son in law went to the house of his wife to be and presented the family with a fo:wL The Limbus found this so hilarious that after that they called the Lapcha "Lafche,1' meaning wingeater in the Limbu language. It is Limbu custom to take a pig on occasions like the one described above. There are even more explanations of how the Lapcha came to be called "Lapcha" or "Lepcha," but I will not mention them here. Those readers who are eager to read more exp~anations:l would recommend Thakur's "Himalayan Lepchas" (1989: 22-25). Besides the meaning of the word Lepcha also the meaning of the word Rong is not conclusive. It is strange that all scholars who have studied the Lapcha people have come with so diverging answers to the same questions.
Literature about the Lapcha
In contrast to many ,other tribes living in the Himalayan hills not much has been written about the Lapcha. Literature on Tibetan people and culture. is enormous, also Nepali tribes like the Newars, Sherpas and Rais are much studied. Anthropologists like David Gellner, Sherry Ortner and Caplan
hav~ written on several tribes of Nepal. Literature on Lapcha is mostly about the Lapchas of Sikkim. Only later the Lapchas of Darjeeling district have been described and only very recently has a book been published about the Lapchas of Nepal. In works about Lapchas, it is always very briefly mentioned that there are also Lapcha living in Nepal.
One of the first important works on the Lapcha is the dictionary written by the British Colonel G.B. Mainwaring, who died before the work was completed, called Dictionary of the Lepcha Language {1898) edited by A. Grilnwedel. In the 1930's the Geoffrey Gorer (also British) studied the Lapchas of Zongu, a reservation for Lapchas in the North of Sikkim. His work is very descriptive and elaborate. It is a good and accurate account on the Lapchas, although he did damage the integrity of the Lapchas. In his work A Himalayan Village, an Account on the Lapchas of Sikkim ( 1936) he has stressed more than once the sexual behavior of the Lapchas.
An often quoted article on the Lapchas of Sikkim has been written by Chie Nakane: A Plural Society in Sikkim, in the.,work Caste and Kin in Nepal, India and Ceylon (1966) edited by Von Fiirer-Haimendor£ Nakano conducted her research in 1955, she stayed in the field for only two months. Research visa for Sikkim are bound to a very limited period of time. Consequently most foreign researchers have to obtain all their data within a time span of two or three months (Gorer stayed three months).
In 1962 the Indian scholars Das and Banerjee wrote about the Lepchas of Darjeeling District, they focussed on the economical and social conditions of the Lapchas, the work is accurate and very descriptive. An even more descriptive and very elaborate study on the Lapchas of Sikkim comes
from the Danish author Halfdan Siiger. He wrote three volumes on the Lapcha culture, religion and ceremonies, his work is called "The Lepchas" (1967). His account is too detailed and consequently fails to give a general overview of Lapcha culture.
A recent study on the Lapchas comes from the Indian Sociologist Rudranand Thakur, he focuses on the Lapchas of Kalimpong and surrounding area. In his work Himalayan Lepchas (1989) he states that the lapchas are experiencing both a process of detribalization due to modernity and globalization, and a process of retribalization, to reinforce the Lapcha identity, which is loosing ground.I like to mention here that in March of this year Schwerzel, Tuinstra and Vaidya wrote The Lapcha of Nepal (2000). The book mainly focuses on Lapcha placenames in Ilam district and some attention has been given to the history of East Nepal in which Lapcha have played an important role.
There are also some Lapcha in India who have written about their own tribe. The first was the lateK.P. Tamsang with his work: The Unknown and Untold Realities about the Lepcha (1983). The work is highly provocative, the author is angry with all the foreign researchers who have damaged the integrity of the Lapcha and have published merely lies. It is funny though that Mr. Tamsang writes down more lies and the most ridiculous claims. Not even scientists have that much fantasy.
Another work written by a Lapcha is Lepcha, My Vanishing Tribe by Mr. Foning. This book deals mainly with the history of one family, namely the family of the author. According to the author his family has been highly important
Lapcha language
As mentioned before the Lapcha have their.own language and script, although the script is relatively young. Gorer (1996: AO) mentions that Mainwaring had criticized the Lapcha for their wrong grammar, and therefore he had written a new grammar for the Lapcha language. A bizarre anecdote in Lepcha history, it may serve as an example of the British colonial attitude.
About the origin of the Lapcha language, scholars are· also not conclusive. Some have argued that the language is familiar to the Sino-Tibetan language family, while other linguists say it belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. Where again others have described it as an isolate. According to some it has similarities with Tibetan, Chinese and with Naga. Besides the many theories on the language there are also several theories on where the Lapchas have come from. Paras Mani Pradhan (in Thakur 1989: 26) argues that the .original home of the Lapchas was the mainland of China, from there they moved Southward and settled in the hills of Assam, then they went Westward to their present land of Sikkirn and surroundings. He also mentions that those who stayed in Assam are now known as the Mishings.
The suggestion that Lapcha is "the ancient of ancient and the purest of pure language" and that
repeated in literature about the Lapcha, but this statement cannot be proven whatsoever. There haven't been any old Lapcha scripts found to prove their antiquity.
Lapcha religions Animism/shamanism
The oldest religion of the Lapchas is Animism, all Animist religion have their own mystics. These mystics we would call Shamans, Lapcha refer to these people with Mun. Elide (1964: 8) states that in many religions throughout the world shamanism can be found, "for shamanism always remains an ecstatic technique at the disposal of a particular elite and r/presents, as it were the mysticism of the particular religion. Animism is usually referred to as so called "primitive religions" in which natural objects are believed to have a soul and many rituals and worship ceremonies are held by its believers14. Lapchas call themselves animist. Shamans (Mun) play an important role in Lapcha
tradition, they perform rituals and healing ceremonies. All trees, mountains and rivers are holy objects for the Lapchas.
The majestic mountain Kanchenjunga is supreme, they believe their ancestors are created from the snowflakes of this holy mountain. And several ceremonies will be performed yearly by shamans to worship these holy natural objects. We were lucky to be able to attend one such ceremony, this particular ritual we observed was to please the gods of all the rivers of Mayel Lyang. Lapchas also believe in house spirits, once a year the father or eldest son of a household will perform a ritual to please the house god, called Ii ram fat. On these ceremonial days family and fiiends are invited to celebrate and offered food and drinks.
Bong Thing,. Y aba and Mun are the three most important officiants in ritual and ceremonies. A Bong. Thing is in fact a priest, who will perform rituals in case of sickness· and at certain stages of life as birth, marriage and death, archery tournaments and New Year celebrations. All men can become Bong-Thing, at least if one is born into the right clan, some clans are not allowed to bring forth Bong Things. Bong-thing just means "lord of speech," a Lapcha who speaks the language well and can express himself better than others. There can only be one official Bong-Thing in a community at a time.
A Y aha, or yama for females, is a small shaman, he or she is only begiuning to may be become a shaman later in life. The meaning of yaba is still vague to me. I have not been able to unravel the difference between Mun and yaba. But my feeling is that yaba is used for outsiders who have come only one or two times in a Lapcha community. Only when you are more intimate with the Lapchas of a community they will tell you that the person who they called yaba before is actually a Mun. Sometimes people told us that a yaba is just a small, beginning Mun, but this could also be said out
14
This definition has become common knowledge for many people. Also the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary gives about the same description.
of modesty of the Mun him or herself. One day we were in a Lapcha community in• Nepal and one of the Lapcha men told us he was a yaba, a small shaman. It was only a few months later in India at a Lapcha festival where we met his teacher that we found out that the man who referred to himself as a yaba was actually a Mun.
A Mun is what we would call a Shaman in the West. What a shaman15 exactly is, is quite hard to describe. Hitchcock and Jones gave the following loose definition:
"A ~haman is a part time specialist who through the controlled trance or state
df
possession is able to divine the future, diagnose disease and misfortune, and otherwise bring aid to his clients" (Hitchcock and Jones 1994:xiii).A Lapcha shaman can be possessed by ancestral spirits, but this is not necessary for all ceremonies. A lot of ceremonies e~ecuted by Muns could also have been performed by Lamas or Bong Things, in these cases their tasks overlap. The indication of a person becoming a Mun usually shows in the age of puberty, around fourteen or fifteen .. The future Mun will start shaking or fall very ill and cure him or herself in the end. After these signs a person will get a personal teacher, who is already a shaman.
In Kalimpong I have heard that the Mun was sometimes possessed by an ancestor of five generations ago. In daily life this girl could speak only a little Lapcha, but when possessed the language coming out of her mouth was old-fashioned Lapcha, which could only be well understood by the older people in the village.
At wedding ceremonies and. other festivals Muns will perform rituals which resemble very much those of Lamas. or Bong Things. In cases of sickness or unexpected deaths some high ranking Muns can track down the cause of the event. It sometimes appeared that some angry gods or spirit had caused the bad illness or misfo1tune. This kind of affairs can only be dealt with by what is called a Tungli Mun. Although in Mani Gumba one day a Lama in fact performed a ceremony to chase away the angry spirit in the house. This is difficult to understand for Westerners, but in many aspects Lapcha are not as strict as we would like them to be. The division between the power of the Mun and the Lama are not always as outlined as I have described, exceptions to the rule are to be found regularly.
The possibility of becoming a Mun is an inheritable affair, not all clans can provide Muns. All the Muns I have met also had a grandfather, grandmother or aunt in their family who had also been Mun .. Muns are very often special and eccentric people, very often intelligent personalities. They are highly visible for a reason I cannot pin down, but one way or another Muns often have a special
15 The word "shaman" is in fact a Tungu word, a tribe living in Mongolia. The word shaman has become more
general, it denotes a mystical person, which can actually be found in many animist religions around the world (see Eliade 1964: 8).
way of appearing. They set themselves consciously or unconsciously apart from other Lapchas. For instance the Mun we met in Nepal and his teacher from India both had a pigtail in Rasta style.
Buddhism
It was only in the sixteenth century that the Lapchas came in contact with Buddhism. It were the Tibetans, who had to flee from Tibet and found their refuge in Sikkim, where the Lapchas already resided, who brought them this new religion. These refugees are nowadays known as Bhutia. The Bhutia had to flee their home country because a civil war was taking place between the Gelugpa sect and th~ Nyingmapa sect. The Nyingma pa fled to Sikkim for they were the weaker party. These refugees are still referred to as Bhutia. The name Bhutia was given to them by the Lapchas.
The Tibetans who had fled to Sikkim were so poor they had to beg in the streets. Because of this the Lapchas called them Bhutia, which means beggar in Lapcha language. Bhutia nowadays don't know this meaning of the word and when we told them so they didn't believe us. But several Lapcha have assured us that Bhutia actually is a Lapcha word.
When Bhutia were begging in the street Lapchas gave them some food and eventually some land as well. The history boQks mention that soon after the settling down of the Bhutia they became stronger and took over power in the region. The Bhutia then made a deal with a Lapcha leader and they founded the kingdom of Sikkim, in 1641 (see also Risley 1890: 249, Rock 1934:932). A Bhutia Lama was appointed as royal and political leader. Bhutia were the men in power and Lapchas served them. Although some Lapchas were given the job of Kaji (feudal lord). (This looks like the divide and rule tactics the British used in their colonized areas).
Lamaism (also known as Tibetan Buddhism) consists of four main sects, which all have their own subsects. The main sects are Gelugpa, Nyingmapa, Kagyupa and Satyapa. The Dalai Lama of Tibet belongs to the Gelugpa sect. Gorer gave a fitting description about the complexity of Lamaism:
"Lamaism, or, as it is sometimes called, Mahayana Buddhism, is a subject of the greatest complexity, to the study of which scholars of world-wide repute have devoted their whole lives. Its organization is as elaborate as that of the medieval Catholic church, its hagiology, demonology and ritual are infinitely more complicated, .and it is split into nearly as many sub-sects as contemporary Christianity." (Gorer 1996; 181)
It is said that around the year 1641, the founding of the kingdom of Sikkim, the first Lapchas converted to Lamaism, in the end more and more joined the new brought religion. In a way Lapchas had to convert to Lamaism, for education was only given in the monasteries run by Bhutia and to enter a monastery one had to be Buddhist. Also for getting jobs of the Bhutia leaders one had to be Buddhist.
Nowadays all Lapchas present themselves as being Buddhists. But when we asked Lapchas which religion they follow many would answer: "we are Buddhists but we also have our own religion, we are animist as well." We also noticed that many Lapcha didn't know which sub-sect they followed. In contrast to the many Tibetan monasteries there are only few Lapcha monasteries. But lapchas do have their own Lamas and at all important occasions there will always be Lamas present, together with Bong Things or Muns.
The training for Lamas very often starts at a young age, mostly between ten and fifteen. According to Nakane (1966: 227) Lama training used to start even at a much younger age, namely between five and ten, but this wa:s in the early fifties. The Lama training among Lapchas takes about six years. Lapcha, as well as many tribal groups in the region, like Sherpas and Tamang are of the Nyingma pa sect. Whereas the Tibetans who have fled to Sikkim and India in the 1960 's all join the quite famous sect of the Gelugpa. The world famous Datai Lama of Tibet is their political and spiritual leader, and most important to them. To the other Buddhist subsects the Dalai Lama is of lesser importance.
In the Nyingma pa tradition Lamas are allowed tc{marry and have children, this is highly forbidden for Gelugpa. When I asked the younger· monks if they would marry later in life they usually said they didn't prefer a married life, but all the older monks I have met were in fact married and had children. I guess the coming generation will follow this example as well.
Christianity
The third religion practiced by some Lapchas is Christianity. In India there is actually quite a large group of Christian Lapchas, whereas in Nepal there is not one family. The conversion to Christianity started by the coming of the British who made Darjeeling and Kalimpong their relaxing hill stations. The British hated the scorching heat in other parts of India and when they discovered Darjeeling in the 1830s' they took their chance to buy Darjeeling, which belonged in those days to the kingdom of Sikkim. The new settlers paid tribute to the Sikkimese king.
''During the British period it was the protestant mission, which flourished and did much good work. They opened schools and provided health services. It is a fact that Christianity spread quick among the Lepchas" (Thakur 1988: 95). Nowadays the Christian schools are still the highest valued educational institutions. Also many Hindu and Buddhist people send their children to Christian schools.
Thakur (1989: 95) also mentions that many Lapchas have converted to Christianity to escape their state of poverty, the British provided free education and access to jobs for those who converted. A Lapcha Lama said the ·following ab6\lt the conversion of the Lapcha to Christianity:
"The Lepchas are very poor and during my life: time I· found many Buddhists being converted to Christianity. Those people were economically depressed with a heavy burden of debt etc., the Missionaries helped them and converted them to their religious creed. They are well looked after
and are now educated and well-to-do, but we the Buddhist Lepchas do not know beyond primary education and have not seen anything beyond this little area. Who will show us light and when? Should we.have to change our creed?" (Das & Banerjee 1967: 60)
Missionaries offered free access to education and gave food to those who came to church. The poor people who accepted the donations of their new protector had to join service before they would get their rice and education. This practice of converting the poor in change for financial support is still going on. We have met several middle class Hindus in Nepal who told us that many poor Hindus and tribals are converting nowadays to Christianity because of their state of poverty. All those people who have not converted were pr~bably not poor enough and they are often negative about the unfaithful conversion of poor people, who give up their ideology and tradition for money.
Nowadays the Buddhist Lapchas however do not consider converted Lapcha as real Lapchas because they usually do not speak Lapcha and they don't celebrate Lapcha festivals. Many Christian Lap<;:has don't drink chi, which is really essential for Lapchas (see also Nakane 1966: 257, Thakur 1988: 97). When I asked why Christian Lapchas don't drink chi, they answered me: "Drinking chi makes us poor," It is true that in general the Christian Lapchas are ina better economical position.
Lapchas of India
In India Lapchas live in Sikkim state and Darjeeling District (West-Bengal state). Sikkim was an independent kingdom until 1975, when it offfoially became the 22nd state of India. In lit.erature Sikkim is often mentioned as the homeland of the Lapchas, this is true, but it should be noted that Sikkim in the olden days used to be much greater in area. Parts of what is now East-Nepal and the towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong and even a small .part of West-Bhutan once belonged to the king of Sikkim. The greater version of the past Sikkim is what Lapchas still call Mayel Lyang. Due to wars and political rearrangements Sikkim has gotten its contemporary borders. Although
in
our work The Lapchas of Nepal we have claimed thi;i.t Ilam in fact was never governed by Sikkim, but also these Nepalese Lapcha call their homeland Mayel Lyang. As such Mayel Lyang is a construction, where ever a Lapcha will settle, ifhe feels at home he will call it Mayel Lyang.There are some differences between the Lapchas of Sikkim and those of Darjeeling District. The Sikkimese Lapchas experience the most benefits of the government, for example Zongu zone in the North of Sikkim ha.s been declared a Lapcha rest:;rvation, in thjs area only Lapchas can own land, other people can settle here but they can not possess land of their own. All people living outside Sikkim, also Lapchas need a special permit of the police department to enter the reservation.
One of the things that I remarked about the Li;ipcha of Sikkim (at least in Gangtok) was that many, both men and women have relatively high jobs. I have met people who had high ranks in the Indian army, in the govemment department of education. There are also Lapcha, who are political
leaders. Prirpary schools in Sikkim are free of fees for all children up to class five, consequently all children are in fact going to school (more details in Chapter four). The Lapchas of Sikkim had been ruled mostly by Bu<;ldhist people, it was only in the last century that some Hindu people settled in the region. They never experienced the suppression of Hindu dominance or of being a low class people within the caste system. Although The Bhutia leaders have not always treated the Lapchas very friendly, they could have been worse off. The Sikkimese government takes fairly well care of her citizens.
All Lapcha of India speak the lingua franca of the area, which is not like in the rest of India Hindi but Nepali. Throughout the whole area the Nepali population forms the majority, in the time of British rule many poor Nepalis have been recruited to work in the tea fields of Darjeeling and have found themselves a new home in the end. It should be mentioned that many of these poor Nepalis· were not Hindu but tribal people from Nepal. Lapcha who lived in Darjeeling were unwilling to work on the tea estates of the British, when Nepali tribals settled more and more, many Lapcha have left Darjeeling town and went to adjacent places.
The Lapchas of Kalimpong, amongst whom we have spent most of our time, are also quite well known in the area and recently researchers have come to study the Lapchas of Darjeeling District, as I mentioned already in the section about Lapcha literature. What is peculiar in Kalimpong is that many Lapcha have converted to Christianity and consequently a division has taken place. The Buddhists and Christians do not always appreciate each other's way of life.
The local Lapcha association now mainly consists of Christian Lapcha. The Buddhist Lapcha accuse the Christians of not being real Lapcha, because they don it celebrate Lapcha festivals, don't speak the Lapcha language and don't drink chi (millet beer). The Christian Lapchas on the other · hand said the Buddhist Lapcha were poor and misguided because they drink too much chi. Efforts have been made from both sides not to quarrel any more, but instead to unite and be all Lapcha (whether Buddhist or Christian). But this will take time.
The Indian Lapcha are recognized as a scheduled tribe by the government, although in the eyes of the government they form one category together with the Bhutia (Tibetans and Bhutanese ). One of my informants in Mani Gombu told us that he and other Lapcha as well found this unfair: "Bhutia are more educated and they will always get the job, we cannot compete with them. The government should give us a certificate only for Lapcha, we want a one percent reservation job quota only .for Lapcha."
India is in many ways more developed than Nepal, although both are considered developing countries. In terms of quality of education, electricity provision, industrial capacity, availability of modem consumer goods etc. India takes a lead. The processes of detribalization and retribribalization mentioned by Thakur (1989) is very clearly taking place in India. Not only Lapcha, but many other tribes who are afraid of losing their cultural identity due .to modernization
processes which are taking place among many tribal groups everywhere in the world, try to find ways to keep their traditions alive or revive old ones.
The process of reviving tradition is strongly visible in the archery tournaments held by Lapcha in the winter season~ On these days several Lapcha communities will hire a vehicle on which they attach a radio and loud music will be heard. Stacked with people the vehicle will drive to town on his way to the playground (usually one of the barren rice lands in a village). Everybody is happy and they all sing loud and shout and scream their Aachuley (Lapcha greeting).
In dffi1;y life Lapcha are shy and quiet in the streets, but on festival days they make themselves know to the outside world., This picture of a driving vehicle full of noisy and happily singing and celebrating people could be seen very often in the winter or holiday season. Not only Lapcha acted in this way, many other. tribal groups did the same. At least once a week there would be one festival going on ·somewhere in the neighborhood. On these days of festivity Lapcha wore their traditional clothes, men and women, whereas in daily life they would wear either the Indian dress (kurta or solwar16) or in general dress (loongi1
7),
many youngsters today wear jeans, or other Western clothes.It should be added that the Lapchas living Darjeeling District are not so strongly dominated by Hindus as is the case for many tribal groups in India and Nepal. The Lapcha in North-East have been more influenced by Bhutia (see also Das & Banerjee 1967: 148). Lapcha eat beef, which is openly available near the market.
Lapchas of Nepal
The history of the Lapcha in Nepal is somewhat different from India. Nepal has never been colonized by the British, although the influence of India on Nepal has always been there. Nepal is very dependent on the ·Indian industry and economy. In general Nepalis dislike their Indian neighbors and they often make unfriendly jokes about them. Although it should be mentioned that Lapcha were not eager to tell jokes, (this was the same for the Indian Lapcha).
In historical doctiments it is said that the Lapchas resisted strongly to the presence of the Gurkha soldiers in their area, and they didn't accept their leadership. Because of this the Gurkha leader approved the Lapcha of having their own Lapcha leaders instead of Gurkha leaders. The Gurkha leader appointed several Lapcha men to become subba18 (tax collector), they now had to take care of Lapcha and other people living in the area paying their taxes on time and they were allowed to use force if people were not willing or able to pay. These Lapcha subbas were not always friendly or sinc~re in fulfilling their tasks (see Regmi 1972: 136).
16
A kurta (Nepali) or solwar (Hindi) is tr.aditional Pakistani dress. It consists of a long dress under which a pant oflight fabric is worn.
17 A loongi is a cloth worn as a skirt. Many tribal women in the area where this skirt with a T-shirt and a scarf
on their head.
18
The word "Subba" means tax collector. The Gurkhas first conquered Limbuan (land of the Limbus), West ofllam District. Gurkhas applied the same system of tax collecting of the Limbus, for the Lapcha.
Then in 1827 a Lapcha kaji19 fled from Sikkim and was granted political asylum by the Nepalese king20. Because of his ancestors who had been in favor of the Nepali Gurkhas, the kaji
was welcomed heartily and he was granted a large area over which he could rule. He was appointed tax collector as well, but he could remain his title of kaji. Nowadays there are still Lapcha who claim themselves to be kaji, whereas in fact there can only be one family of kaji in whole Ilam District, but there are more than one who claim to have this title.
The system of kaji and subbas has been abolished in 1951. The title of kaji or subba nowadays is just used as a means to give oneself a higher status than other Lapchas. Descendants of sub bas or kaji can all use the name, but in earlier times the title was only inheritable by the eldest son. Also the descendants of these subbas are economically well off. These families still own a large plot of land; apparently their ancestors have been able to accumulate their wealth successfully.
The Lapcha of Nepal live among a strong Hindu majority. Lapcha often speak of Thulo Manchai (the big people) to denote the Bahun, .Chetris and Newars21, those who have the power and
oppress the non~ Hindus in the area. Many Lapchas. of Nepal wear the Hindu dress and accessories when they go to the market. Others will just wear the more general tribal dress (loongi), but they are in no way visible as Lapcha. Many Nepalis living in the same area don't even know Lapchas live there too. The Nepali Lapchas often let us know they felt suppressed by their Hindu neighbors. In the streets Nepali Lapchas behave inconspicuously, although their facial features are really different from other tribal groups in the area. By Hindus they are just referred to as Sudras22, like all other
tribes (or beefeaters).
In contrast to India the Nepalese Lapchas have not converted to Christianity, all are Buddhist and Shamanist. As I mentioned for the Christian Lapcha in India, they have converted because of poverty; in this respect the Lapcha of Nepal have found another sponsor. In Fikkal many Lapchas I
have met had become member of the Japanese Ryu Kai sect. The Ryu Kai is aimed at ancestor worship and development of your inner self Being member gives you opportunities to make use of facilities like economic relief in particular situations like for instance free transport to the hospital by the Ryu Kai ambulance. Although the Ryu Kai is not exactly a religion, like Christianity, I do think that the reason for joining this sect is the same as for the Indian Lapcha to convert to Christianity.
Our Lapcha neighbors had a sick grandfather in the house; the old man had been brought to the hospital with the Ryu Kai ambulance for free. The man of whom we rented our room in Fikkal was
a ve1y fanatic member and he had made many others in his neighborhood member as well. To be able to rise within the organization one has to make a lot of new members.
19
Kaji is in fact used in Sikkim and means feudal lord.
20
For a more extended review on the history of the kaji (see Schwerzel, Tuinstra, Vaidya 2000: 12-15).
21
Newars, Bahun, and Chetris are often referred to with the term NBC. They are usually wealthier and have more influence and social status in the Hindu Kingdom.
I can imagine that Ryu Kai Nepal has got a large amount of members, for in Nepal and in many countries in Asia it is difficult to refuse the invitation of a friend or family member. Of course not all people are very fanatic members, but what struck me was that those Ryu Kai Lapcha I met did in fact malrn a pujah (ritual ceremony) twice a day to worship their ancestors. They took it very serious, whereas Shyam (our Hindu friend from Manipur) who was a member as well (because a friend asked him to) never performed any pujah, he only wore a small button on his shirt, to show his membership. The people who have joined the Ryu Kai sect have not been forced to change their ideology radically.
Since. 1990, the year Nepal became officially a democratic country;23 many tribal groups have organized themselves in Tribal associations to plea for money by the government to keep their tradition and language alive. In March 2000 the Nepali government has given 10.000 rupees to the Lapcha Association to support them in keeping their language alive. The money can be used to buy materials for setting up an initiative to teach Lapcha parents and children their native language.
Whether this initiative will bear fruits remains to be seen. The secretary of the Lapcha Association, Ran Bahadur has told us before that he had tried already to launch a Lapcha Saturday School to teach children. Books were already there and teachers were available too, but people never showed up. He told us that manyLapcha didn't understand why it was important to organize and set up schools to learn the Lapcha language.
May be it is too early for the Lapcha to organize, only about three members of the Lapcha Association are conscious of their tribe vanishing. Looking at the situation in India I suppose that the attitude of the tribes in Nepal will go through the same process of detribalization and retribalization, only a little later and a little slower. Other tribes in the region, for example the Sherpas are already very strong in their organizational efforts to keep their traditions alive. Whereas for the Nepalese Lapcha the detribalization process has not yet commenced and therefore
retribalization is not yet necessary.
22 Sudra is the lowest strata, in the caste system.
23 Before those days Nepal used to be an autocracy, in which the king had all power. After the riots in 1990
Chapter2 Analytical framework, research and research methods
Analytical framework The concept of childhood
Childhood has connotations with what a child is supposed to do, to know, to be able to. These values are in fact social and not innate to the child. These norms and values are in fact made by people, and therefore the content of the term childhood can and does differ among cultures and change over time and place. Nunes (1994) gave the following description of childhood:
"Childhood" -that is. the concept of what a child is- is a cultural invention. The idea of "childhood" is loaded with notions of cans and cannots. Shoulds and should- nots. What children are expected to know or do, what they should receive and give, how they should behave, and what they need are all defined by a society" (Nunes 1994: 1).
Within scientific studies as anthropology, pedagogy and psychology it is agreed upon that childhood is a construction, ideas about childhood differ and change constantly over time and place. It differs among cultures and within cultures. Sex, class and race are all determinant factors.
Hood in fact refers to a period of time, a certain stage in life. Adulthoo~ for instance denotes the period in which a person is .considered to be an adult within the society or culture.of which he or she is a member. The same goes for terms like fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood, they all bear notions and values which are intrinsically present , known and shared among the members of a certain cultural background.
Childhood is not the same as a. child or children, by which we mean a person or persons. By
child we think of a small person who is not yet full-grown and learned enough to be considered an adult. The term childhood is just an abstraction, a scientific term used.to refer to the complex and intricate notions and ideas related to the realm of children.
Although we consider childhood as a separate stage in life nowadays, this has not been the case throughout the entire histo1y of mankind. For i.nstance in the Middle Ages children were in fact considered small adults, they were dressed the same way as their parents and behaved in alike manners. Institutions like special education and medical care for children's diseases only, flourished only in the early 1900's.
From childhood to global childhood
As mentioned before childhood is a social construction and it can differ widely. What is striking though in issues concerning children in the developing world, that notion exists in the West that despite all differences, there must be a core ideology, which could be applied to all versions of childhood.
This universal applicable version of childhood is also refened to as global childhood in scientific literature. In the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child declared in 1989 the ftmdamentals of this global child has been spelled out and at the same time made into universal law, to which all subscribing countries have to abide. The content of the convention however coincides with the. Western concept of childhood, the one we apply nowadays, in the industrial capitalist part of the world.
Zelizer notes that a child in the West nowadays "is expected to provide just love and smiles and emotional satisfaction to their parents, as compensation for all the parents do for him" (Zelizer 1994: 3). On the same page she also states that the child in the West has become economically worthless (they don't work to suppott the family anymore) but emotionally priceless (they are adored as if they were sacral). Children in the West are not allowed to work under the age of fifteen, only some specific jobs are allowed on a restricted basis. During school holidays children can work to earn extra pocket money.
A few hours work a week is considered harmless, for instance delivering papers or folders and piling in supermarkets. For the rest a child is not considered to work but instead to attend school full time, develop his personality and have time and money to spend on buying clothes and going out to celebrate in his or her free time.
"Conformity in child rearing has now reached the point in the industrialized world that parents are condemned for allowing their offspring to miss school, watch violent and sexually explicit programs on television ... And parents whose children work are accused of exploiting them as a commodity" (Boyden 1997: 193).
This picture of economically worthless, but emotionally priceless children has implicitly become the underlying ideology of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is already the picture we can observe ih the West, but we would like to see it in the South as well. This goal should be achieved in the near future, the year 2000 has been setas the moment supreme.
By now the Conventio1i has been: ratified by 151 countries, all. members of the United Nations, except the United States. Jo Boyden states the following:
" ... stereotyped perceptions of childhood -of the innocent child victim on the one hand and the young deviant on the other- have been exported from the industrial world to the South. It has been the explicit goals of children's rights specialists to crystallize in international law, a universal system of rights for the child based on these norms of childhood. The present United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child comes closer to this goal than any previous international instrument." (Boyden 1997: 197)
In the same vein Nieuwenhuys mentions that "the UN convention on the Right of the Child ... ratified by the largest number of member states in the history of the organization, is undoubtedly the most advanced expression of the belief in the desirability of imposing a uniform model of
childhood to the entire globe, and most particularly to the countries of the South." (Nieuwenhuys 1998: 271).
From the previous we can conclude that the wish for a global child is there, but has it already been achieved? The year 2000 is there and what can we say about the global child in the South, has the goal been reached or remains there still a long way to go? In the beginning of the year 2000 I was in Nepal and India studying the concept ofLapcha childhood. Therefore I consider it interesting to analyze in how far the global child has been achieved in Lapcha society. Therefore my main question in this thesis will be:
In how far does Lapcha childhood coincide with the Global Child as is described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
In 1990 a Plan of Action has. been launched and "this Plan of Action calls for concerted national action and international co-operation to strive for the achievement, in all countries, of the following major goals for the survival, protection and development of children by the year 2000"(Wodd
Summit Report 1990: 9). The Action Plan Report names the following seven goals for action;
a) Reduction of 1990 under-5 child mortality rates by one third or to a level of 70 per 1,000 live births, whichever is the greater reduction;
b) Reduction of maternal m01iality rates by half of 1990 levels;
c) Reduction of severe and moderate malnutrition among under-5 children by one half of 1990 levels;
d) Universal access to safe drinking water and to sanitary means of excreta disposal; e) Universal access to basic education and completion of primary education by at least 80
per cent of primmy school age children;
f) Reduction of the adult illiteracy rate to at least half its 1990 level (the appropriate group to be determined in each country), with emphasis on female literacy;
g) Protection of children in especially difficult circumstances, particularly in situations of armed conflicts.
As can be derived from the previous, the main focus is on health issues (a,b,c,d). The next important goal on the agenda is all children completing their basic education. Education issues are especially aimed at women and girls ( e,f). The last point is focussed on children in "especially difficult circumstances, like orphans, street children, refugees, displaced children, child workers trapped in the bondage of prostitution or other forms of exploitation, disabled children, juvenile delinquents and victims of apartheid and foreign occupation" (Ibid: 13).
The Plan of Action also mentions tasks, which have to be achieved by the year 2000. The first task deals with health and nutrition, according to the report this could be rather easily achieved because means are already known and accessible. Further attention should be given especially to care and support the disabled children as well as other children in difficult circumstances, by which are meant orphans and children of extremely poor families. Another primary task is, to achieve basic schooling for all (World Summit Report 1990: 2).
Page three item 15 calls: All children must be given the chance to find their identity and realize their worth in a safe and supportive environment, through family and other caregivers (the state) committed to their welfare. Only in item 16 the developing nations are explicitly mentioned for the first time, it states that "economic conditions influence the fate of children and for the sake of the future of all children it is necessary to ensure or reactivate ... sustainable economic growth and development. .. "(Ibid: 3).
Although these intentions launched here may sound very noble, there are voices stating that the child in the convention conveniently coincides with the modem Western concepts of childhood ''which in some countries will necessitate a "revolution of customs" (Gorny 1991, quoted in Blanchet 1996: 1).
Also Himes (1992), director ofUnicef intemational Child Development Centre, Florence, Italy has some doubts about the feasibility of the goals set in the Convention. He mainly focuses on the resource mobilization and the obligations of the state, which could form potential obstacles in the execution process.
The words used in the Convention are very general, uses many concepts which are very vague and multi interpretable. For example the terms like "happiness" and "taking into account the distinct cultural and social values in different countries." What is happiness, this is a relative concept and can not easily be defined or applied in a glob~d context. The Convention implicitly means by happy children those who are loved and grow up in a wealthy environment and are non-productive in economic sense. Nieuwenhuys states that "children's place in modem society must perforce be one of dependency and passivity" (Nieuwenhuys 1996: 238).
The Convention aims explicitly at the goal of all children joining primary education, presuming that school is instead of work or labor. We all know in the West that working children exist in many cultures in the world. This contradicts strongly with the statement, also mentioned in the Convention, that cultural values should be taken into account. This strongly gives the impression that the content of the CRC warits to be as political correct as possible.
"The text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) aims at transfonning the moral valuation of local childhoods in a globalizing process, in other words, shifting the context and relocating the issue of the personhood of children in a larger world and in a different mode of
thinking. In order to effect this transfonnation, the states which ratified the CRC were given major responsibility" (Blanchet 1996:219).
As Blanchet states justly that for many people in the South a shift in mode of thinking, in ideology has to take place in order to achieve the goals set by the Convention. Therefore the recommendations on how to achieve the global child in Lapcha society (or in the South), should in fact answer the following question:
How to change the ideology of people to the "right" ideology, which is necessary for making the Convention on the Rights of the Child applied on a global scale?
By the "right" ideology we of course mean the Western ideology, which makes it inevitable that all children go to school and have no economical value to their parents in any way.
Composition of the thesis
In the Convention it became clear that health and nutrition issues were not the most problematic to achieve. There were also two other topics mentioned in the Convention, on which I would like to focus in the following chapters. The first topic I aim at is the role of the family as protector and caretaker, and where family fails to do so the role of the state as caretaker. The second focus will be on basic education.
Therefore in chapter four I will discuss what is the function and meaning of family to several categories of Lapcha children. Not all Children grow up in two-parent families. What does family mean for those children who are orphan or semi-orphan, servants or handicapped, who are in fact a very urgenttarget in the CRC. In how far does the state tly to alleviate the fate of these children.
Chapter five will focus on how Lapcha deal with formal education. Is basic education as highly valued as in the West and what alternatives do Lapcha have within their society?
Chapter six will contain of a brief smnmary and conclusions. As I have mentioned already in the introduction .there are different groups of Lapcha, they have different modes of thinking and a different mode of living. We will see that Christian Lapchas are wealthier and they seem to fit the picture of the global child on many aspects.
The research
The research was conducted in both India and Nepal. This was not my intention but by coincidence this happened to be the case. Initially I wanted to focus on orphans within the Lapcha society, the conception of when· a child is considered an orphan and how Lapchas would deal with concomitant problems. This seemed too difficult a subject to research in a small period of time and with only a basic understanding of the language.
