Date: Water Monkey year, 6th month, 3rd day, Saturday (1992)
Stitched booklet of 24 pages, six lines per page; p. 1: 2
Lines; p. 24: 3 lines
Script: ’bru tsha; some ’khyug
Introduction
Every twelve years, in a Monkey year, the Tepas hold a meeting to examine their existing written constitution. The meeting is called the Gö Sogwa. Gö, which in Tibetan means ‘necessity’ or ‘use’ (dgos), is the usual term in Te (through only rarely in written documents) for ‘law’, and as such corresponds to the Tibetan word khrims. Sogwa is a Seke verb meaning to ‘invert’ or ‘turn upside down’ (probably < Tib. zlog pa). The Gö Sogwa, then, is literally ‘The Turning Upside-down of the Law’. The meeting continues for about two weeks, and during this peri- od the assembly decides what is to be set down in the new lawbook. The assembly in question is the yupa (< yul pa) gathering, that is, the senior male member of each of the forty-six active estates. Each of the issues is raised in turn, and after a period of discussion the matter is put to a vote. Under the supervision of the headmen and constables (who, as estate-holders, also vote), each person places a stone in the pile that signifies either support or opposition. The stones are counted and if the majority votes against the prospective rule the matter is closed; if a majority is in favour the rule is written into the new constitution by whichever priest of Tshognam or Baza happens to be acting as scribe.
Once the constitution has been compiled the old one is destroyed (unfortunately for the social historian) and the new document is placed in the care of the steward. The last Monkey year fell in 1992, and a new set of laws was duly drawn up. The lack of any real distinction, mentioned above, between the concepts of ‘law’ and ‘custom’ is revealed on the title page of the booklet, which advertises its contents as ‘the new customs of the community of Te’. Many of the thirty-five clauses in the document are elliptical to the extent that they refer to institutions with which the Tepas are very familiar. While their significance may be obvious to the villagers themselves, a certain amount of explanation is in order here. In the following treatment, the roman numerals correspond to the numbers of the clauses given in the text, while sub-clauses are identified by lower-case letters that have been added for the sake of convenience. Emendations are provided at the end of each page; the translation and commentary are organised according to clauses rather than by pages.
Transliteration
p. 1.
gter yul gyis dpes srol gsar ’du zos pis | chod tshig yig ges bzhug yod pa legs so |
dpe srol gsar du bzos pas; yi ge bzhugs
p. 2
1.bod bsod nams chu sprel zla 6 tshes 3 res gza’ span pa’i pa’i nyin |
2.ster yul rgan mi grags lung pa dpe bskal bka’ gros gcig mthun gyi
3.mthun gyi thog dpe srol gsar du bzos nas chod tshig yi ge bris don la |
4.don mtshan dang po | mchod pa zhing sngar so so la yod pa bzhin rang rang byed rgyu
5.la ’gyur bcos med | II shing ’thu rgyu’i bskor la tshogs rnams dgon dang
6.ga’u dgon pa gnyis la ster yul shing ’thus nas zhag gsum rjes su
1. chu spre; re gza’ spen 2. mi drag; dpe skal 3. {mthun gyi}; ’bri don 4. don tshan 5. skor la
p.3
1.shing mi khur lnga dang | dug shing ’thus nas zhag gsum rjes su
2.shing mi khur lnga ’thus rgyu yin | III bla mi mgur la lo bco brgyad nas
3.nyi shu rtsa lnga ’bar la na gzhon glu bgar byed rgyu dang | nyi shu rtsa drug nas
4.gsum bcu ’bar la khyim bdag glu gar byed rgyu yin | gsum bcu so cig
5.nas gsum bcu so lnga ’bar la zhag gcig nyin mo bgar rtse rgyu yin |
6.’gal srid gar rtse la su rigs nas ma yong na nyin re sgor brgya re zha
7.zhu med pa chad pa sbyangs rgyu yin | IV yul nas ’phral mthon nas
1. dug: see commentary 2. ’thu rgyu; bla ma gu ru la 3. bar la; glu gar 4. bar la 5. bar la; gar rtse 6. gal srid; 6–7. zhazhu (SMT < zhu ba) med; sbyong rgyu; khral thon
p.4
1.phyis mi nang mi su mthon kyang zla gcig ma tog yul du ’dod sa med |
2.zla gcig song nas zhag gcig thos pa dad na sgor stong gcig su yi
3.nang du dad kyang khang bdag rang nas sbyangs rgyu yin | slar yang yul du yong rgyu byung
4.na|zlabagcigmiyuldu’dadnasmatogyulduyongsamed|
5.rjes su bsam btang ’dren skyes kyi yul rang du ’phral sbyangs nas ’dad rgyu yin
6.bcas yul la bskyid bsdugs zhus na | sgor nyi khri (20000) tham pa ster yul
1. phyi; ’thon kyang; ma gtogs; sdod sa 2. thol pa bsdad na 3. bsdad kyang; sbyong rgyu 4. bsdad nas ma gtogs 5. ’dran skyes; khral sbyang nas sdod 6. skyid sdug
p.5
1.la ’bul nas ma tog dad mi mchog|V grwa pa jo mo
2.grwa sa grim nas bod chos rong chos sogs chos chos bzhin du byed
3.na ma togs|grwa pa jo mo yin bcas mthar sa med|grwa pa jo
4.mo mar log ’byung na mi mang nang bzhin las don gang ci’i thogs
5.las ka byed rgyu yin | VI yul ’dzom rgyu’i thad lo che rim ma togs
6.ma ’dad nas bu ’dzom mi mchog | gcen po ’dad nas gcung po
1. phul nas ma gtogs sdod mi chog; 2. ’grims nas 3. ma gtogs; thar sa 4. byung na mi dmangs; ci’i thog 5. ma gtogs
p.6
1.’dzom rgyu {nang} nam yang byed mi mchog | VII ri klung gang la’ang tshe ston
2.mi mchog | ’gal srid su rigs nas tshe gal pa gcig khyer ba mthong tshe
3.sgor brgya re chad pa zha zhu med | zhing gi rtsig pa ldib nas de la tshe yod
4.na | yul gyi rgan rol la zhus nas ma tog nang du khyer mi mchog | VIII
5.zhing snga rgyu’i thad | zhag du{s} ma sleb par zhing snga rgyu byung {cha}na | yul la sgor brgyad
6.dang kha thag gtsug nas zhus na sngon la zhing snga mchog | IX nang du pha
1. mi chog; ri klungs; mtshe ston 2. mi chog; gal srid; mtshe mgal pa 3. zhazhu (SMT < zhu ba); brdibs nas 4. ma gtogs; ’khyer mi chog 5. rnga rgyu’i; rnga rgyu 6. kha btags; btsugs; zhing rnga chog
p.7
1.ma bza’ tshang sogs mi rtags ’chi bas rkyen pas ya ’bral sogs
2.byung na | zhag bzhi bcu zhe dgu ma tog bsdugs khur mi mchog | zhing btab
3.nas zhag drug bcu nas zhing rgya ram pa zhag gsum lag pa’i spi rgyu ma tog
4.zor rgyab mi mchog | X gnas tshang ka gnyen ’gru pa yar ’gro mar ’gro
5.la yul rang ’dad na ma tog | gtsang po ’das nas rtsa sprad mi mchog |
6.gnas tshang yin bcas su rig nas rtsa sprad na | ka li rer sgor lnga re chad pa sbyang
1. mi rtag ’chi ba’i rkyen; ya bral 2. ma gtogs sdug ’khur mi chog 3. phyud (?) rgyu ma gtogs 4. ’grul ba yar 5. bsdad na ma gtogs; sprod mi chog 6. su rigs; khili (Nep. packet, roll); chad pa sby- ong
p.8.
1.rgyu chod | XI lcang ma shol bu sogs gtsug shing gtsug na | rang gi gdong
2.po nas ma tog gzhan nas gced mi mchog | ’gal te gtsug shing gced
3.dgos na rgan rol la spyan ’bul zhus nas ma togs gced mi mchog |
4.XII yur chu yi yur sgo chu yi khyer na chu thag gi rka mtsham ’bar
5.la | mi mang lo bcu gsum yar dang drug bcu re lnga mar tab nas zo rgyu chod
6.pa yin | chu thag rka nas sten rtsa rka bar zo rgyu byung na chu re dgu
1. lcang ma gshol po; btsug (?) shing btsugs; gi sdong 2. ma gtogs; bcad mi chog; gal te btsug shing bcad 3. ma gtogs gcod mi chog 4. chu yis; rka mtshams bar 5. mi dmangs; mar stabs; bzo rgyu 6. sten rtsa (?); bzo rgyu; ’chu res dgu
p.9
1.bcu go lnga nas bzo rgyu yin | yur chu rtsa ba nas chu yi khyer na
2.ko ra la man chad grong go spyad yan chod | snye shang la tshur stabs bang mi
3.btang nas ma yong na | sgor lnga brgya chad pa sbyangs rgyu mchod pa yin | XIII
4.sngar srol ltar bco brgyad drug bcu na ri la ’gro dus | ’gro ba’i dgong mo ma
5.tog snga gro rtse mo rtse mi chog | de’i phyi nyin g.ya’ rdzogs sgang la bco brgyad
6.d rug bcu tshang ma ’gro rgyu dang | de’i phyi nyin g.ye sman la tshang ma ’gro rgyu yin |
1. chu yis 2. yan chad; ’bangs mi 3. sbyong rgyu chod 4. snga srol 5. gtogs snga dro
p.10
1.yul nas mi ’dzam gling phyi rgyal gang du phyin kyang | yu ra la cha la ma
2.non tshe ’bru zo ba gnyis dang sgor lnga bcu tham pa zha zhu med pa sbyang rgyu
3.yin| zla 3 tshe 12 nyin bco brgyad drug bcu na ri la zhag cig ’gro du de
4.la yulnangnasmisuma’gronasgorlngabcurechadpayod|XIV
5.yul rgan pa bkos rgyu’i thog | yul ’tsho che chung gsum du bgos nas
6.’tsho re re nas rgan pa re re rgyan rgyab rgyu chod | rgan pa khur rgyu’i skar mi nyin
5. sko rgyu’i; yul tsho 6. tsho re; ’khur rgyu’i
p11
1.su ma yong tshe nye chad sgor stong gsum re zha zhu med pa sbyangs rgyu dang
2.na tsha sogs nas yong ma thub na rgan tshab khang pa’i ka la kha
3.thag bkon rgyu yin | rol po yang ’bar tshogs bzhi nas re re rgyan rgyab
4.rgyu chod | mda’ btang rgyu ni rol po bzhi nas so so’i srang nas mda’ btang
5.rgyu yin | rgan rol gyi tshab los sa med | rgan rol khur du ma yong na
1. zhazhu (< zhu ba); sbyong rgyu; 3. btags skon rgyu 4. brda gtong 5. klod sa; ’khur du
p.12
1.chad pa sgor stong gsum dang | ’khor dus ma yong na chad pa sgor stong gsum
2.byangs rgyu chod | yang rgan pa gcig dang rol po gnyis yul btang nas
3.zhag gcig yang phar tshur ’gro mi chog | ’gal srid phar tshur ’gro
4.na nyin rer sgor brgya re nye chad yod | yul bsrung rgyu’i tshab dang chu re
5.bskor rgyu sogs la | rang lo bcu gsum yan chod kyi los yul
6.du rgan rol ga tshod yod kyang snga ’gro (chu tshod) bcu dang dgong mo (chu tshod)
2. sbyong rgyu 3. gal srid 4. yul srung 5. skor rgyu 6. snga dro
p.13
1.bzhi la klu la blta’ bskor theng gnyis res bskor rgyu chod | ’gal
2.srid klu la blta’ skor ma theb na nyin rer sgor lnga bcu re nye chad yod | chang
3.tsos rgyu’i lta ka che chung gcig ma tog med | XV ri yi skor la kha chu
4.byung tshe | bdud ’gro la bag gsum dang mi la bag gcig ’gro song btang rgyu yin |
5.XVI tshe thang | kyu ldan | dangs ra nyi rim pa gsum la bdud ’gro ’dad rgyu’i lhe
6.dang khang pa yul nas zos rgyu chod pa yin | lus dang ril ma tshang ma khyim
1. klungs la lta skor thengs gnyis re skor rgyu chod | gal 2. klungs lta skor 3. btsos rgyu’i; ma gtogs 4. bg gsum; bg gcig; gtong rgyu 5. mtshe thang; sdod rgyu’i lhas 6. bzo rgyu
p.14
1.grangs la bgos rgyu chod | XVII rgan rol rnams kyi thog tu drangs bden gyi skor
2.blta’ rtogs byed pa’i mi bzhi bskos nas mi bzhi nas kyang | zla re bzhin yul
3.’dzom nas rtsis byed rgyu chod pa yin | rgan rol rnams nas phyogs re then khyer
4.sogs byed nas drangs bden ma byed na | rgan rol rnams nas chad pa ’dab ’phar
5.grub rgyu chod | mi bzhi la skol chang zla re la shag zo bzhi re yul nas sprad rgyu
6.yin | mi bzhi la mthar chang dge ba sogs chang ga tshod ’thung rgyu yod na yang thob |
1. drang bden 2. lta rtogs 3. ’dzoms nas; ’then ’khyer 4. drang bden; ldab ’phar 5. ’grub rgyu; bkol chang 6. thar chang;
p.15
1.mi bzha’i tshab kyi los sa med | mi mang nam rgyas ’bar la
2.mi bzhi dad rgyu yin | chang ’thung nas rtsod gleng byed nas skad ston pa sogs
3.byung na | las ’dzin nas slob bso theng gcig rgyab nas ma nyen na | sgor
4.lnga bcu chad pa zha zhu med | XVIII shing gi thad | rge rgon rgan tshang la
5.’gro na ma tog rgan shing thob sa med | XIX mthar chang zla ba bdun pa’i
6.sgo nas zla brgyad pa’i ’jug ’bar la mthar chang ston thub pa dgos rgyu dang
1. mi bzhi’i; klod sa; mi dmangs; ’gas bar la 2. sdod rgyu; btungs nas; byas nas; bton pa 3. slob gso thengs gcig brgyab; nyan na 4. zhazhu (< zhu ba); rgad rgon 5. ma gtogs; thar chang 6. mgo nas; bar la; thar chang
p.16
1.zla brgyad pa nas ’phar ’gyang tshe ’bru zo ba lnga re chad pa yod | mthar chang
2.yang nyin mo ston rgyu yin | mthar chang ston mi la brten ’brel la sgor
3.brgyad re nas mar ma chag pa kha thag kha tshang gsar pa ’dri ma med pa me
4.btang tshad na rgyus rgyu yin | mthar chang mal ldag bza’ rgyu la | me btang
5.tshad nas bud med re re mda’ btang rgyu dang | phe phed ’chang la me btang tshad
6.nas bu re re shog bcas mda’ btang rgyud chod | XX yul du mi grags
1. thar chang 2. thar chang 3. kha btags 4. brgyud rgyu; thar chang; maldag 5. brda gtong; phe-phe chang (see commentary) 6. gzhogs bcas brda gtong rgyu; mi drag
p.17
1.su yong kyang | bca’ dngos bza’ mthung ji ltar dgos rung
2.rgan rol bdun nas rgan khur byed rgyu yin | ’gro song ga tshod ’gro
3.kyang mi bzhi rtsis byed sar ’dad dgos | rgan rol bdun dang mi
4.bzhi bcas khyon sdom mi bcu gcig la bza’ rgyu ’thung rgyu tshang
5.ma yul nas thob|XXI yur chu la las byed skab|las mgo la ma non
6.sgor bco lnga dang | las bzhugs bar du ma yong na sgor lnga bcu chad pa yod |
1. bza’ btung 2. rgan ’khur 3. sdod dgos 4. khyon bsdoms 5. byed skabs; las zhug (SMT < mjug)
p.18
1.XXII khyim grangs yul pa mda’ btong ma thag ma yong na sgor lnga chad pa dang | yul nam
2.rgyas ’bar ma yong na sgor nyi shu chad pa yod | XXIII klung gi nag bskor la rgan rol
3.la zhus nas ma tog nag gcad mi mchog | XXIV ’dzing bu’i las don bskor la
4.rang lo bcu gsum yar | rang lo drug bcu re lnga man ’dzing bu’i las ka la ma yong na
5.zhag gnyis la sgor nyi shu chad pa yod | yang ’dzing bu ston dus sgar rtse sar ma yong na
6.sgor nyi shu chad pa yod | bla mi gur la rang lo bcu gsum yan dang drug bcu re lnga man gzigs
1. brda btang ma thag 2. ’gas bar; klungs kyi; don skor 5. ’don dus gar rtse 6. bla ma gu ru las
p.19
1.mo la tshes bcu nyin tshang ma yong dgos rgyus | ma yong na sgor nyi shu chad pa yod |
2.dgon pa gnyis kyang yul nang bzhin ma tog zhing la bdu ’gro btang mi mchog | btang
3.nas rgan rol lag tu theb na yul ltar chad yod | XXVI yur ra dang zhing sogs nas
4.sa ston pa rgan rol lag tu theb na|’bru zo ba lnga chad pa yod|g.ya’ thang la
5.rtse yan chod dang | ’or rdo thang yan chod ma togs shing ’thus mi mchog | ’gal
6.srid man chod shing ’thus na shing khur re la ’bru zo ba lnga re chad pa yod | XXVII
1. dgos rgyu 2. ma gtogs; bdud ’gro gtong mi chog 3. yur ba 5. ma gtogs; ’thu mi chog | gal
p.20
1.rang lo bcu bdun song na nang bag chud bzhin rang don ma tog gzhan gyi mi lag mi los |
2.yul pa tshogs ’dus chung ba yang rang lo bco brgyad ’bar la rang skal ma togs gzhan go
3.mi chod | XXVIII ’dzo bkug rgyu dang ra ’tsho rgyu thad rang lo bco brgyad yan dang drug bcu re
4.lnga man ma togs ’gro mi chog | lo tshad ma slebs bar ’gro na sgor nyi shu rtsa lnga zhag
5.re bzhin chad pa yod|grongs pa rang gal ra cang na ’dzi bu re re mthar|XXIX bla ma gur
6.gyi chang tshos theb ma theb chang tshos mi rang mna’ dags spud rgyu chod | XXX yur chu nas
1. ma gtogs; mi glod 2. tshogs dus; bar la; ma gtogs 3. mdzo bkug 4. ma gtogs; 5. grong pa rang skal ra bcangs; rdzi’u re re thar; bla ma gu ru’i 6. {gyi} chang; mna’ dags spud
p.21
1.shag thang zhing la chu nam yang khyer mi chog | ’gal srid khyer pa byung na zhing
2.snang ma re re la sgor brgya re chad pa zha zhu med | XXXI dmang rtse chu re grigs nas
3.zhing che chung la ’phral khur rgyu yin | XXXII bza’ ston bzas la yul nang du
4.yod pa’i tshogs ’dus gar rtse sar ma yong sgor nyi shu rtsa lnga chad pa zha zhu
5.med|XXXIII gsum mdo yi ’khor du|lpag pa bang ba dang|dmar tsha dung ba|
6.ral bsad pa|sa ston pa|lpag pa brnyed pa|lud ston pa sogs nam yang
1. ’khyer mi 2. zhazhu (< zhu ba) 3. khral ’khur 4. zhazhu (< zhu ba) 5. sbong ba; dmar tshwa brdung 6. ral gsed; sa ’don; lpags pa mnyed pa; lud ’don
p.22
1.byed mi mchog | ’gal srid ’gal ba shar tshes sgor lnga bcu re chad pa zha zhu
2.med | bskor bu gcig bu mkhal mchog | XXXIV ’dzing bu khang nas smug
3.kyu mthon na | chu ri re re nas mi gnyis re mthar rgyu dang | smug dkyu ma thon
4.na mi re re mthar rgyu chod pa yin | khru gu rang lo bcu gnyis mar btab shis na khang
5.nang gi mi zhag gsum ma tog bsdugs khur mi mchog | dgong gsal don
6.mtshan | XXXIV de la na tsha sogs ’byung nas yong ma thub pa sogs byung na
1. gal srid; shar tshe; zhazhu (< zhu ba) 2. ’khal chog; 2–3. gang nas mugkyu (see commentary) 3. ’thon na; ’chu re re re; thar rgyu; mugkyu ma ’thon 4. thar rgyu; phru gu; shi na 5. ma gtogs sdug ’khur mi chog; gong gsal 6. byung nas
p.23
1.mna’ dags pa spud thub na mthar rgyu dang | na tsha sogs ha cang bsdug po
2.byung nas rdzong sar sman khang sogs la ’gros dgos nas nad pa kyal sar mi
3.bzhi lnga ’gro na yang | nad g.yog mi gcig ma togs mthar sa med |
4.gzhan rnams yar phyir log ’phral du dgos rgyus dang | yul du nad pa phyi la
5.mthon thub na | nad g.yog yin bcas mthar sa med | don de la
6.nam yang mi ’gyur ste {-u} lung pa khu shi dbra rtags res ’bul ’phral |
1. mna’ dags pa spud; thar rgyu; sdug po 2. ’gro dgos; skyal sar 3. ma gtogs thar 4. dgos rgyu 5.
’thon thub; thar sa 6. khusi r[ji] (see commentary);
p.24
1.dgong du ma mthus pa | sku tsog gangs gi g.yas g.yon
2.nas sa nag ston pa su rig nas mthong tshe sgor brgya re chad pa zha
3.zhu med |
1. gong du ma ’thus pa | sgang gi 2. ’don pa su rigs
Translation
p. 1. Contained herein is a document containing the revised version of the customs of the community of Te
p. 2. Saturday, the third day in the sixth month of the Tibetan Agrarian Water Monkey year (1992). This document has been written after revising the customs of the community of Te following an agreement on the basis of a vote by the headmen, officials and the [rest of] the community.The first point: the communal fields: these shall be kept as they are, according to their previous distribution without there being any changes.
II. Concerning the collection of firewood. The monasteries of Tshognam and Ga’u may collect five man-loads each of firewood three days after the community of Te has collected its wood, and they may collect five man-loads [of wood and dung] three days after [the community] has collected its wood and dung.
III. At the Lama Guru festival, those aged between 18 and 25 should perform the Young Peoples’ singing and dancing; those between the ages of 26 and 30 should perform the Householders’ singing and dancing; and those bet ween the ages of 31 and 35 should dance on one day in the daytime. If anyone does not come for the dancing and singing he or she shall be fined one hundred rupees per day, and no excuses.
IV. Those who, whether outsiders or members of the community, relinquish their tax liabilities, may remain in the village for no more than one month. If they stay one day more than one month,1000 rupees must be paid by the owner of whichever house they have lodged in. Should they later revisit the village, they may come to the village only after staying somewhereelse for one month .
If, later on, they should miss [their homes] and would like to live in the village [again] as taxpayers, and request the community for full membership, they will be permitted to remain only if they pays 20,000 rupees to the community of Te.
V. Only if the monk and nuns fre quent their monasteries and are properly literate in both Nepali and Tibetan and act like religious people will they be exempted from duties as monks and nuns. If monks or nuns should turn apostate th ey must perform any kind of ta s k, like ordinary people.
VI. Concerning village meetings, only people of the highest rank should join the assembly: a son should never come while the father remains [at home], nor a younger brother while the elder brother remains at home.
VII. Ephedra may not be upro oted anywhere on uncultivated or on cultivated ground. Anyone seen carrying [even] one Ephedra plant will be fined 100 rupees, and no excuses will be accepted. If th e re is any Ephedra [exposed by] a field wall that has collapsed, it may be taken home only after requesting the permission of the headmen and constables.
VIII. Concerning the harvest: if someone must harvest his fields before the appointed day (zhag dus) has arrived, if he presents the community with 8 rupees and a white scarf, and asks permission, he may harve st his fields in advance.
VIII. Unlike other villages, which decide the date of their harvest on the basis of the weather, Te’s harve st begins a fixed number of days from the date of planting. In the case of buckwheat, this is exactly 100 days. Now not all fields receive the same amount of sunshine, but even though the crops in certain patches would have ripened befo re the official opening of the harvest had arrived, the owners were, until this constitutional change, obliged to watchthem wither in the fields.
IX. a. (p. 6, l. 6–p. 7, l. 1) If a household has any bereaved people as a consequence of the death of a father, mother spouse or whoever, in the nature of impermanence, its members may not remain in mourning for more than 49 days.
IX. b. (p. 7, l. 2) Sixty days after planting the fields [with buckwheat], for a period of three days the quitch grass in the fields may be [collected], but only by pulling with bare hands, not by cutting with sickles.
X. Animal fodder may be given to trading partners, friends and relatives, and travellers on their way up or down only if they stay in the village itself, but not once they have crossed the river. If anyone gives fodder to his guest, he shall pay a fine of 5 rupees per bundle of fodder.
XI. If someone makes a cutting from a willow or poplar or whatever, he may cut it from no tree other than his own. If someone needs to take a cutting, he may not do so except in the presence of the headmen and constables.
XII. If the Yurchu should carry away the [gabions by the] tunnel through which it passes, it has been decided that the whole populace over the age of 13 and below the age of 65 should repair it up to the beginning of the sluices at the water mill. If it is necessary to carry out repairs between the water mill sluices and the Tentsa[zur] sluices, the work shall be done by the 95 members of the irrigation roster.
If the river carries away the Yurchu canal from its foundations, it has been decided that those who do not come after the messengers have been sent [to summon everyone] below the Kore Pass and above Drong-goce, and on this side of the pass into Nyeshang, shall pay a fine of 500 rupees.
XIII. When, according to past custom, people aged between 18 and 60 go to Nari, they may play [cards] only on the evening they go there, not on the following day. The day after [they arrive], everyone between 18 and 60 must go to Yadzog Gang, and the day after that everyone must go to Yemen.
Even if people from the village has gone to another country of the world, if they are not on time to go to the irrigation canals with everyone, they shall pay 2 zo ba of grain and 50 rupees without making excuses.
If, in the daytime of the twelfth day of the third month, the day on which those aged between 18 and 60 should go to Nari, anyone from the village does not go he or she shall be fined 50 rupees.
XIV. a. (p. 10, l. 4) Concerning the appointment of the village headmen: the community shall be divided into three groups according to age (che chung gsum), and each group shall cast lots to decide one of the headmen. If, on the astrologically appropriate day for choosing the headmen, someone does not come, he shall be fined 3000 rupees, and no excuses. If [one of the new incumbents] is seized by illness or whatever [away from Te] and is unable to attend, the pillar of his house shall be dressed with a white scarf in place of the headman himself.
XIV. b. (p. 11, l. 3) The constables too shall be chosen by lot, one by each of the four sectors.
XIV. c. (p. 11, l. 4) For calling meetings the four constables shall summon people from within their respective streets. No one shall be accepted as substitutes for the headmen and constables. Anyone who does not come for the selection of the headmen shall pay a fine of 3000 rupees, and if anyone has not arrived by the time the changeover is taking place (? ’khor dus) there will be a [further] fine of 3000 rupees.
XIV. d. (p. 12, l. 2) Moreover, one of the headmen and two of the constables may not leave the village and go anywhere for even one day; if they do go away they shall pay a fine of 100 rupees each.
XIV. e. (p. 12, l. 4) Substitutes [for the constables] over the age of thirteen shall be acceptable for watching the village [fields] and managing the irrigation circuit and so on. However many headmen and constables are in the village should walk around the fields twice a day to check them, once at ten in the morning and once at four in the evening. If someone does not fully accomplish his patrol of the fields he will be fined 50 rupees per day.
XIV. f. (p. 13, l. 2) There shall be only two Taka fields for making beer, one big and one small.
XV. If a dispute [with a neighbouring community] should arise over pastureland (lit. hillsides), the expenses shall be covered by payments of a ratio of 3:1, animals to people.
XVI. The pens where livestock stay shall be repaired and houses shall be built in Tshethang, Kyuden and Dangda. Manure and goat dung shall be divided up among all the houses.
XVII. Concerning the headmen and constables: four men shall be appointed to supervise their honesty and truthfulness. Furthermore, these four men shall check the accounts during a monthly meeting of the community. If the headmen and constables have been biased or deceit- ful and so forth, and have not been honest and truthful, they should repay in double whatever fines they have levied.
Every month the four men shall be given beer by the community: four zo ba of warm beer each. At retirement celebrations, merit-making memorial rites and so on, the four men should be given as much beer as they would drink. No substitutes will be accepted for the four men. The four men must be present until meetings of the people are over. If, after people have been drinking beer, an argument should break out and there are people shouting loudly (skad bstan pa), if they do not obey the constables after one warning (slob gso), they shall pay a fine of 50 rupees without excuses.
XVIII. With regard to firewood: elderly men and women shall receive ‘elders’ wood’ only after they have entered their retirement quarters.
XIX. People must be able to hold their retirement ceremonies between the beginning of the seventh month [of the Te calendar] and the end of the eighth month. If one is held later than the eighth month there shall be a fine of 5 zo ba of grain. Moreover, the retirement ceremonies shall be held in the daytime.
As an auspicious gesture, every hearth shall present the host of the retirement ceremony with no less than 8 rupees and a clean, new, stainless white scarf.
For eating oil porridge at retirement ceremonies one woman from each hearth shall be invited, and one man invited from each hearth to the men’s beer-drinking.
XX. If any important people come to the community, the headmen and constables, those seven, should take the responsibility for [providing] whatever materials, drink and food are required. If any expenses are incurred, the four men must do the accounts. The headmen and constables, those seven and the four men, eleven altogether, shall be provided with all their food and drink by the community [until the business is concluded].
XXI. Whoever is late for the beginning of work on the Yur chu [canal] will be fined 15 rupees, and anyone who has not arrived by the time the work is over will be fined 50 rupees.
XXII. If people do not come as soon as they have been called for meetings of hearths or households they will be fined 5 rupees. If they have not arrived by the time the villagers have dispersed they will be fined 20 rupees.
XXIII. Concerning the field forest, the forest may be cut only after asking permission of the headmen and constables.
XXIV. a. (p. 18, l. 3) Concerning the work on the reservoir: if anyone above the age of thirteen and below the age of 65 does not come for the work he or she will be fined 20 rupees for the two days.
Moreover, anyone who fails to come to the dancing ground when the reservoir is being cleared will be fined 20 rupees.
XXIV. b. (p. 18, l. 6) During the Lama Guru, everyone over thirteen and under 65 must come to the spectacle on the tenth day. Anyone who does not come will be fined 20 rupees.
XXIV. c. (p. 19, l. 2) Moreover, the two monasteries, like the community, may not let their livestock into the fields. If they are let into the fields and the headmen or constables seize them, the fine will be the same as for the community.
XXVI. (sic; there is no XXV: that number should probably have been inserted before XXIVc). Anyone caught by the headmen or constables taking earth from irrigation ditches, fields or suchlike shall be fined 5 zo ba of grain.
Wood may be collected only above the cairn of Yathang and above Ordothang. If someone collects wood below these points there will be a fine of 5 zo ba of grain per bundle of firewood.
XXVII. Until a [young man] is over seventeen years old, he may act only on his own behalf as he would within his family, and may not be accepted as a hired worker.
Furthermore, until the junior member of the assembly is 18 years old, he may deal only with his own affairs, and may not substitute for others.
XXVIII. Concerning the retrieval of dzos and goat-herding: only those who are above eighteen and below sixty-five may go. If someone who has not reached the proper age should go, he will be fined 25 rupees per day. If a household has its own goats, one herder shall be exempted from village duties.
XXIX. The people who make the beer for the Lama Guru must swear an oath about whether the [grain for the] beer has been thoroughly boiled or not.
XXX. Water may never be channelled to the Shagthang fields from the Yurchu. Anyone who does channel the water will be fined 100 rupees for every subsection, and no excuses.
XXXI. After the irrigation roster for the Mangtse area has been established, taxes will be levied according to the size of fields.
XXXII. If someone from the community belonging to the group [that does the dancing] at Zatönse does not come to the dancing area, he or she will be fined 25 rupees, and no excuses.
XXXIII. In the area of gSum mdo people should never tan (lit. soak) hides, pound chillis, whip goat-wool, remove earth, work a hide, or carry out manure. Anyone who violates this rule shall be fined 50 rupees, and no excuses. Only spinning is permitted.
XXXIV. a. (p. 23, l. 2) If the reservoir fills up and overflows, two people from each [household in each] unit on the irrigation roster will be excused from civic duties, but if it does not overflow, one person from each shall be exempted.
XXXIV. b. (p. 23, l. 4) If a child under the age of twelve dies the people in the house may mourn for no more than three days.
XXXIV. c. (p. 22, l. 6) Further to point XXXIV, if there is someone who cannot come because he is ill or whatever, he may be excused if he can swear an oath to this effect. If someone falls seriously ill and has to go to Jomsom hospital or wherever, even if four or five people go to carry the patient, only one person may be exempted from village duties as a helper to the patient. The others must come back up immediately. If a sick person in the village is capable of walking out of his house, there shall be no assistant who is exempted from village duties.
XXXIV. d. (p. 23, l. 5) The [people of the] community of Te gladly and willingly set their thumbprints [to affirm that] they will never deviate from these rules.
p. 24. Omitted above: if anyone sees a person taking black earth around (lit. to right and left of) Kutsog ridge, [the offender] will be fined 100 rupees.
Commentary
p. 2, l. 4, mchod pa zhing: ‘offering fields’. A better reading, which is in fact more commonly encountered in documents from neighbouring settlements, would probably be chos pa zhing, ‘fields of the religious community’. In the case of Te, the term denotes the fields attached to the dBon po grong pa, one of the community’s two ‘dormant’ estates. Their char- acterisation as ‘religious’ derives from the fact that the now-extinct dBon po clan were the hereditary Nyingmapa lamas of Te (see HMA/Te/Tib/01). At the time of the cadastral survey these fields were registered as dharma guhi, ‘religious collective’ land, a category for which land taxes need not be paid to the government.
In the late 1980s a huge retaining wall carrying an aqueduct to an area of fields on Thangka collapsed, and the fields became unusable. The worst affected was a large religious field that was being leased by a certain rGyal mtshan. Wi thout water the field produces nothing, but since the lease fee in Te is based on seed capacity, not yield, rGyal mtshan is still obliged to pay the fee. Since he is the only one who is losing out under the terms of the arrangement, it is in his interest that the retaining wall be repaired. The purpose of the clause then is to ensure that rGyal mtshan lessee should not return the field to the community but must keep paying the lease fee. It is entirely for him to choose between the two evils of leaving the field unproductive or incurring the considerable expense of engaging labourers to help him repair the collapsed wall. Either way, the community will receive its annual fee.
II. Fuel in Te is scarce. It consists for the most part of thorn bushes gathered at some distance from the settlement. Wood is supplemented by dung. The term for dung used in the clause is dug shing (p. 3, l. 1), a neologism apparently coined by the scribe by combining the Seke word for dung (dug) with the Tibetan (or Seke) term for wood (shing). Other rules concerning the collection of dung are given below. The intention behind allowing the two temples to collect their fuel three days after the period allotted the community itself is simply that villagers should be available to gather wood and dung on behalf of the priests in return for the usual payment of beer and food.
III. p. 3, l. 2, bla mi mgur, for bla ma’i mgur: this is the same ceremony that is referred to in the much older document HMA/Te/Tib/01 as “the great festival known as the Lama Guru” (bla ma gu ru zhes pa’i dga’ bston chen po, ll. 32–33). When I first visited Te in 1986 I had a discussion with some members of the priestly family about the possible etymology of the name, and suggested that, because of the central importance of a particular cycle of devotional songs, the name might have been a popular derivation of bla ma’i mgur or bla ma’i mgur glu, “The Songs of the Lama”. Although I no longer think this is the case, I wonder if the scribe of this document, who was a child at the time of my visit, might not have chosen this rendering based on his recollection of that conversation. (A description of the Lama Guru is given in The Navel of the Demoness, Chapter 8.)
p. 3, l. 3, na gzhon (< na so gzhon pa): ‘Young People’, a Tibetan translation of the Tepa category bön-tshame, ‘young men-young women’. The implication of this entry is that all those between 18 and 25 should participate whether married or not. Previously, only unmarried bön- tshame were obliged to take part in this episode of the Lama Guru. In the second group (26–30), nothing seems to have changed. The inclusion of the th i rd group (31–35) is an innovation—this age group was notrequired to dance in the past. Under the terms of the new constitution, they are obliged to join the category of the estate-holders for one day.
IV. When this document was written, Te had been far less severely affected than the rest of Bara gaon by the haemorrhage of its citizenry, but the trend in these surrounding communities was a cause for some concern. Nothing can be done to prevent people from leaving the village. They can, however, be made to think twice about doing so, and the present clause is, among other things, a means of imp ressing on would-be emigrants that the decision is not one to be taken lightly.
The inclusion of the term ‘outsider’ in the first line is a pure ly rh etorical formula, since outsiders do not pay taxes to Te.
V. “Properly literate... like religious people”: literally “only if they do Tibetan religion and lowland religion and so forth, religion as religion [should be done]...”. The Tibetan word chos, ‘religion’, is far more commonly used to signify ‘book’ or ‘literacy’ in Mustang. The formulation rong chos...byed(p.5,l.2)has therefore been translated here as“to be literate in Nepali” rather than “to follow the Hindu religion”. In either case it is entirely decorative, since literacy in Nepali or adherence to Hinduism are both irrelevant as criteria of qualification as a proper monk or nun.
Monks and nuns are exempt from the performance of communal tasks and from holding civil office. The clause is a sharp redefinition of who may legitimately avoid village duties on grounds of religious status.
VII. Ephedra (Tib. mtshe), a type of gymnosperm that grows fairly abundantly in Mustang, is used to feed goats that are penned at home. The roots can be dried for firewood. Ephedra grows thickly on the faces of field terrace walls, and helps to stabilise them. It would be very easy to tug a plant out of someone else’s wall and later claim, when challenged,that it had been collected on the high pastures. The rule is, therefore, designed to protect the field walls.
VIII. Unlike other villages, which decide the date of their harvest on the basis of the weather, Te’s harvest begins a fixed number of days from the date of planting. In the case of buckwheat, this is exactly 100 days. Now not all fields receive the same amount of sunshine, but even though the crops in certain patches would have ripened befo re the official opening of the harvest had arrived, the owners were, until this constitutional change, obliged to watchthem wither in the fields.
IX. a. Following a death in the household, people would go into mourning for months on end, even for as long as a year. Bereavement constitutes legitimate grounds for exemption from village labour, and it was felt that protracted periods of mourning were being used by the bereaved as an excuse to devote time and energy to their own households at the expense of public works.
IX. b. This sub-clause was probably omitted by oversight from no. VII I . That the planting refers to buckwheat (the second crop) rather than barley can be inferred from two facts: first that quitch-grass on field borders is still too short when the first crop is growing; and second- ly, the period when the buckwheat is ripening is also the time when thunderstorms are most frequent. The use of sickles is believed to attract hailstorms (as well as plagues of caterpillars). The restriction of grass collection to three days is aimed at preventing theft of grass from the margins of fields other than one’s own, as the activity is overseen by the officialdom as well as the collectors themselves.
X. The river in this case is the Narshing Chu, not the Kali Gandaki. The reason given by Tepas for this rule is to ensure that the dung of animals fed free of charge on hay produced in the village should not leave the village. The clause also means that, among other things, the Tshognam lamas—with whom the Tepas were having a dispute at the time this document was written—lost their traditional entitlement to free animal fodder.
XI. Willow and poplar trees in Te are privately owned. The requirement that branches be taken only under official supervision is intended simply to prevent villagers from stealing wood.
XII. Yur chu: a compound name combining the Tibetan words yur ba (irrigation canal), and chu, ‘water’. The Narshing River is trained along two routes for the purposes of irrigation. One of these routes branches off towards the lowest fields from a point in the riverbed itself, and the cultivated area is accordingly known as the Gravel-bar fields (Shagtang Zhing). The other branch leaves the river further upstream and runs along a canal to a higher area of fields, called Mangtse. This canal is the Yurchu. The junction between the river and the canal is possible only thanks to a huge dyke at the point where the river emerges from the long, narrow gorge that leads to the salina of Tshaurong. Rocks borne by the current cause this dam to collapse several times in a season. Because the cultivation of a large area of land depends on its existence it must be repaired as soon as possible. The community is responsible only for the section of the canal from the mole “up to the watermill sluices”. The stretch from this point up to the place called Tenzazur covers the entire area of Tongtse, the section of agricultural land that is irrigated by the Yurchu canal.
p. 9, l. 2: “Below the Kore La Pass ... the pass into Nyeshang”: variants of this formula turn up quite frequently in local documents and territorial rituals. The area so defined corresponds roughly to Mustang District, and probably to the original dimensions of the kingdom of Lo. (The Kore La Pass lies on the northern boundary between Lo and Tibet. Drong-goce is the Tibetan name of Narjang, a big Magar settlement just to the north of Tatopani.) The ‘messengers’ are the official couriers of Te. There are four categories of these, each concerned with carrying messages within a designated radius of the village. Those who deal with the longest ranges are called ring lag, while shorter distances are the responsibility of three sub-categories of thung lag. Ring and thung mean respectively ‘long’ and ‘short’, while lag is an abbreviation of ’u lag, ‘transportation duty’. (Although the term bang mi of the document has been amended to the more probable ’bangs mi, lit. ‘subject’, I have nevertheless translated it as ‘messenger’, since the original spelling has the fortuitous meaning of ‘galloping man’.)
XIII. This rule is a response to the drastic water shortage in Te, and aims to ensure that the digging of the irrigation canals is properly carried out. Nari is the site of a kind of base camp from which the Tepas go out on successive days to repair the high canals. Yadzog, the source of the canal called Yeren is located near Yagawa mountain at around 5500 m. Yemen and Mushag are high-altitude springs. The last sentence presumably belongs nearer the beginning of the entry.
p. 9, l. 5, snga 'gro [snga dro] (locally pronounced ngedro): in the dialect of Lo (but not that of Baragaon) ngedro does not have it meaning of ‘morning’ but rather ‘tomorrow’, or ‘the following day’.
p. 9, ll. 5–6, bco brgyad drug bcu: the lower age range required for this task than that specified for the repair of the Yurchu dyke—18–60 as opposed to 13–65— is due to the greater difficulty of this work.
XIV. All the subsections of this clause are concerned, more or less directly, with the recruitment and duties of the headmen and constables of Te. The extraordinarily complicated system of recruitment, and the significance of the changes prescribed by this clause, are discussed at length in Chapter 10 of The Navel of the Demoness. For the present, it will be enough to make a few brief explanatory remarks on each of the points.
XIV. a. Until this constitution came into effect the three headmen were recruited by means of a strategy involving the chance coincidence of nominations. Henceforth they are to be selected in the same way as the constables, by a lottery involving specially notched sticks.
XIV. b. A reaffirmation of a system that has already been in force for some time.
XIV. c. Until now, the method for summoning the village to a gathering involved the headmen and constables standing at the place called Puyungzur and calling out loudly in a stylised way. According to this new rule, the general summons must be preceded by a local one; the constables walk through the streets and alleys of their respective sector (each of the constables is recruited from one of the four sectors) and announces the imminent meeting.
XIV. d. Headmen and constables may leave Te for a few days at a time—lengthy trading trips are forbidden—but a minimum ‘skeleton staff’ of at least two constables and one headman must always be on hand in case of emergencies.
XIV. e. This rule is in the same spirit as clause XIV, which emphasises the importance of competence in the performance of duties. Until now, it has been possible for constables to engage substitutes to represent them at village meetings; even if the representative in question might be too young to contribute usefully to discussions he was, at least, a token physical presence to stand in for the constable. Henceforth, adolescent substitutes are acceptable only for menial tasks such as the two that are specified, viz., periodically checking the head of the irrigation canals in the autumn to ensure that they are not iced up, and making the daily tour of the fields to check that no animals have entered or terrace walls collapsed.
XV. The expenses in question are legal costs. Even people without livestock must pay something towards this, because it is for the common good, but livestock owners must pay proportionately more because they have a greater vested interest. The strategy of raising funds for legal costs based on ownership of livestock features in document HMA/Te/Tib/48.
XVI. Tshethang is situated a short distance from the Muya La Pass that leads to the Muktinath Valley. Kyuden lies between Te and the ruins of Naudzong (this is not the abandoned settlement of the same name, situated between Tsele and Samar, that features in HMA/Te/Tib/36). Dangda is the gorge between the Yul and the Dzong in the village itself. (In fact dangda— written dang ra in the text—is the Tk word for corral; Tib. ra: ‘enclosure’.) In view of the proximity of Dangda, it is not intended—in spite of the phrasing of the clause—that lodges for herders be built here, but only in Kyuden and Tshethang. There are livestock pens (in various states of repair) in all three locations, but no houses for the herders.
p. 13, l. 6, lus dang ril ma tshang ma: dung is measured out periodically in baskets in situ, so that each house gets an exactly equal amount irrespective of whether it has animals or not. The phrase ‘[cattle] manure and goat dung’ is not strictly accurate, since there is only goat dung there anyway. Collection of dung on these three pastures is regulated because they lie so close to the village; on all other pastures people may help themselves freely.
XVII. This law was implemented in response to the change in procedure for selecting headmen. Until this document was drawn up, the annual term of office of the headmen and constables would end with a public trial at which their performance was assessed. Now, however, a new category of official has been created—the ‘Four Men’—whose task it is to supervise the headmen and constables and submit them to a kind of continual assessment.
p. 15, l. 3: las ’dzin has been translated here as ‘constables’, since it refers in this case only to the rol po rather than other officials.
XVIII. This is apparently an appendix to no. II. Once members of the older generation have ceased to live with their children and have moved into a separate apartment (rgan tshang) with its own hearth, they are entitled to a quantity of firewood in addition to the entitlement of the main household. If they are still sharing the main hearth, they are not entitled to the firewood.
XIX. Until this document was ratified, to the best of my knowledge Te was the only village in Mustang to hold its thar chang ceremonies at night, and in mid-winter. The decision to hold the celebrations during the seventh and eighth month—late summer—and during the daytime, is consistent with a conscious effort, evident in other clauses, to make community events more spectacular and agreeable.
Retirement ceremonies are held by men or women who have reached the age of fifty-five, and the ceremony may be held no earlier or later than at this age. The strictness of the rule is atypical of Baragaon, where people organise their retirement feasts at any time between about fifty and sixty-five.
The third part of this clause is an explicit part of the policy to dissolve the corporate existence of clans.
p. 16, l. 5: phe phed chang in the text. The Tk term phepa corresponds to SMT phephe. Both terms designate any group of agnatically related men spanning two or more generations. In the dialects of Panchgaon, the term appears as phabe/ phobe, and has a more formal meaning than in Baragaon as ‘patrilineal clan’.
XX. p. 17, l. 1, bca’ dngos: cups, plates, pans, carpets, horsefeed and suchlike. The officials should provided it themselves and not borrow from other villagers.
XXI. The reasons for the urgency of repairing the dyke of the Yur chu when it collapses periodically have been explained in the commentary to rule XII above.
XXII. p. 18, l.1, khyim grangs yul pa: translated here as ‘hearths or households’, i.e. the two main categories of village assemblies, entailing either all the hearths (Tk memang < Tib. mi dmangs) or just the estates (Tk yupa < Tib. yul pa).
XXIII. p. 18, l. 2, klung gi nag (< klungs nags): translated here as ‘field forests’, this denotes the thorn bushes (Hippophae, Caragana etc.) growing on the margins of the cultivated area. This supply of fuel is supplementary to the five bundles that may be taken from the commu- nal forests. Here, however, the bushes may be cut only on one’s own land: the headmen must be asked to supervise in order to ensure that gatherers do not steal from neighbours’ field borders.
XXIV.a.Clearing the reservoir is a major two-day event, called Cingza (Tk cing < Tib. rdzing + gza’) involving dancing and singing that leads directly into the Lama Guru festival. The dancers are the bön-tshame, the young men and women. Until now, the fine for non-attendance had been only 1.5 rupees.
XXIV. b. Like clause III above, this is a further indication of a conscious policy to ensure the community’s full participation in the Lama Guru.
XXIV. c. In most villages, animals are allowed into fields to graze the stubble after the harvest. This practice is called nor (SMT), nol (Panchgaon, where it usually appears as rnol in documents), and no (Tk). Traditionally it is not permitted in Te, perhaps because the terraces are steep and the cattle break the walls. However, the priestly families of Baza and Tshognam did enjoy the special privilege of allowing their animals to graze on stubble. The withdrawal of this privilege is one of several gestures whereby the community has expressed its disfavour towards the chaplains.
XXVI. Yathang and Ordothang are situated a short distance south of the settlement area. The aim of the restriction is to prevent fuel from being exhausted in the proximity of the village.
XXVII. There are certain community tasks for which each household must provide one man over the age of eighteen. If a householder happens not to be free at the time, it is permissible for him to appoint a substitute from any other house. The term used in the document for substitute is mi lag, which normally has the connotation of ‘hired worker’. In Te, in fact (unlike most other villages) there is no tradition of hiring another villager for payment in cash or kind, nor is there any policy of direct reciprocity for such favours. Any man may be asked to substitute for another, and if he has no other pressing engagement, he will generally agree. Until now, it has been possible for someone over the age of eighteen to be substituted by an adolescent as young as thirteen.
XXVIII. The dzos of Te are pastured on the hills around the village. On the tenth day of every month according to the Tepa calendar they are rounded up and brought down to the settlement, where their owners examine them, give them salt and oil their horns to prevent them from cracking. There is a roster of dzo-owning households who take it in turn to bring the animals down each month. The aim of this clause is to ensure that the duty household provides some- one who is capable of performing the task properly. Young boys are too easily discouraged in their search for missing animals, and often return to the village without a full complement.
The rule concerning the age of the goatherds refers to goats that are kept in the village. Each hearth is allowed to keep ten goats within the village, mainly for the sake of collecting their dung. These goats are split into two herds and are grazed in the vicinity of the village every day.
Goatherds who are too young tend to be more concerned with playing games than finding good browsing, and also they may let them into the fields.
Each household has its own major herds up on the high pastures. These herds are economically important for the whole village, and herders are exempted from other village duties. There is usually an adult in charge of each herd; sometimes households combine their herds and the owners take it in turns.
XXIX. The grain for making the beer for the Lama Guru festival is accumulated in the form of revenue from a group of communal fields that are dedicated to this purpose. The duty of brewing the beer rotates around the estates. As a fee for performing this task, the responsible households are permitted to keep the lees for cattle feed. Unboiled grain is much more nutritious for livestock than beer-lees, and it often happens that the household charged with this resonsibility will not convert all the grain into beer.
XXX. Fields are divided into a number of subsections (called nangma), separated from one another by earth walls a few inches high. Each section has a small sluice gate that links it to the nearest canal, and may therefore be irrigated independently of its neighbours.
The Shagtang fields are located close to the gravel bed (SMT shagtang) opposite Tshognam on the south side of the Narshing River. They used to be irrigated with the water from the river (see above), but the connecting canal was washed away some years ago. The owners of the affected fields are at liberty to restore the canal, but seem to consider the expense and effort involved not worthwhile. It would be far easier for them to irrigate these from the Yurchu, a canal that is connected to the Narshing River further upstream (see clause XII). However, the water of the Yurchu is reseved for the Mangtse area of cultivated land, and may not be used on the Shagtang fields.
XXXI. Mangtse denotes the area of fields that is irrigated by the Yurchu. It has been badly eroded by the river, and people are still paying taxes on fields that no longer exist. Until now, contrary to the case of the Tongtse cultivated area (which is irrigated with water from the reservoir) the Mangtse fields are not differentiated in terms of their seed capacity for the purpose of irrigation. Each of the three estates that have rights to water on a given day simply takes it in turn to irrigate one entire field at a time. As we have seen in the Introduction, the system for the irrigation for Mangtse involves the allocation of quantities of water commensurate with field area, computed in terms of seed capacity. This point is effectively a tax reassessment of the area. Henceforth, as a result of the annually diminishing quantity of available water, the irrigation of the Mangtse fields will be reckoned with greater precision on the basis of the seed capacities that are recorded in the new assessment.
XXXII. This clause offers another example of the effort to ensure that the main community ceremonies are a ‘good show’. The Zatönse ceremony, which is closely associated with the Lama Guru, is described in Chapter 8 of The Navel of the Demoness. The etymology of the name is uncertain.
XXXIII. gSum mdo [sde yangs] is the name of an open area where people gather informally to talk and spin. The activities listed here are proscribed as being antisocial. Tanning hides smells bad; pounding chillis makes everyone sneeze, goat hair fills the air. Removing earth here refers to the practice of digging sand from an irrigation ditch that passes underneath a neighbouring house. Apart from the fact that the area in which people sit becomes muddy, the removal of silt from irrigation canals is now generally prohibited according to clause XXX. ‘Working leather’ is the process of wringing hides that follows the stage of soaking. Hides being worked in this way are evil-smelling (since the process involves the use of putrid yak- brains as an emollient) and shed hanks of hair. Householders who live in the immediate vicinity of gSum mdo sde yangs customarily pile their domestic manure in the square before transporting it to their fields. It is this practice of heaping the manure outside, rather than carrying it from the house to the fields, that is being proscribed.
XXXIV. a. The complicated business of irrigation management is dealt with in the Introduction, but this subclause can be explained briefly as follows. Four households each day are entitled to use the water that has collected in the reservoir the previous night. If there happens to be some communal task in progress at the time, only one person from each of the estates concerned may be exempted from public labour. If, however, because of warm sun- shine on the snowpeaks, or heavy rainfall, the reservoir accumulates so much water overnight that it overflows (the expression used in the document is smug kyu, a Tk term meaning ‘over- flow water’), two people from each of the four estates are liberated in order to ensure that none of the precious water is lost while managing the channels.
XXXIV. b. and c. Both of these paragraphs are intended to define a reasonable degree of com- passionate leave in the event of private bereavement and illness. These paragraphs—the first, at least—appear to be an afterthought to clause IX.
XXXIV. d. khu shi dbra: this represents the Nepali formula khusi rji. The similar expression rji-khusi is defined by Turner as “not only willingly but gladly”.
XXXIV. e. The black earth in question, a variety of clay, is used for washing hair, limning walls and floors, mixing with manure and so forth. Kutso Gang, situated just to the west of the settlement area, is a ridge on which there stands a stupa. The ban on taking clay from the site is intended to prevent the stupa and adjacent fields from collapsing as a result of being undermined.
