Performance in Limbu Mundhum: A Study of Cultural Representation

Abstract

The Limbus, one of the ethnic groups mainly inhabiting in the eastern part of Nepal, live their own distinctive culture based on traditional ritual performances under the guidance of Mundhum. The Mundhum is an accumulation of religious narrative text that consists of mythological stories, legends, prehistoric accounts, pragmatic and philosophical exhortations, and so on in oral form. The existence of Mundhum, thus, rests on its performativity owing to its oral tradition. The Mundhum is recited or narrated by Limbu ritual/religious actants in cultural/ritual observations, that is, rituals pre-birth to after death. Mundhum as a performance culture best represents everyday-life activities of the Limbus, a constitutive of Limbu culture, history and religion. This research work focuses in particular on some of the major Mundhum performances and their reflections in sociocultural and religio-historical aspects of Limbu people. It also emphasizes on the roles of ritual performers, participants and audience that they play for enlivening the cultural, historical and mythical properties. Moreover, it brings to light how the Mundhum Performance has become common aspiration and symbolic representation, and how it can be the window to see the various socio-cultural representations, psycho-behavioral natures as well as manifestation of gender power in the Kirant Limbu people and thereby their community.