Socio-Cultural Dimension of House Form of Magar Community: A Case of Thabang Village, Rolpa
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IOE Pulchowk Campus
Abstract
Thabang is a village which carries deep and strong political and social history. Previous
studies were more focused in its political development and agricultural knowledge. Other
aspects of this settlement are not given much attention. Thabang has unique settlement
pattern and dwellings. The ecological factors of temperature, nature and environment
helped shape the traditional architecture of Thabang. In addition to analyzing the effects
of modernization processes on Thabang villages from the perspectives of geographical
region, cultural spirit, socio-economic condition, and time dimension, it is necessary to
discuss how the traditional social structure of Thabang village is reflected in the spatial
distribution of dwellings. Finally, it is important to summarize the importance of the
spatial environment and architectural spatial structure of Thabang traditional settlements.
Magar settlement is a bounded ecological system where missing a single element will
break this chain. Festival is one of the most important elements of this ecosystem.
Festival is a thread which connects tangible and intangible aspects along with the
elements of ecosystem of Thabang village. The major objective is to study magar
settlement as an ecological system. Examine the socio-cultural practice of magar
community with respect to house form and festivals. The research method combined a
qualitative approach with a descriptive interpretative strategy. Through observation,
interview, literature review, and conversation with resource people, primary and
secondary data collection was carried out. Thirty respondents were purposively selected
for questionnaire survey. Questionnaire survey was conducted for data collection. For
qualitative analysis interview was conducted. Desired direction for transformation of the
settlement needs to be in ecologically responsive architecture which is inspired from its
traditional surrounding architecture. Keeping rural people involved in transforming and
managing the landscape. A community's streets, sidewalks, parks, buildings, and other
public spaces can all be improved through place creation. This includes both private and
public locations.
Description
One of Nepal's historically most predominate indigenous communities is the Magar, which is
today the third largest ethno linguistic group in the country. These people are rich in cultural
practice and religional activities. The Magar peoples are one of the major indegenous groups.
However, they still don‘t have much cultural recognitin like other indegenous group.