Abstract
The Gurung Personality Structure--As Projected through Rituals and Myths
M.P. Regmi
Present paper portrays the personality structure of the Gurungs, an important ethnic group and a sub-variety of Nepalese character, known as Gurkha fighters in two world wars, living at an altitude of between four and seven thousand feet in the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges of Central Nepal (Pignede, 1966; Macfarlane, 1972; Regmi, 1981, 1985), through the psychological analysis of their rituals (n=68) and myths (n=50). Their rituals are very similar to Chinese Nakhi and Japanese Shinto rituals. Like Shinto the Bon religion of Gurungs is ethnocentric and Shamanistic, exhibiting several cults of fertility, nature and purity. Their myths reflect "bravery" and "spirit-fearing" complexes of their personality, and also project their simple, practical, stereo-typed mentality with adaptive efforts to the hardship oriented high hill ecology.