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.
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