Newari Film Project (1986.13.1-29)
odd: label: General
content: Local Numbers: HSFA 1986.13.1-29
name: label: Collection Creator
content: National Anthropological Film Center (U.S.)
label: Collection Creator
content: Johnson, Barbara
label: Collection Creator
content: Dorjee, Ragpa
label: Collection Creator
content: Reinhard, Johan
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Anthropological Film Center films of Nepal
label: See more items in
content: National Anthropological Film Center films of Nepal / Newari Film Project (1986.13.1)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (color sound, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1978
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Film footage shot by Barbara Johnson among the Jyapu subcaste of the Newars of Tawnany Tole, Thecho village in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: October 9, 9 AM,CR 85, View of the large water tank (man-made pond) east of Tawnany Tole courtyard, and the main street through Thecho, filmed from the 4th story rooftop of a courtyard house. All the varied uses of the water tank can be seen: washing clothes and dishes, drawing water, bathing, shampooing, and swimming. This is the day before Mauni, (Durga Puja in Nepali) and everyone in the village bathes and puts on clean clothes before the festival. Women and children can be seen washing their hair with the hulls of already pressed mustard seeds. Some boys use soap to shampoo and then swim to rinse off. A deaf boy from the courtyard is among this group of boys. A 6 - 8 year old girl bathes and shampoos her younger sister, holding her upside down to rinse her hair in the tank. A mini-bus stops on the road that passes the tank to pick up passengers wishing to go in the direction of Chappa Gaon, the next village south of Thecho. CR 86 continues around mid-day October 9, showing women and children sitting on mats in the courtyard and talking while drying off after bathing. The women have not put their blouses on yet, and their young children nurse while they talk. Two boy cousins gently play-wrestle on the courtyard mats. One woman, named Yele because she comes from Yele, or Patan, scratches her son's head while her daughter nurses. Her son has an itchy and painful skin condition, and both her children are among the few in Thecho who seem malnourished. A man joins the group to socialize, as does his mother, both wearing white because they are mourning the death of their father/husband. CR 87 takes place the next day, showing how the beginning of Mauni was observed in Nakali's house, where the filmmaker stayed. Between 7:30 and 8:30 AM Nakali, with the help of an old woman neighbor, and the daughter of her neice, prepares the ritual objects, including a brass plate holding flowers, rice and other foods, circles of string, a bottle containing rice beer, or twon. Nakali markes a raw egg with red powder, places a coin on the plate. She lights a wick in a brass oil lamp, and then her teenage great-nephew who has come in to help her, confers with her about what to do and places some of the ritual items on a collection of the household knives and tools, asks Nakali if that's all he needs to do, if he should kill the chicken. She says yes, and he takes the chicken she has been fattenning up for weeks and after a couple of tries, cuts its head off. He spatters the blood over the tools, and then Nakali tells her great neice to take the chicken upstairs. The rest of the roll shows a group of courtyard people, some young men and a married man and his daughter, socializing in the third floor kitchen of the house next to Nakali, with Nakali's nephew Juguta and his family. Visiting and drinking are a primary occupation during festival days.