Chepang © Adrien Viel
Chepang © Adrien Viel
by Adrien Viel, Author-director of documentary films, PhD student at the University of Lille.
A multitude of ethnic groups in Nepal have preserved indigenous religions which have been differently penetrated by the Hindu religion, as by Tibetan Buddhism, and which have preserved their own characteristics. This seems to be the case for Chepang. From audiovisual and photographic documents recorded between 2010 and 2018, we will focus on the social and cultural aspects of this Chepang ethnic group, through its shaman, the only religious specialist in the community, in his relationship to the rites of life and rituals of death. They will be examined in a more global Nepali shamanic context, and will also be studied in relation to the contemporary transformations inherent to the evolution of all these minority societies.