The Household in Tibetan Society : A case study in Lahuli valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

l. The Household in Tibetan Society -A case study in Lahuli valley, Himachal Pradesh, India TANASE Jiro In recent social anthropological studies of Tibetan societies, there is a tendency to emphasise the Importance of household. According to these studies, household is important for Tibetans not only as an economic but also a political unit, and the status of people tends to be judged according to the households to which they belong. For example, Aziz said that the concept of household "stands out as the keystone around which social relations are articulated". Polyandry, which has stimulated anthropologists' curiosity for a long time, also seems to be practiced because of the ideolgy of the household. In Tibetan society, the partition of estates is avoided, and polyandry is valued because of its effect of strengthening the solidarity of the household. But curiously, what "household" means as a folk concept has not been well-argued. Usually, to be called a household, a group of people must share their livelihood and live together. But the author has found no term implying such a kind of group in Lahuli society. The purpose of this paper is thus to describe Lahulians' ideas concerning their house (hyum) and family (jin-mad) without using the concept of household. 2. Lahul is located in the north area of Himachal Pradesh, India. The population density of this area Is just below 4 persons/km^2 since the whole region is mountainous. Because of its high altitude, the climate is cold and snow covers the whole area from November to May. During this period it is nearly impossible to work outside and all roads leading out of Lahul are closed. Villages are located along three rivers that flow from the Great Himalaya.