THE LAST TAMANGS
Visual Research
May 2013
Tamang people are amongst the most marginalized indigenous communities of Nepal. Despite having suffered continuos exploitations and discriminations from Hindus rulers, they have been able to maintain many of their incredible rich traditions until today. However, Tamang culture is challenged as never before, due to the impact of modernity and the loss of isolation that determined thousands of years of their history.
The youth are leaving the villages in seek of better education and working opportunities, losing contacts with the traditions and contributing to the disintegration of their own culture. Global warming is hardening people life in the mountain areas, where crop yield have fallen and rain fall have become increasingly unpredictable. Yet many of Tamangs who moved to capital city Kathmandu are re-defining what means to be Tamang and politically advocating for indigenous rights. While modernization is bulldozing traditions it has open new opportunities to change the course of history and redefining Tamang identity within a newly flexible societal framework.