John Tyman's
Cultures in Context Series
NEPAL 
PART THREE : LIFE IN THE MIDLANDS 
Food and Clothing
348-368
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348. People here have two meals each day. When they first get up they have a cup of tea, and may be even a handful of pop corn: but they have no real breakfast. These people are drinking tea in the fields, having begun work there early in the day.
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349. In Brahman households the cooking of a meal is a long and complex process which involves a range of prohibitions aimed at preserving the purity of the food consumed and, thereby, the purity of those who eat it. For example, cooking is the responsibility of the most senior woman present, and she must be free of any impurity due to menstruation or childbirth. The onlooker here is the cook’s daughter-in-law.
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350. Only a wife whose caste is equal to that of her husband can prepare rice or cook anything in water. Unmarried daughters and boys who have not yet been initiated were not even allowed to enter the kitchen area traditionally, nor members of other castes, for fire is sacred. 
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351. Though women do most of the cooking, their husbands commonly take over for four days each month, when their wives are considered impure by reason of menstruation. At such times a woman cannot even enter her kitchen. She can prepare vegetables outside, but if she combines water with any of these ingredients they will become as unclean as she.
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352. After chores have been done around the house and yard, the first  meal is eaten at 9.30 a.m. It is referred to as "lunch" (shown here). The children then leave for school and their parents go to work in the fields. The other meal is dinner, at the end of the day around 6.00 p.m. Since knives and forks are not used, everyone washes their hands carefully before eating.
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353. The mistress of the house presides over the serving of the food, and she herself cannot eat till everyone else has finished, since moving around the fire could be a source of pollution. Her husband is fed first, sitting closest to the fire,  and before eating he would traditionally have put on a white loincloth, placed some grains of rice on a leaf and sprinkled some water on the floor -- thereby offering the first part of his meal to the gods. After her husband has eaten (and may be left a morsel on his plate which his wife will eat to demonstrate her subservience), she will eat also, in company with any married women. Children will eat at this time also, but not near the fire --  for they are ritually unclean.
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354. The type of food eaten will be much the same at both meals.  Everyone gets a helping of boiled rice, some lentil soup to mix with it, plus curried vegetables, and some chutney to add flavour. This is referred to as dhal bhat tarkari (meaning "lentil, rice and vegetables"). Porridge and/or pancakes provide some variety, but the basic content of both meals is the same every day, though the type of vegetable will change with the season. And the same applied at this wedding banquet.
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355. Meat is eaten rarely, and then only the flesh of chickens or goats that have been ritually sacrificed in religious ceremonies. Also meat is never roasted. It is cooked in gravy like the vegetables, and will replace both them and the dhal (but not the rice).
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356. The household mill which is used to grind flour has a fixed stone base and a circular millstone which is turned by rotating a wooden handle alternately, first in one direction, then the other. The grain is poured into the hole in the middle of the millstone, and the flour which falls on the floor is later winnowed to remove impurities. In this way maize is turned into a coarse flour used for porridge, and wheat is milled to produce the finer flour used to make the pancakes.
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357. Vegetables are grown in kitchen gardens (some of them on the compost heap) close to the house, as they are an essential element of each day’s meal. They are planted, weeded, watered, and picked when ready, by women.  The commonest are sweet potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, radishes, squash, tomatoes, chillies and  various greens -- with potatoes and onions in the cooler season. Flowers may be grown here also, for use in daily puja ceremonies.
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358. A variety of fruit trees will be grown close by: mangos, peaches, pears, bananas, guavas, paw paw, and some citrus. Fruit is not eaten with meals, though, and is never harvested systematically: nor is it cooked or preserved. Instead it is picked at any time and offered to both gods and visitors, or distributed among the children.
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359. Children today may be “spoiled” with sweet biscuits and the like: but manufactured foodstuffs have not yet had the disastrous impact on health that they have in many countries.
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360. While the food eaten here has changed little, clothing is radically different for all save the most senior and the most conservative. Today most men wear Western gear, jeans especially, as at this wedding party. On more formal occasions in Kathmandu, many will wear trousers with narrow legs (called surbal) plus a shirt, a waistcoat and a cap (called a topi).
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361. The traditional outfit for a Brahman male was a long piece of plain cloth wrapped around the waist like a sarong (called a kachad), plus a shirt, a waistcoat, and a topi. But no young man would dress in this way today.
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362. The clothing worn by women has changed also but not as much. In the hill country those women who still dress in the traditional way wear a blouse and a sari. In India saris are draped over the shoulder, but in Nepal they were (till recently) simply wrapped around the waist.
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363. In this picture Gopal’s parents are dressed in the old way, but their daughter and daughter-in-law are wearing their saris Indian style, and their grandson wears his school uniform.
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364. Also, instead of a sari, many women today wear a long smock (called a kurta) over loose trousers.  These do not require as much cloth and are also easier to put on. At the end of a day's harvesting, Gopal's mother displays a Nepalese sari, her daughter-in-law a kurta surbal, and a young neighbour her school uniform.
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365. On their foreheads many women today wear a fancy tika -- as a kind of beauty spot, which can be bought from shops locally.
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366. Traditionally, though, both men and women displayed a red spot of  vermillion powder and sandalwood paste. It was a mark of blessing and was applied daily during prayers. This one was  bestowed upon the groom at his wedding.
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367. Where a woman displays red dye in her hair parting, as here, it indicates that she is married.
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368. As accessories she is likely to wear beads and bangles (of gold if their husband can afford it) and , today, sun glasses.
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