THE GURUNGS OF NEPAL

A study of a Himalayan society

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This anthropological project started in 1968 when I and my wife, Gill, spent 15 months in Nepal. Most of the time was spent in the Gurung village of Thak, north of Pokhara. I did not go back again until 1986 when my wife, Sarah, came with me. Since then we have visited Thak 18 times and have documented the extraordinary changes during the fifty years that I have known Thak.

The materials collected include notes, diaries, censuses, genealogies, inventories, land surveys, over 3000 field photographs, approximately 120 hours of moving film.

So far the work has led to a book, a translation and edition of another book on the Gurungs and a number of articles.

FILM MATERIALS

'53 minute video on doing fieldwork'
'Reflections on fieldwork among the Gurungs of Nepal'
'Reflections on using film in fieldwork'

Films taken in Nepal in 1999 with David Dugan and Windfall Films, background materials to 'The Day the World Took Off' - see "Global History", program 5

Films taken by Alan Macfarlane and Sarah Harrison 1986-2001