This is mock presentation on my proposal at Kathmandu University School of Education.

1. MANGSUK AT THE SCARED CORNER
OF YAMPHU'S HOME
AN AUTO/ ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY
Prabin Rai (Yamphu),
Development Studies
MPhil 2017
A Research Proposal

2. Outlines of presentation
• Introduction
• Problem statement
• Rationale
• Purpose of the study
• Research question
• Significance of the study
• Literature review
• Theoretical/research Framework
• Research paradigm and methods
• Philosophy of the study
• Research design
• Techniques of information collection and generation
• Meaning making and interpretation
• Quality standard and Ethical consideration

3. Mangsuk …..?
"Yamphu Rai jatiko pitraa (mang) ek barsama
ekaipalta matra garninchha . yo pitraa nepali
mahina chaitra ra baisakh bhitra garisaknu
parchha (Trans: The pitraa(mang) of Yamphu
Rai's is conducted only once in a year. It should
be conducted till the months of March and April
of the year)" (Yamphu, 2010, p. 23).

4. Introduction
 One of the kirant community, having 6933 population (Nepal
Gadget, 2017)- Yakhaba
 Practices mudhum/pellam : orally transfer of language, culture,
belief etc.
 Geographically : Sangkhuwasava, Bhojpur, dhankuta, Ilam,
Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, and Kathmandu.
 Among all rituals (IOO), Mangsuk is ceremony with main clan
god (ancestors)
 links present, past and future with ancestors.
 Connects with mundhum, and becomes like elephant story.
 Triangle shape at scared corner, bamboo, plants and feathers.
 Tribal/cultural institution of IKS, which Shapes as Yamphu.
 Learning institution of history, anthropology, myths, mundhum

5. Problem Statement
• How and why I/we are Yamphu people? what makes us
Yamphu?
• Mangsuk gives knowledge, recognition and oneness. Really ?
• Beyond the educational mainstream but it is an IKs and
learning institution
• Disappearing Mundhum and Yamphu's world view and body
of knowledge.
• Thus, recognition, and criticizing Mangsuk is important. Like
what does it mean? Why/how it is important?

6. Rationale of the study
• Recognition of indigenous knowledge system .
• When a knowledgeable old person dies, a whole library
disappears- An old African proverb
• Cultural celebration without knowing is meaningless
• Ritual Formality without meaning is lifeless.

7. Purpose of the study
• To explicate the meaning of Mangsuk in relation to the
indigenous knowledge of Yamphus and it's
transformative learning process as in tribal/cultural
institution.

8. 1. How do Yamphus explicate the meaning of Mangsuk and its
practices regarding indigenous knowledge that imbedded in
mundhum and how it shapes the Yamphu community?
2. How do they (I and others) construct and transfer indigenous
knowledge and skills of Yamphus associated with Mangsuk in
present days?
3. How mangsuk as learning institution has shared and practiced
indigenous knowledge and skills of Yamphu tribe/people and
continued their oral tradition (mundhum) of knowledge?
Research Question

9. Significance of the Study
• Mangsuk will be realized as it has preserved IKs, language,
culture, traditions etc.
• Interpret and construct the meaning of mangsuk .
• Discusses informal education system of minor community.
• Consciousness to Government, NGOs/INGOs, other
development and Educational agencies.
• An academic document of Yamphus.

10. Literature review I : In general
• Yamphu as a minor lingual, cultural and ritual group under the
Rai ethnonym, a kirant tribe of hills and mountain areas of
eastern Nepal (Rai, 2012).
• yamphus are ancestral worshiper (Yamphu, 2015).
• Identity is relational and dynamic, constantly changing, (Fisher,
2001)
• Identities that can enrich our bonds and makes us do many
things for each other (Sen, 2006).
• Shaping identities and in shifting livelihood strategies (Rai,
2012).
• Gurung have rodhi, sorathi, Magar have bheja and Thakali have
dhikur (Bista, 2004), and Yamphus ?

11. Literature review II : Indigenous knowledge
• No one has right to perform ritual without fluency in yamphu
language and knowledge of mundhum (Yamphu, 2014)
• Indigenous knowledge is saved in people's memories and
expressed in myths, stories, songs, proverbs, folklore etc
(Greiner, 1998).
• How we organize our folk knowledge of flora and fauna, beliefs,
myths, history (Semali & Kinchelo, 1999).
• Communicated and shared orally by own language in specific
occasion/ceremony (Greiner, 1998).
• Yamphu worship and communicate with their ancestors by
means of mindum "(Yamphu, 2015, p.4).

12. Literature review III : Transformative learning
• Mazirow, 1991, come to understand how adults learn,
transform and develop.
• It is learning that occurs when my beliefs are changed
(Mazirow, 1996).
• I need to critique and change my community as whole rather
than explanation and description (Horkheimer, n.d.).
Mangsuk in Global and local context.
• Pierre Bourdieu states that "language and power are inherently
related and strongly connected.
• Poses in economic, social, cultural and political power and
status in local and global context (Craith, 2007)
• Migration, influences of media, financial flow, global ideas and
technology adaptation (Appadurai, 1996)

13. Tr
Indigenous
knowledge
Transformative learning
Cultural/Tribal institution
Theoretical/research Framework
Globalization
Localization

14. Research philosophy, paradigm and
Methodology
As being insider researcher of own community wearing hat of
auto/ethnographer, philosophy of the study would be
• Ontology assumptions:- I believe that there are multiple
stories have stored in people's mind and they have different
type of feeling and experiences regarding mangsuk.
• Epistemology assumptions : As storing multiple stories on
mangsuk , they also have multiple ways of collecting and
telling those ideas. Thus, the way of knowing manguk could
be different
• Axiology : some personal values might be added during
interpretation of mangsuk.

15. Paradigm of the study
Post
modernism
Criticallism
Intrepretative

16. Methodology : Auto/Ethnography
• Auto means self , and ethno means culture and graphy means
study (Brown, 2014).
• I would manage a blend of evocative and analytic prose in
writing (Denzin, 2006).
• I will critically reflect and present my engagements with
mangsuk (Roth, 2005) idea fro bio to auto
• I would present myself in cultural text while memorizing,
reading, writing and sitting with community (Ellis, Adams &
Bochner, 2011).
• My past experiences, beliefs on Mangsuk and engagement
with other members: CMR (Anderson, 2006)

17. Locating my self (positionality)
• Educational anthropologist
• Try to interpret and construct the meaning of mangsuk
• Believer and practiser of Indigenous knowledge system
• Frame mangsuk in global to local context.
• Critical insider researcher
Mangsuk I (myself)

18. Theoretical lenses and meaning making
• Transformative learning theory (Mazirow, 1994).
• Adult learning focus of emancipatory learning and achieving
freedom from oppression: transform (Paulo Freire)
• Mazirow, 1991 : how adults learn, transform and develop
• Tension between individual and social change is
transformative process.
• In addition, Research is probably one of the dirtiest words in
the indigenous world's vocabulary (Smith, 1999).

19. Techniques of information collection and
generation
• Field notes, audio/video record, photography, and head notes
• My memories my data text (Rai, 2012).
• In-depth Interview and Participant observation.
• Selectively write about past experience of mangsuk
• Experiences, perceptions will be also presented in the form of
poems, stories, cartoons, and paintings

20. Meaning making and interpretation
• I will choose many relevant theories and perspectives as
referents rather than frameworks (luitel, 2009).
• Critical Social theory : Max Horkheimer, who believes on
critique and change society (transform) as a whole rather than
explain or describe.
• Globalization theory (Appadurai,2007):Local to global context
• Mangsuk as cultural/tribal institution in nexus with Indigenous
knowledge.
• However, transformative learning theory will be focused as
theoretical frame.

21. Quality Standard
• Critical Reflexivity : my cultural autobiography
• Trustworthiness : Insider researcher in discussing with
participants and interpreting meaning in their context.
• Verisimilitude : readers communicate with their own culture.
• Illuminating (educational) : my lived experiences, perceptions,
and feelings through poems, stories, myths, metaphors and
metaphorical language (Rai, 2012).
• Therapeutic : Writing personal stories can also be therapeutic
for participants and readers.
• Memory is fallible, that it is impossible to recall or report,
however, I will try as much as I can.

22. Ethical consideration
• Auto ethnographer not only work with others to validate the
meaning of their pain, but also allow participants and readers to
feel validated (Ellis & Bochner, 2006).
• I will not support or oppose in participant's perceptions on
mangsuk
• I do not show any document in public without permission.
• As I'm not exist in isolation, I must implicate others in my work
(Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011).
• Ethical issue will be maintained as not only being a researcher but
also as being a member yamphu community.
• And finally, all academic ethics as set by KUSOED.

23. Reference
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Oxford University press
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Craith, N.M. (2007). Language and Power Accommodation and Resistance.London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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