Asian Geographic-April 2018

After a successful hunt, the butchered animal

is divvied up among specific social groups

What’s the best way to trick a langur into

becoming lunch? The tribe has an age-old method:

Spoils of War

A Typical

Monkey Hunt

DISSECTING DINNER

SNEAKY SNARES

Head

the hunter who killed
the first monkey

Nets

for trapping monkeys

Axes

to kill captured prey

Sticks

to prop up traps

Knives

to gut the meat

Body

other hunters

Heart/liver

elders, widows,

and the sick

Ta i l
children

Thigh

shamans

Tools of ThE TRADE

1. Hunters select a part of the forest well-populated
   with monkeys


2. Using ashes, a shaman demarcates a certain area for
   hunting while chanting mantras. It is believed that
   monkeys within this boundary will fall into the nets


3. Traps are laid strategically, propped up by trigger sticks


4. The hunters divide into “screamers” and “herders”.
   Screamers hide in the bushes and make strange calls that
   cause the monkeys to rush down from the trees. Herders
   run through the forest, driving the monkeys toward the
   nets by flapping their arms and trilling menacingly


5. The panicked monkeys stampede into the nets.
   Any other captured animal is set free

DATA SOURCES: MANOJ KUMAR PAUDEL, TETSUYA INAMURA, KISHOR CHANDRA KHANAL,

YOSHI KAWAMOTO, MONIKA MANDAL, DR. CHURA MANI BANDHU, LEKHNATH SHARMA PATHAK, TARA

MANI RAI, RAM BICHARI THAKUR, JANA FORTIER, DR. RAJESH GAUTAM, ASHOK K THAPA MAGAR

nEpAl

SURKHET

DAILEKH

JAJARKOT

SALYAN

Raute Routes

The tribe hunts along monkey

migration routes between the

Siwalik Hills and the Himalayas

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H I M A L A Y A S