Asian Geographic - April 2018

feature | raute

pRE 17Th

cEnTURy

The Raute claim to

be descended from

a prince of the Sahi

Thakuri kingdom

1981

The Nepal government

attempts Raute

sedentarisation. Some

groups are relocated

and no longer nomadic

1992

The community forest

system prevents the

nomadic Raute from

cutting trees or harvesting

forest plants

2009

Hunger and malnutrition

rises in the tribe. Each

Raute gets 1,000 rupees

(about USD10) a month

from the government

2016

The reticent Raute

begin to interact with

mainstream society. They

speak Nepali when selling

handmade craft items

TRibAl bEginnings

150

Raute, a Tibeto-

Burman tongue

POPULATION

LANGUAGE

RELIGION

RAUTE:

NePaL’S LaSt

NOMaDS

Animism

West Nepal’s last hunter-gatherers still live

in the wilderness, and for the most part subsist

off the land. The exogamous tribe is split into

four patrilineal clans, from which at least one

man per family participates in the hunt –

including boys as young as 12.

Often referred to as ban ko raja (“kings of

the forest”), this small, closed society lives

in huts made of branches, leaves and cloth.

They hunt rhesus macaques, Assam macaques

and Hanuman langurs, and make wooden

household items from the timber of felled

trees, which are exchanged for food from

surrounding villages.

Those who do manage to get grain and

vegetables in exchange for their woodware are

excluded from the day’s meat spoils, since they

already have food. But there is one exception.

They hunt rhesus

macaques, Assam

macaques and Hanuman

langurs, and make wooden

household items from the

timber of felled trees

AbovE A Raute

settlement in an

uncultivated forest

meadow in Nepal’s

Deilekh district. Raute

call these temporar y

camps basti

A DwinDling

popUlATion

Raute numbers are

plummeting from

forced relocation

and sedentarisation

Year

Population

1991200120112018

2,000

1,500

1,000

3,000

2,876

658

460

143

500

2,500