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
- Hunters select a part of the forest well-populated
with monkeys - 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 - Traps are laid strategically, propped up by trigger sticks
- 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 - 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