Asian Geographic - April 2018

(singke) #1

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

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