Nepali Aama: Portrait of a Nepalese Hill Woman

by Broughton Coburn

An enchanting portrait of an inimitable Himalayan woman in her seventies whose life and wisdom illustrate the strength and resilience of the human spirit. In 1973 Broughton Coburn lived and taught school in a subsistence farming village on the edge of Nepal's Himalayan mountains. It was there that he met and developed a unique friendship with a septuagenarian native widow named Vishnu Maya Gurung, fondly known to her relatives and locals as Aama (mother). When Coburn moved into the hay loft above her water buffalo shed, Aama became his landlady, but she also treated him like the son she never had. Having lost his own mother shortly before he met Aama, Coburn took an instant liking to the sprightly Nepalese woman. Already a success in two previous small press editions, Nepali Aama is Coburn's enchanting account of his experiences living, working, and traveling with Aama, illustrated with his own photos and Aama's candid, sometimes salty, often hilarious observations on everyday life in the rural third world. By combining Aama's deep-rooted wisdom with his striking black-and-white photographs, Coburn places the reader in a setting that few have ever experienced. He also offers rare insight into a culture alive with humor, folklore, and religion.

"Aama and her people were poor and uneducated, but they seemed to possess an uncanny strength grounded in tradition, family, community, and self-sufficiency," he writes. "The values and philosophy that I have learned from Aama, her relatives, and the villagers are life lessons that are valuable in my own country, or wherever I go."

Genres: Nonfiction, Asia

165 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book traces the life of an elderly woman ("Aama") from the "hills" of Nepal, and records her thoughts about various things. Aama's worldview is based on her life experience, inherited myth and superstition, and a reality that she often seems to construct on her own.

Aama says she can distinguish between untouchable castes by the faces of individuals, but "it's easiest to tell them by their smell." Potters, for example, smell like clay. Business people are addicted to money. Extended family dynamics rely heavily on reciprocity. Outside the family, gossip enforces cultural taboos, and extra-marital affairs lead to expulsion. She is traditional, but has to account for and comment on the forces of modernity that bump into her life. She heard that black people are that way because they rode the steam railroad cars. Before watches, she comments, we used to tell time through an internal timepiece; now every one's internal timepieces have fallen into disrepair. There's too many people and too little land. Deforestation is a problem.

Animals and humans she believes are of the same blood and substance. Like us, if you threaten them with harm, they try to protect themselves. Ancestors must be honored for they brought us into the world. If anything inauspicious happens to us, it is retribution for betraying them. Sometimes people lose their soul and wander around. Lamas are called to look for them. Souls look like butterflies and fireflies. When they find one, the lamas chase it around as if they were chasing a chicken. On a pilgrimage, Aama piles rocks at a temple to let the deities know she was there, which may help her get to heaven when she dies. She says one must not to block the door at sunset because gods need free passage in and out. An eagle on the roof, she says, is an inauspicious sign that requires a three-day protection ritual. Shamans tap into the underworld where both evil and beneficial spirits abound. Spirits infect a woman without her awareness. A witch is active at night casting spells, and men "occasionally rally for nighttime witch hunts."

For Aama, the world is divided into we-they categories, and solidarity with her own kind. There's an underlying unity of all life, and of life to death, and death to life. The world is filled with active spirits, both good and bad, and there is hope for an afterlife. This constitutes much of her worldview. Aama says people are like trees. The grow, bloom and die, and new ones grow up in their place. She died in 1991 at the age of 87. This book and its black and white photos that document her later years is nicely done.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually I got a chance to hear from writer himself through a public talk organised by TECANET. Here is the part of the reflection after hearing him.

Reflections on a TECANET public talk by Broughton Coburn: AAama's Journey: A Pilgrimage Between Continents and Cultures

Listening to Brot was a treat. He splendidly captured roots, family values and spirituality that a Gurung strongly believes through the journey of a Nepali Gurung Aama, Vishnu Maya Gurung to America. I enjoyed a series of stories with photographs depicting characters, witty observations, and wisdom of Aama shared during the conversation. Among them, Aama's kindness when she wanted to gift the shopping lady something because she gave food to Aama without cost; her respect and finding spirituality at odd places like the one where she bowed in front of a Catholic shrine; later meeting an indigenous American woman and instantly understanding similar life values they share; finally enjoying the family time with Didi's family will stay with me forever. I was reminded of my Kanchi grandmother (I am very fond of my Kanchi grandmother who is the youngest sister of my grandfather), especially the wise words that Aama uttered resonates with her life teaching. Along with the journey, I felt Aama was teaching us to find joy in small things rather than on materialistic wealth irrespective of any place we are or live in. Alas, the world had forgotten its value. I love her optimistic views and she did look forward to each new day with cheerfulness. She reignited the belief that my parents installed in me in my younger years, always to remember my roots, family values, and spiritual health. Besides, this conversation did help me retrospect my priorities in life