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Menstruation, (the biological process of female body) is considered as a part of culture and cultural taboo especially among some of the ethnic group in traditional Nepalese society. The menstruated period is widely known as Nachhuni or Para Sareko or Pancheko in Nepali. Elaboration of some of the instances of perceiving menstruation as a culture and cultural taboo in some of the ethnic groups is quite interesting.

Let us begin with the cultural pratices that are adopted among the Newar ethnic group in the Kathmandu Valley. In this community, young girl ranging the age from 7-11 are kept separately in a room of the household before menstruation, which is known as  keeping in Baara. It is due to the reason that as perceived in Newari social system, it is not regarded good if they menstruated before  keeping in Baara. Thus the functional part of the culture is described in Newari language as Baara Tegu. As the cultural rite of Baara Tegu is performed among newar ethnic group before menstruation the number of girls of the household can also be more than one entitled to keep in Baara. The reason of naming the cultural practice as Baara Tegu is related with the days that girls are kept in Baara for twelve days. In this connection, an interesting question can be raised about the term Baara from the prospect of linguistic anthropology . It is in the sense that in Newar community generally the world Jhinneenu is expected to be pronounced for indicating twelve days. Though the logical question is quite challenging it can easily  be calmed down from the prospect of Historical Anthropology of Nepal . As per the information obtained from some of the available publication, due to the process of migration from Kathmandu and migration to Kathmandu which started  even before the initiation of unification process of Nepal by Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepalese people residing in different part started to be accustomed with different culture. As a result, besides other social component, the language also got mixed up . From the point of view, we can assume that the term Baara might  have been used. This could be the area of interest in linguists. However, perhaps some of the interesting cultural practice performed during the period of Baara area :

1. Baara should be kept in odd age (like 7, 9, 11) of the female.
2. Once the girls are kept in Baara rite they are not allowed to look at the sun light and the opposite sex.
3. They should not be feed salt or salty item and even look at the mirror upto four days since the beginning of the day of Baara.
4. In the fourth days , mother or senior family memebers have to apply Konchikan as called Newari (mixture of mustard oil and flour of different grains) in head, face and hand of the girl. Then they will be allowed to consume salt and to look at the mirror. In the same day, a senior member make cotton doll worship it in the Baara room, which is called Bara Khya (Ghost of Baara)
5. On the sixth days the girl is symbolically married with Baara Khya among some of the sub ethnic groups in order to protect the girl from illness and death during these period
6. From the sixth day to eleventh the relatives visit the household to serve the girl  especially by offering her grain items, which is called Chhusya Musya in Newari.
7. In case of death during Baara the girl should be buried in the same household only be female family members. In this  connection, it is interesting to note  that if the death has occurred in upstairs of the hours the dead body should not be taken down form the staircase. In this situation, generally there is a practice of opening the floor and cut down the beams or ceiling to bring down the dead body.
8. After completing twelve days, the girl should take bath before sunrise and perform worship of Lord Ganesh, Narayan (Sun) and Baara Khya.
9. Then, after offering religious prayers to Sun and greeting one’s father or senior male family members the girl is taken to the temple of Gamesh decorated as a bride to offer prayer and to get blessings.
10. All the relatives and even others who have visited the household where the girl has been kept in Baara are called for festivals.
11. After completing all these process the girl is considered to be matured
12. It may be interesting to note that in Newars there is no practice of observed in other communities like Brahmin, Chhetris etc. However,  they do not worship God and visit holy places during the period.

On the contrary, among the traditional Brahmin, Chhetris and Thakuri communities the practicing and performing this culture is quite different . For example, unlike among Newar community, girls are not kept in Baara before menstruation. But there is the practice of hiding menstruated girls for the first, second and third time  which is locally called as Gupha Rakne (to keep in cave or to hide). Generally though the hiding pattern of menstruated girl is the same, these seems some sort of flexibility among there seems some sort of terms of opening window, looking outside from the window etc. as I personally have caught sights of such female looking outside from the windows among Brahmins community.

There is no severe cultural practices as adopted by the Newar ethnic group among the Brahmin and Chhetri community, However, during  the period  of first menstruation, the girl is to be kept in Gupha for 21 days and after completing the 21 days and after completing the 21 days there is practice of worshipping god, especially Vishnu, after having early bath. Basically similar practice is adopted during the second and third menstruation which is culturally prescribed for 12 and 7 days respectively. But the practice of keeping in Gupha  during second and third time is not followed especially due to increasing trend of nuclear family system and other socio-economic reasons,

Generally these groups observe menstruation up to five days. It may be interesting to note that there is a taboo for menstruated female not to touch male members, even husband, and especially to Ceremony (Bratabandha) . It is also restricted to touch plants, God and Goddess, cooking food etc. before having bath on the fourth day. They are culturally allowed to worship god only since fifth day and to participate in the rituals to be performed for departed soul only since seventh day.

This practices are quited different in the districts of some parts of Mid Far-Western Development Regions. In such districts the girl or women  menstruated are called Chhaubuti . During the period of Chhau female have to be accommodated in a separate house or even in cave in case of lack of separate house. Besides, restrictions on utilization of water resources, even running water, not to touch and feed animals, restrictions even for walking in the trail or path locally perceived as the path of God etc. are some of the peculiarities of the culture associated with Chhau in the region.

During the career as a researcher, once  I got an opportunity to visit the district of Bajura Far Western Development Region. I learned that the women of the region do not use sanitary napkin during the period due to lack of clothes. Instead, due to extreme poor socio-economic status of the area, almost all women of the area wear clothes made of hemp.

By : Sachin Upadhya