{"id":8357,"date":"2016-04-08T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T10:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=8357"},"modified":"2026-03-13T22:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:16:38","slug":"nepalese-actor-discovers-how-people-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/nepalese-actor-discovers-how-people-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepalese Actor Discovers How People Act…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u092a\u0930\u094d\u0926\u093e\u0915\u094b \u0932\u093e\u0917\u0940 \u0926\u0932\u093f\u0924 \u092c\u0928\u094d\u0926\u093e \u0924 \u092f\u0924\u093f \u0927\u0947\u0930\u0948 \u092d\u0928\u093e\u0908 \u0916\u093e\u0908\u092f\u094b \u092d\u0928\u0947 \u0938\u093e\u0901\u091a\u094d\u091a\u093f\u0915\u0948 \u0926\u0932\u093f\u0924\u0939\u0930\u0941\u0932\u0947 \u0915\u0924\u093f \u092a\u0940\u0921\u093e \u0916\u092a\u0947\u0915\u093e \u0939\u094b\u0932\u093e\u0928\u094d ? pic.twitter.com\/1q6GMj6DLb<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0930 (@paribindoo) April 2, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


\nThe meme<\/a>, which I came across several days ago, is a Nepalese actor’s description of his experience of the way people viewed and treated him when he played the character of a Kami<\/em> (blacksmith), a Dalit, in a commercial movie. The actor is a Bahun\/Brahmin<\/em> and therefore belongs to the highest caste in the extremely hierarchical Nepalese caste system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what the meme says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“A Bahun<\/em>‘s son became a Kami<\/em>” they said<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I am the son of a Brahmin<\/em>. In the movies Kabaddi<\/em> and Kabaddi Kabaddi<\/em> I played the character of Jagbir BiKa. [BiKa is short for Biswakarma, the surname of a Kami<\/em>.] Being an actor, this wasn’t a big deal for me. But, to a society still stuck in their old ways, this seems to matter. After seeing me playing the role of a Dalit, my close friends and relatives made fun of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to put up with jeers such as, “Right, you a Brahmin’s son played the role of a Blacksmith!” and, “After all, you do look like a Blacksmith.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also have a number of stories from while on the set in Mustang. My house in the movie was, in reality, also a Dalit’s home. The owner thought I was a Dalit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to go out and about the village in the one and only dirty attire of my character. Going shopping, the shopkeeper would size me up. Only after saying that I was an actor would I be offered a seat. The villagers used to stare at me constantly. These are experiences I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If for playing a Dalit character for the silver screen I got told off so much, how much must a real Dalit suffer? Sometimes I think about that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As for the tweet, it repeats the question at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n

[bctt tweet=”If for playing a Dalit character I got told off so much, how much must a real #Dalit suffer? #CasteSystem #Nepal” username=”Dorje_sDooing”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written about Dalits, the caste at the bottom of the totem pole who are also called untouchable (achut<\/em>). For a brief history of the caste system and how the low castes suffer from violation of some of their most basic human rights, view the video<\/a> of my presentation at Univerversidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Read about what being “untouchable” means in this post<\/a>. For the story of the life-long suffering and struggle of a Dalit man click here<\/a>. For a post about how the logic of the caste system — which treats birth as an end — is spurious click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

[bctt tweet=”Birth is a beginning, NOT an end, as some Hindus would have you believe. #CasteSystem #Nepal” username=”Dorje_sDooing”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If interested in more, try this link<\/a> which will take you to a page containing links to blog posts about the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the solution to this social problem is education as I argue in this post<\/a>. To that end COMMITTED<\/a> is providing educational assistance to some Dalit children<\/a> in our project site in Thangpalkot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another part of the solution is raising awareness. It’s to that end that I write as often as I do about the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why do I do all this? I do them because I experienced discrimination both growing up in Nepal<\/a> and abroad<\/a>, and want to do as much as I can to make sure that the next generation of youngsters, such as my little nephew, don’t face what I had to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you had similar experiences? If so care to share below?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If not, what do you think about Nepal’s caste system? What do you think needs to be done? Care to share below?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nepalese movie actor makes an interesting discovery about Nepalese society through the acts of a number of different people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Nepalese Actor Discovers How People Act...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[264,105,615,111,252,154,303,287,304],"class_list":["post-8357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-justice","tag-caste-system","tag-caste-based-discrimination","tag-casteism","tag-dalit","tag-high-caste-hindu","tag-nepalese-culture","tag-nepali-meme","tag-social-media","tag-twitter"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/kabaddi-feat-image.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-2aN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30079,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8357\/revisions\/30079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}