Religious Belief and Development among Animistic/Shamanistic Peoples (with Special Reference to North Western Nepal (Jumla)) (original) (raw)

This dissertation is dedicated to the mountain peoples of the Karnali Basin of N.W. Nepal "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Luke 4:18-19)-ii-ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank United Mission to Nepal, and Interserve for releasing me for study leave and both John Finlay and David McConkey of UMN and Interserve for encouraging me to pursue further study. I would like to thank my supervisor Gwyn Jones ,of AERDD for all his help, and for putting up with my long "endnotes" and Americanized spelling. I am indebted to Rev Dr Chris Sugden of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies for help, correction, and encouragement. Space did not permit me to compare Nepal with Bali but I want to record my thanks to Rev Dr Wayan Mastra, former Moderator of the Protestant Church of Bali, for his input. At All Nations Christian College, the advice of Dr David Burnett on the dangers of trying to apply African examples of "Spiritual warfare" in a wider context was appreciated. I would like to thank Jonathan Tame of YWAM and Laura Longino of MEDAIR for sending me case studies and Bruce Bradshaw, of MARC(USA) Holistic Development Research, for sending me his monograph on "Religious Belief and Development" Background information ,in English ,on Jumla is very hard to find as much that has been written on Nepal is Kathmandu-centric, and Western scholars only "discovered" the Khasa Malla Kingdom of Western Nepal in the 1950s as a result of G.Tucci's Tibetan studies. I am therefore especially indebted to the following for all their help in providing access to the relevant texts : The Nepal Research Project, Kathmandu; HMG/N Department of Archeology-Archives,-iii-Kathmandu; Derek & Nora Fawcett for buying Campbell's thesis for me; Lyndon Brown for the long-loan of the relevant National Geographic articles and for acquiring Bishop's book for me; and the Fullbright scholar who sold me her copy of the Khasa Kingdom. I would like to thank all my "team supporters" and the following for so generously contributing towards my fees : Stephen