Tamang Dress For Wedding: The Traditions Are Made Not To Be Broken

Tamang Dress For Wedding for male & female: – Tamang is those people who belong to the indigenous tribes of Nepal. Tamang means horse merchants. A popular belief is that the word Tamang is derived from a Tibetan word Tamang, where Ta means horse, and Mag means horses.

Many scholars have different opinions about the formation of Tamang. Some suggest that they were the soldiers of Tibetan King Tsong Tsang Rompo.

While others claim that they were villagers living on the border between Tibet and Nepal, and were called foreigners by Tibetans. Historically Tamangs today retain their own set of cultures and lifestyles.

Despite the marginalization and discrimination of several other dominant classes since the ages. They have developed vital socio-economic importance in Nepalese society.

Today, they are mainly habituated in the districts of Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Rasuwa, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Dhading, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Ramechhap, Chitwan and Kavrepalanchok.

Tamangs have a system of six types of social leaders: Tamba, Ganba, Bonbo, Labonbo, Lama, and Choho, to keep the Tamang society continuously alive and dynamic. They have their respective and important functions that they play in the development of society.

Two groups of people known as Thami and Pari live in the traditional Tamang areas of the eastern hills. Their number is only a few thousand and they practice similar social, religious and economic customs. The Thamis have settled higher than the Tamangs at the top of the Tama Kosi river valley.

Wedding Traditions in Tamang

The Tamang tribe is an important indigenous tribe listed in the tribal upliftment establishment of Nepal. The Tamang people have their own traditions, culture, lifestyle, costumes, art, folk literature, etc.

Indigenous people, including Tamang, are proud of this.  The Tamang caste has its own kind of marriage rituals.  In their society, marital relations can take place between uncle and father’s sister, uncle and niece, etc.

Tamangs can live together outside of marriage. In the case of pregnancy, the newly made dad can either marry the girl or pick up the baby by paying the agreed amount to the mother.

At the same time, the girl may not worry about her reputation – they do not see anything reprehensible in this situation.

It is also not new in the Tamang Culture to marry divorcee, widower, elderly women. In the Tamang community, marriage takes place only among the family members according to the Tamang Hrimithim culture. Marriages within the Tamang tribe are usually divided into 2 parts.

1. Arrange Marriage: In the Tamang caste, arrange Marriage is considered to be the most respected and the best way of marriage. The son’s family asks the hand of the daughter of another family who usually has good and friendly relations with each other. On the acceptance of both the parents and daughter, the rituals are performed and the date is set for the wedding to take place.
2. Elopement: A marriage is considered a runaway marriage if the boy and girl are in a mutual understanding and acceptance but not accepted by parents and society. It can also be called love marriage.

The Tamang caste has its own basic marital rites.  Tamang plays the traditional music of Dumfu which is the glorious introduction of Tamang culture and ethnic identity.

In order to have a happy and successful marriage, in this marriage ceremony, the lamas must be compelled to recite Tashi-ghepa and Tashi-chekpa. Looking at the fundamental aspects of the Tamang culture, the cast of the Tamang bride does not change after marriage.

While handing over their daughter, the family ensures the following details to be present as the witness of the marriage.

1. The supernatural jyoho-jyomo (God and goddesses) of the place of marriage.
2. The cock as the representative of the Lophophorus found in the mountain and the peacock found in the Terai.
3. Live fish as the reminiscent of crocodiles and turtles, etc. in the river.
4. All the gentlemen and guests present at the wedding venue.

These four types of witnesses must be present at the wedding of Tamang then only the parents of the bride give away their daughter. This culture of the Tamang is called Chardam, Ghasa or Chhonkhor.

At the time, the parents while giving away their daughter tell the groom family that though there are giving away their daughter, they are not giving them their cast. So the daughter after marriage doesn’t have to change her cast.

Wedding Dress in Tamang

The Tamang community has its own beliefs about the human origin. It is believed that the first person born in the world was Mhiye Renjen. They say that Renjen is called Manu by Hindus and that Christians called him Adam. He married Gungsalmo who for the first time made the cotton yarn.

After the yarn was made, she was the first to weave a khandi (a homespun coarse cloth of cotton).  It is difficult to pinpoint the exact date of when the khandi was developed.

Khandi plays a vital role in the dressing of the Tamangs. It is the main material from which numerous traditional dresses of Tamangs are made from. The Tamang community has its own unique identity with a costume.

In the Tamang language, clothing is called Quan / Wan or Hwan. Particularly religious clothing worn in the auspicious occasion is called nahmsa or namja. The clothing worn at the funeral or any other sad occasion is called the Lamdar.

For the first time, it was customary for the family to give their daughter gunyo choli and for the bride to give the Sari made from Khandi. These rites are still found in some places.

In the recent past, Tamang has been found to have designed the marriage costume on their own. But experts in the Tamang community say there is no separate dress for the bride and groom.

Earlier, the state had forcibly imposed the Nepalese Daura Suruwal as a national dress.  Even in those days, people of the Tamang community used to wear the national dress made from Khandi.

Nowadays, Tamang women wear red or black colored blouses with blue and red horizontal patterns saris. They are wrapped around the waist and supplemented by yellow patuka. Men and women wear a special kind of woolen cap on their head.

The Tamang youths now prefer to wear the dress that they like and feel comfortable in. The only parameter that they set for their wedding dress is that they should be stylish, cheap, and comfortable.

By Ankur Pradhan