Navel of the Demoness : Tibetan Buddhism and Civil Religion in ...

46 the navel of the demoness
The story is interesting because it can be seen to convey a moral from
either of two distinct religious worldviews. The first can be seen as a straightforward
Buddhist one, in which the community is punished for its cupidity:
the theme of a village being destroyed because of its preoccupation with material
wealth is one we shall encounter later in connection with Te. The story
can also be understood as a salutary warning against poor judgment in dealing
with territorial divinities. While bovids were—and in a few places, as
I will show, still are—acceptable blood-offerings to local gods, horses never
have been. Because of the close association between horses and humans—
particularly men—the two are functionally identical in certain sacred-magical
contexts. It is common enough in Mustang, when a man’s horse dies in a
remote area where the body has to be abandoned, that the owner will first
decapitate the corpse and conceal the head, or else simply smash the skull, for
it might otherwise be used by his enemies in black magic rituals against him.
In the nearby village of Dzong, it is said, the main place-god abandoned the
village and moved to Manang because the site had been polluted by the spilled
blood ‘‘of men and horses.’’ This close association also underlies the general
Tibetan aversion to the consumption of horse meat: ‘‘To eat horse meat is considered
morally condemnable since in Tibetan society the horse is not only
the companion of man, but also, as illustrated by the ‘wind-horse’ (rlung rta), a
symbol of his welfare’’ (Karmay 1998a: 391).
A part of the community of Gyaga, it is said, went to settle in Sangdag, on
the way to Dolpo. (It may be worth noting that although this village is Tibetanspeaking,
it is sometimes referred to as a Shöyul, the implication being that it
was once populated by Seke-speakers.) The rest of the community is said to
have settled in an extensive area of caves on the east bank of the Kali Gandaki
where it is joined by the Gyalung River. The area of caves is known as Gyagalung
in Tibetan and Gyagagyung in Seke. To the north of the caves is an area
of abandoned fields said once to have been cultivated by the community. The
water for Gyagalung was the stream of the Dröyong Lungba (called Gayang
Gyung in Seke), which is also the only source of irrigation water for nearby
Taye. When, over the course of time, the quantity of water in the stream
diminished so that there was inadequate surplus from Taye, Gyagalung and its
fields were abandoned. The community occupied the area of caves above
Tshognam (discussed later) for a certain period before moving up to Gyaga.
The name Gyaga is said to be derived from the names of the places previously
inhabited by the people, that is, Gyathang and Gyagalung. As we have seen, the
Seke name of Gyaga is Gyuga.
Taye itself (the name is usually spelled Tang yos, gTang yos, etc. in local
documents) is a village of thirty-one estates (Tib. grong pa) and six subsidiary