Thiti as an Institution for Sustainable Management of the Resources in the Himalaya

Abstract

Himalayan communities still have traditional ecological knowledge with a strong social mechanism for the management of resources to live in a harsh environment. This paper mainly discusses two thematic issues; how the Himalayan people optimize the use of limited resources to thrive in a harsh environment, and what the key socio-cultural factors which help them to survive in the rugged environment sustainably. The paper is based on nine months of ethnographic study from 2012-2018among Gurungs, agro-pastoral communities in Nhason Valley of Manang. The findings reveal that thiti is a socio-cultural institution to Himalayan dwellers that controls the behavior of the people in a society; the source of the awareness and recognition of the fragile resources for living in rugged terrain; means of defining rights on resources. In the Himalayan region, indigenous ecological knowledge does not work in isolation; it is intertwined with a socio-cultural institution that unfolds in a social context.