Limbu Poets’ Experiences of Using Facebook for Promoting Endangered Indigenous Language

Abstract

The authors report an examination of Limbu poets’ experiences of using Facebook to share Limbu poems expecting to promote their Indigenous language, literature, and culture, and preserve Indigenous identities. We employed online semi-structured interviews with participants and observation of their Facebook walls to gather qualitative data. We discuss how the Limbu poets attempted to promote their Limbu language through Facebook. Limbu poets used their Indigenous poems to inform and promote the value of their language and to preserve Indigenous cultural values. The poetic creation in the Limbu language received significant responses from readers, however, far less than the poems in Nepali and English. This result may have occurred because many members of the Limbu community might not have understood Limbu poems. It demonstrates the decline of Limbu, one of the Indigenous languages in Nepal, and the challenge of preserving and promoting the language. Limbu poets’ more organized and innovative ways of using Facebook for promoting their Indigenous language may help them achieve their aim to restore their language.