UNDERSTANDING HEALTH PRACTICES OF THE LEPCHA COMMUNITY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL INQUIRY

Abstract

This thesis examines the traditional healthcare practices of the indigenous Lepcha community, that exits in the interstices of the medical landscape. This ethnographic led exploration is based on the narratives of three categories of organizations/committees, healers and health seekers- who belong to Máyel Lyáng and call themselves ‘beloved children of mother nature’. It analyses historical events that have contributed to the division of the community along religious and geopolitical lines and also created a hierarchy of practices in which traditional practices like that of the Lepchas occupy a marginalized position. I have taken these factors into consideration to examine the complexity in health-seeking and care providing behaviour and how they position themselves in the interstices. Despite the creation of a multiplicity of practices and beliefs within the community, Lepcha individuals uphold the cultural beliefs around the importance of ecology. Given this multiplicity as a starting point, I have extended the case of subaltern therapeutics by identifying voices of resilience, resistance, reciprocity, and change and continuity in the narratives of the committees, healers and health seekers.