Absent Women: Menstruation, Ritual Life and Transformations among the Newars in Sankhu, Nepal

Speaker: Sierra Humbert

Ph.D. Fellow
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
sierra.humbert@hum.ku.dk

Absence of three Newar women marked the morning of a pilgrimage to Suryabinayak and
Bhaktapur planned with Happy Soul Dance Studio members in Sankhu. Despite months of
careful planning around everyone’s menstrual cycle, these women were unable to attend
because their menstrual cycle had unexpectly arrived. Depending on their caste and
household practices, women in Sankhu must avoid temple spaces, puja rooms and worship
while menstruating. Menstruation remains an underdeveloped field among scholars on
religion despite its significance concerning bodily experiences, ritual practices and cultural
heritage. This paper highlights the significance of menstruation in Newar ritual life as a lens
to access the experiences and perspectives of Newar women in Sankhu.

Sankhu is an ancient Newar town on the northeast of the Kathmandu Valley where previous ethnographic works explored how its ritual calendar, temples, social organisation and myths sanctify the town. However, these studies primarily focused on texts and the public sphere, meaning they could not access the full experiences of Newar women in Sankhu. This paper considers how menstruation, inextricably connected to the experiences of women as a hidden substance and ritual practice, contributes to the sanctity and continuity of the town.

From January 2023-2024, I conducted 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in
Sankhu and surrounding villages in Shankharapur municipality. Through participant
observation, walking interviews and object-centred methodologies, such as documenting
offerings, sacrifices and waste around the temples, emerges the hidden materialities of
menstrual waste cultivating a relationship to the gods and the town. Menstruation accesses
the metonymic relationship between body and space within Newar societies, revealing
ongoing changes with Newar ritual practices and their significance concerning religious life,
gender and sacred spaces in Sankhu.

Menstruating bodies in Sankhu hold a perplexing status: hidden and potentially dangerous to the home and broader community while an indication of reproductive potential and female propriety. My research indicates tensions and lived realities whereby Newar women navigate tensions between menstrual rituals and interventions by the State and NGOs.

For instance, the choice of sanitary product is more than a hygiene question but embedded
within broader responsibilities for the town. Newar women undertake the publicly marked
barha and ihi ceremony at menarche, hidden from the sun for 12 days before marrying a god,
a site of controversy and nostalgia. The rhythms of Sankhu are marked by temporary withdrawal and redistribution of labour within households pertaining to shifting gender roles
and ongoing relationships to gods and ancestors. I argue that the containment of menstrual
blood embodies the tensions of upholding Newar ritual practices and adapting to transformations, such as rapid urbanisation, in the Kathmandu Valley.

Menstrual blood and menstruating bodies, in their absence, reveal how Newar women
negotiate their position in the transforming landscape of Sankhu.