Ban Yatra: A Bio-Cultural Survey of Sacred Forests in Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

This study documents and interprets the collective store of traditional knowledge concerning the manifestation, protection and preservation of sacred forests in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It essentially investigates the phenomenon of "sacred forests" through a cognitive study of its associated cultural tradition and religious belief system. A biological examination of natural components in the light of cultural findings provides a bio-cultural perspective of the subject. Oral interviews and on-site observations at 45 selected sacred forest sites form the basis of collected data. A combined historico-cultural/religio-geographic approach, documenting oral tradition, iconographical and ethno-botanical evidence, contributes to an analysis of sacred forests as bio-cultural landscape units representing a religio-cultural tradition of nature preservation. Present preservation attitudes and initiatives, along with circumstantial evidence of the physical condition of sacred forest sites, are considered in the analysis of the present status of sacred forest preservation and the relative importance of traditional prohibitions, values and beliefs. The combined evidence suggests that the sacred forests of Kathmandu Valley are bio-cultural landscape units of biological, cultural, religious and historical significance.