On the Way to Heaven: Memorial Benches, State Integration, and the Coming of Religion Among the Kulung Rai (Nepal)

Abstract

Alongside guiding the departed on a ritual journey to their place and time of origin, the Kulung Rai of Nepal have added the construction of stone memorial benches along the pathways to honour their deceased. However, both the representations and material aspects of the deceased and the pathways associated with these memorial constructions and ritual techniques differ. I delve into the past to reconstruct the reasons and conditions for the emergence of these benches, arguing that they are linked to substantial changes resulting from the gradual integration of the Kulung into the Nepalese state. This integration fostered the development of Hindu and Buddhist ideas, materialised in the form of these memorial benches. Consequently, I establish a connection between the arrival of the state, the expansion of pathway and road, and religious practices among the Kulung.