Alina Simone (PRI's The World, 6-30-16); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly
Himalayan Mustang District, now a part of Nepal, formerly Tibet (Jmhullot/wiki) |
Buddhist prayer flags fly throughout the Himalayas: Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India... |
Nawang Tsering Gurungat at Diversity Square (Alina Simone) |
There's a Tibetan dialect called "Mustang," and it's staying alive in the US
Stepping off the train in Jackson Heights,
Queens [New York], on a recent Sunday, Alina Simone discovered two groups doing sonic battle
in a courtyard ringed with shops:
There was a Tibetan religious service led by crimson-robed Buddhist monks versus a "Bangladeshi Americans for Bernie Sanders" rally. Later, looking up the name of the place, it's Diversity Square.
There was a Tibetan religious service led by crimson-robed Buddhist monks versus a "Bangladeshi Americans for Bernie Sanders" rally. Later, looking up the name of the place, it's Diversity Square.
It's no surprise, given this is the epicenter of the most diverse neighborhood in America.
More than 130 different languages are spoken in Jackson Heights, but
many of them are from places so small, so remote, they get lost in the
commotion. Take Mustang [now claimed by Nepal], a dialect of Tibetan with only 7,500 speakers
worldwide — 800 of whom live in the US.
Dialects like Mustang — also referred to as “Mustangi” — are waging
quiet fights here for time, attention, and survival. What exactly are
they fighting against?
We could say it's the pursuit of the American
Dream itself. Given the challenges of starting a new life halfway across
the world, even when a language is spoken at home, English is often
what kids focus on learning.
As language activist Nawang Gurung explains: “Parents work 12 to 15
hours in restaurants, nanny jobs, as nail technicians....Now if
parents talk to their kids in Mustangi dialect, kids are gonna respond
in English.”
Nawang has become a custodian of Mustang here in New York City.
“Language represents your identity,” he explains. “Who you are. If the
Mustangi dialect vanishes, it's slowly gonna mean, it has a totally new
identity.”
Pema, Domaseri, and Domaseri at Diversity Square every weekend attending Mustang Sunday. Even in a place as diverse as Jackson Heights, it can be difficult to explain where it is they come from, the three say (Alina Simone). |
These new identities are being forged by families who are part of a massive migration from
the Himalayas, accelerated by last year's major earthquake in Nepal and
a downturn in tourism. According to Nawang, the result for mountain
people like the Mustang has been “a rapid population decline compared to
other regions in Nepal."
His fear is that as the sparse population of Mustang speakers
scatters, soon there won’t be anyone to learn from. So together with the
Endangered Language Alliance here in New York, he is working to create a
kind of Mustang Library of Congress. It’s part of a project called Voices of the Himalayas, a digital archive that will preserve Himalayan oral history, folklore and song, handed down over hundreds of years. More
Himalayan lore: Inner Earth "Agartha"
(Agarthissml) What is the legend of the underworld
realm of Agartha, and what mysteries surround it?
Presented by Astrambiente Lazio; created by Valeria
Temperini, Michela Rosarno, and Valerio Panfoli, in cooperation with
Adriana Bisirri, professor and principal of the SSML Gregorio VII
University in Rome.
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