From a Trickle to a Torrent : Education, Migration, and Social Change in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal

What happens to a community when the majority of young people leave their homes to pursue an education? From a Trickle to a Torrent documents the demographic and social consequences of educational migration from Nubri, a Tibetan enclave in the highlands of Nepal. The authors explore parents’ motivations for sending their children to distant schools and monasteries, social connections that shape migration pathways, young people’s estrangement from village life, and dilemmas that arise when educated individuals are unable or unwilling to return and reside in their native villages. Drawing on numerous decades of research, this study documents a transitional period when the future of a Himalayan society teeters on the brink of irreversible change. From the Inside Flap "Unlike much of the literature on migration and social change, this work pays careful, nuanced attention to how such education-driven outmigration transforms the experiences of those who stay home as well as those who leave, those who return, and those who strive to imagine futures that posit so-called marginal homelands and well-known cosmopolitan places as fundamentally interconnected.”—Sienna Craig, author of Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine "In lucid and vivid prose, Geoff Childs and Namgyal Choedup tell a poignant story of educational outmigration from rural Himalayan Nepal. Deftly mixing methods and levels of analysis, and drawing on over two decades of longitudinal research, From a Trickle to a Torrent demonstrates the power of a truly anthropological demography to explain the hidden causes and costs of human movement."—Michael Lempert, author of Discipline and Debate: The Language of Violence in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery About the Author Geoff Childs is Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. His previous works include Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal. Namgyal Choedup completed a PhD in anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He conducts research on migration and identity politics in the Tibetan diaspora. Cover From a Trickle to a Torrent Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Predicaments, Presumptions, and Procedures An Empty Nest The Enduring Yet Ephemeral Village Managing the Family through Migration Studying Longitudinal Change The Household as a Unit of Analysis 2. Moving In before Moving Out A Peripheral Region of Darkness Excavating the Ethnic Strata The Center Comes to the Periphery Completing the Buddhist Transformation Conquest and Indirect Rule Continuity amid Political Change Contemporary Convulsions 3. Embedding the Household in the Village Rituals of Protection The Household in Demography, Anthropology, and Nubri Binding Households through Religious Cooperation Liturgy, Income, and Mobility 4. Whither the Young People? Portents of a Barley Harvest Tibetan Exiles and the Emergence of Migration Pull Factors The Demography of Supply and Demand The Pathways and Magnitude of Outmigration 5. Becoming Monks Family Obligations versus Religious Aspirations Between Ontological Realms On the Merits of Monastic Migration Childhood Inclinations and Monastic Migration Religious Networks and Migration Destinations The Revival of Mass Monasticism 6. Becoming Nuns The Nun Serves Her Family From Servant (yogmo) to Disciple (lobma) Pathways to Celibacy Gender and the Precariousness of Virtue Demise of the Village Nun? 7. Becoming Students The Son Goes First Educating Nubri Children: A Fitful Start Valuing Education The Efficacy of Strong and Weak Ties Reproducing Inequality? 8. The Household Succession Quandary A Monk Returns The Educated Son Conundrum The Educated Daughter Dilemma Unbecoming Monks Monks and the Evolving Family Management Strategy 9. The Transformative Potential of Educational Migration The Lama Goes, the Lama Returns Independent Child Migration and Fosterage Educational Migration and Demographic Change Marital Endogamy and the Margins of Choice Marriage and the Misappropriation of Modernity 10. Nubri Futures? Vacating the Realm of Religious Practitioners The Predicament of Aging From Householder Lamas to Celibate Monks The Communal Obligation Impasse Disembedding the Younger Generation Parting Thoughts Appendix: The Population of Nubri Notes Glossary of Tibetan Terms References Index "What happens to a community when the majority of young people move away for education? In Nubri, an ethnic Tibetan enclave in the highlands of Nepal, educational migration (the sending of children to distant institutions for schooling) has become a key component of a family management strategy that is driven by the prospect of social and economic rewards but that entails risk, uncertainty, and unforeseen consequences. The authors draw on ethnographic, demographic, and historical research to document how long-standing religious connections shape contemporary migrations, and how population growth disparities open new schooling opportunities for Buddhist highlanders. They examine parents' motives for sacrificing household labor in favor or sending children to distant schools and monasteries, a trend encapsulated in the oft-repeated phrase "better a pen in hand than a rope across the forehead." The book concludes by investigating dilemmas associated with educational migration, including intergenerational skirmishes over marriage and household succession, threats to the family-based care system for the elderly, and a decline in the level of agricultural production needed to support local religious activities. Better a Pen in Hand chronicles a convergence of demographic and social processes that have led a Himalayan society to the brink of irreversible change."--Provided by publisher What happens to a community when the majority of young people move away for education? In Nubri, an ethnic Tibetan enclave in the highlands of Nepal, educational migration (the sending of children to distant institutions for schooling) has become a key component of a family management strategy that is driven by the prospect of social and economic rewards but that entails risk, uncertainty, and unforeseen consequences. The authors draw on ethnographic, demographic, and historical research to document how long-standing religious connections shape contemporary migrations and how population growth disparities open new schooling opportunities for Buddhist highlanders. They examine parents’ motives for sacrificing household labor in favor or sending children to distant schools and monasteries, a trend encapsulated in the oft-repeated phrase “better a pen in hand than a rope across the forehead.” The book concludes by investigating dilemmas associated with educational migration, including intergenerational skirmishes over marriage and household succession, threats to the family-based care system for the elderly, and a decline in the level of agricultural production needed to support local religious activities. __From a Trickle to a Torrent__ chronicles a convergence of demographic and social processes that have led a Himalayan society to the brink of irreversible change. What happens to a community when the majority of young people leave their homes to pursue an education? From a Trickle to a Torrent documents the demographic and social consequences of educational migration from Nubri, a Tibetan enclave in the highlands of Nepal. The authors explore parents’ motivations for sending their children to distant schools and monasteries, social connections that shape migration pathways, young people’s estrangement from village life, and dilemmas that arise when educated individuals are unable or unwilling to return and reside in their native villages. Drawing on numerous decades of research, this study documents a transitional period when the future of a Himalayan society teeters on the brink of irreversible change.