Cardamom

1.Baby cardamom planted last year, surrounded by weeds in the forest.

This was a day I spent in the forest near the village, helping a family clear their cardamom crops. There are two "clearing periods" before the harvest around September. This is the only cash-crop in the village. It was introduced from Sikkim some 40 years ago, and has helped boost the local economy considerably. Additionally, the failed cardamom crop in Sikkim, which over the last 5 years has been affected by pest problems, has increased the market value for cardamom in Nepal. A 60kg sack of cardamom can be sold at the roadside bazaar of Tharpu (a tough two day walk) for between 10,000 and 13,000 rupees (seasonal variation). Considering that the average family in the village is, in a good year, able to harvest 2 to 4 sacks of cardamom, this plays a considerable role in village food security, as a years supply of rice will cost a 6 member household approximately 15,000 rupees per year (though there is much variation in the quantity of rice bought per household as some mix a larger proportion of their rice with barley or corn).


2/3. Lokendra, clearing a cardamom plant of rotten leaves, stones and snakes.

I am interested in the significance of cardamom to the village economy, and the way that some families, by carefully selecting potential cardamom sights and saving money, are able to improve their economic status within one generation: sending their children to private schools -> who learn English -> who work abroad for 4 years -> who return and build a large house in Dharan, or Birtamod, or Ilam. This is the sort of linear dream that many young Limbus describe to me. The dream revolves around the yearly success of the cardamom crop. There is much talk in the village about it: how much will there be this year? Who has a large crop this year? Will it rain too much and ruin the flowers? Will there be a landslide in a particular area that will wipe away the 150 plant planted only two years ago (they need three years to fruit)? etc..etc..

4. Cardamom flowers up close.

5. Cardamom plant in bloom. The fruit is alread emerging in some plants.

It is the cardamom that allows villagers to buy rice (only a handful of households grow their own). It is rice that is eaten at every meal. It is rice that it taken to the phedangma (shaman) together with a 5 rupee note (or something close) and item of the sick-person's clothing. The rice is used by the phedangma in a divination, by rearranging the grains on a plate he can figure out which spirit has possessed the sick person. It is rice that is fundamental to almost every puja I have participated in (together with the star animal to be sacrificed!). And it is carrying rice for older villagers that allows young Limbus to make small amount of cash to carry out their projects: print newspapers; publish stories; print photographs; buy stereos and tapes; pay for their secondary education.

6. Bir Bahadur's saila