Village Economy

The village economy is subsistence oriented. The main occupation of Chepang is
agriculture. They do both permanent and shifting agriculture. At the same time now
they are inclined to cash vegetables for economic gains. The shifting cultivation is
their major agricultural practice. They have very little paddy field (khet) on the blank
of the Trishuli River, not to enough to support them. The Chepangs also do hunting,
fishing (in Trisuli River), and collecting edible shoots and roots form Khoriya and
nearby forests. They are well known as hunters and gatherers whose subsistence
economy is based on forest resources.
They are also known as Chyobang or Chewang. In their language Che means dogs
and Pang means arrow (Manadhar, 2002), which reflects one of their traditional
occupations-- hunting with the help of dogs, bows and arrows. They worship the bows
and arrows used in hunting once a year (Ibid).
Wild foods including roots crops, herbs and fruits are collected from the Chepang’s
own land or from nearby jungle. Wild food such as ban tarul (Diascorea spp),
githa/bhyakur (Doiscorea bulbifer), tyaguna, sisnu (Urtica dioca), tanki ko munta
(Bahunea purpurea), niuro (Thlyopteris spp), Chiuri (bassia butyracea ), and wild
mushroom are collected either from their own Khoriya or from nearby forest
providing a large bulk of food for the households (Aryal, 2007). Wild foods like githa
and vhyakur are linked with their traditional and cultural identification and they said
that hami ta Chepangko jaat, gihta/vhyakur khaanchau (we are Chepangs thus we eat
githa/vhyakur).