nepalese society is composed of several castes which have influenced social life and customs of the people.in fact caste system is very very old coming down from the aryans.in ancient times.the aryans had divided the society into four divison:brahmin,kshetriya,vaishya,and shudra.each class had separate duty.this divison of society was followed in nepal as well:during the malla rule,king jayasthiti malla made further divison of the caste.many subcastes were created on the basis of occupation.some of them are kshetri,salmi,joshi bajaracharya,kayastha,halwali,chitrakar e.t.c.like occupation,clothes,house and social custom of each caste had also been determined by him.the result of caste system provied harmful.a wide gulf was created between castes.theres were feelings of high born and low born.the people of lower class were considered untouchable.to consolidate the society.discrimination on caste was declared a punishable offense by the muluki ain in 2020bs.now people of every caste are eligible for any profession and any post in the government.
how ever,the feeling of casteism still exists in the mind of the orthodox people.
another common tradition of the nepalese is to show respect to parents,teachers and guests.every year we observe fathers day and mother day on which occasions children workship their parents.during pitripaksha,son perform tarpan offering water to their dead father,mother and force father similarly student workship show respect and give gifts to their teachers on the occasion of teachers day.welcoming guests,showing them hospitality and giving them food and shelter is our tradition in addition to these common traditions,there are many social and religious coustoms which vary from place to place,community to community and family to family.for example ghodabheda is prevalent only in mugu district of karnali zone and not else where.dowry system practiced in the terai and hill has not reached the himalayan region similarly dekui ,pratha is found in seti an mahakali zones only .the way in which the marriage ceremony is performed in the mountains in different from that in terai.a number of such example can be given.our culture,lifestyle and customs are the outcomes of our community and family.though different places have different cultures,lifestyles and customs,we respect them all thinking that they are in our own country.the mixture of all these cultures,customs and traditions is our main identity and symbol of our unity.
