Wednesday, January 12, 2005

In Nepalese culture it's considered very offensive to touch anything or to point with one's feet. It's unclear whether this also applies to one's stump.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does it also apply to an artificial foot? What if the foot isn't attached to the stump at the time and is being used as a general pointing implement? So many questions!

11:30 AM  
Blogger r_tertia said...

That's because Nepal is the 'Hindu kingdom' as most people there are Hindus (or Buddhists). In Hindu culture, the feet are the least sacred part of the body and the head is the most sacred, so much so that whilst living there, if anyone accidentally stepped on my foot, they would touch their head and then bend down and touch my feet - this was their way of saying the most sacred part of them was lower than the least sacred part of me - a very humbling apology to receive.

Incidentally, young girls are revered as goddesses until they hit puberty, which makes their head even more sacred, so if they were lying on the ground and you walked past their head, you'd be upsetting their relatives rather a lot.

1:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I did a Tibetan Buddhist retreat last year, and our retreat master told us that it was considered rude in Tibetan culture to point at someone with the feet.

I am unclear why one would do this however. Still you may note with interest that in Tibetan statues of the Buddha the "palm" of his right-foot is often sky-facing. This is part of the 7-Point Posture of Vairocana.

3:20 PM  
Blogger Guy Jean said...

A similar rule of social etiquette holds true in Japan, which is Buddhist, but not Hindu. Japanese take their shoes off before entering a house, but touching anything with the feet is considered extremely impolite (if it's not done accidentally), or worse a direct insult. It's a miracle that soccer ever took off here!

7:04 AM  

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