The GAUDELs in Nepal

On the entire website, click on a "First Name LAST NAME" to access the genealogical database.

Preamble

As the home page explains, my genealogical research began in 1995, when I started looking for my father’s ancestors. They came from Orbey, in the Haut-Rhin department in France. All GAUDELs, whose most remote known origins are in Orbey, are thus the “Orbey” branch.

Then, I have rapidly decided to look for the origins of all GAUDELs in France, to connect them to their own branches. As of now, there are 14 branches in France and are probably not related to each other.

Throughout this research, I have discovered some ‘cousins’ in various foreign countries, whose origins – for each of them- are connected to the branches mentioned above.

It therefore seemed obvious that the home country of the GAUDELs was France, where they were the most represented. I have identified about 1300 GAUDELs, currently living in France¹.

During the summer 2021, I noticed the existence of Nepalese books, as well as economic and scientific publications, whose authors were called GAUDEL. By examining the first names of those writers, it became obvious that there were not French expats (at least, not recent ones). I thus looked on all specialized genealogical websites for potential traces of GAUDELs in Nepal. All this research was to no avail.

We could however estimate the amount of living people whose surname is GAUDEL, by country. Those figures stem from the difference between the number of births and that of deaths over the past 100 years.

1-Nepal : about 2400 GAUDELs out of 30 millions inhabitants, thus 1 GAUDEL for 12 500 inhabitants.

2-France : about 1300 GAUDELs out of 68 millions inhabitants, thus 1 GAUDEL for 52 000 inhabitants.

3-Philippines : about 140 GAUDELs out of 109 millions inhabitants, thus 1 GAUDEL for 780 000 inhabitants.

4-India: about 20 GAUDELs out of 1.38 billions inhabitants, thus 1 GAUDEL for 69 millions inhabitants.

Then, there are a few GAUDELs in the US, in New Caledonia, in Germany, in the Czech Republic…

There are therefore almost twice as many GAUDELs living in Nepal as in France; or four times more, considering the number of inhabitants.

Yet, before studying the genealogical links of those very remote ‘cousins’, one should gather some knowledge about their country.

However, there is no question here of making a detailed study of Nepal, there are many books and sites devoted to it. It is only a question of giving a few elements more particularly related to the Nepalese GAUDELs.

Nepal is rectangular country, about 800 km long and 200 km wide. It is populated by 30 million inhabitants (2020). Its capital city is Kathmandu.

Located in between two giant neighboring countries – the chinese Tibet in the North, and India at its other borders – Nepal is at the crossroads between Buddhism and Hinduism.

Its geography is unique, since its altitude varies from 100 m to 8,849 m (Everest) within a few dozens of kilometers : Nepal includes 8 of the world 10 highest summits, in the Himalayan region.

The Nepal’s geomorphology is organized in lengthways strips, creating five natural areas, from the South to the North :

-The Terai region : The lowest region, reaching less than 100 m in altitude, is the southernmost area. It belongs to the large Ganges’s plain in India.

-The Sivalik Hills, located above the Terai region, announcing the first mountain summits -of about 1,500 m- partially covered by old-growth forests.

-The Mahabharata Lekh is an actual mountain chain whose summits sometimes reach 3,000 m.

-The Nepalese plateau is the most important level : it is a 100 km-wide strip. It is the central part of the country, where you can find the biggest cities – Kathmandu, Lalitpur (Patan), Bhaktapur, Pokhara of Kasti district. Although it only represents one quarter of the country’s surface area, this region is inhabited by half the population. The climate there is temperate.

-The Himalayan chain, where nine summits are over 8,000m high (including the Everest/Sagarmatha, 8,849 m), and more than a hundred are over 7,000 m high, creating a giant wall.

The Royal Bardia National Park is a wild place in the Terai region, in line with the Indian plains. More than 640 animal species have been identified there.

With the Himalayan chain as its background, Patan is an old royal city in the Kathmandu’s valley. The city is characterized by a large architectural and religious heritage.

The history³ of the region has been agitated since the first kingdoms in the Kathmandu’s valley, including during the Golden Age of the Malla dynasty around 1200.

Born in the18^th century from rival fiefdoms, Nepal lived through various royal plots, coups, massacres, and uprisings until the 21^st century.

The civil war that tore the country apart at the beginning of the 21^st century ended, at the same time as the monarchy in 2008.

A new Republic is nowadays emerging between the two Asian superpowers – China and India.

Bidya Devi BHANDARI, president of the Republic of Nepal, was elected in 2015. Since the establishment of the 2015 constitution, Nepal has been a federal state, made of seven provinces, with 77 districts.

The Nepalese celebrate the abolition of the monarchy on May, 28^th 2008.

The constituent assembly in Nepal, born to the April 10 elections - when the Maoist ex-rebels won- abolished the only Hindu monarchy in the world and declared the Republic.

The Maoists, defending a republican regime, having participated in an armed conflict for 10 years for the King’s departure and the creation of a Republic, were the ultimate winners of the legislative elections in April.

King Gyanendra will have fifteen days to leave his palace which will then be turned into a museum.

Chandra Shamsher of the Rana dynasty was Maharaja from 1901 to 1929.

Regarded as despotic and conservative, he is however credited for the abolition of slavery and for the 1923 Nepal-UK treaty, recognizing Nepal as an independent nation.

Nepal is characterized by a large human diversity – linguistic, cultural, as well as social and religious. The population is quite equally divided between the Tibeto-Burman peoples - coming mostly from the mountains, having more visible Asian features- and the Indo-Nepalese peoples.

There are more than a hundred native languages, stemming either from the Indo-Aryan family (Népali, Hindi), or the Tibeto-Burman family (Newar, Magar, Gurung, Kiranti, Tamang, Tibetan).

Despite its abolition, the society’s organization relies mostly on a system of hierarchized castes (Newar, Indo-Nepalese, Hindus from the plains) – a system characterizing most of Hindu societies. It is also divided among clans, more egalitarian (Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Limbu, Tharu…) for the Tibeto-Burman populations.

Belonging to a caste is an important point of reference for the Indo-Nepalese. The castes’ hierarchy is based on the importance of professional occupations.

The Brahmans (Bahun), at the top of the castes’ hierarchy, do not all have a religious function, but they are the only ones who can access those positions. The others are often teachers, farmers, or choose an administrative career.

The Chhetri (Kshatriya) are at the second position in the castes’ hierarchy. They are very numerous in the army or the administration. In addition, other are farmer. The Chhetri are descended from the Khas, who built a powerful kingdom in the Western part of the Kathmandu’s valley before the Nepalese unification in 1768. The members of other traditional castes are difficult to distinguish nowadays. The Brahmans and the Chhetri represent about 30% of the Nepalese population.

The two main religions coming from the Indian subcontinent – Hinduism and Buddhism – are practiced in Nepal. About 80% of the population is Hindu.

The Brahmans and the Chhetri are Hindus and observe most of the basic Hindu beliefs. They take part in many religious festivals⁴, complete rituals and worship divinities linked to Hinduism.

The festival Janai Purnima is important for Hindus belonging to the Brahman and Chhetri castes. Men gather along the sacred rivers to perform their ablutions, dedicated to the gods.

Equipped with those few elements enabling us to better understand the Nepalese society, we could try to approach the study of the Nepalese GAUDELs. Genealogical websites and books gave us no research possibility from France, so it became necessary to contact the Nepalese directly to try and learn more.

Eventually, it was via a professional and social network that I managed to contact Yadav Sharma GAUDEL and his son Prakash, in September 2021.

Professor Yadav Sharma GAUDEL is retired from the economics department of the Tribhuvan University⁵, in the Campus P.N. (Prithvi Narayan) of Pokhara⁶. More precisely, he taught mathematical economics and econometrics there.

This learned and courteous man, who now lives in Pokhara⁶, agreed to share with me some fundamental elements about the Gaudels in the history and traditions of his country.

Mudikuwa is a rural village, counting about 2,000 inhabitants. The village is located at 40km to the West from Pokhara⁶.

According to Yadav Sharma GAUDEL, today, the majority of the Nepalese Gaudels live in the Gandaki⁷province, and more specifically in the Parbat, Kaski, Syangja and Nawalparasi districts.

All the GAUDELs from Nepal are descended from GAUDELs who arrived from India in 1790, to durably settle down in the village of Mudikuwa in the Parbat district.

The Mandir (Hindu temple) of Satbise was located in the center of Mudikuwa. It was a place of ritual and spiritual gatherings. Now missing, a new temple, devoted to Ram and Sita⁹, has been built nearby. Yadav Sharma GAUDEL owns his family home in the community of Kirtan (Kirtan Tole) next to this historic place.

The Gaudels who arrived in 1790 in Mudikawa came from India, division of Garhwal in the state of Uttarakhand⁸. They belonged to the family of Bishnudutta GAUDEL, then 25 years old, as indicated by the Vamsabali (genealogy) of the GAUDEL family.

The GAUDELs belong to the ethnic Indo-Aryan Pahari⁸ group, and the Brahman caste. They are tightly related to the Indian religion, culture and language.

To this day, several GAUDELs have kept a family house in Mudikuwa, as well as relatives. This is the case for Yadav GAUDEL, whose parents - who are over 90 years old - lived in this Nepalese cradle of the GAUDELs until 2015.

Garhwal and Kumaon are the two territorial divisions of Uttarakhand⁸.

Garhwal, whose traditional name was Uttarakhand, was an old kingdom, part of the Maurya Empire (322-185 BC).

Uttarakhand is known for the beauty of its landscapes.

Front and first pages of the Vamsabali (genealogy) of the GAUDEL family, edited in 1996 by Yadav GAUDEL, from information given by a consultative assembly of 5 members in Mudikuwa.

On the second line, on the left : Professor Yadav Sharma GAUDEL standing with his wife, his parents, his two sons and their wives.

I deeply thank Professor Yadav Sharma GAUDEL to have agreed to give me fundamental information on his family.

The Database concerning nearly 1400 individuals was created from the Bansawali of the Nepalese GAUDEL.

To go further, I invite all Nepalese GAUDELs (or others) who would have information or would be interested by this research to contact me via email or on the Facebook group dedicated to Nepal.

3-For a more precise historical knowledge: Histoire du Nepal by Roland Barraux, Editions L’Harmattan, 2007.

4-Those festivals have been celebrated the same way for centuries. Among the festivals, one of the most important is the Dashain (or Durga Puja), during which the Goddess Durga (Kali) is worshipped for fifteen days in October. We also observe Phagu (called Holi in India), the Hindu spring ritual, linked to fecundity and the God Krishna. It takes place during the month of Phagun (February-March), and men, women and children sing, dance and throw colored powder and water at each other. Other annual festivals include Tihar (Dipavali, the light’s festival), Janai Purnima (change of the sacred thread) and Tijpanchami (a purifying ritual for women) and many others.

5-Tribhuvan University is a university in Kathmandu. It was created in 1959 and welcomes about 600,000 students. It is one of the oldest and the biggest university in Nepal. The university was named after the late king Tribhuvan. The university, sprawled over a 155ha space, is the central administrative office and the central campus of Kirtipur. With the growing number of students seeking to access tertiary education, the university now owns many campuses all over the country.

6-Pokhara is a city located on Lake Phewa, in the centre of Nepal, at an altitude of 900 m. 200 km west from the capital city Kathmandu, Pokhara belongs to the Kaksi district, in the Gandaki province, of which it is the regional capital. Its population is about 260,000 inhabitants, ranking it as the second biggest Nepalese city. At the bottom of the Annapurna Mountain range, in the Himalayan chain, Pokhara is the starting point for exploring the summits.

7-Gandaki is one of the seven provinces in Nepal. Created in July 2018, it was temporarily named “Province Number 4” before the new elected assembly chose its present name. The province counts the seven major tributaries of the Ganges, coming from the Himalaya, designated as Sapta Gandaki. Its capital city is Pokhara.

8-Uttarakhand is an Indian state located in the Himalayan Mountain range. It is surrounded by Tibet in the North-East, and Nepal in the South-East. People coming from Uttarakhand call themselves Pahari (meaning “the people of the hills”) and are Hindus. Uttarakhand is made of two territorial divisions : the Garhwal division in the West and the Kumaon divison in the East.

9-Prince Ram was condemned to a long exile by his father, the king of Ayodhya. For fourteen years, he will have to thwart the tricks of demons and face strange creatures. With the help of the army of monkeys, he will fight Ravana, the ten-headed ogre, who has trapped his luminous Sita. Lakshmana, his faithful brother, accompanies Rama in these trials. This adventure, the founder of Indian culture, is still told today.