Our Culture Is Our Identity (Essay)

Our Culture Is Our Identity

Every single person has his own unique identity. There comes a huge role of culture to shape the person’s identity. Culture contains languages, costumes, food, literature and social activities. They decide what a person is today and will be in future.

Culture provides hints for a person to guide his life. The culture each person lives in reveals how to dress, talk, act, acceptable behavior and gives a guide line of what is considered common. As a child grows up in a particular culture, he absorbs the beliefs and practices, then begins to use them in everyday activities. In addition, out choice of career, mates and others are largely affected by the society we live in. Our relationships play a major role in shaping identities. So, the culture in which he is brought up has impact on one’s entire life. 

People acquire the knowledge of language, costumes, food and social norms and values from their social groups and make their unique identity. These things a person has today exist because of the certain culture he grows up in. He can create an appropriate space for his identity. Moreover, a person grows up hearing and listening to what his parents and social members telling him what is acceptable for him to do and what is not acceptable for him to do. Because of this, he learns the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Everyone has a different culture and different habits based on how they were raised. It’s what stets people apart from others and adds diversity into life. 

In Nepal, the lifestyle of Nepalese people is strongly influenced by the culture. Since there live different ethnic groups in different parts of the country, their languages, foods, religions, costumes and festivals differ from each other. This results to distinct identity. Nepalese social behaviors interest people across the world and make them have a sense of respect towards us. This is because of impact of our culture in which we grow up. Universally, Nepalese people attain their unique identity determined by their culture. 

In short, a person is recognized on the basis of his cultures. It is known about what caste and ethnic group they belong to, what state and region they come from and also about the country they are from. We, Nepalese are popular for our variety in the culture and our special identity shaped by our culture around the world.

Study Note: Ethnic Identity

Unity in diversity is our identity. Nepal is a country of ethnic diversity. 125 ethnic groups have been identified according to the census of 2011AD. There are 6 ethnic groups in Nepal having more than 1 million populations. It is the responsibility of all of us to maintain ethnic identity for building a unified and prosperous nation. It can be possible only when we preserve our script, language, cultural of every ethnic group and maintain national unity among us.

Study Note: Cultural Identity

Nepali is known as a country of cultural diversity. There are many ethnic groups and they have their own cultural identity and tradition. Besides it, a kind of common cultural tradition and identity has been developed by the people of different ethnic groups living in the different geographical regions. Not only based of caste, various cultural traditions and identities have been developed in Nepal even on the basis of geographical regions.

In the different parts of Nepal, the people of various castes are living together by maintaining harmonious relation with each other. Newar culture of Kathmandu, Khas culture of Karnali, Mithila culture of Middle Terai, Deuda culture of Far-Western have spread even to the people of other castes. Along with the development of urbanization, people of different community have started living together. A trend of inter-caste family has also been developed. Consequently, they have mixed up and changed their cultural norms and values. Different cultural groups and regions have also been developed.

Study Note: Lingual Identity

There is lingual diversity in Nepal. According to the census of 2011AD, 123 languages have been identified as mother tongue. Nepali language is the official language of Nepal. The people speaking Nepali language as their mother tongue are more in number. According to the constitutional provision, Nepali language and other languages spoken in Nepal as mother tongue are considered the languages of nation. Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, Newari, Magar, Awadhi, Gurung, Urdu, Sherpa, Limbu, Hindi, etc. are more significant among the other language of nation.

Study Note: Religious Identity

Nepal is a country of religious diversity. There is an excellent example of religious tolerance and unity among the people of different religion. The people following different religion live together with unity, participate in each other’s religious and cultural activities and are positive to each other. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Kirant, Christianity, etc. are the religious classes having large population in Nepal. The population of remaining neutral in religious matter or not following any religion is also increasing day by day.