Sabitri Lawati lives with her husband and four children in Sano Thimi. Like any ordinary woman, she has her daily chores and responsibilities to take care of. However, her identity of a Yuma is what separates her from others. The role of a Yuma is inherited and decided by the family.
With such great responsibility of holding her own family together, guiding the Kirati people in times of adversity and joy and the quest to still have an identity of her own probably remains like an open-ended question.
“The passage of becoming a Yuma hasn’t been an easy one. Nor has it been any simpler to balance the many roles I embody.”
This photo series is an attempt at find my own identity as me and as a Kirati woman.
*Yuma is the divinity, or Maharani, of the Limbu community. It means grandmother. Yuma is primarily regarded as a mother figure among the Yakthungs (Limbus). According to Limbu folklore, she created humankind. First, she made a person out of gold, but he remained silent, then another out of silver who also failed to speak. Finally, she combined Malingo (a type of bamboo tree) ash with chicken excrement, and the man started talking. Hence, traditionally, the Yakthungs see her as the Goddess of Creation, as the mother Goddess.
