Nepal and the surrounding region officially recognises 60 Indigenous nationalities as ‘Adivasi-Janajati’, which make up more than a third of the country’s total population. The wide range of distinct cultures, languages and histories of Nepal’s Indigenous people form the basis of the TAMBA project, curated by artists and co-founders of ArTree Nepal and Kalā Kulo, Hit Man Gurung and Sheelasha Rajbhandari.

In the Tamang community, oral histories concerning creation, cosmology and genealogy are narrated in songs sung by the Tambas — experts in ritual and the oral retelling of traditional history. These tales are often recounted in important ceremonies, with each sacred retelling accompanied by the rhythms of the Damphu percussion instrument. This project takes the figure of the Tamba as its entry point in order to bring together the works of Adivasi-Janajati artists, writers, poets, researchers and activists. The intervention is rooted in an intersectional history-making of Adivasi-Janajati peoples in Nepal and surrounding regions, and speaks of and against oppression, nation-states and borders through a praxis grounded in Indigenous ontology and epistemology.

TAMBA features the work of Lavkant Chaudhary, Alyen Leeachum Foning, Mekh Limbu, Keepa Maskey, Jagdish Moktan, Subas Tamang and Indu Tharu.