Kulung community begins transcribing oral Mundum

By Dhyan Kulung,Sankhuwasabha, May 16: The process of converting Kulung Ridum (Mundum) limited only to senior citizens of the tribal Kulung community into a text has been started. 

As there is no written Mundumi text of the Kulungs, a work to transcribing Mundum has begun to protect it from becoming extinct.

Mundum writing work has started as there is a risk of its extinction with the passing away of the senior citizens who understand the Mundum. The work of writing Mundum had begun from a gathering of senior Kulung dignitaries at Lakuwa of Silichong Rural Municipality, a Kulung majority area in Sankhuwasabha district. Senior Kulung men from Bhojpur were also present in the gathering. 

With the financial support of Silichong Rural Municipality, the Mundum transcribing work has been started at the initiative of the Kulung Sangh Bala, an organisation of Kulung community. More than 30 senior citizens from the two districts - Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha - are participating in the Mundum writing work. 

Premchandra Somforu is coordinating the writing and editing works.   Most of the castes of the Kirant community have only spoken form of Mundum that guides the entire community in their everyday life.

Rajkumar Kulung, secretary of the Kulung Sangh Bala, informed that the Mundum was disappearing with the death of senior citizens. It was also modified due to a lack of adequate evidence-based knowledge.

“In the presence of senior citizens, who have knowledge about the Mundum, from all the regions, a text of Mundum is being prepared to bring uniformity in Mundum and make it acceptable to all,” Kulung said.

He further informed that currently the gathering of the people of two districts has been conducted to collect information on Mundum and write it.  

Earlier, the writing and compilation works of the first phase were done from the gathering of senior citizens of only the erstwhile Bala Village Development Committee.  

Kulung informed that the Mundum collected at that time was edited and was discussed at the present gathering. According to Kulung, there is a plan to organise a meeting of the senior Kulung men and women from other districts to discuss the edited collection before publishing it in the form of a book. 

It is said that all religious methods including the origin of Kulung caste, and rites from birth to death will be covered in the Mundum. 

Premchandra Somforu, editor of Mundum writing, said that the entire work would not be completed just by writing and preparing Mundum text. 

He said that since there are separate rhythms to show all the rituals of the Kulung caste, there is also a need to prepare audio-visual material in the next step.

Editor Somforu said that it was possible to prepare the audio-visual of Mundum by writing the text first.