南アジア・インド洋世界研究会

A traditional courtship custom ignorantly translated as 'night hunting' is still practiced in the villages of eastern and central Bhutan. The custom involves a boy stealthily entering a girl's house at night for courtship or coitus with or without prior consultation. It is an institution through which young people find their partners and get married. However, this custom is understood as a form of sexual exploitation of rural people by urban people, and of women by men, and as encouraging promiscuity, spreading venereal diseases, and increasing the number of illegitimate children, teenage pregnancies and single motherhood. It has been misunderstood by Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese alike, and there is a need for an anthropological study of the practice.

"Love, Courtship and Marriage in Rural Bhutan", is an anthropological account of the custom as practiced in Wamling, a remote village in Bhutan. It attempts to bridge the gap between the popular perception of it and the actual practice in a particular locality. The neologism 'night hunting' stems from an ethnocentric understanding of the custom, not the lack of local terms. In Wamling, it is called 'Bomena' literally meaning 'going towards the girl'. A simple Bomena process is as follows: a boy initially visits a girl for fun. They may not necessarily sleep together but spend the night debating and teasing each other about their bodies, qualities, character, parents, property, etc. A series of such visits will make them lovers, and suddenly the boy starts courting her as his partner, who of course can exercise her agency and reject him. Depending on how they get along and other factors, they may decide to either marry or terminate their relationship. But it is much more complex.

The study places Bomena in the context of the village's geography, economy, history, ethnicity, culture, beliefs, social structure and institutions, and the changes taking place in the village. It also discusses Bomena's place in the life of this remote village, and the influence of kinship, descent, parents' occupations, temperament, wealth, and ideas of beauty, character and the extent of individual agency in Bomena, especially that of women. It also considers the reasons behind the changing notions of a good marriage, and public attitude towards Bomena which, together with other factors, are decreasing the frequency of the practice.

The study does not accept or deny the problems attributed to Bomena, it rather places the custom in the proper context. But people's culture should be respected rather than branding it with ethnocentric labels and misunderstandings.