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TIBET
Index → Asia → Tibet
Peter of Greece and Denmark (1963:p377)[1] on Western Tibet: “I enquired who it was who gave
the children their sex education. The answer was that nobody did. Parents are
forbidden by custom to speak to them of such things, and they have to pick up
what they can learn from playmates. Another source of information was
watching animals, it seemed, and everyone agreed that that may lean something from witnessing
their parents’ behaviour during the long winter nights in the Jan-sa. Anyhow, they “somehow” knew something about sex by
the time they were approximately six years of age”. Masturbation in the very
young was discouraged by threats of witches that would cut off their ears;
the older ones are beaten. Ludwar-Ene
(1975:p98-108)[2] provides a detailed
interpretation of sexual socialisation among the Nepalese Tibetans. Infants
from the age of three are raised in extreme modesty, girls more than boys. Mothers
and neighbours distract the infant from and shame the child for genital
manipulation, which is presumed to go underground.
Norbu[3], elder brother of the Dalai Lama,
argues that “parents often arrange marriages for their children. But it is
seldom that children are married against their whishes,
and the wise guidance of older people often results in a happier marriage
than when the youthful heart follows its desires” (p59). Normally, however,
boys and girls around the age of 18 or 19 “start looking toward marriage”
(p74).
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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