There is no universally accepted definition of a boksi; the term means different things to different people in different places. But, the common understanding is that it is the art of doing evil by spiritual power and believed that dhami/jhakri only can control the boksi, as they have similar power. The existence of a boksi is common among Tamang, where she is blamed for material loss, sickness of cattle and humans, other problems, and misfortunes. It subjected accused women to the worst forms of maltreatment. However, men may also be accused of practising witchcraft as a boksa. 

This study aimed to explore the socially perceived attributes and factors associated with accusation. This paper was drawn from my PhD research in which exploratory descriptive study design and common qualitative research tools, such as interviews and observations, were used. Though the subject of witch accusation is a highly sensitive issue, the qualitative research approach was able to gain the subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions, and practises related to the accusation. For the information processing and analysis, a systematic way of analysing qualitative information, i.e., information reduction, information display, and drawing and verifying conclusions, was made. Through these qualitative research tools, this study established that the beliefs and practises of witchcraft in the Tamang community are socially constructed. The triangular relationship of survivor, perpetrator, and shaman play a particularly prominent role in accusation of boksi in Tamang community.

Many scholars have studied the phenomenon of accusations of boksi as violence against women in particular. Despite this reality, this study has added a new dimension to the subject of accusations by trying to look at it from a social constructivist perspective. Therefore, by using various sociological theories, the phenomenon of witch accusations has been investigated and analysed from a social constructivist point of view, and it has been possible to prove that this type of phenomenon is created and practised in society itself. 

Boksi as a reality is thus existing in our society today since the time immemorial. Most of the factors leading to an accusation of a boksi are at the social and structural levels. Women’s relative poverty compared to men, and their isolation from the wider community, exclusion from educational and employment opportunities were important contributors to women’s vulnerabilities to the accusation. Besides, legal subordination, economic dependency, cultural obligation, and the social position of women construct and reinforce male dominance.

Thus the meaning of boksi, as a social fact, exists independently in society, and is caused by other social facts, whether an individual likes it. Finally, it can be said that boksi is the byproduct of the beliefs of witchcraft and the practises of accusation of boksi in the Tamang community. That’s why the Tamang community believes that woman can pass their witchcraft power onto their daughter, who can also pass it onto their children in a never-ending cycle.