Kirat-or Kirati- means people with lion nature. It is derived from two words Kira= Lion and Ti- people. It refers to the Kirati group or a Kirata confederation that includes the Limbu, Rai, Yakkha and Sunuwar ethnic groups of Nepal. They were the earliest inhabitants of Nepal. Dhimal, Hayu, Koch, Thami, Tharu, Chepang, and Surel ethnic groups also consider themselves to be of Kirati descent.[1]Religion
The Kirant follow Kirant Mundhum. Their holy book is the Mundhum also known as the Kirant Veda.[6] Kirant Rai people worship Nature and ancestors, Animism and Shamanism, believing in a their primeval ancestors, SumnimaParuhang. Some names for festivals they celebrate include Sakela, Sakle, Toshi, Sakewa, Saleladi Bhunmidev, Chyabrung, Yokwa and Folsyandar. They have two main festivals: Sakela/Sakewa Uvauli, during plantation season; and Sakela/Sakewa Udhauli, in the time of the harvest.
Kirant Limbu people believe in Supreme God Tagera Ningwaphuma, who is also known as the supreme knowledge .[7] Ancestor Yuma Sammang and God of War Theba Sammang are second most important deities.
Many of the Kirant that were outside of Hinduism did convert by the ruling elites of later days Nepal[8]
There is a giant Linga of the Kirant at Kirantaeshvara. It possibly had a Kirant name but all such evidence was destroyed by the next rulers of Nepal[9]
There is a tradition amongst the Kirant Limbus there the reclining Vishnu found at Budhanilakantha is the ancestor of the Limbus. Many of them don't know because Brahmin or Chetri people who live in Kathmandu won't let them to pray budhanilkantha. There are mainly three Budhanilkantha and no one knows which one is original. [10]
History
[edit] Mentioned as Kiratas in Mahabharat epic
Main article: Kirata Kingdom
The Kiratas (Sanskrit: किरात) mentioned in early Hindu texts are the tribals of the forest and mountains. They are mentioned along with Cinas (Chinese). Kirati languages belong to Tibeto-Burman family of Languages . Kiratas have been identified as the present day Rai, Limbu and Sunuwar of Nepal.
King Yalamba Haang- First Kirata King
In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of "kirAteneva vAgurA", "a trap [laid] by Kiratas", so about BCE Xth Century, they were thought of as jungle trappers, the ones who dug pits to capture roving deer. The same text also speaks of King Suraghu, the head of the Kiratas who is a friend of the Persian King, Parigha.
Hindu myth has many incidents where their God Shiva has imitated a Kirat person. [11]
History of Kirats describes some of the achievements of Kirata people in eastern Nepal
Background
Historians today are convinced that a widespread cultural conflict took place in the eastern Himalayan region between the indigenous inhabitants – called the Kirat – and the Tibetan migrant population, reaching a climax during the 18th and 19th centuries. Another wave of political and cultural conflict, between Gorkhali and Kirat ideals, surfaced in the Kirat region of present-day Nepal during the last quarter of the 18th century. A collection of manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, till now unpublished and unstudied by historians, have made possible a new understanding of this conflict. These historical sources are among those collected by Brian Houghton Hodgson – a British diplomat and self-trained Orientalist appointed to the Kathmandu court during the second quarter of the 19th century – and his principal research aide, the Newar scholar Khardar Jitmohan.
The Map of Limbuwan.
For over two millennia, a large portion of the eastern Himalaya has been identified as the home of the Kirat people, of which the majority are known today as Rai, Limbu, Yakha and Lepcha. In ancient times, the entire Himalayan region was known as the kimpurusha desha, a phrase derived from a Sanskrit term used to identify people of Kirat origin. These people were also known as nep, to which the name nepala is believed to have an etymological link. The earliest references to the Kirat as principal inhabitants of the Himalayan region are found in the texts of Atharvashirsha and Mahabharata, believed to date to before the 9th century BC. For over a millennium, the Kirat had also inhabited the Kathmandu Valley, where they installed their own ruling dynasty. This Kirat population in the valley, along with original Australoids and Austro-Asiatic speakers form the base for later Newar population. As time passed, however, those Kirat, now known as the Limbu settled mostly in the Koshi region of present-day eastern Nepal and Sikkim.
From around the 8th century, areas on the northern frontier of the Kirat region began to fall under the domination of migrant people of Tibetan origin. This flux of migration brought about the domination by Tibetan religious and cultural practices over ancient Kirat traditions. This influence first imposed shamanistic Bön practices, which in turn were later replaced by the oldest form of Tibetan Buddhism. The early influx of Bön culture to the peripheral Himalayan regions occurred only after the advent of the Nyingma, the oldest Buddhist order in Lhasa and Central Tibet, which led followers of the older religion to flee to the Kirat areas for survival. The Tibetan cultural influx ultimately laid the foundation for a Tibetan politico-religious order in the Kirat regions, and this led to the emergence of two major Tibetan Buddhist dynasties: in Sikkim and Bhutan. The early political order of the Kingdom of Bhutan had been established under the political and spiritual leadership of the lama Zhabs-drung Ngawang Namgyal. Consequently, Bhutan used to be known in the Himalayan region as the ‘kingdom of [Buddhist] spiritual rule’ (in old Nepali, dharmaako desh). The Tibetan rulers of Sikkim were also known as Chögyal, or spiritual rulers.
Both of these kingdoms adopted policies of suppression of indigenous practices, replacing them with those of Tibetan Buddhism. Bhutan's religious rulers established a tradition of appointing religious missions to other Himalayan kingdoms and areas, through which they were able to establish extensive influence in the region. Bhutan's ambitious missions were sent as far west as Ladakh. Even before the founding of modern Nepal by Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha in 1769, Bhutan's rulers were able to establish spiritual centres in several parts of what was to become the former's territories, including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Gorkha and Vijayapur in the midhills, and Mustang, north of the central Himalayan range.
Sikkim had long been home to Lepcha Kirat people and culture. Under the guidance of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, however, their self-rule and cultural independence was suddenly taken away. Sikkim kings were even able to subdue the entire far-eastern part of the Kirat region – historically known as Limbuwan – for at least a short period of time. Here, the new rulers adopted policies of religious and cultural subjugation, encouraging Sikkim lamas to travel to places of strategic importance in order to establish monastic centres. But the indigenous population did not easily surrender themselves to this cultural invasion. Limbu and Lepcha manuscripts collected by Brian Houghton Hodgson in Darjeeling indicate significant resistance by the Kirat against Tibetan Buddhist rule and cultural domination. While much of this struggle consisted of attempts to strengthen cultural awareness, there were also violent engagements between Kirat communities and their new rulers.
RAI
The Rai, also known as the Khambu(people of Khumbu region). They are one of Nepal's most ancient indigenous ethnolinguistic groups. The Rai(Khambu) belong to the Kirati group or the Kirat confederation that includes the Limbu, the Sunuwar, Yakkha Dhimal, Koche, Meche,Hayu ethnic groups.
According to Professor Dor Bahadur Bista(anthropologist,Tribhuvan University) and late Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji(linguist and Kiratologist,Calcutta university)Kirats migrated from east via north Burma and Assam along the mid-hills(lower mountains) along with their pigs in ancient times.(ref.30,31).
According to Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji(linguist and kiratologist) and other prominent linguists,Rai,Limbu,and Dhimal languages are Pronominalised(Austric/Kol influence)strongly indicating earliest migratory wave of these peoples compared to other Tibeto-Burmans whose languages are non-pronominalised.(ref.31)
The traditional homeland of the Rai(Khambu) extends across Solukhumbu,Okhaldhunga (Wallo Kirat or Near Kirat), home of the Bahing,Wambule subgroups), Khotang, Bhojpur and the Udayapur districts (Majh Kirat or Central Kirat),home of Bantawa,Chamling etc. in the northeastern hilly/mountainous region of Nepal, west of the Arun River in the Sun Koshi River watershed. Rais are also found in significant numbers in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the northern West Bengal towns of Kalimpong and Darjeeling.
According to Nepal's 2001 census, there are 635,751 Rai(Khambu) in Nepal which represents 2.79% of the total population. Of this number, 70.89% declared themseleves as practising the traditional (Kiranti/Kirant) religion and 25.00% declared themselves as Hindu. Yakkha were measured as a separate ethnic group of which 81.43% were Kirant and 14.17% were Hindu. The Rai are divided into many different sub-groups - Bantawa, Chamling, Sampang, Dumi, Jerung, Kulung, Khaling, Lohorung, Mewahang, Rakhali, Thulung,Tamla, Tilung, Wambule, Yakkha, Yamphu, Sunuwar, Jero (Jerung) , etc. Some groups number only a few hundred members. The languages together with the traditional religion of the Rai is known as Kirant.
More than 32 different Kiranti languages and dialects are recognized within the Tibeto-Burman languages family.Their languages are Pronominalised Tibeto-Burman languages,indicating their antiquity. The oral language is rich and ancient, as is Kiranti history, but the written script remains yet to be properly organised as nearly all traces of it was destroyed by the next rulers of Nepal, The Lichhavis and almost eradicated by the Shah dynasty.
The traditional Kiranti religion, predating Hinduism and Buddhism, is based on ancestor-worship and the placation of ancestor spirits through elaborate rituals governed by rules called Mundhum. Sumnima-Paruhang are worshipped as primordial parents. A major Rai holiday is the harvest festival, Nwogi, when fresh harvested foods are shared by all. The Bijuwa and Nakchhung (Dhami) or Priest plays an important role in Rai communities.
They do not truly belong to the Caste system or Varna system although few have accepted the kshatriya status.Majority of Rai have never accepted Casteism and never adopeted a Caste(Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities and Nepal government have recognised this fact)(29)
Because of the fiercely independent nature of the Rai community and its location at the eastern end of the consolidated Nepalese nation-state, the Rai were given exceptional rights of Kipat autonomy and land ownership in their homeland of Majh (middle) Kirant.
Subsistence agriculture of rice, millet, wheat, corn and even cotton is the main occupation of the Rai although many Rai have been recruited into military service with the Nepali army and police, and the Indian and British Gurkha regiments and Singapore Police Force.
Rai women decorate themselves lavishly with silver and gold coin jewellery. Marriage unions are usually monogamous and arranged by parents, although "love marriage",bride capture(in the past) and elopement are alternative methods. Music (traditional drums and string instruments: yele, binayo, murchunga, dhol and jhyamta), dance (Sakela or Sakewa dance) and distilled spirits (alcohol) called aaraakha, ngashi, or waasim are central to Rai culture.
Sakela or Sakewa dance is the greatest religious festival of Kirant Rai.
