Kirat

For other uses, see Kirat (disambiguation).

Mount Everest in Nepal, planet Earth's highest mountain. The Himalayas is also known as Roof of the World.

Kirat (Kirant/Kirati/Kirata/Kiratese), better known as Gurkha in modern times

Kirat's most famous personality - the historical Gotama (Gautama) Buddha.

Selected ethnic groups of Nepal: Sherpa, Thakali, Gurung, Kirati, Rai, Limbu, Newari, Pahari, Tamang

Himalayan hills of Nepal at dusk, on the road between Kathmandu and Lumbini.

Kirat or Kirati (also spelled as Kirant and Kiranti) are indigenous ethnic groups of the Himalayas (mid-hills) extending eastward from Nepal into India, Burma and beyond. They migrated to their present locations via Assam, Burma, Tibet and Yunnan in ancient times. Prototype Tibeto-Burmans originated in the Yellow River basin around 10,000 - 30,000 years ago. Broadly speaking, the Kirat people comprises Tamang, Sherpa, Rai, Newar, Limbu, Magar and other related mongoloid ethnic groups. These people are also best known as modern Gurkhas. The lineage of prehistoric Newar (Newari) to ancient Kirat, dating back at least 2000 years ago, is of consensus amongst scholars in this field.

Dr. Anatoly Yakoblave Shetenko, while on an archaeological study programme between Nepal and USSR, uncovered Kirat stone age tools and other artefacts from circa 30,000 B.C.

Although only the Sunuwar (the people who inhabit the region westward of River Sun Koshi),Khumbu or Khambu (also known as Rai), Limbu (also known as Yakthumba or Subba) and Yakkha (also known as Dewan or Zimdar) are generally called Kirati, the vast majority of ethnic people of the region eastward of Nepal too call themselves as Kirati. Their languages belong to the Tibeto-Burman family of languages.

The original inhabitants of the Dooars region of India, the Koch and Mech, also claim themselves to be Kiratis and so do the Bodo and Kachari tribes of Assam. They derive their titles from the original place of their dwelling, "Koch" from the Kosi River, "Mech" from the Mechi River and "Kachari" is derived from Kachar which means river basin.^{[citation needed]} The basis of these claims relies on the fact that they are Mongoloids even though they distinguish themselves from Mongolians elsewhere. They are therefore often identified as Kirati-Mongolians.

Etymology

The source of the word Kirat or Kirati is much disputed. One school of thought says that it comes from the Sanskrit word Kirata found in the Yajur Veda, describing the handsome mountain people and hunters in the forests. It is also described as Chinese in the Mahabharata, Kirtarjuniya.

Religion

Kiratis celebrating their festival : Sakela

Main article: Kirat Mundhum

The Kirat people practice shamanism but they call it "Kirat religion". The Kiratis follow Kirat Mundhum. Their holy text is the Mundhum, also known as the Kirat Veda. Kirat Rai worship nature and their ancestors. Animism and shamanism and belief in their primeval ancestors, Sumnima and Paruhang are their cultural and religious practices. The names of some of their festivals are Sakela, Sakle, Tashi, Sakewa, Saleladi Bhunmidev, Chyabrung, Yokwa and Folsyandar. They have two main festivals: Sakela/Sakewa Ubhauli during plantation season and Sakela/Sakewa Udhauli during the time of harvest.

Kirat Limbu people believe in a supreme god called Tagera Ningwaphuma, who is also known as the supreme knowledge. The Kirat ancestor Yuma Sammang and god of war Theba Sammang are the second most important deities.

Kirats in Nepal were forced into taking Hindu names and accept Hinduism during the Prithvi Narayan Shah's Khasnization policy and the later Khas rulers of Nepal maintained this policy. Many of the Kirat initially stayed away from Hinduism but were encouraged to convert by the ruling elites of later Nepal.

There is a giant linga of the Kirat at Kirateshwara. It believed that all Kirat names, language and traditions were suppressed by the Khas rulers and people, but all such evidences were destroyed by the next rulers of Nepal.

Most Kirat Tamangs are Buddhist. The Tamang Kirat originally practiced Bonism, or ancestor worship and living in proximity to the Tibetans, became Buddhists when Buddhism spread in Tibet and were one of the earliest communities to do so.[1]

Kirat Newari practice both Hinduism and Buddhism, while Kirat Gurung (and many other indigenous Nepalese) are mainly Buddhist.Newar people[2]

Notably, the Kirat people have produced an illustrious, globally known personality in human history - the Founder of Buddhism. In the year 623 B.C. (over 2600 years ago), the Sakya (Shakya) Kingdom located west of Kathmandu had a prince born to their King, by Queen Maya. This baby was named Prince Siddhattha which means 'Wish Fulfilled', and he grew up as a warrior-prince, living in the lap of luxury. As time went by, Prince Siddhattha wanted to find a solution for birth, disease, old age and death.http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/666

Thus, at the age of 29 years old, he gave up his royal heritage, renounced all worldly affairs and left the Himalayas. Acrossing into ancient India, the ascetic Siddhattha went in search of spiritual teachers. However, they failed to provide him with the answers he sought. Six years later, Prince Siddhatha achieved Enlightenment (Bodhi) through his own efforts, and became the historical Buddha at Bodhi Gaya, India.

Baby Buddha's footprint at Lumbini Park, Nepal. Birth year 623 B.C. (over 2600 years ago)

Front view of Germany's Buddhist Monastery at Lumbini, Nepal.

Background shows the White Temple enclosing baby Buddha's footprint. On top is a gold stupa. Foreground shows ancient Buddhist monastery stone foundations dating back to 1800 - 2200 years ago, at Lumbini Park, Nepal.

Japan’s Golden Top Stupa honouring the baby Buddha, at Lumbini, Nepal.

History

Mentioned as Kiratas in Mahabharat epic

Main article: Kirata Kingdom

The Kiratas (Sanskrit: किरात) mentioned in early Hindu texts are tribes of the forest and mountains. They are often mentioned along with the Cinas (Chinese). 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 also has many incidents where the god Shiva imitates a Kirat person.

Contemporary historians widely agree that a widespread cultural exchange and intermarriage took place in the eastern Himalayan region between the indigenous inhabitants – called the Kirat – and the Tibetan migrant population, reaching a climax during the 8th and 9th centuries. Another wave of political and cultural conflict between Khas 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.

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 and Yakkha. In ancient times, the entire Himalayan region was known as the Kimpurusha Desha (also, Kirata Pradesh), 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 Rai and 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 introduced 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 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, one in Sikkim and another in 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 Chogyal, 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.

The Kirat were the earliest inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley. Dhimal, Hayu, Koch, Thami, Tharu, Chepang, and Surel ethnic groups also consider themselves to be of Kirati descent. According to Kirati folklore, their ancestors migrated in a great volkerwanderungen from their ancestral homeland eastward to South-East Asia and beyond when Buddhist monks returned with glowing tales of availability of vast fertile lands.

Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe and Kirat revival

Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe or Teyongshi Ziri Dzö-nga Xin Thebe was an 18th-century Limbu scholar, teacher, educationist, historian and philosopher of Limbuwan and Sikkim. He was formally known as Sirichongba but his more popular name was and remains Sirijanga. Sirijanga researched and taught the Kirat-Sirijonga script, language and religion of the Limbus in various part of Limbuwan and Sikkim. He revived the old Kirat script.

History of Limbuwan: Kirat people of Limbu nationality

Limbuwan had a distinct history and political establishment until its unification with the kingdom of Gorkha in 1774 AD. During King Prithvi Narayan Shah's unification of Nepal, the present-day Nepal east of Arun and Koshi rivers was known as Pallo Kirat Limbuwan. It was divided into 10 Limbu kingdoms of which Morang kingdom was the most powerful and had a central government. The capital of Morang kingdom was Bijaypur (present-day Dharan). After the Limbuwan Gorkha War and seeing the threat of the rising power of the British East India Company, the kings and ministers of all the 10 Limbu kingdoms of Limbuwan gathered in Bijaypur to agree upon the Limbuwan-Gorkha Treaty. This treaty formally merged the 10 Limbu kingdoms into the Gorkha kingdom but it also had a provision for autonomy of Limbuwan under the "kipat" system.

Gorkhali hegemonies

The next phase of military and cultural threat faced by the Kirat people was at the hands of the Gorkhali expansionists of Nepal, shortly after Sirijanga's death. The nature and intensity of this hegemony was to prove significantly different from that of the earlier Tibetan one, however. From the very beginning, the Gorkha court's intention in the region was not the extension of its Hindu-based culture. Rather, Gorkha's was a clear military campaign of territorial expansion.

After the completion of the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1769, the Gorkhali army marched east towards the Kirat territory. The Sen rulers of eastern Nepal, known as Hindupati, had established a weak rule in the Kirat region by adopting a policy of mutual understanding with the local Kirat leaders. The Gorkhali military campaign, in contrast, brought with it a forceful and brutal occupation. During the conquest, the invading authorities adopted a harsh divide-and-rule policy: they first asked the Kiratis to surrender, assuring them that they would retain local rule and their traditional order. After many took up this offer, however, the conquerors instead demanded that Gorkhali rule be obeyed and Gorkhali traditions be followed. Manuscripts in Hodgson's collection make mention of Kirat men, male children and pregnant women having been murdered in great numbers.

The Gorkhalis ultimately divided the Kiratis into two groups, the sampriti and the niti: the former were those who had surrendered to Gorkhali power and cultural traditions, while the latter maintained their own traditions. The Gorkhali authorities naturally favoured the sampritis, killing the nitis or forcing them to flee their lands. As a result, much of the niti population migrated towards Sikkim and Bhutan. But Gorkhali wartime policy changed, particularly after the conquest of the territories of Kumaun and Garhwal far in the west. By the end of the 18th century, the authorities in Kathmandu were in need of more state revenue, and implemented a policy to bring people into Nepali territory in order to make barren land arable. The Kirat who were ousted from their lands during the Gorkhali military conquest were also asked to return home, albeit under the condition that Gorkhali rule and traditions were strictly followed. Relatives and friends of those who had fled were recruited to call them back, and people moved again between the state-given identities of niti and sampriti.

Kirati tribesman from Himalayas

Mandala depicting Life of the Buddha, painted on the wall of Germany’s Buddhist monastery at Lumbini Park, Nepal.

Nepalese Buddhist Monastery.

Kirati ladies in their traditional dresses

See also

• Limbu
• Kirata
• Kirata Kingdom
• Limbuwan Gorkha War history
• 11 Gorkha Rifles
• Wambule
• History of Limbuwan Kirant People of Limbu ethnicity living East of Arun and Koshi Rivers
• neifn.org.np - Kirat are native/indigenous people of Nepal
• History of Kirats
• Gorkha - Limbuwan War (1771-1774 AD.)
• Nepal Ethnographic Museum Nepal
• Limbu & Rai - Kirat language Root in Bantawa Rai Language
• opgenort.nl Kirati Language
• Limbuwan Gorkha Treaty of 1774
• Kirat Rai, Limbu, Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Sherpa in British Gurkha Army

External links

• kirat.us - Kirat Rai Society of America
• Kratrai.org - Kirat Rai organization around the world
• KiratiSaathi.com - Online kirat community
• Kirat Rai UK - Kirat Rai in UK
• Kiratraiyayokkha.com - Kirat Rai Yayokkha, Nepal
• Chumlung.org.np - Kirat Yakthung Chumlung, Nepal
• Limbulibrary.com.np - Kirat History Library Online
• Iman Singh Chemjong Iman Singh Chemjong - First Kirati Historian