KIRATI PEOPLE

The Kirat or Kirati or Kiranti or Kirant people are indigenous ethnic groups of the Himalayas extending eastward from Nepal into India, Bangladesh, Burma and beyond.

 They migrated to their present locations via Assam, Burma, Tibet and Yunnan in ancient times. Broadly speaking, the Kirat people include the Sunwar, Yakkha, Rai and Limbu, few segments of the Dewan, Bahing, Kulung and speakers of Khaling, Bantawa, Chamling, Thulung, and Jerung; and other related ethnic groups.

In Nepal the Kirati people and languages between the rivers Likhu and Arun, including some small groups east of the Arun, are usually referred to as the Rai people, which is a geographic grouping rather than a genetic grouping.

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

The original inhabitants of the Dooars region of India, the Koch Rajbongshi and Mech, also claim to be Kiratis as do the Bodo-Kachari people tribes of Assam. They derive their titles from the original place of their dwelling, "Koch" from the Koshi 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.