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The 'Rai', also known as the 'Khambu', is one of Nepal’s most ancient indigenous ethnolinguistic groups. The Rai belong to the Kiranti group or the Kirat confederation that includes the Limbu and the Sunuwar ethnic groups.
The traditional homeland of the Rai extends across the Solukhumbu, the Okhaldhunga (home of the Bahing,Wambule subgroups), the Khotang, the Bhojpur and the Udayapur districts in the northeastern mountains of Nepal, west of the Arun River in the Sun Kosi River watershed. Rais are also found in small numbers in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the northern West Bengal towns of Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

Contents

Description

Famous Rai

See also

References

External links

Description

According to Nepal’s 2001 census, there are 636,151 ethnic Rai in Nepal which represent 2.79% of the total population. Of this number, 70.89% were Kiranti and 25.00% were 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 clans, including the Bantawa, Chamling, Sampang, Dumi, Jerung, Kulung, Khaling, Lohorung, Mewahang, Rakhali, Thulung, Tilung, Wambule, Yakkha, and Yamphu. Some clans number only a few hundred members. The languages together with the traditional religion of the Rai is known as Kiranti.
More than 30 different Kiranti languages and dialects are recognized within the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The oral language is rich and ancient, as is Kiranti history, but there is no distinct written script.
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 Mundum. Sumnima and Parohang are worshipped as primordial parents. Sikatakhu Budo, Walmo Budi, and Jalpa Devi, among others, serve as Kiranti deities. Most Rai practice a form of syncretic Mundum that combines elements of Hinduism and Lamaism with both Hindu and Buddhist practices and major festivals. A major Rai holiday is the harvest festival, Nwogi, when fresh harvested foods are shared by all. The pujhari or priest plays an important role in Rai communities.
Because of the fiercely independent nature of the Rai community and its location at the eastern end of the consolidated Nepali nation-state, the Rai were given exceptional rights of Kipat 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 jewelry. Marriage unions are usually monogamous and arranged by parents, although bride capture and elopement are alternative methods. Music (traditional drums and string instruments; yele, dhol and jhyamta), dance (sakela - chandi dance) and distilled spirits (aaraakha),(ngashi),(waasim), are central to Rai culture.
'Sakela' or 'Sakewa' or Chandi dance is the great religious festival of Kirat Rai.

Famous Rai

Lain Singh Bangdel (Rai) - Artist, Writer, Art Historian (Former Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy)]
Sambhu Rai - Singer Artist.
Dhiraj Rai - Singer Artist.
Sabin Rai - Singer Artist.
Pawan Kumar Chamling (Rai) - Minister of Sikkim.
Ratna Kumar Bantawa- Revolutionary founder of Nepal communist party.
Supreme Master Godangel Patron sain of Heavenly Path, Member of the world peace conference made of 71 coutries
Ram Prasad Rai - Revolutionary founder of Nepal Congress party.
Bal Bahadur Rai - Revolutionary and founder of Nepal Congress party.
Gopal Rai - Founder of Nepal communist party.
Karna Bahadur Rai - Politician.
Narad Muni (Thulung) Rai - Poltician.
Ran Dhoj Rai, Captain, M.B.E (Member of British Empire) - Honorary British Gorkha Officer

See also

★ Demographics of Nepal

★ Mankhim

References

★ CIA Fact Book

★ Rastriya Janajati Bikas Samiti

★ Nepal Ethnographic Museum

★ Wambule and Jero

★ Kiranti Languages

★ Bista, Dor Bahadur. (2004). People of Nepal. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.

★ Rai/Limbu

★ The Kirat Rai Association's Web Portal

★ Article about Sakela or Sakewa:[1]

External links

★ Kirat-Rai Society of America

★ Kirat-Rai Society of America blog

★ Online kirat community