The Kirāta is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who had territory in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and Northeast India and who are believed to have been Sino-Tibetan in origin. The Kiratas of middle Himalayas are Limbu, Tani people, Rai, Yakkha, Magar, Sunuwar, Dhimal and Lepchatribes of Eastern Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling of India, and a major segment of Kathmandu Valley's indigenous Newars. The meaning of 'Kirat' as is sometime referred as 'degraded, mountainous tribe' while other scholars attribute more respectable meanings to this term and say that it denotes people with the lion's character, or mountain dwellers.
Historical mention and mythology
The Kiratas often mentioned along with Cinas, and slightly different from the Nishadas, are first mentioned in the Yajurveda, and in the Atharvaveda. According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, the name Kirata seems to be used for any non-Aryan aboriginal hill-folk, however Manu's Dharmashastracalls them "degraded Kshatriyas", which Chatterji infers to be a term for people who were advanced in military or civilization to some degree and not complete barbarians. It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of a Tibeto-Burmantribal name, like that of Kirant or Kiranti of eastern Nepal. In the Periplus, the Kirata are called Kirradai, who are the same people as the Pliny's Scyrites and Aelian's Skiratai; though Ptolemy does not name them, he does mention their land which is called Kirradia. They are characterized as barbaric in their ways, Mongoloid in appearance speaking a Tibeto-Burmese language. The Sesatai, who traded the aromatic plantmalabathrum, were described – in terms similar to descriptions of the Kirradai – as short and flat-faced, but also shaggy and white. Mythology gives an indication of their geographical position. In the Mahabharata, Bhima meets the Kiratas to the east of Videha, where his son Ghatotkacha is born; and in general, the dwellers of the Himalayas, especially the eastern Himalayas, were called Kiratas. In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike the Nishadas or the Dasas, who were dark Austric people. In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of kirateneva vagura, "a trap by Kiratas", so about 10th century BCE, 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.
Modern scholarship
concluded that Kirata was a general term used by the Hindus of the plains to designate the Tibeto-Burman speaking groups of the Himalayas and Northeast.
Religious beliefs
The Kirat people practice shamanism but they call it "Kirat religion". The Kiratis follow Kirat Mundhum. Their holy text is the Mundhum. Kiratis worship nature and their ancestors. Animism and shamanism and belief in their primeval ancestors, Yuma Sammang, are their cultural and religious practices. The names of some of their festivals are Chasok Tangnam, Sakela, Sakle, Tashi, Sakewa, Saleladi Bhunmidev, Yokwa and Folsyandar. They have two main festivals: Chasok Tangnam and Sakela/Sakewa Ubhauli during plantation season and Sakela/Sakewa Udhauli during the time of harvest. Mundhum is the religious scripture and folk literature of the Kirat people of Nepal, central to Kirat Mundhum. Mundhum means "the power of great strength" in the Kiranti languages. The Mundhum covers many aspects of the Kirat culture, customs and traditions that existed before Vedic civilisation in Nepal.
