The Daman people ( zh, 达曼人) was one of the
unrecognized ethnic groups in China
A number of ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China are not officially recognized. Taken together, these groups () would constitute the twentieth most populous ethnic group of China. Some scholars have estimated that there are over 200 d ...
and now officially classified as
Tibetans
The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...
. They are descendants of Nepalese Gurkha army centuries ago. Previously stateless, they were granted Chinese citizenship in 2003.
Located around 30 kilometers away from the
China-Nepal border in
Gyirong County
Gyirong (alternatively romanized as sKyid-grong, Kyirong, ; ) is a county of Xigazê Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is famous because of its mild climatically conditions and its abundant vegetation which is unusual for the Tibetan plate ...
of
Shigatse Prefecture
Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (; Nepali Language, Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , correspon ...
, the Daman New Village, with a total population of 197, is the only settlement of the Daman people in China.
Etymology
The term 达曼人 (lit. Daman people) is an exonym from
Tibetic languages
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...
, ''da'' means horse and ''man'' means soldier, ''daman'' means cavalryman.
History
In 1792, after the
Sino-Gorkha war, hundreds of Gorkha soldiers were lost in the China-Nepal border and then resided there. The Daman people are allegedly the descendants of the Gorkha soldiers, and there have been the 6th or 7th generations since then.
Daman people were once without a nationality (stateless) before the
State Council of China officially approved them as
Chinese citizens in 2003. Since then, Daman people have been treated same as Tibetan by the government.
See also
*
Tamang people
The Tamang (; Devanagari: तामाङ; ''tāmāṅ'') are an Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group of Nepal. In Nepal Tamang/Moormi people constitute 5.6% of the Nepalese population at over 1.3 million in 2001, increasing to 1,539,830 as of the 2011 c ...
References
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