The Kheng people are found primarily in the
Zhemgang
Zhemgang is a town in Zhemgang District, Bhutan. It is the capital ( dzongkhag thromde
A thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: ''khrom-sde'') is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status o ...
,
Trongsa
Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gra ...
,
Bumthang,
Dagana, and
Mongar District
Mongar District ( Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Mong-sgar rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. Mongar is the fastest-developing dzongkhag in eastern Bhutan. A regional ...
s of central Bhutan. They speak the
Kheng language
The Khengkha language (Dzongkha ྨཕགལཔམཕ), or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.
Classification
Khengkha is a ...
, a member of the extended Tibetan language family belonging to the
East Bodish languages
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
* Dakpa (Tawang Monpa)
* Dzala
* Nyen, including Mangde and Phobjib
* Chali
* Bumthang
...
group; it is mutually intelligible with the
Bumthang language
The Bumthang language ( dz, བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་, ); also called "Bhumtam", "Bumtang(kha)", "Bumtanp", "Bumthapkha", and "Kebumtamp") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan. ...
and
Kurtöp language
The Kurtöp language (Dzongkha: ཀུར་ཏོ་པ་ཁ་; Wylie: ''Kur-to-pa kha''; Kurtöpkha, also called Kurtö and Zhâke) is an East Bodish language spoken in Kurtoe Gewog, Lhuntse District, Bhutan. In 1993, there were about 10, ...
to the north. The Kheng people are ethnolinguistically same as the
Bumthang people and
Kurtöp people of central Bhutan and are more closely related to
Ngalop
The Ngalop ( dz, སྔལོངཔ་ ; "earliest risen people" or "first converted people" according to folk etymology) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or ...
people of western Bhutan than to their neighbors in eastern Bhutan, who are primarily
Sharchops and speak
Tshangla language
Tshangla is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Bodish branch closely related to the Tibetic languages. Tshangla is primarily spoken in Eastern Bhutan and acts as a lingua franca in the region; it is also spoken in the adjoining Tawang tract in the ...
.
SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers as of 2009.
Like most of Bhutan, the people living in the Kheng areas are devoted followers of
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, particularly of the
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
tradition. The cultural practices of people of
central Bhutan typically mirror those of the dominant
Ngalop people
The Ngalop ( dz, སྔལོངཔ་ ; "earliest risen people" or "first converted people" according to folk etymology) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or ...
culture of the country. The term "Ngalop" may subsume several related linguistic and cultural groups, such as the Kheng,
Kutöp, and
Bumthang people.
Kheng people are known for secular and religious noble families such as numerous
Dung families who had small fiefdoms until the 17th century.
See also
*
Ethnic groups in Bhutan
*
Kheng language
The Khengkha language (Dzongkha ྨཕགལཔམཕ), or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.
Classification
Khengkha is a ...
*
Bumthang language
The Bumthang language ( dz, བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་, ); also called "Bhumtam", "Bumtang(kha)", "Bumtanp", "Bumthapkha", and "Kebumtamp") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan. ...
References
External links
*
{{Bhutanese society
Ethnic groups in Bhutan