The Walung people (also Walung-ngas, Walungpa) are the indigenous inhabitants of the region around

Olangchung Gola Olangchung Gola (locally as Walung or Holung, , historically transcribed as Wallanchoon) is a village (previously: a village development committee) in ward no. 7 of Phaktanglung rural municipality of Taplejung District of Province No. 1 in Nepal. ...

. They are descended from Tibetan settlers from the 7th century. The primary occupation of the Walung people is trade and herding

yaks The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin Sta ...

and dzos. The Walung have resided in Nepal for a long time, but exactly how long is unknown. Estimates range from 1,300 years to just a few centuries. In the oldest recorded study conducted in the area in 1855,

Joseph Hooker Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. Hooker had serv ...

reported that the Walung had been there for centuries or longer.

Culture

Walung people practice

Nyingmapa Buddhism 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 ...

. A large monastery, Deki Chholing

Gompa A Gompa or Gönpa ( "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (), is a Buddhism, Buddhist ecclesiastical fortification of learning, lineage and sādhanā that may be understood as a conflation of a fortification, a vihara and a ...

, was built 450 years ago sits on top of the main village of

. The chief deity at the monastery is Chenrezi (

Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...

). The Walung people revere the monastery as their shelter from anything untoward. Historically, they would also invite Tibetan monks from

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

to provide teaching in this monastery.

Losar Losar (; "new year"William D. Crump, "Losar" in ''Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide'' (McFarland & Co.: 2008), pp. 237-38.) also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various d ...

(Tibetan New Year) and Futuk are the main festivals, which the people celebrate with full pomp and show. Losar celebrates the Tibetan New Year. Futuk reenacts a historical local battle.

Language

The language spoken by the Walung people is the

Walungge language Central Tibetan, also known as Dbus, Ü or Ü-Tsang, is the most widely spoken Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan. ''Dbus'' and ''Ü'' are forms of the same name. ''Dbus'' is a transliteration of the name in Tibetan script, , whe ...

, similar to the dialect of the

Dinggyê County Dinggyê County or Dinjie County or Tingche County or Tingkye County ( Standard Tibetan: , ) is a county of the Xigazê in the Tibet Autonomous Region, bordering Nepal's Sankhuwasabha and Taplejung Districts to the south and India's Sikkim S ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

and has 71% lexical similarity with the

Lhasa Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branch ...

. Clark (2019) places it in a group which he calls "WDT Bhote", where the three varieties are Walungge, Thudam, and Dhokpya (Thokpya, Tokpegola). The speakers of these varieties reside in

Taplejung Taplejung District ( ne, ताप्लेजुङ जिल्ला ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Province No. 1. It is remotely located in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with Tibet to the north across the ...

and

Sankhuwasabha Sankhuwasabha District ( ne, सङ्खुवासभा जिल्ला ) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district's area is 3,480 km2 with a population of 159,203 in 2001 and 158,742 in 2011. ...

Province No. 1 Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat Autonomous State, Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan Rashtriya Morcha, Nepal, Khambuwan, Mount Everest, Sagarmatha, Virata, Birat and Koshi River, Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven Provinces of Nepal, province ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

, although some speakers reported areas outside of those districts, including in

, where the language is also spoken. These claims have not been investigated. There is a lack of connection between the various villages, especially regarding language names. Clark (2019) received a variety of names when asking the question "what are the names for your language and people group?", and states that many Walung use "

Sherpa Sherpa may refer to: Ethnography * Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal * Sherpa language Organizations and companies * Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility * ...

" to identify both, along with "Bhote". When asking "Do any groups of villages speak the same way

s yours S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

", Clark received varying answers from his four sites, where each indicated Walung, Walung indicated Yangma (which was not one of the study sites) and

, and Ghunsa indicated all four study sites.

Other Names

Walungge has also been known as Walungge Keccya, Halungge, Walongchung Gola, and Walunggi. The suffix ''-ge'' or -''ke'' is the

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

word for language.

Classification

The

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 ...

as a whole are an area of conflict for the linguistic community, largely due to the complexity of the continuum of dialects that makes up the branch.

Nicolas Tournadre Nicolas Tournadre is a professor at the University of Provence specializing in morphosyntax and typology. He is a member of the LACITO lab of the CNRS. His research mainly deals with ergative morphosyntax and grammatical semantics of tense, a ...

(2014) places Walungge and Dhokpya (he calls it Tokpe Gola) under his South-Western Tibetic branch. The WDT Bhote languages are not usually the targets of study.

References

Ethnic groups in Nepal {{Nepal-stub