Kirat

Modern scholarship

For over a millennium, the Kirat had inhabited the Kathmandu Valley, where they installed their own ruling dynasty. According to the history of Nepal, the Kirats ruled for about 1100 years (800 BC–300 AD). Their reign had 29 kings. The Kirati population in the valley and the original Australoids and Austro-Asiatic speakers form the base for what had developed into today's Newar population. As time passed, other Kirat groups, now known as Rai, Limbu, Yakkha, Sunuwar and Shrestha settled mostly in the Koshi region of present-day Sikkim, Darjeeling and eastern Nepal. The Limbu people have their own distinct form of Kirat Mundhum, known as Yuma Sammang or Yumaism; they venerate a mythological goddess called Tagera Ningwaphumang.