Tamang people


The Tamang people are an ethnic group living in Nepal, Northeast India and southern Bhutan. In Nepal, they are concentrated in the central hilly and Himalayan regions and constituted over 1.6 million people in the 2021 census.
In India, Tamang people live in the state of Sikkim, in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal and in Assam. In Bhutan, they live foremost in the southern foothills including Tsirang District, Dagana District, Samtse District, Chukha District, Sarpang District and Samdrup Jongkhar District. The Tamang language is the fifth most-spoken language in Nepal.

History

Research indicates that the Tamang people are a hybrid ethnic group with an estimated 59% genetic contribution from Tibetan and 41% from Nepalese ancestries.
The Tamangs have been mentioned in various Nepalese and colonial historical records under a variety of names, such as Bhote, Bodh, Lama, Murmi and Sain, some of which terms erroneously conflate the Tamangs with Uighurs. The Tibetans called them Rongpa.
Various Gorkha rulers led campaigns against the indigenous Tamangs. The Gorkha Vamsavali provides details of battles with the Bhotyas of a variety of principalities between 1806 and 1862. In 1739, a ruler named Ghale-Botya attacked Nara Bhupal Shah as he was marching towards Nuwakot, and Nara Bhupal Shah also fought several battles against Golma Ghale. In 1762, Prithvi Narayan Shah attacked the Tamangs in Temal, the Tamang cultural heartland. Tamang oral history says that the local chief, Rinjen Dorje, was killed by the Gorkhas. Gorkhali forces had hidden their weapons in the sand on the Sunkoshi riverbank in order to attack the Tamang forces. Afterwards, the Gorkhas washed their weapons in springs at Dapcha Kuwapani, and this is why the modern-day Tamangs do not drink there. Similar stories appear in oral histories throughout the region.
After the attack on the Tamang region, their traditional homeland area, known as kipat to the Gorkhas, was granted to Gorkha generals or government officials who had pleased the king in some way, displacing the Tamangs from kipat lands. Previously, Tamang landholdings had been divided up by clan. Tamangs also had various forced labor obligations, both in times of peace and war, that differed significantly from other regions of Nepal. One reason is the proximity of the Tamang homeland to the center of royal administration at Kathmandu.
Tamangs were also involved in the Sino-Nepalese War from 1788 to 1792, which was initially fought between Nepalese Gorkhas and Tibetan armies over a trade dispute related to a long-standing problem of low-quality coins manufactured by Nepal for Tibet. A few hundred Tamangs eventually settled in Tibet; they are known as Daman people in China. Previously stateless, since 2003 the Chinese government has classified them as ethnic Tibetans.

Culture

Tamang tradition and culture include a distinct language, culture, dress, and social structure. They have over 100 sub-clans. About 87 % of the Tamang people are Buddhist, around 3% are Christian and 8% Hindu. Their language, Tamang, comes from Tamangic branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family, and is closely related to Gurung. They follow the Chinese lunar calendar of the 12-year cycle. Colorful printed Buddhist mantra cloths are put up in various places in villages and towns.
Their typical song and dance style is known as Tamang Selo, and includes songs representing humor, satire, joy and sorrow. It has a brisk movement and rhythmic beat specific to the Tamangs. A distinctive musical instrument is the damphu, a small, round drum covered with goatskin. Traditional Tamang songs are known as Hwai. Sung by Tamang genealogists called Tamba, Hwai songs are ritualistic and hold tremendous importance in Tamang rituals.

Festivals

Sonam Lhosar is the main festival of the Tamangs and is celebrated in the month of Magh. It is celebrated to welcome the Tamang new year.
Another significant festival is the Saga Dawa, a religious festival based on birthday of Gautam Buddha.

Language

Tamang is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken predominantly in Nepal, with significant communities in Sikkim and West Bengal, India. It encompasses several dialects, including Eastern, Western, Southwestern, Northwestern, and Eastern Gorkha Tamang, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. For instance, Eastern and Western Tamang are mutually unintelligible. It is tonal and exhibits ergative-absolutive alignment.  Despite being the fifth most spoken language in Nepal,  Tamang faces challenges due to the dominance of Nepali, leading to concerns about language preservation.
The language employs both the Tamyig script, similar to Tibetan, and Devanagari for writing. Grammatically, Tamang follows a subject-object-verb order and utilizes postpositions.

Distribution of Tamang in Nepal

The 2011 Nepal census classifies the Tamang people within the broader social group of Mountain–Hill Janajati. At the time of the Nepal census of 2011, 1,539,830 people were Tamang. The percentage of Tamang people by province was as follows:
In the following districts, the percentage of Tamang people was higher than the national average of 5.8% :

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