Kirat MundhumKirat Mundum, (Nepali: किरात मुन्दुम) also known as Kiratism, or Kirati Mundum, is an animistic folk religion that is indigenous to the Kirati ethnic groups of Nepal, Darjeeling and Sikkim, majorly practiced by Yakkha, Limbu, Sunuwar, Rai, Thami, Jirel, Hayu and Surel peoples in the north-eastern Indo subcontinent. The practice is also known as Kirat Veda, Kirat-Ko Veda or Kirat Ko Ved. According to some scholars, such as Tom Woodhatch, it is a blend of shamanism, animism (e.g.
Kirati peopleThe Kirati people, also spelled as Kirant or Kiranti, are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group. They are Indigenous peoples of the Himalayas, mostly the Eastern Himalaya extending eastward from Nepal to North East India (predominantly in the Indian state of Sikkim and the northern hilly regions of West Bengal, that is, Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts). Kirat means lion-hearted people or people of a lion nature. It also means mountain people. The word Kirata is a derivation from Kirati or Kiranti to name the group of people in Eastern Nepal and Northeast India.
Kiranti languagesThe Kiranti languages are a major family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Nepal and India (notably Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Bhutan) by the Kirati people. George van Driem had formerly proposed that the Kiranti languages were part of a Mahakiranti family, although specialists are not completely certain of either the existence of a Kiranti subgroup or its precise membership. LaPolla (2003), though, proposes that Kiranti may be part of a larger "Rung" group. There are about two dozen Kiranti languages.
Northeast IndiaNortheast India (officially the North Eastern Region (NER)) is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura (commonly known as the "Seven Sisters"), and the "brother" state Sikkim. The region shares an international border of (about 99 percent of its total geographical boundary) with several neighbouring countries – with China in the north, with Myanmar in the east, with Bangladesh in the south-west, with Nepal in the west, and with Bhutan in the north-west.
