Dhimal

The Dhimal or Dhemal (धिमाल) are an Kirati ethnic group residing in the eastern Terai of Nepal. They are a Sino-Tibetan-speaking ethnic group of the eastern Terai. They mainly reside in Morang and Jhapa districts of Nepal and Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India. They are respected as the "First Citizens" of Damak municipality. They are an indigenous group of Nepal and belong to Sino-Tibetan group. They are culturally close to Limbu and Koch of Terai and of the northern hills. Dhimals consider themselves of Kirati descent. They consider the Limbu, the Rai of the hills and the Mech, and Koch people of the tarai as their brethren. According to Hodgson the Mech, Bodo, Koch and Dhimal tribes are of the same race; however, comparison of language does not support so close a connection, he added. He stated that "... but it is difficult to suppose the Bodo and Dhimal languages other than primitive". He also stated that the Dhimals are "... nomadic cultivators of wild. For ages transcending memory or tradition, they have passed beyond the savage or hunter state, and also beyond the herdsman's state, and have advanced to the third or agricultural grade of social progress, but so as to indicate a not entirely broken connection with the precedent condition of things ... They never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain in the same village beyond from four to six years". He again identified the barter system for the few things which they require and do not produce themselves. The Dhimal language is part of the Sino-Tibetan family. It is closely related to another aboriginal language of the Himalayas, Toto. Their animistic religion is very close to the Kirant religion. They worship nature and other household gods. Hodgson identified their religion as the religion of nature, or rather, the natural religion of man have neither temple nor idol; their cultivation as shifting cultivation; and "this race assure him that they once had chiefs when they dwelt as a united people in Morang".