[4] It would, perhaps, be better to transcribe this mangdong (from Tibetan mang, “many;” and dong, “stones”). Chorten is mchod, “offering;” rten, “receptacle.” It is usually pronounced chürten. See infra, 37, 40.—(W. R.) [↑]
[5] Made from half-fermented millet. Murwa is Eleusine coracana. See Hooker, op. cit., i. 133, 175.—(W. R.) [↑]
[6] The country between the Arun and Tambur is called Limbudu by the Nepali natives, and the aboriginal people who have dwelt there from time immemorial are designated by the name of Limbu, though they call themselves by the name of Yakthanga. In the same manner the tribes inhabiting Kiranta, or the regions between Dudkosi and the Arun, are called Kirat, which name is as old as that of the great Hindu deity Mahadeva. The Kirat of the north and the Limbu of the south were known to the ancients by the name of Kirata, on account of their living by hunting and carrying on trade with the natives of the plains in musk, yak-tails, shellac, cardamoms, etc., from the earliest Hindu periods. See also infra, p. 26.
The Tibetans and the Bhutias of Nepal and Sikkim call the Limbus by the name of Tsang, probably on account of their having emigrated from the Tsang province of Tibet. Both tradition and written Limbu works relate that the Limbu people partly [[4]]emigrated thither (to Limbuan) from Tsang in Thibet and Kashi in the Madhya Desh, and partly sprang from underneath a huge rock in the village of Khedab, to the north-east of Tsanpur. So that the Limbu people were divided into three great tribes, according to their original homes, Tsang, Kashi, and Phedah. The first branch from Tsang spread over Tambur-Khola, Phalung, Mirva Khola itself, Mayiwa, and Yangrub, being designated by the Tibetans as Tsang Monpa, or the Limbus inhabiting the defiles. Those who came from Kashi occupied Chaibisa, Kaikhola, and Tsolkar. Those that sprang from underneath the great rock of Phedah were also called Baiphuta. The name of the place in the middle of which stands the huge slab of rock, measuring a hundred fathoms on either side, was Phedah Pangi-loma, which is evidently a corruption of the name Pheduh Pangi-lungpa, or “the pasture land in Pheduh.” See also infra, p. 26.
The Baiphuta Limbu were the most powerful and numerous; their chief, Baiphuta Han Raja, ruled over Eastern Nepal. All the Limbu tribes, as well as the Kiratas, paid him tribute and military service, in a manner resembling the feudal system of Europe. The power of this family having declined, the third tribe assumed the supremacy, and massacred the adherents of the former rulers. After the fall of the Han dynasty there was anarchy all over Eastern Nepal, until there arose in the Srisobha tribe a mighty man called Marang, who succeeded in reconciling the different tribes, and was elected king over all the aboriginal tribes of Eastern Nepal, the southern portion being ruled by a Newar chief. After the death of the most distinguished of his successors, Mohani Raja, the Limbu tribes again fell into anarchy, and continued in this state for more than a century. At last, probably in the ninth century, appeared the famous Srijanga, the deified hero of the Limbus. The cis-Himalayan Bhutias identify him with an incarnation of Padma Sambhava, and attribute to him the introduction of the art of writing by the invention of an alphabet. Tradition also attributes the introduction of this art to Marang Raja, and its revival to Srijanga.—(S. C. D.) See Gazetteer of Sikkim, pp. 36–38. [↑]
[7] Cf. Hooker, op. cit., i. p. 107: “They puncture through thick worsted stockings, and even trousers, and when full roll in the form of a little soft ball into the bottom of the shoe.…” Ibid., p. 167, he makes mention of them swarming below 7000 feet, “a small black species above 3000 feet, and a large yellow-brown solitary one below that elevation.”—(W. R.) Leeches are found at all elevations up to 10,000 feet at least. [↑]
[8] La, “pass;” rtse, “point, summit;” usually a pile of stones with brush stuck in it, on which rags are hung.—(W. R.) [↑]
[9] Lha, “god;” gsol, “to beg.” The invocation I have always heard used is “lha gya lo, lha gya lo,” meaning, “god (give me) an hundred years, god (give me) an hundred years!”—(W. R.) [↑]
[10] The giant nettle is the Urtica heterophylla. Hooker, op. cit., i. 182. The fibres of some nettles are twisted for bowstrings, others as thread for sewing and weaving, while many are eaten raw and in soups, especially the numerous little succulent species. The Urtica crenulata, or great shrubby nettle, grows also in these parts. Hooker, op. cit., ii. 188.—(W. R.) [↑]
[11] On the Lepchas, see Dr. A. Campbell, Jour. Anth. Inst., i. 128, et seq. Dr. Campbell has also written several valuable papers on the Limboos in the Jour. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal for 1855 and other years, and in the Jour. Anth. Inst., vol. i.; also papers on the Murnis and Haius of Nepaul and Sikkim, in the same collection, I believe; but [[6]]they are not accessible to me. Dr. Hooker, op. cit., i. 127–136, says of the Lepchas: “They, or at least some of their tribes, call themselves Rong and Arratt, and their country Dijong. Polyandry is unknown among them, and polygamy rare. Marriage is by purchase. The dead are burnt or buried. Omens are sought in the entrails of fowls (p. 135). They have no religion, though acknowledging the existence of good and bad spirits.”—(W. R.) [↑]