Chapter · History
A kingdom sung before it was written.
From the first voice of the Mundhum to the twenty nine Kirat kings, to the hill country the treaties called Limbuwan, this is where the story starts.
Close your eyes and listen — the whole kingdom is still being sung.
Before the written word, there was the voice.
The Limbu, who call themselves Yakthung, are among the oldest of the Kirat peoples. Their cosmos was sung into being long before any script, recited at births, at harvests, and beside the dead.
In the creation narratives, the supreme mind Tagera Ningwabhu Mang imagined the universe into form, and the grandmother goddess Yuma Sammang gave it warmth. To be Limbu is to believe that a soul dwells in every river, stone and tree.
“The lost songs continue to resonate in the air. The question is simply, are we ready to listen?”
Twenty nine kings, one long dawn.
For roughly a thousand years the Kirat Hang ruled the hills of Nepal, until the Licchavi rose in the 4th century CE. Hover, or swipe and tap, to meet the ones history still remembers.
Limbuwan, the land of the bow bearers.
East of the Arun, between the great river and the snows of Kanchenjunga, lies Limbuwan, once nine self governing territories, each led by its own Hang.
Land here was held not by deed but by Kipat, belonging to the clan, not the person. Hover or tap an eastern district to walk the hills.
Then came the ten kings.
The Kirat kings had fallen in the Kathmandu valley a thousand years earlier. Far to the east the Limbu rebuilt: around 550 AD the surviving chiefs cut the land into ten kingdoms, Das Limbuwan, the Ten Limbuwan, and raised a Hang over each.
The name carries their weapon in it, Limbuwan, the land won by the bow (li, a bow; ambu, to seize). Nearer our own age than the ancient Kirat dawn, the ten houses held their hills until the Gorkha conquest of 1774.
- The era of ten kings · 550 to 1609
- 7th centuryMung Mawrong HangRises in the Terai as overlord of the ten kings, founding the power of Morang.
- 849 to 880Uba Hang & Mabo HangUba reforms the Mundhum faith and raises the Chempojong fort; Mabo moves the seat to Yasok in Panthar.
- 880 to 915Sirijunga HangUnifies the northern hills, gives Limbuwan its script, and lays down the Kipat land system that would outlast every conquest.
- 1584BijaypurBijay Narayan Raya makes Bijaypur the capital of lowland Morang.
- Division & the Sen kings · 1609 to 1769
- 1609Limbuwan dividesThe land splits north and south; the Sen kings take the western lowland while the hill Hang keep the north.
- 1609 to 1769The Sen lineFrom Lo Hang Sen to Kamadatta Sen the dynasty rules the west, and for a generation a queen, Padmidhata, holds Bijaypur.
- 1769Buddhi Karna Raya KhebangThe last king of Morang takes the throne as the Gorkha armies gather.
- The Gorkha conquest · 1771 to 1777
- 1771 to 1774The Gorkha WarPrithvi Narayan Shah's armies cross the Arun; the generals Kangso Rey and Sanbotrey hold Chainpur before Bijaypur falls.
- 1774Noon-Pani SandhiThe “salt and water” treaty annexes Limbuwan to Nepal, sworn on salt and water, yet it guarantees the Limbu their Kipat land and the autonomy of their Subbas.
- 1777The last standBuddhi Karna Raya Khebang is executed, and the armed resistance ends.
After the History of Limbuwan; spellings and dates follow the Limbu chronicles and vary between sources.
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Living cultureThe kings fall silent. The goddess keeps speaking.
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