Limbu

Limbu

The Limbu tribe is second in size to the Rai among Kirantis. Like their Rai

cousins the Limbu have an area traditionally their own called Pallo-Kirant or

even more commonly just Limbuwan, the 'Land of the Limbus'. Like the Rai,

many Limbu farmers have in the past few year moved south into promising

Terai plains to take up lands recently opened to settlement and agriculture. The

districts represented in whole areas or in part in Limbuwan include Tehrathum,

Sankhuwasabha and Dhankuta in Kosi Zone and Taplejung, Panchthar and

Ilam in Mechi Zone.

The basic profession of Limbu is farming, but a good many men go out to join

the British or Indian Gurkha regiments, or to Kathmandu to join the armed

police or to work in other government departments.

Limbu religion is very closely allied to the Rai religion in that it has a number

of local deities of mountains and rivers to worship. It has also adopted some

religious practices of the Hindus in observing the great festival of Dashain and

employing Brahman priests occassionally to recite religious texts.