Brahman and Chhetri

Brahman and Chhetri

The Brahman (in Nepaloi, bahun) and Chhetri population of Nepal has had,

more thanany other people, the dominant role in the formation of the modern

kingdom of Nepal inn the political realm and in the all-pervading social and

religious realms. Nepali, an Indo-Aryan language, is their mother tongue and

has been adopted as the state language. More than half of all Brahmans and

chhetris live in the wester hills, where they form about 80% of that area's total

population. In the remainder of the hilly area they are more or less every

distributed, although they are a definite minority in the lowland Terai.

The main occupations of Brahmans and Chhetris are farming and goernment

service. Brahmans also act as family priests. Besides farmin, Chhetri and

Thauri men traditionally join the military services and are renowned for beig

among thebest soldiers in the world. Like all other people involved in

agriculture, Chhetris living in rural areas are idle for at least three months of

the year. The fortunate ones among them are rich landlords, senior officers in

the army, political leaders and the like, but the great majority are just average

farmers.

All Brahmans and Chhetris and the occupational casted are Hindus, and as such

they follow the religious practices and observe the religious festivals of

Hinduism. They worship gods and goddesses on a number of religious

festivals. Most important of them dashain and Tihar.