Damai ( ;

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''Damāĩ'') is an occupational caste found among indigenous people comprising 45 subgroups. Their surnames take after the subgroup they belong to. People belonging to this caste are traditionally tailors and musicians capable of using the naumati baja - an ensemble of nine traditional musical instruments. The term Damai is coined from the musical instrument Damaha. The 1854 Nepalese Muluki Ain (Legal Code) categorized Damai as "Lower caste” category. The

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal () is the central executive authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Nepal, prime minister (K. P. Sharma Oli, K.P. Oli since 15 July 2024) who selects all the o ...

abolished the caste-system and criminalized any caste-based discrimination, including "

untouchability Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimin ...

" in 1963. The country, previously ruled by a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

monarchy was a

nation which has now become a

secular state is an idea pertaining to secularity, whereby a state is or purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of relig ...

. It was declared a republic in 2008, thereby ending it as the Hindu kingdom with its caste-based discriminations and the

roots. According to the

2021 Nepal census The 2021 Nepal Census was the twelfth nationwide census of Nepal conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The census was originally scheduled from 8 June to 22 June 2021, but was postponed to November 2021 due to a surge in COVID-19 case ...

, Damai make up 1.94% of Nepal's population (or 565,932 people). Damai are categorized under "Hill

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

" among the 9 broad social groups, along with

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

, Badi, Sarki and Gaine by the Government of Nepal.

Geographical distribution

At the time of the

2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. Working in cooperation with the 58 municipalities and the 3,915 Village Development Committees at a district level, they recorded data from all the m ...

, the frequency of Damai by province was as follows: * Karnali Province (4.0%) *

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southw ...

(3.9%) *

Sudurpashchim Province Sudurpashchim Province () is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces established by the Constitution of Nepal, new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, ...

(2.6%) *

Lumbini Province Lumbini Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province in western Nepal. The country's Provinces of Nepal, third largest province in terms of area as well as List of Nepalese provinces by population, population, Lumbini is home to the World Herita ...

(1.9%) *

Koshi Province Koshi Province () is an autonomous Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of , about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its cap ...

(1.8%) *

Bagmati Province Bagmati Province (, ''Bāgmatī pradēśa'') is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. Bagmati is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest province by area. It is bordered ...

(1.4%) *

Madhesh Province Madhesh Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal in the Terai region with an area of covering about 6.5% of the country's total area. It has a population of 6,126,288 as per the 2021 Nepal census, making it Nepal's most densely po ...

(0.2%) The frequency of Damai was higher than national average (1.8%) in the following districts: * Parbat (7.5%) * Myagdi (5.8%) * Kalikot (5.1%) *

Dailekh Dailekh (), locally known as Dailekh Bazar Narayan is a town and the headquarters of Dailekh District located in Karnali Province of Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia ...

(5.0%) * Baglung (4.7%) *

Doti Doti (), also known as Dotigarh (डोटीगढ़) or the Far-Western Development Region was a development region of Nepal situated between River Kali bordering Kumaon division of Uttarakhand, India in the west and the Karnali river on t ...

(4.6%) * Surkhet (4.6%) *

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

(4.4%) *

Bajura Bajura District ( ), a part of Sudurpashchim Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Martadi (today part of Badimalika municipality) as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population o ...

(4.2%) * Jajarkot (4.0%) *

Lamjung Lamjung District ( ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Besisahar as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 167,724. lies in the mid-hills of Nepal spa ...

(3.9%) * Dadeldhura (3.8%) * Gulmi (3.7%) * Kaski (3.7%) * Syangja (3.7%) * Western Rukum (3.7%) * Rolpa (3.6%) * Humla (3.5%) * Tanahun (3.4%) * Okhaldhunga (3.3%) * Arghakhanchi (3.2%) * Eastern Rukum (3.2%) * Mugu (3.2%) * Pyuthan (3.2%) * Achham (3.1%) *

Sindhuli Sindhuli District (), a part of the Bagmati Province, is one of the List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal, a landlocked country located in South Asia. The district, with Sindhulimadhi Kamalamai as its headquarters, covers a ...

(3.1%) * Tehrathum (3.1%) * Gorkha (3.0%) * Salyan (3.0%) * Udayapur (2.8%) * Dang (2.7%) * Khotang (2.7%) * Bhojpur (2.6%) *

Dhading Dhading Besi () is the headquarters of the Dhading District of Nepal. The town is located within Nilkantha Municipality which is one of the two municipalities of the district. It is also the administrative center of Nilkantha Municipality. The ...

(2.5%) * Jumla (2.5%) * Nawalpur (2.5%) * Kanchanpur (2.3%) * Ramechhap (2.3%) * Dolakha (2.2%) * Kailali (2.2%) * Panchthar (2.2%) * Sankhuwasabha (2.2%) * Baitadi (2.1%) *

Chitwan Chitwan District (, , ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers , and in 2011 had a popul ...

(2.1%) * Dhankuta (2.1%) *

Jhapa Jhapa District (; ) is a district of Koshi Province in eastern Nepal named after a Rajbanshi Surjapuri language word "Jhapa", meaning "to cover" (verb). The 2021 Nepal Census, puts the total population of the district at 994,090. The total a ...

(1.9%) * Palpa (1.9%) * Sindhupalchowk (1.9%)

References

Bibliography

* {{Cite book, title = A History of Nepal, last1 = Whelpton , first1 = John, year = 2005 , publisher = Cambridge University Press , isbn = 978-0521804707 , url =https://books.google.com/books?id=WSo6PgAACAAJ Caste system in Nepal Dalit communities