Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe Limbu ( Nepali: शिव माया तुम्बाहाङफे) is a Nepali politician and diplomat who has served as the Ambassador of
Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
to
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
. She has been active in politics for more than four decades as a communist leader in
eastern Nepal
The Eastern Development Region ( Nepali: पुर्वाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र, ''Purwānchal Bikās Kshetra'') was one of Nepal's five development regions. It is also known as Kirata region. It was located at the ...
. She holds a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in political science from
Tribhuvan University
Tribhuvan University (TU; ) is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu, Nepal. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest and the largest university in Nepal. It offers 1,000 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate programs a ...
. Before being elected the deputy speaker of the house, she was a central committee member of the
CPN (UML) CPN may refer to:
* Calpine Corporation, New York Stock Exchange symbol CPN
* ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter''
* Carpinteria (Amtrak station), California, Amtrak station code CPN
* Caspian Airlines (Iran), ICAO airline designator ''CPN''
* Celiac ...
.
Early life and education
She was born in
Taplejung district
Taplejung District ( ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Koshi Province. It is located deep in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with བོད to the north across the Himalayas. Taplejung is the third lar ...
. She went to school in
Jhapa District
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 ar ...
. She took a break from politics to pursue her doctorate following the successful 2006 revolution. She went on to achieve a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
from
Tribhuvan University
Tribhuvan University (TU; ) is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu, Nepal. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest and the largest university in Nepal. It offers 1,000 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate programs a ...
. Her PhD thesis on "political movement of women in Nepal" was titled .
Bijay Subba
This is a list of cricketers who have played first-class, List A or Twenty20 cricket for the Sikkim cricket team, representing the Indian state of Sikkim. The side was established in July 2018 She has been politically active from Morang district. She joined active politics as a member of the CPN (ML) affiliated student union, ANNFSU. She was central deputy chair of ANNFSU at the time she graduated from student politics in 2052 BS (1995–96). She registered as a member of CPN (ML) in 2047 BS (1990–91) and was elected to the central committee of CPN (UML) by the ninth general convention in 2071 BS (2014–15). She also briefly served as the Morang district incharge of the party, before its merger to form
Nepal Communist Party (NCP)
The Nepal Communist Party, abbreviated NCP (, ) was a communist party in Nepal that existed from 2018 to 2021. It was founded on 17 May 2018, from the unification of two leftist parties, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) a ...
in 2018.
She was nominated as the
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
of Nepal to
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
by the
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filin ...
of KP Sharma Oli in 2016, but the government was dissolved before her nomination could be confirmed. She is considered to be a close ally of prime minister
KP Sharma Oli
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (; born 22 February 1952), commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli or simply K. P. Oli (English pronunciation: , ), is a Nepalese politician who is serving as the prime minister of Nepal since 15 July 2024.
Chairman of the ...
, in addition to being particularly close to president
Bidhya Devi Bhandari
Bidya Devi Bhandari (, ; born 19 June 1961) is a Nepali former politician who served as the second president of Nepal from 2015 to 2023. She formerly served as the minister of defence and minister of environment and population.
She is the fir ...
.
She was elected to the
federal parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch of Australia (represented by the governor ...
under the
proportional representation system
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (political parties) among voters. The aim ...
, nominated by the
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)
The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (; Abbreviation, abbr. CPN (UML)) is a Communism in Nepal, communist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The party emerged as one of the major parties in Nepal af ...
(CPN UML), and elected as deputy speaker with the support of her party CPN (UML), as well as the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and a member party of Socialist Front (Nepal), Samajbadi Morcha. I ...
(CPN MC) of the left alliance, defeating
Pushpa Bhusal
Pushpa Bhusal Gautam is a Nepali advocate, politician and former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives of the federal parliament of Nepal. She was elected from Nepali Congress in the parliament.
Previously, she had contested the 2013 ...
of
Nepali Congress
The Nepali Congress ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. NC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and the largest party in the country ...
, on 15 March 2018 by a margin of 143 votes. Her election as deputy speaker was controversial due to the fact that the
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
prohibits having both speaker and deputy speaker from the same party, which has been the case since the merger of CPN (UML) and CPN (MC) to form the NCP. Following her election as deputy speaker, she resigned as a member of her party as per the constitutional requirement. She was 53 years old when elected deputy speaker. She resigned as the deputy speaker on 20 January 2020, and on 17 February 2020 was appointed as the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
She is the younger sister of NCP leader
Bijay Subba
This is a list of cricketers who have played first-class, List A or Twenty20 cricket for the Sikkim cricket team, representing the Indian state of Sikkim. The side was established in July 2018 Subba is said to have been inspired to pursue his own doctorate (in "the political movement of indigenous peoples") from the example of Tumbahamphe. While Subba had once defected from the party and started his own party, Tumbahamphe has been a life-long member of the CPN (UML). Tumbahamphe famously challenged Bhim Acharya to a trainer dual once, after Acharya reportedly suggested a need to bring in trainers from the capital to educate party cadres in her district. She supports increasing government expenditure on public education.
Personal life
Tumbahamphe was married to Late Ghanendra Jimi, who was once elected chairperson of
Urlabari
Urlabari is a town and municipality in Morang District in the Koshi Province of south-eastern Nepal. It is considered to be the second largest city in Morang District after Biratnagar. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of ...