Thakali People
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Thakali ( ) are an ethnolinguistic
Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...
ethnic group 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 ...
. They are often regarded as the "richest caste" of Nepal. The traditional area of the Thakali community is called ''Thak-sat-se'' or the Thak Khola region and lies in the Kali Gandaki River valley in the Mustang District,
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 ...
in western Nepal. According to the 2001 census, the Thakali population of around 12,973 constituted only 0.06% of Nepal's population. By 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 ...
, there were 13,215 Thakali people in Nepal. The ''Lhafewa'' (Barha Barse Kumbha Mela), ''Toranlha'' (ancestral worship) and ''Falo'' (Kumar Yatra) are the major festivals of Thakalis. ''Dhnom'' is the title of the Thakali priest who performs the work of the local
shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
. The madal, ''khaprang'' and ''thamken'' are their main musical instruments. There are four groups who consider themselves Thakali; all four castes are different according to the Census of Nepal. They are ''Teen Gauley'' (the Thakali from Thini, Syang and Chimang villages), ''Marphali'' (Thakali from Marpha village, further subclassified as ''Hirachan'', ''Pannachan'', ''Jwarchan'', and ''Lalchan''), ''Chaar Jaat'' or "four castes" (''Sherchan'', ''Tulachan'', ''Bhattachan'', ''Gauchan'') and ''Thakali'' (those Thakali from Southern Mustang, Tukuche, and Jomsom). These groups consider themselves to be part of different castes but all still Thakali. The customs, culture, dress and festivals of each differ slightly.


Geographic distribution

The Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal classifies the Thakali people as a subgroup within the broader social group of mountain/hill nationalities (''janajāti''). 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 ...
, 13,215 people (0.06% of the population of Nepal) were Thakali.2011 Nepal Census, District Level Detail Report
/ref> The distribution of Thakali people by province was as follows: *
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 ...
(0.3%) *
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 ...
(0.1%) * Karnali Province (0.0%) *
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 ...
(0.0%) *
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 ...
(0.0%) *
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 ...
(0.0%) *
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, ...
(0.0%) The population of Thakali people was higher than national average (0.0%) in the following districts: *
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 ...
(20.9%) *
Manang Manang () is a town in the Manang District of Nepal. It is located at 28°40'0N 84°1'0E with an elevation of . According to the preliminary results of the 2011 Nepal census, the district has a population of 6,527 people living in 1,495 individua ...
(0.9%) * Myagdi (0.9%) * Kaski (0.5%) * Baglung (0.2%) * Eastern Rukum (0.2%) *
Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...
(0.2%) * Jumla (0.1%) * Lalitpur (0.1%) * Parbat (0.1%) * Pyuthan (0.1%) * Rupandehi (0.1%)


See also

* Toran La, a festival of Thakali people *
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 ...
* Mustang District * Dhaulagiri


References


External links

* {{Ethnic groups in Nepal Ethnic groups in Nepal