Yakkha People
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Yakkha or Dewan ( Nepali याक्खा, Yākkhā) is an indigenous ethnic group from the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
, mainly in modern-day
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 ...
and present-day India (related to other
Kirat The Kirati people, also spelled as Kirat or Kirant or Kiranti, are Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic groups living in the Himalayas, mostly the Eastern Himalaya extending eastward from Nepal to North East India (predominantly in the Indian state o ...
groups, like the Limbu, Sunuwar, Rai, and more distantly all other Sino-Tibetan peoples). It is one of the descendants of Nepal's prehistoric Kirat dynasty. The Yakkha people are
subsistence farmers Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...
who inhabit the lower Arun valley in eastern
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 number only a few thousand and their language is nearly extinct.


Etymology

Scholars have different opinions regarding the origin of the word ''Yakkha''. One school of thought claims that the ethnonym ''Yakkha'' as per the Aryan
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
grammar had been spelled in the Aryan-Hindu mythologies as ''Yaksa-sh'' (like Bhisu-shu for an ascetic ''Bhikchu'' of the Buddhist holy scripts). Although the legendary Yaksa-sh, by the corrupt name of Yakkha, is mentioned in religious Hindu texts, the Vedas and ancient Sanskrit literature, Yakkha has historically been consistent in the use of its own endonyms. ''Yakkhawa'' or ''Yakkhaba'' is used to denote the male person and ''Yakkhama'' to denote the female person.


Exonyms

The Yakkhas are also known by the exonyms Dewan, Jimi and Rai titles they accepted after the conquest of the Kirat land by the Gorkhas under
Prithvi Narayan Shah Prithvi Narayan Shah (; 7 January 1723 – 11 January 1775), was the last king of the Gorkha Kingdom and first king of the Kingdom of Nepal (also called the ''Kingdom of Gorkha''). Prithvi Narayan Shah started the unification of Nepal. He is a ...
. The Yakkhas were not only given ownership of the land but were also given the responsibility of collecting taxes from the lands utilised by Yakkhas as well as non-Yakkhas living in the area. In Darjeeling district,
Kalimpong district Kalimpong district is a List of districts in India, district in the state of West Bengal, India. In 2017, it was carved out as a separate district to become the 21st district of West Bengal. The district is headquartered at Kalimpong, which g ...
and
Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...
of
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, Dewan is commonly used as a synonym of Yakkha, and as Dewans they are placed in the Other Backward Class category.


Yakkha Land (Yākkhālen)

Today, the ''Yakkha Motherland'' is considered a patch among the historic Kirat region (i.e., east of the
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 ...
valley). During the National Unification of Nepal by
Prithvi Narayan Shah Prithvi Narayan Shah (; 7 January 1723 – 11 January 1775), was the last king of the Gorkha Kingdom and first king of the Kingdom of Nepal (also called the ''Kingdom of Gorkha''). Prithvi Narayan Shah started the unification of Nepal. He is a ...
, the traditional bases of the Kirat Lands were merged. The Far Kirat (Pallo Kirat) of the Limbuwan area to the east of the Arun River was divided into seventeen Thums. Among these Seventeen Thums, the Panch (5) Khapan, Panch (5) Majhiya and Das (10) Majhiya; Tin Thum Yakkhalen are regarded as the traditional area of the Yakkhas. This Yakkha area is the Southern part of Sankhuwasabha district bordering the Terhathum District and Taplejung District in the East; Dhankuta District in the South; and Bhojpur District in the West; of the Eastern Nepal. ''Sibhuwa, Syabun, Wana, Dadagau, Swachi, Yangsijong, Wabun, Maidane, Chitlang'' are the names of Panch-Khapan; ''Madi Mulkharka, Tamafok, Tellok, Mamgling, Ankhibhuin, Hombong, Marrek, Chanuwa, Dandagaun,'' etc. are the names of the Dash-Majhiyas and ''Hattisudhe, Kingring, Chapabhuin, Aambote, Chainpur'' etc. are the name of Panch-Majhiyas.


Religion, language and culture

The Yakkha’s have a distinct language, culture and tradition. The
Yakkha language Yakkha (also erroneously spelled as Yakha) is a language spoken in parts of Nepal, Darjeeling district and Sikkim. The Yakkha-speaking villages are located to the East of the Arun river, in the southern part of the Sankhuwasabha district and in t ...
is a
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 ...
language. The onset of modernism and influence from external factors have caused a rapid disappearance of the Yakkha language. The Yakkhas practice the Kirati religion of nature worship. There are 32 family names (Thar) in the Yakkhas. Each Thar also has a sub-group called the Sameychong. Marriages do not occur between families sharing the same Sameychong.


Population

As per the National Population and Housing Census 2021 of Nepal, the population of Yakkhas in Nepal was 17,460 (0.06% of the total population of Nepal). As per the 2011 Nepal census of Nepal, the population of Yakkhas in Nepal was 24,336 (0.1% of the total population of Nepal). As per the population census of Nepal 2001, there were 17,003 Yakkhas in Nepal. A few thousand Yakkhas live in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, Sikkim, North-Eastern states and other parts of India. As per the 2021 Nepal census, the population of Yakkha people by province is as follows: *
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 ...
: 16,451 *
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 ...
: 90 *
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 ...
: 682 *
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 ...
: 39 *
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 ...
: 182 * Karnali Province: 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, ...
: 10 As per the 2021 Nepal census, the population of Yakkha people by district is as follows: * Taplejung: 235 * Sankhuwasabha: 5752 * Dhankuta: 4344 * Terhathum: 180 * Panchthar: 471 * Ilam: 1308 * Jhapa: 672 * Morang: 1698 * Sunsari: 1730 * Udayapur: 47 * Saptari: 12 * Bara: 77 * Nuwakot: 10 * Kathmandu: 367 * Bhaktapur: 29 * Lalitpur: 229 * Kavrepalanchok: 12 * Chitawan: 12 * Gorkha: 11 * Kaski: 11 * Nawalparasi (West): 88 * Rupandehi: 90


Notes


References

* *
Ph.D. Thesis
* * * * * * Discussion on the history of the Kirat Yakkha.


External links


Yakkha Documentary
{{Ethnic groups in Nepal Indigenous peoples of Nepal Himalayan peoples Social groups of West Bengal