The eastern hills of Nepal, home of the Rai (Khambu), Limbu, Sunuwar and Yakkha peoples, beyond the Nepal valley's eastern limit at Dolakha.
The Licchavi inscriptions of the first millennium hold more than two hundred non-Sanskrit place names that Wikipedia reads as proto-Newar, and the Newar chronicles give the Kirats a thousand-year reign in the valley before the Licchavis (tradition). The Sirijunga script is credited to the ninth century, unsourced. Limbuwan's ten kingdoms with Morang the strongest are the later arrangement; in 1200 nothing is dated and no state is known.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known by name
- Title
- Kirat (Rai and Limbu) headmen
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia's Kirati page: Limbuwan's later ten kingdoms and the Subba titles are of the Gorkha age; the 'Kirat kings of the valley' (800 BC to 300 AD) are a chronicle tradition.
What it holds
- the hill villages between the Dudh Kosi and the Mechi
- the Arun, Tamur and Mai gorges
Wealth
Hill grain, cardamom and timber in the later sources; not checked.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Customs
Kipat communal land tenure and Subba headmen in the later sources; Kiranti rituals.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: One Wikipedia page, with nothing before the Gorkha age.
On the map: The range is the later Kirat country; the Mechi (about 88.15 E) is the eastern limit. Finishing pass: the rough outline of the researcher was cut back where it ran over the Sikkim polygon (about 500 km2, the Lepcha country west of the Singalila) and the Tsang Rong polygon (about 450 km2, north of Kanchenjunga), so the three records no longer overlap.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.