|
|
Welcome to the eWorld of the GurkhasYou are welcome to browse through this website, just as you would have been, if you were actually journeying through the Highlands of Nepal, the Gurkhas Heartland. You will find in this website the Gurkhas are sometimes referred to as Kirati-Mongolians to identify them as a distinct race of Mongolians inhabiting the Nepalese Highlands. This distinction also intends to emphasise the assertion that the Gurkhas are not Rajputs; while true Rajputs enjoy a stronger claim to Indo-Aryan heritage, the Gurkhas don't.
" who the Gurkhas really are and by what means they came to reign supreme over
half a thousand miles of hills, mountains, valleys and twisting rivers of the
high Himalayas, a small, warlike people who, in defence of their independence,
have for two centuries shielded India from the swelling power of Tartaric
Asia... Taken all in all, the Gurkha must, for his unusually fine qualities, be
nearly unique in modern world. Let an enquirer be assured that if he seeks to
understand the meaning of courage and selfless devotion, then he should soldier
with a Gurkha regiment. He will return an enlightened and a better man from the
experience."
General Sir Francis Tuker
This website will journey you through from the present moment back to the epic
age when man was yet a hunter-gatherer, where the Kiratis appear as dwellers of
the friendly woodlands of cis-Himalayan region, when gods shared their daily
pace of life....
" Mythological Age and the Kirati Bungsawali "Many influential Kirati families of Eastern Nepal had from time immemorial maintained their geneological records in written form known as 'bungsawali'. According to bungsawali record, Yellung Hang founded the Kiratdom of Kathmandu Read more " The Legend of Manjusri "An interesting aspect of ancient societies and their cultural life is the profusion of myths and legends that surround every aspect of their life. Such is the account of the legend of Manjusri, the pre-brahminic founder deity of Nepal. Read more " Swayambhunath Temple of the Kirati Age "The Temple of Swayambhunath in Kathmandu Valley is considered by its adherents to be the oldest pre-brahminic temple in Nepal, or for that matter, anywhere in the world. Read more " Historicity of Bungsawali and Swayambhu Puran "Among the very many Hindu scriptures are several volumes of sanskrit literature known collectively as the Purans and according to oral tradition of brahminic belief system they were conceived during the Vedic Age. Unlike brahminic purans, the Kirati-Mongolian Buddhist Puran known as Swayambhu Puran but in written form and therefore, is held to be one of the oldest sanskrit manuscripts which pre-dates all brahminic sanskrit literature by about a millennium. Read more " Pre-brahminic sanskrit literature of Nepal "Brian H. Hodgson (1800-1894) was posted as Post Master and Assistant to the British Resident in Kathmandu at the rather youthful age of 20. He was promoted in situ and served as the Resident at the Gurkha Court from 1833 until 1842 when he was dismissed from service by the Governor General. Read more " Siddhartha Gout'm, The Lion of the Sakyas "We know it to be an historical event that Siddhartha Gout'm was born in 564 B.C. to Suddhodhan, King of the Sakyas and his Queen Mahamaya. The fiefdom of the Sakyas was located in the Terai region of modern days mid-western Nepal. Read more " Brahmins in Kiratland "Every Kirati student knows the circumstances under which their land was brought under the overlordship of King Prithiwinarayan Sah when Nepal was unified during late eighteenth century for the first time in history. Read more " Sanskrit is refined form of Pali "Ashok the Great had sent his monk emissaries to spread the Buddha's message of nirwan to many countries far and wide. We know it for certain that these sermons were written and delivered in Pali because copies of these manuscripts were discovered by British scholars in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Read more " Srimadbhagawatgita Original Manuscript "Srimadbhagawatgita or more popularly known as Gita, may be roughly translated as Song Divine and can be positively classified as one of the most beautiful of the Hindu scriptures. Read more " Princess Becomes the Goddess "Writing in his autobiographical story, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said in 1962, "It was King Lho-Tho-Ri-Nyen-Tsen of Tibet who first introduced Buddhism to the country, well over a thousand years ago." Read more " Isle of Bali linked with Pre-Brahminic Nepal "Authentic accounts of Hindu cultural presence in the South-East Asian region was first reported by Fa Hsien, the intrepid Chinese Buddhist Pilgrim. In 441 A.D., he had made a landfall in one of the islands when driven off course by a storm during his perilous return voyage from Sri Lanka to his home port in China. Read more " Archaic Version of Ramayana in Chinese Archive "Following the Ashokan decree, Buddhist Missionaries had carried the gospel of the Buddha everywhere into the known world. Once Buddhism took root in a place and got firmly established, local Missionaries carried the message further beyond. Read more " A Pundit goes to Tibet "In his writings and seminars, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has vaguely referred to some Indian pundits having helped the Tibetans translate Buddhist religious books. Read more " The Red Jacket Regiment of the Gurkhas "Not many students of British Indian history are aware that in 1849, less than a decade before the Sepoy Mutiny (it is now more popularly known to modern Indian historians as First War of Independence), a battalion of Native Infantry had mutinied and actually seized control of Fort Gobindgarh, Read more " India Hundred Years Ago (Published 1885) "Cawnpore, only forty miles by railway from Lucknow, is a busy, populous town, with cotton factories, flour mills, and large saddlery works. It is situated on the Ganges, which here varies in width from five hundred yards to a mile, and is crossed by a long railway bridge. Read more " Relief of Lucknow (Indian Mutiny) "Eliminating every single vestige of resistance enroute, the Gurkhas arrived post-haste at Lucknow just at the nick of time. They discovered a small pocket of beleagured Europeans had barricaded themselves within the British Residency in the face of marauding hordes of mutineers. Read more " Queen becomes Empress of India "In recognition of the outstanding role played by 2nd Prince of Wales Own Gurkhas (later renamed as King Edward VII's Own Gurkhas) by quelling the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and in restoration of peace, Queen Victoria had herself expressed a desire to honour them. Read more " A Gurkha and the King Emperor "On 25 September 1915, during World War I at Neuve Chapelle, France, after an unsuccessful assault on the German trenches, three wounded Gurkhas and one British soldier of Leicestershire Regiment were inadvertantly left behind on the wrong side of the No-Mans-Land. Read more |
Thought of the day“Never trust the advice of a man who is himself in difficulties.” Yuni Words of Wisdom "
The void at the centre of all histories of the Gurkhas is the voice of the Gurkhas themselves. There is a great need, which may soon be met, for an oral history of the Gurkhas. Until that is achieved, Gurkhas sources are so rare as to be almost non-existent. "
Tony Gould in Imperial Warriors. "
Nepali history has suffered a great deal of such abuse, and it has done little more than to stir historians to a new sense of urgency in investigating and writing their own history. It is possible that some of the blame for this misunderstanding of Nepali history by foreign scholars must be laid on the shoulders of Nepali historians themselves for failing to write in any international language. "
Father Ludwig F Stiller, S.J. in The Rise of the House of the Gorkha. "
I think it highly probable that Gautama Buddha, the Sage of the Sakyas, and the founder of historical Buddhism, was Mongolian by birth, that is to say, a hill-man like a Gurkha with Mongolian features, and akin to the Tibetans. "
Sir Vincent Smith, Oxford University "
It seems to me almost certain, as already indicated, that the Sisunagas, Lichchhavis, and several other ruling families or clans in or near Magadha (modern day Gangetic Uttar Pradesh-Bihar region of India) were not Indo-Aryan by blood. They were I think, hill-men of Mongolian type, resembling Tibetans, Gurkhas, Bhutias, and other Mongolian tribes of the present day. "
Sir Vincent Smith, Oxford University. "
Now, the Lichchhavis were a people of the (Himalayan) foothills with affiliation with Nepal and Tibet. It seems likely that they were a martial race, like the modern Gurkhas. "
Sir Percival Spear, Cambridge University. "
The cause of Buddhism had suffered a grave tragedy when European scholars had begun to explore the lost grounds of historical Buddhism for the first time during the eighteenth century, they had sought elucidations from the brahmins, the very elements who had been the cause of Buddhism's demise at the first instance. Unfortunately, even modern scholars engaged in historical research of early Buddhism continue to rely upon the very same flawed source and hence, ingenuously echo the distorted opinion their forebears had already formed. "
Colonel GL Rai-Zimmdar. |