Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
The Limboo language is totally different from the Lepcha; with less
of the _z_ in it, and more labials and palatals, hence more pleasing.
Its affinities I do not know; it has no peculiar written character,
the Lepcha or Nagri being used. Dr. Campbell, from whom I have,
derived most of my information respecting these people, was
informed,* [See "Dorjiling Guide," p. 89. Calcutta, 1845.] on good
authority, that they had once a written language, now lost; and that
it was compounded from many others by a sage of antiquity. The same
authority stated that their Lepcha name "Chung" is a corruption of
that of their place of residence; possibly the "Tsang" province
of Tibet.
The Moormis are the only other native tribe remaining in any numbers
in Sikkim, except the Tibetans of the loftier mountains (whom I shall
mention at a future period), and the Mechis of the pestilential
Terai, the forests of which they never leave. The Moormis are a
scattered people, respecting whom I have no information, except from
the authority quoted above. They are of Tibetan origin, and called
"Nishung," from being composed of two branches, respectively from the
districts of Nimo and Shung, both on the road between Sikkim and
Lhassa. They are now most frequent in central and eastern Nepal, and
are a pastoral and agricultural people, inhabiting elevations of 4000
to 6000 feet, and living in stone houses, thatched with grass.
They are a large, powerful, and active race, grave, very plain in
features, with little hair on the face. Both their language and
religion are purely Tibetan.
The Magras, a tribe now confined to Nepal west of the Arun, are
aborigines of Sikkim, whence they were driven by the Lepchas westward
into the country of the Limboos, and by these latter further west
still. They are said to have been savages, and not of Tibetan origin,
and are now converted to Hindooism. A somewhat mythical account of a
wild people still inhabiting the Sikkim mountains, will be alluded
to elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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