Kham Magar and
Northern Magar are descriptive terms invented by academic linguists and anthropologists for a nationality in the Middle Hills of mid-western Nepal inhabiting highlands extending through eastern
RukumRukum District of 188,438. Musikot is the district's administrative center.Rukum district has many potential tourist attractions that remain unexplored. There is 5,849 meter Mt. Sisne , also called virgin mountain. Nobody claims to have conquered this mountain yet. Rukum is also called "the...
and northern
SalyanSalyan District of 213,500. The district's administrative center is named Salyan or Salyan Khalanga.The district is known for its Hindu temples including Shiva temples in Chhayachhetra and Laxmipur, and the Devi temple at Khairabang in Hiwalcha VDC, one of nine in Nepal...
,
RolpaRolpa of 210,004. Livang is the district's administrative center.By Nepalese standards, Rolpa is an underdeveloped area plagued by low life expectancy and poverty . It was a major flashpoint in the 1996-2006 Civil War.Adjoining districts are Dang to the south, Pyuthan to the east, Salyan to the...
and
PyuthanPyuthan District of 212,484. Pyuthan Khalanga is the district's administrative center.-Geography:Pyuthan borders Dang Deukhuri District to the southwest along the crest of the Mahabharat Range and extends about 50 km northeast through the Middle Hills to a 3,000+ meter ridge that is both...
Districts in
RaptiRapti Anchal in the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. It is named after the West Rapti River which drains Rolpa, Pyuthan and part of Dang district. The remainder of Dang and part of Salyan are drained by the Babai. The remainder of Salyan and all of Rukum are drained by the Bheri.The...
Zone as well as adjacent parts of
Dhaulagiri and
BheriBheri Anchal in the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. Nepalgunj is the administrative headquarters.Cities and towns are Narayan, Jajarkot and Chhinchu in the "hills"; Nepalgunj, Gularia and Kohalpur in Terai; Birendranagar in Surkhet Valley in the Inner Terai.Bheri Zone is divided into five...
ZonesNepal is divided into 14 administrative zones , and 75 districts . The 14 administrative zones are grouped into five development regions...
. They speak a complex of Tibeto-Burman dialects called
KhamKham -- narrowly defined -- is a complex of Tibeto-Burman Magaric languages spoken natively in isolated highlands of Rolpa and Rukum districts of Rapti and the westernmost part of Baglung district in Dhaulagiri Zone by western clans of the Magar tribe, called collectively Kham Magar or Northern...
not mutually intelligible with Nepal's other Tibeto-Burman languages.
The present Kham homeland was part of the historic confederation
Ather Magarat आथार मगरात (Eighteen
Magar Kingdoms) extending from the
Kaligandaki River west across the basin of the
West RaptiNot to be confused with the East Rapti in Chitwan Valley some to the east, this Rapti drains Rapti Zone in Mid-Western Region, Nepal, then Awadh and Purvanchal regions of Uttar Pradesh state, India before joining the Ghaghara a major left bank tributary of the Ganges.The West Rapti is notable for...
to the
BheriThe Bheri River is a major tributary of the Karnali River draining the western Dhaulagiri range in western Nepal. It has three important upper tributaries. Sani Bheri drains southern slopes of this range while Thuli Bheri drains northern slopes. Another tributary Uttar Ganga drains Dhorpatan...
. East of the Kaligandaki there was another confederation called
Bahra Magarat बाह्र मगरात (Twelve Magar Kingdoms).
History
Due to their oral mythology and distinctive shamanistic practices, Kham are thought to have originally migrated from
SiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
but to have lived in their present location for a long time.
The present Kham homeland in the Rapti highlands lies just east of valleys in the
Karnali-
Bheri basinThe Bheri River is a major tributary of the Karnali River draining the western Dhaulagiri range in western Nepal. It has three important upper tributaries. Sani Bheri drains southern slopes of this range while Thuli Bheri drains northern slopes. Another tributary Uttar Ganga drains Dhorpatan...
that were the original homeland of the
KhasOriginally the Khas / Khasas or Khasiyas are the mountain dwellers living in the southern shadow of the Himalayan range from Kashmir to Bhutan, but mostly in Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan,...
, an
Iranian-Aryan people who were mainly
riceRice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
farmers. Kham-Khas also suggests a duality of living in symbiotic proximity, perhaps zoned by elevation with Khas occupying alluvial river bottoms suitable for
rice cultivationA paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Paddies can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such...
while Kham lived above, growing crops such as
barleyBarley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
and tree fruit not needing intensive
irrigation infrastructureIrrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
. Indeed Nepal's
Chhetri caste seems to derive more from khasas and also from intermarriage between the two than from Indian
RajputA Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
origins (as is frequently claimed by Nepal's Chhetri and
Thakuri elites)
Beginning in the late Middle Ages
KhasOriginally the Khas / Khasas or Khasiyas are the mountain dwellers living in the southern shadow of the Himalayan range from Kashmir to Bhutan, but mostly in Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan,...
peoples progressively settled eastward across the smaller Rapti basin into the more productive
Gandaki basin, again settling in the lower valleys where rice could be grown, thus displacing the indigenous Kham from the best farmland. The Khas formed new confederations called
Baise Rajya (twenty-two kingdoms) in the Karnali region and
Chaubisi RajyaChaubisi rajya -- literally "24 principalities" -- were sovereign and intermittently allied petty kingdoms in the Gandaki River Basin, a major Himalayan tributary of the Ganges....
(twenty-four kingdoms) in the Gandaki region that eclipsed the Kham politically.
In their turn the Baise and Chaubisi were conquered and unified into
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
by Chaubisi prince
Prithvi Narayan ShahPrithvi Narayan Shah, King of Nepal was the first king of the House of Shahs to rule Nepal. He is credited for starting the campaign for a unified Nepal, which had been divided and weakened under Malla confederacy. He was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah , the founder of the ruling...
of
Gorkha between 1743 AD and the end of the 18th century. Kham and other Magars participated as soldiers under Prithvi Narayan, then in armies of the unified state he founded. After expansion of this state came into conflict with the
British RajBritish Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
and was
defeatedThe Gurkha War , sometimes called the Gorkha War or the Anglo–Nepalese War, was fought between the Kingdom of Nepal and the British East India Company as a result of border tensions and ambitious expansionism...
, part of the
Sugauli TreatyThe Sugauli Treaty was signed on December 2, 1815 and ratified by March 4, 1816, between the British East India Company and Nepal, which was a kingdom during that era. This ended the second British invasion of the Himalayan kingdom during the Anglo-Nepalese War...
settlement gave the British the right to recruit Magars (along with other
martial tribesMartial Race was a designation created by Army officials of British India, where they classified each ethnic group into one of two categories: 'Martial' and 'Non-Martial'. A 'martial race' was typically considered brave and well built for fighting. The 'non-martial races' were those whom the...
) as
GurkhaGurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
mercenaries.
Kham Isolation
Highlands inhabited by Kham are a rugged knot of ridges reaching 3,000 to 4,000 meters some 50 km south of the
DhaulagiriDhaulagiri is Earth's seventh highest mountain at ; one of fourteen over eight thousand metres. Dhaulagiri was first climbed May 13, 1960 by a Swiss/Austrian expedition....
range, forming a triple divide between the Karnali-Bheri system to the west, the Gandaki system to the east, and the smaller (West) Rapti and Babai river systems that separate the two larger systems south of this point. Since uppermost tributaries of the Karnali and Gandaki rise beyond the highest Himalaya ranges, trade routes linking
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and
TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
developed along these rivers, whereas high ridges along the Rapti's northern watershed and then the Dhaulagiri massif beyond were rigorous obstacles. Similarly, eastward migration of Khas peoples detoured around these highlands by following the Mahabharat Range to the south or
DhorpatanDhorpatan is a village in Baglung District of Nepal, nestled in a large east-west valley south of the Dhaulagiri Himalaya. It is the headquarters of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve...
valley to the north which—by Himalayan standards—offers exceptionally easy east-west passage. The Kham highlands may also have been left as a buffer between the easternmost Baise kingdom,
SalyanSalyan District of 213,500. The district's administrative center is named Salyan or Salyan Khalanga.The district is known for its Hindu temples including Shiva temples in Chhayachhetra and Laxmipur, and the Devi temple at Khairabang in Hiwalcha VDC, one of nine in Nepal...
and the westernmost Chaubisi kingdom
PyuthanPyuthan District of 212,484. Pyuthan Khalanga is the district's administrative center.-Geography:Pyuthan borders Dang Deukhuri District to the southwest along the crest of the Mahabharat Range and extends about 50 km northeast through the Middle Hills to a 3,000+ meter ridge that is both...
. For the Khas, the intervening highlands unsuited for rice cultivation were hardly worth contesting. The movement of political focus eastward to Kathmandu in the 18th century—250 kilometers and more than a week's journey—also contributed to the growing isolation of Kham lands.
Underdevelopment
Kham isolation, official neglect, underdevelopment and poverty essentially continued through the 19th and 20th centuries. The main export was manpower as merceneries to the
BritishThe British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
and
IndianThe Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
armies, or whatever other employment opportunities could be found for largely uneducated and unskilled labor. Kham also practice
transhumanceTranshumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...
by grazing cattle, sheep and goats in summer pastures in subalpine and alpine pastures to the north, working their way down to winter pastures in the
Dang-Deukhuri valleys, but the carrying capacity of pastures accessible to the Kham is finite. Despite unending toil, food shortages have become a growing problem that still persists. Food deficits were historically addressed by grain imports bought dearly with distant work at low wages.
As economic development brought schools electricity, motor roads, hospitals and a wider range of consumer goods to surrounding areas, few benefits trickled up into the highlands and contrasts became even more invidious. Perversely, development introduced motor transport which diminished porterage employment. Cultivating
hempCannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
and processing it into
charasCharas is the name given to a hashish form of cannabis which is hand-made in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India. It is made from the resin of the cannabis plant...
(
hashishHashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
) lost standing as an income generator after 1976 when international pressure persuaded the national government to outlaw these recreational drugs and close government stores where those so inclined could freely purchase what was illegal in most of the world. Initiatives to replace the indigenous hallucinogen industry with cultivating fruit and produce largely failed after transport infrastructure reaching the Kham highlands proved inadequate to carry perishable goods to market.
Kham participation in Nepalese Civil War
Despite adversity Kham Magars retained a robust oral history and a sense of past greatness which created grievances and made them receptive to the
Maobadi (Maoist) movement that opposed the
Shah regime in the 1996-2006
Nepalese Civil War and even the multiparty democracy that the Shahs toyed with. Rolpa and Rukum districts in the center of the Kham homelands became known as the
Maoist heartland and Kham Magars were prominent as footsoldiers of its guerilla forces.