In the Tibetan language, "Tamang" means horse traders, which suggests that their ancestors traded horses with a northern community, the Newars, and later settled and intermarried among them. The Tamang are also good mountaineers and mountain-guides.
|
The Tamangs are an ancient and major indigenous people
of Nepal. Many oral and written sources on Tamang history have been
recorded which say the Tamang originated in Tibet. Today,
they live mainly in the high hills north of Kathmandu. In the 2001
census, Nepal's Tamang population was 1,282,304 people --5.6% of Nepal's
total population. Tamangs are Lama Buddhists. They have gompas (monasteries) in every sizeable village and retain jhankris (shamans) in addition to their lamas (priests). |
Tamang Clan http://nfdin.gov.np/1/content/view/63/9/
photo: Tamang children: http://nfdin.gov.np/1/content/view/63/43