Nepalese People and Customs People and Customs Perched on the
southern slopes of the Himalaya, state of Nepal is as ethnically
diverse as its terrain of fertile plains, broad valleys,
terraced hillsides and the highest mountain peaks in the world.
The Nepalese are descendants of three major migrations from
India, Tibet, and North Burma and Yunnan via Assam. Among the
earliest inhabitants were the Kirat of east mid-region, Newar of
the Kathmandu Valley and aboriginal Tharu in the southern Terai
region. The ancestors of the Bahun and Chetri caste groups
migrated eastward from Kumaon, Garwal and Kashmir, while other
ethnic groups trace their origins to North Burma and Yunnan and
Tibet, e.g. the Gurung and Magar in the west, Rai and Limbu in
the east, and Sherpa and Bhotia in the north. In the Terai, a
part of the Ganges Basin with 20% of the land, much of the
population is physically and culturally similar to the Indo-
Aryans of northern India. Indo-Aryan and East Asian looking
mixed people live in the hill regio