"Tamang is neither a Nepali word nor a Tibetan one."
Subjugated and abused by Nepal’s first Hindu monarch, willfully referred to as ‘Tamangs’, this community has suffered much and continues to worry about what else must come, writes Furba Lama
MAHAYANA is one type of Buddhism and the other, Nyingmapa, was created by Gurupadmasamva, affectionately called Guru Rinpoche by Tibetans in Tibet, in the seventh century. Before this, there no Buddhism in Tibet and all Tibetan communities and sub-sects were followers of Bon Dharma. The Tamags were the first Tibetan sub-sect to embrace Nyingmapa Buddhism in Tibet at Palyul, where the first Nyingmapa Buddhist gompas (monasteries) were built. The word Tamang is wrong; neither is it a Nepali nor a Tibetan word. In fact, Tamag is the correct word and its pronounciation is correctly mentioned in the Tibetan-to-English dictionary (page 980) prepared and published by Sarat Chandra Das of Lhasa Villa, Darjeeling, in 1834 and it is also mentioned in the same dictionary (pages 780 and 781) that fifth Panchen Rinpoche invited Das to Tibet in 1879 and 1881. It also mentions that Panchen Rinpoche died of smallpox in 1882 and that the sixth Panchen Rinpoche took over as an infant in 1883.
The veracity of the word Tamag can be proven from its meaning: Ra-ta-ta=Ta; Dau-ma-ga-mag=Mag; therefore, the letter or word Ta, meaning horse, and Mag meaning army, gives the word Tamag, meaning Mounted Army (in Nepali Ghorchari Sena, Risalla, Aswarohi Sena). There were so many Tibetan sub-sects of which the Tamags were the main security and protection force of the palace and king. That is why Tamag is a Tibetan word that was willfully mispronounced and intentionally changed to Tamang by the so-called first Hindu monarch just after the creation of Nepal. Tamang is neither a Nepali word nor a Tibetan one.
Before the creation of Nepal, there were Tamags in the Temal Hill in the seventh century and since Nepal is not more than 244 years old, it means and proves that Nepal was created in 1767 after the tribal kings of different buffer states were subjugated by the so-called Hindu king who integrated their holdings into one nation called Nepal. But even after this unification, there was no common language in this newly created country. Of course, there were the Khas and Parbatay languages that were spoken by the Kamis, Damais and Sarkis, and even the Chettris, Bahoons and Thakuris spoke the Rajput and Rajasthani languages in 1767 when these were introduced in those buffer tribal states by the Rajasthani Rajput King of the Saha clan.
Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta also belonged to the Bahoon community, also an intruder from Rajasthan, and the common mother tongue and language of these people were Rajasthani and Hindi. When these communities intruded into those tribal buffer states where the Khan and Parbatay languages were used by the Kamis, Damais and Sarkis, they introduced their languages which Bhanu Bhakta employed and translated the Ramayan in a very easy language which he called Nepali. Bhakta collected the script from Deonagari Lipi of Hindi and prepared the Nepali script and wrote on home-made Nepali paper. At the time that Bhakta created his language — called Nepali by the first Hindu king of the first Hindu country called Nepal 244 years ago — he was 29 years old. Therefore, from the 193rd birth anniversary celebrated by Nepalis all over the world on 13 July 2009 we can easily find that the age of the Nepali language is thus: 193-29 (Bhakta’s age at the time) = 164 years.
The Tamag community and their language is more than 1,067 years older than that of the Nepali/Gorkha community and their language, culture, costumes their religion. Therefore, this proves that the Tamags are a different tribal community, with their own spoken language and script that is approved by the Language Research Institute, government of India, at Mysore (Karnataka): Tamyig language. Since 2005 this language has been implemented in schools in Sikkim, and for which that state government has appointed Tamyig language teachers in different schools. Tamags have their own costumes, culture and eating habits. The community embraces and follows Nyingmapa Buddhism. In the seventh century, the Tamags were compelled by the so-called first Hindu king of “unified” Nepal in 1767 to give up their culture, costumes, language and main festivals (Sonam Lochar). Defiance invited severe punishment from the so-called Hindu King’s forces, who intruded from Kanauj (Rajasthan) and included the Rajputh communities of Chettris and Bahoons. This explains why the Tamags lost everything after the unification of Nepal.
Therefore, we still have doubts here in the Darjeeling Hill areas. Will the same be repeated here? Will Tamags be safe and secure, allowed to retain their culture, language, costumes, religions beliefs? The present Tamag generation is just uplifting itself, developing in Darjeeling, Sikkim, Assam, the Dooars and so many places elsewhere.
Tamags should come forward and do something about the preservation of Nyingpapa Buddhism and their culture, rituals and lifestyle. If these vanish, all Tamags will face an identity crisis. Each and every Tamag must keep in mind that they different than the other communities.
TAMANGS ARE DIFFERENT
As Posted on the Statesman on April 09 2010
Comments
Tamang is one of the major indigeneous schedule tribe of west bengal $sikkim, in the contex of india . presently every one is here to destroye the tamang cultural heritage, political right,social right even human right,constitution right granted for schudule tribe. do not mislead by gorkhaism just for temprory political benifit .be a cultured tamang and work for tamang community and people of darjeeling region and not for gorkha and gorkhaism.
As I beleive and know, the above article by phurba is correct and to the point. This kind of articles must come to the electronic media for our hyulbas to kinow about them as we tamangs are deprived of knowing our own history in the schools and colleges. It would be a great peace of work if we make our history known to our brothers/sisters and the world as a whole. I believe it should not have any bearings on other communities and cultures. It is our birth right to know about us and to be cultured. Well done phurba. Keep feeding us with more and more history of tamangs.
all tamang should come forward and preserve our culture and everything...
We are known as Tamangs and we even call our selves Tamang. What do you thing is the right way to call ourselves? Tamang or Tamag? The way I understand our history is that during the Tibet's 3 great Dharma Kings, we were the elite cavalry force under King Tsrohchhen Gompa, the 1st one. And we were called Tamang (Ta=Horse, Mang=ghost). Can you also elaborate little more on this matter?
well this is a very good article for me and many thank for keeping such a good article here.
thankyou and keep it up
no i think at reallity we should be called tamag coz the word tamag is an tibitean word at the time when move nepal from tibet i think at tha time we also speak tibitean language. am also tamang but i also have learnd tibitean language known tibetean language as i known by tibitean word yup sure we should be tamag nor tamang i agreed phurba jojo yup you have done great job as we all tamang people we have to grown up we have to further we have to show that what is our real culture what we are.
thank u phurba dai keep it up
learning what tamang's are makes me go deeper to find the ROOTS
I agree with all the comments above. But still I am in dilema. Why do tamang write Lama? What is the reason for writing lama instead of tamang?
Thanks Furba for all these information. I learned that from my grand father too. I was told it is Tamag and not Tamang. Tamang is willfully mistake committed by Khas King and political elites. I also don't like when they purposefully build Hindu temple close by our historical Buddhist holy places in Nepal, and they sacrifice innocent animals there. I feel that is insulting or trying to provoke me,
Ya this is really nice article, i like it and i hope everybody who comes through this article will definitely like it... I'm very thankful to the guy(jojo) who has written this article and give us very important information. thank you bro and keep it up .
i liked ur article very much.I had been searching for our history for a very long time and i was eager to know about it.So thanks to you dat u kept this article.I hope u'll keep more information regarding tamangs.
lasso Fhyafulla,
Thank u so much for atleast leaving the gr8 lines for all Tamag/Tamangs around the world, i really enjoyed reading the articles all about Tamag/Tamang and hope to get more information here after. Am really prode to be Tamang among all.
i just wanted to get clear myself regarding how the word "TAMAG" has been named...jojo phurba mentioned that the meaning is "Mounted Army ", Ra-ta-ta=Ta; Dau-ma-ga-mag=Mag, the prounciation seems similiar to tibetan, so what i believe is that, we have been orginated from southern tibet.....i have read a book named "KALIGANDAKI-THE SALT ROUTE", it explains about the orgination of tamang, the salt bussiness carried out along the Tibetan-Nepal broader......anyone interested can go through that book, the book has been published after conducting the research by one of the forigner, sorry i forgot the authour's name,
tashi delek!
Helo & tashi delek to al of u. It is true that the origin of tamang is from tibet. At 7th century the king of tibet(songtsen gompo) he made the unification of tibet & conquered many other countries. At that time, he made many division of armies . One was cavalry(tamag). In tibetan word, tamag means cavalry. According to the old chinese scripture, At that time in tibet the no of army was 3.4 million but later, the scholars around the world about tibet. They declared that there were 60 thousand armies in tibet at that time. Many words of tamang are same as ancient tibetan language. One thing, i want to clear is about lama language. In fact, it is a tibetan language Which is using now a days by most of the himalayan region like sherpa, Ladakh, bhutan, spiti, mustang etc. In nepal, which is lama language, in ladadh which is bohti language, in tibet which is tibetan language. So, one language different names. That language is made by thume sambodh(minister of king songtren gompo). Thume went to india & studied sanskrit for 7 years & finally,he made tibetan handwriting & tibetan grammar & tranlate many buddhism scripts into tibetan. Finally, no matter what is the history of our past but our rich culture(buddhism) we should preserve & which is our identity.
I would say whatever we call either tamang or tamag we are from the same root,there are no any reason to ask each other between tamang.But we must know the reason why we can`t have correct reply.We must better try to find out and know the reason of the confusing in owns history.Due to that reason tamang are living all around the south Asia spreading.We know tamang are main indigenous people of the Nepal who were living in the heart of the Nepal which is called Yambu in the tamang language.The true history are hiden or been burn by the ruler of the 19 century.
What ever the history may be, I just request all my tamang community to keep in mind that we are from the same root, nevertheless our community has been suffered, tortured uprooted right from our religion to customs and cultures. Now the time has come to rebuild it again. Do not made debate of celebration of Lochar, no need to take permission to wear your dresses. We have every right to do what we think and what is the best for our community. But its sure, we have to have is a right vision to uplift our fellowmen and show them rigt direction
we tamang have suffered a lot in the history. So, Its all that we have to be united to rebuild our lost tradition.
i am o.k and with you all along.
vive tamag the time has come now for us.
vive tamag the time has come now for us.
Well i am neither tamang nor nepali.i am just a tibetan boy.but i was so suprised that tamang story is very related with we tibetans. I once heard this story of tamag not tamang.for that reason i came accrosss this article.This is very interesting. yeah every tamang should preserve their own cultural. But i don't think, tamangs should worry about Nyingma sects cause we tibetans has preserved that very well.But it is very important to preserve tamang language. i have never heard of that before this article. i have always thought that tamang is Nepali. anyway article helped me alot.thanks and best of luck'
lhachok
first of all we are a human being after that tamang,rai, limbu etc. therefore we should make universal and evergreen policy for the welfare of human being. nobody can say this is a fact. history can also be mould with lapse of time.
#siddhartsyangden
If you do not believe in our history, why did you believe in others history. Unless you know your history how could you know others 'history. If you do not believe and accept your own history then it is understood that you also do not accept your real father and mother. We have our unique history written more than 200 years ago and we very much believe in our history. Every body have tried to distort our history and civilization but truth can never be deleted or distorted. We have own history written by foreign others who were neutral in writing more than 200 years ago. We believe in that conscious people have started accepting our unique history. Please go thru the article 'Dashai ani suga ko kahani' in this website. You may be one of the members of the suga.
Ya every Tamangs should know their history . And i would very confused that weather Tamangs were nepali or something and m all clear . Thank you Sir .
Fya fullo!! first of all thanks to everybody for your valabule articles. We tamag/Tamang have to show our culture and we have to make it evergreen, so I request to you all tamangs to keep up our culture, langauage and we have to make tamang popular all over the world not only the Asia.
YOU FOOLS, YOU ARE ALL NEPALIS. LOVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR PEOPLE.
Firstly! Fafullo to every one...i am Mr. Bittu Bomzen (Tamang) from Doars (Jaigaon), village at Darjeeling Soreng busty, i just wanted to know that why our Tamang is celebrating Dashai & Thiwhar and even Sonam Lhochar!!! what were the main ethics behind that????
Well ! on born of Tamang Community i heard that Tamanag is Horse ko Gothalo (caretaker) and i heard one more thing that our Father is Tibetian (Buddhist) and mother is Hindu (Chettri) where they got married! and born a baby, but the Father family did not accept that baby to give title Tibetian, they have decided to give the Titel Tamang which means "Ghoda Ko Ghothalo" to looks after the Horse. So thats why our Tamangs were celebrating both. Whether is it true or not??????
THANKS Furba jojo for your info..about our community...keep going for more history...as we all r confused....thanks again
Fyaphulo to all our tamang 'santan'....let our culture remain forever with bright colours n remark a great place in the history..Let us feel proud to be born in Tamang family.Let us not forget our Dharma n our origin..Never forget to respect one and all in the society.
I am proud to be a tamang boy. Lasho Phyaphulla. Jai Tamang Jai Taamshaling.
Tamang is corrupted version of Tamag. Tibetan history mentions that during the heydays of tibetan empire, large number of Tibetan Cavalry was stationed in the southern borders of Tibet and Tamangs are children of those brave soldiers. Ethnically and culturally Tamangs are very close to Tibetans. Unfortunately Tamangs suffered gravely under the Hindu rule when Kingdom of Nepal came into existence and Tibetan power weakened in Central Asia after the death of King Lang Darma. Large part of what is today Nepal was once part Tibet. It is important to know your roots and preserve your identity.
Now the time has come for all the Tamangs to come close and be united to improve the community under one umbrella, some of the organisations in darjeeling hills have started to release false news about Tamang community and trying to isolate the community everywhere, we must understand the propoganda of these opportunist and anti Tamang organisations. WE MUST BE UNITED AND FIGHT BACK, JAI TAMANG, JAI TAMSALING
thnx to my all brothers
Thank yo Jyojyo Furba for bringing this article and all those who commented (positively (towards identifying us as Tamang or Tamag') for me both are the same and the fact is that our ancestry goes back to Tibet, so language and culture. We should certainly know/learn our roots from where we came. When we recognize our roots, we perhaps know where we are going. I am personally very proud to be one of you all, born and raised in eastern Nepal (now is US for my study); where ever we live now (Nepal, Skikkim, Darjeeling, or any country in the world), we are still the same family members, we are inter-connected. Thus, we have our moral responsibility and mutual roles to help this community to be grown and recognized. Let us explore further and preserve our culture and traditions, but let us prepare to compete this world. Let us respect and support each other, help if we can, if not at least let us 'do no harm'. Otherwise, we will still be exploited/misused by other people, specially political parties/groups that we have been suffered since many years. Let us invest for our kids education and health, and teach them our culture. Lhasso Fyafulla! Tashi Delek!
thank for the introduction of my cas and conclusion that i like the conclusion . i don't know that tamang is not nepali word but now i know true pronouncation .
thatnk for keeping such a good article in web page . lama means tamang or what i was confused ocz in world war 2 gunjaman lam got victoria cross medal . can u tell plz .
i am proud dat i belong to Tamang community i request all my brothers and sisters to come forward and preserve our culture and religious heritage.Thujeche
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