Sunuwars (Koincha in own Sunuwar language) are not only assumed as the historical tribes but also considered as a ethnic group who have a separate history. Actually Sunuwars are Kirant. According to the chronicle (Bansawali) of Kirkpatrick, Kirants ruled over Nepal from about 900 B.C. to 300 A.D. During this long period, altogether 29 Kirat Kings ruled over the countries but according to kirant bansawali record there is 34 kiranti king who ruled the Nepal. Yalambar was such mighty and legendary kirant king who led the kirat in legendary kuruchhetra war of Mahavarat. Yelamber was considered as god king by the Kirantee people as incarnation of Mahadeva so he is called AKASH VAIRAB as well as another form of lord Siva or The lord of terror. So it is still kept in the three storey structure in the cental square of Indra Chowk in the temple of AKASH VAIRAB or temple of legendary kirant king yalamber.
The twenty-nine Kirantee Kings were listed as following:
1. Yalambar 2.Pari 3. Skandhar 4.Balamba 5.Hriti 6.Humati 7.Jitedasti 8.Galinja 9.Oysgja 10.Suyarma 11.Papa 12.Bunka 13.Swawnanda 14.Sthunko 15.Jinghri 16.nane 17.luka 18.Thor 19.Thoko 20.Verma 21.Guja 21.Guja 22.Pushkar 23.kKeshu 24.Suja 25.Sansa 26.Gunam 27.Khimbu 28.Patuka 29.Gasti
The last King of the Kirant dynasty was Gasti. He proved to be a weak ruler and was overthrown by the Sombanshi ruler Nimisha. It brought to the end of the powerful Kirant dynasty.When they defeated by lichabi king Again they Regrouped and formed the another kirant kingdom in banepa that day was maghe siri panchami or sukla pagnchami.Their new kirant kingdom was started from Sanga Bhanjyang hill Kathmandu valley to Sikkim in east and remain as hostile power for the lichhavi.
After Twenty years of ruling in Banepa as kiranti kingdom Later this kingdom was divided into 3 small kingdom they were called Wallo kirant (Sunuwar: Located in Sunkosi areas), majh kirant (Rai / Khumbu dominated) and pallo kirant (Limbu dominated) with the different kings. Among them wallo kirant had boarder from sanga bhanjyang from west to dudh koshi in east.Friest king of wallo kirant was king Binicha. He was such mighty king and had power of wishful death only. According to myth he had hidden Tupi {long hair in middle of the head} without cutting this he wouldn’t die this was his secrecy and famous for magic and art of warfare. That is why, the locality of the canopy of Kirant Sunuwar (Koincha) is mainly Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhuli, Udayapur and some minor Sunuwar are migrated to Khotang, Ilam, Sunsari, Jhapa, Siraha, Sarlahi etc. Usually Sunuwars uses theirs own ethnic language ie Sunuwar Language as the mother tongue and Sunuwar culture as the custom culture which has be adopting from the historical time period. however the basic root letters of the language and cultural rituals was primitively same to all Kirantees however it was chronologically changed and adopted according to the localities and most of the cultural rituals and major languages are still coinciding to each others. Within Kirant-Sunuwar, there are may sub-family such as Yata, Rawacha, Linucha, Kyuiticha, Jeticha, Mulicha etc.
According to Kirant-Sunuwar chronicle, We used to form this wallo kirant in the time of maghe siri panchami or sukla panchami as the another form of yele sambat and declared that day as the New Year as it was before. This new year used to celebrate like chandi dancing, Playing traditional Kirant’s music tools Dhol, Jhyamta etc, drinking with socially acceptable ways. Stick fighting, sword fighting khukuri fighting and other game of archery are also famous for this festival. This type of games are considered as the kiranti’s traditional culture and accepted as the game of warrior. So wallo kirant- Sunuwar used to practice and celebrate this new year in time of maghe siri panchami. This is not only the festival of Sunuwar but also of all other Kirants such as Limbu, Rai so all kiranti must recognize our festival and retrieve our ancient pride.
They were only not ancient but also had very developed civilization like Indus civilization and Mohenjo-Daro civilization. Ancient Indian civilization is civilization of kirata. This great civilization was situated in north east Himalayan range of Mahavarat. According to S.K chattarji, North eastern kirant civilization was key civilization of ancient India. They were the supreme power in that era. If you see the 10000 BC Scientific human evolution film then you can find out how civilized Kirant culture was existed in past. When southern Chinese people used to cultivate paddy and living with happy civilize life that time how westerner were struggling for resources and living in cave like wild man. We are such rich in historically, culturally and traditionally but we seems losing our all faith due to dynamic change of time. They start to lose their colony, civilization, culture, tradition one after another but now this is our duty to restore ancestral pride and their spirit. Let’s conserve our cultural heritage!
