RAI

also called Khambu, tribe indigenous to northeastern Nepal, living west of the Arun River in the area drained by the Sun Kosi River, at elevations of 5,5007,700 feet (1,7002,300 m), and also in southwestern Bhutan. The most populous tribe of the Kiranti people, the Rai numbered about 232,300 in the late 20th century. They are of Tibeto-Nepalese stock and speak Kiranti. With the Limbu and Magar peoples, they supplied the bulk of the Gurkha contingent to the British-Indian armies. The Rai are subsistence farmers and stock raisers, depending primarily on crops of rice, corn (maize), and millet. They terrace the mountains for wet rice paddies and build their stone houses in the dry rice fields. The Rai trade grains and buffalo hides for salt and produce with the Sherpas. Their basic economic and political unit is the kinship group, which contains several endogamous subdivisions. Although influenced by both Buddhism and Hinduism, the Rai retain their traditional religion, a worship of local deities and common ancestors. Considered to be in the next-to-lowest caste, the Rai are benefiting slowly from government programs.