TAMANG

also called Murmi, people of Nepal living in the mountains northwest, north, and east of the Kathmandu Valley. Their numbers were estimated to be about 690,000 in the late 20th century. The Tamang speak a language of the Tibeto-Burman family. They are Buddhist in religion. Most of them draw their living from agriculture, but in some areas they work as day labourers and porters. Some have served, along with other Nepalese ethnic groups, as the Gurkha soldiers of the British and Indian armies. They trace their descent along paternal lines and have patrilineal clans, some of which do not intermarry. Some Tamang clans permit marriage with other neighbouring peoples, such as the Newar, Gurung, and Magar.