HISTORY OF SIKIIIM AND ITS RULERS. 37 



His descendants were called "Kasi-tliang-ba," or "the arrivals from 

 Kasi." 



The other brothers travelled east into the hills, whence their 

 descendants found their way westward at a subsequent period : hence 

 they were known as the " Muna-pemba," or "the late comers." They 

 are now better known as the Lhasa Gotra, from having come from the 

 direction of East Tibet. In this branch there were again four brothers, 

 the two kings U-ba-hang and Chang-ba-hang, and Kajung-ma and 

 Gammi-nia: the two first names have evident reference to the two 

 Tibetan Provinces of U (I;hassa) and Chang (Tashelhunpo) ; and in 

 consequence of this latter, or because they came from the north (Chang, 

 lit. Pyang), the Limbus derive their sobriquet of Chang. Dr. Waddell 

 explains that the name Limbu has been given them by the Neimlis : 

 they call themselves Ydkthumha (or Yak-herds), and the Lepchas and 

 Bhuteas call them THhonq (which in the vernacular means 'a mer- 

 chant,' and the Limbus were the chief cattle-merchants and butchers 

 in Sikhim). 



It has been mentioned above that Mubuk Wa-ma had Invented 

 and hidden four different kinds of "Bed" (the Limbu for books). 

 These were found the (l)by Bishu Karma, the protecting deity or ruler 

 of the Kamis; tlie (2) by Maliisur, a Bhutea lama ; the (3) by Bishun 

 Raja, the head of the Brahmans, and forms the present Deva-nagari; 

 while the (4) was found by the two Limbu Rajas mentioned above. 

 Unfortunately the doe-skin on which the characters had been written 

 had expanded and contracted so much with alternate damp and heat 

 that the writing was undeciplierable, and the Limbu alphabet remain- 

 ed lost. Many genei-ations later the great Limbu Siri-jungna, called 

 also the Dorze Lama of Yangrup, in a vision saw Mubuk Wa-ma, who 

 pointed out where another copy of the Limbu writings, inscribed on 

 stone, was to be found. The saint thus found them, and dictated to 

 his eight chief disciples what now remains of Limbu literature. Siri- 

 jungna was, however, in this betrayed to the Raja of Sikhim and the 

 Tasong monks. They in jealousy or from fear of the Limbus, now 

 becoming a united and separate people, tried to shoot him. In this 

 they failed, as also in an attempt to drown him ; so finally capturing 

 him alive, they filled his mouth with fowls' dung, whereupon his spirit 

 fled away in the form of a bird. Singha Raja was at that time King 

 of Nepal. It may be, as Mr. Eisley mentions, this Raja was Prithi 

 Narayan Singh, but in that case it is singular all authentic history of 

 Siri-jungna should have been lost in less than 100 years.* 



* Babu S. C. Dass in his " Narrative of a Journey to Lhassa," pa?e 6, btatos that the 

 famous Srijanga, the deified hero of the Limbus, appeared probably in the 9tli century, and is 

 identified by the cis-Hiuialayan Wiuteas with an incarnation of Padma Sambhava. It is also 

 said that he was born 95 years after Uikramjit's era, i.e., about 38 A.D. 



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