Origin of Magars of Nepal - VI ( Bijaya Thapa DNA Analysis)

 As I am getting the feedback of my Magar friends on my blog recently on "Magar Origin", it inspires me to write this article on our origin.

This article will be my version of analysis of Bijay Thapa's DNA analysis video uploaded in Youtube. ( You guys can easily check the video by typing 'Bijaya Thapa DNA analysis' in Youtube search button.) Also, I would like to tender my unconditional apology, for using his video in my article without his permission. 

Now, let's start with the disclaimer that whatever data provided by the said site will change in future as more and more DNA data is fed in the system. The analysis is purely based on whatever is shown in the video.

As shown in the data Bijay Thapa's father side DNA that is yDNA is consist of 78% East Asian genes and 20% Central South Asian genes, rest 2% is others. In East Asian its 57% North East Asia, 20% South East Asia and 6% Siberia. This figure is according to my expectation. This shows that how we Magars are connected to Chinese, Thais, Siberian etc.The surprising fact here is 20% genes of South Asian. However, after seeing the migration map it clear our doubt. 

As we all know that Homo Sapiens is originated from Africa. And as said in the video our ancestors migrated from Africa 50000 years ago. The same group which settled in Southern India whom also known as Dravidian, is the one later go to China mainland. And from there they spread to Mongolia, Siberia and then South East Asia. That's the reason why we still posses 20% Dravidian genes.

One interesting fact is that we have only less than 2% of Oceania genes and less than 1% of South American genes. This shows that these people migrated to America way ahead of our ancestors.

So, one thing that it's concludes is that we are no doubt migrated from China to our present day Nepal. 

But the thing is, exactly when did we migrated from China to Nepal is still not clear from this DNA analysis. Little more research needs to be done to find this fact. Till then we have to wait for little more time. 

ORIGIN OF MAGARS OF NEPAL - IV (Where did the Magar come from? / Genetic studies of Magars of Nepal)

Hi Guys, in 2016 when I have written about the Origin of Magars of Nepal. Today with some more materials available in the internet with concerned topics I have thought to update you guys.

First, I want to mention that my last prediction of the date that we must have migrated to Nepal around 2000-1500 BC is pretty close to the date find out by research. My assumption of that time was based on whatever materials I have read that time.

But, this time I have more proof with me. Please find the source of the article at the end of the article and you guys can yourself  go and read the entire article in their respective websites.

All these three different articles presented here today will clarify what I wanted to said in my last article (Part III ).

Here, I have found one more thing that Gurungs are the closest tribe to us probably we could have belong to single stock long back.

So here are those articles:

1. “ It was observed that our study population comprised both Tamangic (Gurung, Tamang) and Magaric (Magar) groups of Tibeto-Burman language family, based on assessment of ethnicity from ethno-linguistic questionnaire (Table 4). Further investigation of phylogenetic relationship between the Gurung, Tamang and Magar groups showed clustering of the Tamangs with Tibetans10, Tamangs10 and Sherpas9 while Gurungs and Magars showed genetic relatedness with those from Kathmandu, Nepal9,10 (Fig. 4). Gurungs and Magars were also closely clustered suggesting common origin of these two ethnic groups (Fig. 4). This interesting observation, however, is required to be substantiated by increasing the markers and the ethnic groups. Although little is known about Tamang history, it is believed that they came from Tibet possibly around 3000 years ago. The Magar people (genetically and physically Mongoloid/East Asian) are believed to have migrated from Tibet via Sikkim although their origin is shrouded in mystery. Origin of Gurungs is also uncertain though linguistic evidence suggests that their ancestors may have migrated from Tibet about 2000 year ago. They are predominantly of Mongoloid racial stock and speak a language which largely belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family32. Time estimation results indicate that people from Tibet began to migrate to Nepal around 6000 years ago11 which is also in agreement with the archeological findings of reported sharing of Neolithic features between Nepal and Tibet33 and historically recorded passes (Kodari and Rasuwa) which had connected the Nepalese and the Tibetans since the ancient times34. A recent study has revealed presence of Denisovan haplotype in the Himalayan population35.”

Source : nature.com

2. “ The Magar are a tribe which is representative of Tibet, with little South Asian genetic input presumably. The Newar are the Nepalese hybrids par excellence. To a great extent they can be viewed as the indigenous peoples of the Kathmandu region at the heart of modern Nepal. Their language is of Tibetan affinity, and yet it is heavily overlain with an Indo-Aryan aspect, and seems to have within it an ancient Austro-Asiatic substrate. Though predominantly Hindu today, the Newar have a substantial Buddhist minority whose roots may go back to the original Mahayana traditions which were once prominent in northern India. The Brahmin and Chetri groups are upper caste communities who claim provenance from the north Indian plain. Some of these upper caste groups in Nepal are of recent vintage, having fled the Islamic conquests of the Gangetic plain within the last 1,000 years. And yet even they have obvious Tibetan admixture. This should make one cautious about the excessive claims to genetic purity which South Asian caste groups make.
But admixture of a Tibetan or East Asian component in South Asia is not limited to Nepal. I have reedited a figure from a 2006 paper on Indian Americans which shows the inferred components of ancestry of various language-groups. It is clear that the northeastern groups, Bengalis, Assamese, and Oriya, have an affinity to East Asians. This is not just ancient east Eurasian ancestry, the “Ancestral South Indians” hypothesized in Reich et al.. The South Indian groups (which I have excised from the figure) do not exhibit the same level of elevation of the ancestral quantum dominant among the Han Chinese in the bar plot. In fact the Reich et al. paper also reported evidence of an eastern ancestral element in some of the Munda speaking groups of northeast India.
So we see that genes do flow around the margins of South Asia, and into it. And yet Tibet seems oddly insulated. Why? Because of adaptation. Like water, it seems in this case genes tend to flow downhill, not up, and the reason is likely the fitness differentials between lowland and highland populations along the slope of the Great Himalayas. ”

Source: www.covermagazine.com

3. “ This identified the Rai, followed by the Magar and Tamang as the genetically closest Nepalese ethnic groups to the Sherpa (Additional file 1: Table S5). It is noteworthy that the Magar are believed to have originally migrated from the same region of Tibet as the Sherpa

The (Tibetan-ANI) admixture events were then dated in the admixed Nepalese subgroups (Newar, Magar and Tamang) using Rolloff [20]. Results correlate well with the documented arrival dates of these ethnic groups to Nepal [6, 21]. Assuming a generation time of 30 years, our analysis dated an admixture event to have occurred in the Newar 1,504 YBP (years before present, 50.13 generations), which correlates well with historical records that have suggested the Newar have resided in Nepal since the early 4th century [21, 22]. We dated admixture events for the Tamang and Magar as 1233 YBP (41.09 generations) and 866 YBP (28.87 generations) respectively. These dates correlate well will historical records that suggest the Tamang’s arrival in Nepal around the 8th century, and the Magar’s in Nepal in the 12th century.

Elevated levels of ROH were also detected in all the other Nepalese groups (Magar, Rai, Newar and Tamang), and Sherpa from the villages of Thame, Lukla, Namche, Forte and Solukhumbu, suggesting both ancient and recent shared ancestry as a cause of elevated homozygosity in these subgroups. The observed patterns of homozygosity across the ROH thresholds for the Sherpa from Khumjung and Kunde indicates ancient shared parental ancestry, most likely due to isolation and small Ne, with little recent consanguinity”

Source : www.bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com

Hope after reading it you guys have better understanding regarding our genology.

I have even read that we could have possibly come directly from Tibet & not via Burma as per Hayden et al, 2007. But further research needs to be done here.

Edit 1: In first case its from the article "genetic diversity in Gorkhas in www.nature.com" its clearly mentioned that people have started migrating from Tibet to Himalayan region around 6000 years ago. They have also mentioned that Magars might have come to Nepal around 2000 years ago ie. 1st millennium CE.

Looking for you guys suggestions and comments as always !!!!!

ORIGIN OF MAGARS OF NEPAL - III (Where did the Magar come from?)

After a gap of 2 years, there is lot of information available on internet and definitely help in more research and have better information. And actually, when I have started to gather more information on Origin of Magars, I have come across many new information and better understanding about us.

Before this I used to believe that Magars belong to Mongolian race, which is true also and same is said by many scholars. But the word Mongolian itself is too broad and nowadays scholars are using more and more specific words to refer. Me too at this point is in better position to look into our origin.

Like I have mentioned in my last article “Origin of Magars – II” I have mentioned Magars would have come to Nepal around 1000 BC, but now I think they may have came to Nepal much earlier. At that time in 2014 I have given the reasons for the same. But this time I went little deeper. According to my study the current people of Tibetan plateau started to migrate around 3000 BC from Northern or Eastern China and to be more specific from basin of Yellow River or Yangtze River. Though, the plateau was already inhabited by the people. Genetic study of the current Tibetan shows that most of the people currently residing there are migrated around 3000 BC.

The more we want to understand ourselves the more close look is required. Though, to know our past is difficult as compared to Aryans, as there is little written material available with us. But now we can still find it with as many advance technologies available and more and more research happening. May be after 2 years we have better understanding if some scholar use all the available resource and technology use to find the fact and do research specifically on Magars.

One of the surprising result I have found during my research is that we belong to Han race of China. As 90% of Chinese people is genetically belongs to Han. You can find more about Han in internet. (Though, we need DNA test to prove the same.) But if we are not also I can say we are very closely related to them, and I am sure the DNA study can prove the same. (Though, for the moment we can wait till someone actually do some further research on it.)

So, at the moment in broad sense I can say that we belong to Han race. Technically, when I say Han here I mean Han race as, Bahuns claim that they belong to Aryans. If you do some research on Han, you will find, Han dynasty which was there in China around 200 BC. Han period was considered as a golden age in Chinese History. To this date, China’s majority ethnic group refers to itself as Han people and Chinese script is referred to as Chinese characters. Further, Han Chinese trace their ancestry from the Huaxia people. Huaxia (means civilized society) refers to a confederations of tribe living along the Huang He or Yellow river in China. Writers during the Han periods derived ancestral lineages from the Huaxia (later known as Xia) based on Shang era legendary materials. From, here I have understood one thing that if we have to understand our roots we need to study Chinese civilization. With the brief Han history, you must have known now that where the Han word have originated from.

Now back to our question. So around 3000 BC - 2000 BC along the Huang He and Yangtze river small civilizations started flourishing. As there was Indus valley civilization 3300 BC – 1700 BC around Indus river. As it’s known that all the ancient civilization was first came up along the basin of rivers. If we go little deeper Aryan themselves came to Ganges plain around 1900 BC. Before they came Indus valley civilization was already destroyed. Though this doesn’t mean that the people also wiped out, people must have survived & they later mixed with Aryans. Aryans must have incorporated few Indus culture in its own.

So, many tribes or civilized societies started coming up along the Huang He and Yangtze rivers of China around 3000 BC. And, must be MAGARS were one of them. Most probably, as scholars also accept that Magars have originated along the basin of Yangtze river. May be at that time with few hundred people or with the people with same clan distinguished themselves as MAGARS. Its just like separation of joint family when its grow too big. As this phenomenon is naturally understood. But, its not sure whether they use to call them Magars at that time or something else, its difficult to say. But I am certain that by that time they were already a different tribe.

And, now how can I be so sure that we came from there. Our culture, our language, our script, our faith, our tradition everything speak for itself. Here, I have come across one more interesting thing to prove the theory. It’s known that our we are originated somewhere near present day Siberia and Mongolia. And there can be two possible routes from there to reach Nepal. In east, through Huang He and Yangtze rivers valley or from west Tibetan plateau. If east is true it will prove my theory. If west is true then we should not be what we are today, because of number of reasons.

First as I have said that, its genetically proved that Tibetans were migrated to current location around 3000 BC. Before that Tibetan plateau was occupied by nomads. Here too there can be two possibilities, before  Tibetan or after Tibetan migrated to the plateau. Before is not the acceptable answer to me because, before Tibetan moved to plateau, people inhabiting there must have been nomads. We should have been probably like Rautes. But contrary to it we have our own rich culture. Trails of our rich history, past and folkfare is the witness of it. So, it is not possible that we have migrated here, when we were still Nomads. I mean we were already a developed society before moving to Nepal or our present place.

Interestingly this theory hold good for Rautes and Tharus too. In my opinion Tharu are the first mongoloid people who moved towards the south or cross the Himalaya and came southward, and settled at foothills of Himalayas. Why, Tharus because definitely like Magars they have also taken the path of Sikkim and move towards west. I can surely say that they are the first people of oriental feature migrated from Himalaya. They must have come there around 3000 BC. Because, the Tharus genes analysis is extensively available on internet, though now it is more toward Aryan but 20% is still match with its oriental ancestors. When I am saying Thaurus I am not talking about Rana Tharus who are descendent of Rajputs. This theory will help in explain in their oriental like physical but their culture and language is more influenced by Aryans.

Similarly, Rautes could have stayed in prefer to stay in forest and hill only. Their hunting and not farming culture also shows that they would have here much before Magars.

So it’s a rare possibility that we would have migrated to Nepal as Nomads and then develop our own culture.(Unless its proven wrong by further scientific research later). Means when Magars started there movement towards south, it was already a developed tribe.

Similarly, Magars would have started moving from Eastern China around 3000 BC only. May be with other Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes, Magars also started moving from there. And may be around 2000 BC – 1500 BC they have settled in present day place. The same has been mentioned by other scholars too. Since, Magars & all other oriental looking tribes languages has common root, it also proves that, they have the same origin.

And also, its scientifically proven that Mongoliad people did cross the great Himalayas to enter Nepal even before the Aryans arrived. (Source: https://raunakms.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/genetic-ancestry-of-nepalis/). This also proves that Magars would have settled in Nepal around 2000 BC – 1500 BC. Because as I have said earlier Aryans started moving towards Ganges plain approximately 1900 BC.

But its sure that all the other Ethnic Mongoloid people who came to Nepal have migrated via Sikkim.

Before wrapping up, I want to discuss as Mentioned by writer Budhamagar, according to our  mythology, Magars evolved from two types of caves, namely Pelma Khar Pu or barely dispersing cave, and Yoma Khar Pu or hornet’s cave and scattered in all four direction. Now when I think about the true meaning of it I think its true. Because, here cave denotes colony or one society. Even the names resembles the ancient Chinese names. But if you ask me I would really love to read the Magar’s mythology and hope will help in ourselves much better. Now here the question is how the Pu title is converted into our present day titles.

Edit !: For sequel (Part IV) of this article please visit "

ORIGIN OF MAGARS OF NEPAL - IV (Where did the Magar came from? / Genetic studies of Magars of Nepal)

https://laanghali.blogspot.com/2019/09/origin-of-magars-of-nepal-iv-magar.html

The more we go deep, the deeper it gets.

Must See - Origin of Indiginious Group of Nepal

Must See - Origin of Indiginious Group of Nepal

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECVSSukvwvc

ORIGIN OF MAGARS OF NEPAL - II (Where did the Magar come from?)

After a long gap I finally feel confident to complete my unfinished work. Hope it will further enrich the knowledge of our own history & identity.

In one way it will be a kind of conclusion of all my work & articles collected so far.

As I will always say " There is no doubt that Magars have originated from Mongolian race. The biggest evidence is the resemblance of the physical feature. linguistic tree also shows the that the Magar language belongs to Sino-Tibetan family. (Ref: http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=MGP) "


Source: http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=7

But again I need to clarify that when I say Mongolian Race that doesn't mean that we are from Mongolia. For me it only signifies related to physical resemblace. Or otherwise we can say that we are great grand fathers have been migrated from Northern side of Nepal where people have same physical features and same line of language. (Because Mongol name is itself coined around 1200AD)

There movement was definitely like tribe. Like around 1500 BCE vedic people started moving down towards Ganges after the fall of Indus Civilization. That was time when new tribes were moving to new places. In the same way they would have also moved to their present day place.

Now, the next question is when did they come and did they come.

Its pretty easy to answer the second question as most scholars agree and I have found in many articles that Magars have come from present day Sikkim & the they moved towards west. (Read: Magar: A view VIII ( By my friend Babs) at http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=14)

In some articles I have read that Magars have come from India, I personally don't find it very logical.

Now the first question is when did they come to Nepal. In one of the article its mentioned they might have migrated around 1100 BCE (Read:  Magars, a short Histroy at http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=11)

Here I totally agree with the writer. If we assume that we are a part of Kirat than Kirats were mentioned in Yajurveda which was composed from 1200-1000 BCE. The other example is Mahabharata which was composed around 400 BCE has also mentioned about Kirat King Yalambar. So, we can say that we might have migrated at our present day place around 1500-1100BCE. The second option is what if we are not kirats. But in my opinion if we are not kirats then also we are definitely migrated with them because we belong to the same stock. And there are lot of similarities among us. (Read: Magar: A view VIII ( By my friend Babs) at http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=14)  Or we might have been more earlier here because Magar are more towards west as compared to so called present days kirats. Here I have tried to established the approx time when Magar migrated to Nepal.

However, we have lots of proof that we were among the first settle who settle in Nepal. As I have read in few articles where they claim that Aryans are the one who came first. The finest example is the Name of the places. Though, there would have been lot of changes in Magar culture since they came here, names of rivers, mountains and places itself proves the theory. This is one thing which time could not change.

Then little latter so called Khas tribe might have also started coming, however we can called them vedic people but not Hindus.

Some scholars says that Magar are Buddhist but in my opinion it doesn't seem so. Because, Gautam Buddha was born around 563 BCE and Magars were there before that. Secondly, in Vedas also lot has been written about Sakya clan, which Gautam Buddha belongs to. I personally feel that Magars were never influenced by Buddism at any point of time, only now there is much hype on it.

After this only mention of Magar comes around 800 AD when historians also agree that there was a strong Magar King called Aramudi who used to rule around Kali Gandaki region.

Now, what about the history of Magar before 800 AD and after they settle down in Nepal. Unfortunately, unlike vedic people we don't have vedas or epic like ramayan or mahabharata which can give us some sort of idea about that time. (If anyone has information of that era I would like to request him to share.) Neither our kings have tried to preserve our true identity or try to explore it.

But, one thing was sure that after Magar were settled they have started to grow bigger, from tribe they developed into principalities. However, the development was slow. However, in the meantime many Kings ruled and lot of activities happened in the Ganges plain but this region remain the same. But, the exact details like their area, names and internal politics are difficult to find.

However, by 800AD there was a Magar King, and an state.(Read:  Magars: A view VI at http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=14)

Later, may be lack of strong Magar King, the kingdom got divided into different principalities. Which results into Barah Magarat and Atharah Magarat. Name itself suggest that these were ruled by Magar Kings. Until Prithivi Narayan Shah's unification.

After, muslim invasion started in Ganges plane around 13th Century AD the so called Bahuns started coming to Nepal. Which is agreed by most of the scholars. Because of the same reason Khas people started getting the priority. And they are the one who brought caste system in Nepal. At that time many elite Magars might have been converted into chhetri thats the reason why many titles have common in Magars and chhetries. 

And since they have entered through varanasi via Kali Gandaki region, that is one of the reason why Magars is one of the the most influenced of indigenous group by Hindu as compared to Gurung, Rai & Limbu. 

Here, I just want to  mention that Hinduism and the word Hindu itself come much later as you can read in my blog.

I am sure that Magars were the rulers of Gandaki and Rapti region till 1600 AD.

However, in one of my article  (Read: Magar: A view VIII ( By my friend Babs) at http://laanghali.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B05:30&max-results=14) my friend Bab tried to explain that Shah were basically converted Magars. But how true the fact is needs to be researched. However, in that article he has tried to explain the origin of Magar.

 

ORIGIN OF MAGARS OF NEPAL - I (Where did the Magar come from?)

"History is not information that is handed down unchanged from generation to generation. Historical situations needs to be explained and explanation draw on the analysis of evidence , providing generalization that derive from the logic of the argument. with new evidence and fresh interpretations of existing evidence , a new understanding of the past can be achieved."  By Romila Thapar

The reason I have mentioned it here is that whatever I am going to write now may not be true but the truth or more precisely the fact can be find out by debate and analysis.

Before this I have also tried to include all the materials available on internet regarding Magars, the same can be seen in my blog, after studying all this I have decided to put my view.

Again, one must have the knowledge about its past or history. And Magars of todays generation have every right to know about its own history, the fact.   

Though, its a difficult task, as compare to history of Khas, which can be easily find. And as I always said that in textbooks history of Nepal was always a history around kathmandu. I fail to understand that is it because the lack of history outside kathmandu or lack of interest of so called authors.

You can still find the texts on Kirats but in context to Magars I have never heard of such things. Again there are possibility that such kind of text never existed or may be destroyed by the conquerors in order to put Magars into Dark past forever.

There is no doubt that Magars have originated from Mongolian race. The biggest evidence is the resemblance of the physical feature. linguistic tree also shows the that the Magar language belongs to Sino-Tibetan family. (Ref: http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=MGP)

Now the next question is when did they come to Nepal. If we assume that Magars have been originated from Kirat or say its Magars with other mountain tribe were called Kirats. Then its little easy to find the origin because Kirat were mentioned in ancient text like Yajur veda, Athar veda & Mahabharata. However, there is no such evidence which relates Magars with Kirat, though historians claim that.