Kheng people
ethnic group
The Kheng people are found primarily in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, Bumthang, Dagana, and Mongar Districts of central Bhutan. They speak the Kheng language, a member of the extended Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) language family belonging to the East Bodish languages (non-Tibetic language) group; it is mutually intelligible with the Bumthang language and Kurtöp language to the north. The Kheng people are ethnolinguistically same as the Bumthang people and Kurtöp people of central Bhutan. The Kheng people are indigenous populations of south central Bhutan. Linguist and ethnographer Dr. Tim Bodt notes that the people of Kheng, Bumthang, Kurtöe and Trongsa Mangdue have a deep, indigenous history in Bhutan. Archaeological evidence and linguistic timelines suggest that the people of Kheng, Bumthang, Kurtöe and Trongsa Mangdue have inhabited the central valleys and rugged landscapes of the country for more than 4000 years. SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers as of 2009.
The Kheng people are devout followers of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly of the Nyingma tradition. Before the arrival of buddhism, the Kheng people practiced the ancient Bon religion—a tradition rooted in shamanism and animism.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kheng people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.