Some Nepalese Racial Types

Note: Repost from the old blog. This post will highlight some of the interesting racial types of Nepal. Nepal is a country that is very interesting racially, and seems to have a wide variety of phenotypes. Racially, Nepalese are generally Caucasians, but we are starting to head into the territory of Caucasians shading into Asians here. I don’t know much about the prehistory of Nepal, but I suppose it may be similar to the prehistory of India and possibly Tibet. These photos show Indian types from Nepal. There are also more Asiatic types, but I don’t have any photos of them right now. Although at one time, there were 60 different racial types classified in India, no one wants to do this kind of research now, because Hitler pretty much ruined classical racial studies forever. Anyway, I’m hoping Joe Stickler can stop by here and shed some light on some of these Indian types from Nepal here. Let’s take a look:

I find this Nepalese woman very interesting looking. She’s holding her cow by its head, and she’s laughing or crying or laughing and crying both. I don’t know what’s going on in this pic, but I hope she’s not crying because they are going to kill the cow. If she’s Hindu, they don’t kill cows anyway.My first thought when I saw her was that she looked like she could be a Spaniard. Or possibly an Italian. Looking again, I think she might be a North Indian Punjabi type. Many of these types can look very European. An Indian anthropologist, back when it was ok to do such things, went through and classified Indians into 60 different racial types. Some of the ones in the Northwest had names that seemed to imply a Nordic European affiliation. This is very much a classical Indian type from Nepal. I don’t know where Dravidian begins and Indian ends, so I’m not even going to begin to classify her. For many Indians, the Dravidian name is not very explanatory, and anyway, it’s not PC. You are supposed to say “South Indian” instead. This fellow is a “Bugpuri” from Nepal. I don’t even know what a Bugpuri is, but the text on the photo said that’s what the guy is. To me, this fellow seems to have retained a lot of primitive features and he actually appears somewhat Australoid in phenotype. But maybe I am hallucinating. Before 8,000 years ago, everyone in India looked Australoid. They may have looked Veddoid, like the Veddas. After that, they transitioned from Australoid to Caucasoid. Indian skulls from 24,000 years ago look like Aborigines. This is an interesting phenotype, also from Nepal – in this case, Southern Nepal. Southern Nepal has a lot more Indian types than the rest of the country. I’m going to say that these girls look “Dravidian”, but I could be wrong. I’m just guessing here. Note the wavy hair. This is typical of the Veddoid type. It is a very primitive type of hair. Caucasians, Aborigines and Veddoids all have this hair type. Joe Stickler, a Sri Lankan British commenter with an awesome knowledge of Indian racial types, it as, “a primitive yet simple and basic hair type without the extreme overspecialized hair texture adaptation of Mongoloids and Negroids.” It’s interesting that the Negroids have a more progressive hair type than we poor Caucasians. White Power takes another blow! Stickler also notes about the Veddoids: “Where did the Veddoids come from? They must have, in antiquity (40,000 – 60,000 +), adapted themselves to hot, moist and humid Indo-tropical forested regions, they were adapted to forested conditions and were hunters and gatherers. These adaptations would especially explain the diminution in their physical features but not the hair specifically. Veddoids, as representatives of the earliest population strata before the arrival and/or evolution of more modern standardized types (admixture), would have been very diverse looking, i.e., the Veddoids were diverse. The skin colors, hair textures, facial features, stature, etc. were all quite diverse, although what would have united these grades as a whole was their primitiveness.” These are very much classical Indian types here. Some look more North Indian, others look more South Indian. It’s pretty typical for Indians to have features of both, so the North Indian – South Indian distinction is a bit silly. These Indian types are once again from the south of Nepal. Once again, we have a highly unclassifiable Indian type from Nepal. This is also a very common phenotype in India, especially in the center of the country around Andra Pradesh. These are actually probably more typical Nepalese racial types. The woman has a somewhat Indid appearance, as does the daughter on the left, but all have a marked Asiatic component too, especially noticeable in the eyes. It’s quite clear in the daughter on the right, who could easily be a Filipino or other SE Asian, though she has a rather distinctive phenotype that does not fit well in comparison with other types. This research takes a lot of time, and I do not get paid anything for it. If you think this website is valuable to you, please consider a a contribution to support more of this valuable research.
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34 thoughts on “Some Nepalese Racial Types”

  1. the second Nepalese girl looks Tamil…
    But Tamils DO tend to look more australoid..
    The low caste Indians tend to have australoid features.
    The upper and middle caste Indians tend to look more caucasoid..
    I guess these dalits and the low caste people are indigenous to India.
    The upper and middle caste Indians could be those Indo aryans from Persia who invaded India.
    Here is an interesting chart showing percentages of upper caste and middle caste peoples in India:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StatewiseFC.jpg
    The % of upper/middle castes in Tamilnadu is only 12% which explains why most tamils tend to look australoid..
    The high/middle caste Tamils look very caucasian.
    Here is a pic of a high caste(Brahmin) Tamil family:
    http://media.photobucket.com/image/sridevi/seeucom/actress3/hindi_sridevi_actress_attachment.jpg
    Those Brahmins looks very different from the rest of the tamils you see in the streets.

    1. Sri Devi is not from a Brahmin family. She is a Naidu who are Vaishyas from Andhra Pradesh.
      And yeah High Castes are a minority in Tamil Nadu. Brahmins only 3%.

    2. I was surfing internet and I don’t know How I stumbled upon your blog but it really looks interesting.
      And I am impressed that you did try to explore and investigate the types of races that can be found in Nepal. There are a couple of things that I’d like to clarify here not everyone in these pics posted by you is from Nepal. The Man in the sixth photo with a long beard and mustache is most likely someone from India a Yogi(A person seeking salvation and living nomadic life) visiting Nepal and probably there he got this picture taken of himself.
      Since you have this curiosity to know the types of people that you may see in Nepal I thought I can contribute something as well from my end here.
      Now I am gonna explain here first that it’s true that many Indians or many Nepalese look a like however it maybe difficult for Indians(Caucasian Nepalese) to distinguish some of us from Nepal from their own people but It’s not hard for a Nepalese or someone who lives in Nepal to make it out whether the person is from Nepal or not. Majority of Nepal’s population either has Caucasian feature or Asian but it’s hard to see someone with aborigines or Dravidian features. And mind you here I am not saying that you won’t see one but they are very less in numbers. Anyone with Dravidian looks is either from India(Immigrants) or a low caste Nepalese but you would see many low caste Nepalese with Asian features or Caucasian features as well reason being many of these people were outcasted for marrying low-caste(Untouchables in India but in Nepal people don’t mind touching low-caste people or hanging out with them only drinking water from a low caste person is forbidden. A little different from Indian way of looking at scheduled caste society)
      Now let me explain Mostly Nepalese they Look Caucasian, Mongoloid or Polynesian but Dravidian Majority is very less which is pretty high in India not only in Southern India but among north Indians as well and Dravidian looking Nepalese are mostly Indian Immigrants from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar(Indian States)
      1) These women in this pic are from Magar community and majority of Magars look Mongoloids
      http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RV4dJVcPRQs/U6G8wF8EVNI/AAAAAAAAAow/hvESKL0uQmE/s1600/kauda.jpg
      2)People in this pic are from Chhetri community (Some chhetris they look asian or polynesian too because of inter-racial marriages)
      http://chhetrisamajuk.com/wp-content/gallery/winter12/532415_487215457959281_1986243942_n.jpg
      3) Women in this pic are from Rai(Raee) community
      http://www.ekantipur.com/uploads/ekantipur/photos/Daily%20Photos/2012-05-12/image1742460239.jpg
      4) Now in this pic you will see a boy from Nepalese Brahman community (They don’t do inter-caste or inter-racial marriages so they all look alike)
      The reason behind this concept is because they would lose their Superior caste and would become a chhetri if they did so. So you can’t expect a Brahman to have a Dravidian or Asian feature
      http://emmaustrekker.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/brahmin-nepal.jpg
      5) Here in this pic it shows the family portrait of our late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah dev and his family they belong to Thakuri community somewhat like chhetri’s but a little higher than them in the caste system.
      https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6082/6152697710_3853d604d0.jpg
      6) and here’s the last one I guess I am tired now so before I go to bed I thought I should show you the pic of someone from the Nepalese low-caste community. In this pic this lady is from a Bishwakarma community(Blacksmith) and usually they look like her.
      http://cdn.medindia.net/afp/images/Nepal-women-religion-148227.jpg
      This is very racist but it is going to enlighten you am hoping so.

      1. I’m also from a low caste community of nepal belonging to sochuri sunar but I look like punjabi or pakistani or some say i look like arabic too due to my eyes n nose n .whenever I say I’m from nepal they hardly believe.why is it so ? You said in your post that Dravidian belongs mostly too lower caste people from nepal with dark skin….

        1. Most of them Yes but not all of them because many people from Nepal’s lower caste communities once belonged to Higher caste too. These people when they got into relationship with lower caste people and caught or got married then they were forced to accept lower caste. In Nepalese we say “Jaat Khaso” thus this is one of the reasons as well why many lower caste people have light skin, some look Italian and some have distinct Mongoloid features. These were those people who were outcast-ed from their own communities and were forced to live the life of a lower caste person.

        2. Not necessary. Bishwakarma has few sub caste and mostly sunar as your sure name suggest are predominately aryan looking or are more closer to Brahmin and very far from Dravidian (if you look at the hill sunar and Brahmin they have more similar facial structure.) The migrationary route taken by the sunar and the Brahmins are the same and thus consider them as aryans too. But due to the discriminatory factor that come into place and also the inter race marriage and also the demotion of caste, sunar have mixed facial features to them. So regardless of your caste your facial features is the proof that you have the lineage of aryan and not Dravidian.

  2. According to Cavalli- Sforza chart, Nepalis are genetically closer to South Indians which may explain why some of them look South Indian. Those Nepalis i those pics obvioisly belong to lower castes..That’s why they look kinda australoid.
    Upper and Middle caste South Indians look totally different in facial strcuture and skin color from the low caste South Indians.

      1. but the strange thing is the Ruling / royalty class of nepal looks part mongoloid. They are of north indian Rajput ancestry and yet this prince Dipendra of Nepal ( famous for royalty massacre ) looks more mongoloid than Caucasians. His sister also looks mixed with mongoloid but much less. His mother and father look north indian although i can see hints of mongoloid admixture as well.

  3. I disagree with you about the first photo. Pictures can be very deceiving because of the flash. The flash bulb can turn a dark brown person into a tan person.

  4. No shizzle,South Indian High Castes that too New Migration ones are related to Afghans and Iranians[pred Elamite ones].
    Your average South Indian is more related to [East] Asians.So is your average Bengali.

    1. Actually Bengalis are also some of the most Caucasian looking in India as well as being some of the most East Asian looking. I have seen Bengalis that look very Caucasian in features and few that look almost completely Mongol, though not many; The majority I would say have Caucasoid feautures with hints of Mongol).
      Someone like Jumpha Lahiri on the whole has Caucasian features while a hint of Mongol. Lot of Bengalis look like her in features while some others have much more East Asian feautures.
      http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2008/0805/wlahiri_0519.jpg

  5. Well, in simple terms, most Nepalis these days are a cross between ‘typical’ Indian and East Asian look because most are mixed there of these two groups. The women there are really pretty too. Though its not ethical and very wrong, one of the reasons why so many Nepalis are brought over to India to work as prostuitutes is because they have that very exotic look which the men in India and foreigners in India that use their services, like.

    1. It is not so much about exoticism as a fetish for lighter skin colour. Or as Indians call it, ‘fair complexion’. Indians are not too much into exoticism, if the exotic race/ethnic group happens to be of a brown or darker skin tone.

  6. That woman is Jumpha Lahiri, an author, born in the UK to Bengali parents. She lives in the US and is actually married to a white Hispanic.

  7. Great article! Loved it..but i have one query, i have seen many nepalese with european features and mostly look like white..what suggest that?

      1. You should say Indian Mountain people because People from the Himalayas and Asian looking Indians from North-East have light skin and some of them are even comparable to Afghani/Italian/Spanish white or Pure Mongoloid Yellow.
        Indian Majority has Aborigines features.
        Source:- I was born in India(New Delhi) and raised here only.

  8. i think nepalese are of 3 types
    caucasoid (faired skinned) and mongoloid from north mountain and hills
    caucasoid(indian looking from southern plains)

  9. im hindu chhetri…i live in hongkong…majority of people think as i am from afghanistan….but i think majority of afghanis…one american white also used to compare me with people of india/afghan and other middle east
    nepal is actually meeting point of different races…so we look different..

      1. I’d extend Nepalese into the Bengal population and for some reason the Bengali Gaur Brahmin look more Asiatic than the average Bengali.

  10. This is what Dor Bahadur Bista says about Nepal’s caste system in his book fatalism and development. Nepal is essentially divided into three different ethnic groups : the Khas, the Kirat, and the Madhesi people who live in the Terai region of Nepal.
    The Madhesis are basically related to Indians. They look like people from Bihar and UP. The Kirat people are the mongoloid people of Nepal. These include people like the Rai, Tamang, Limbu and Magar. They are the indigenous people of Nepal. And then we have the Khas. These are my people.
    The Khas are descendents of the non-Vedic Aryans. These include the bahuns (Brahmins) and the Chettris (Kshatriyas or Warrior caste). The epic Mahabharata depicts the Khas people as lower-caste people. However, after India got invaded by muslims, some Brahmins fled to Nepal, and started enforcing the caste system in Nepal. While some bahuns today are probably descendents of these Indian refugees , the vast majority are basically speaking Khas people.
    The Damai, Sarki and Kami are some of the untouchable castes of the Khas community. These were people who became untouchable because they resisted the caste system. Had they embraced the caste system, they would have been either chettri or bahun. While many people of these castes show some mongoloid admixture , they are overwhelmingly caucasian. They seem to be even more caucasian-looking than the bahuns. For some reason, many bahuns seem to look Indian. I am myself a bahun who looks Indian, but I have been mistaken for Iranian by Iranians themselves.
    Here is an example of a Nepali phenotype:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldviewfinder/4142732200/in/faves-28772513@N07/
    This guy is a Damai-Sarki per the photo description. This guy would be an untouchable in Nepal. He shows some mongoloid admixture, but he is overwhelmingly caucasian.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/michal_olszewski/6751447897/in/faves-28772513@N07/lightbox/
    This guy above is from West Nepal. Typically speaking, Western Nepalis tend to be Khas people, although they are spread out everywhere.
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5o5cbcykzr0/SPQBnN2iIDI/AAAAAAAAA3E/bCzWn71JP5U/s1600-h/india7.jpg
    Here is BP Koirala with Indians. BP Koirala is the tall guy with black hat. BP Koirala is a typical Khas bahun.
    Supposedly, Khas people have the same origin as the Kashmiris and Kalasha people. The Khas people had an empire stretching from Kashmir to Western Nepal.
    I have actually seen one blonde guy in Nepal, so blondism isn’t very common. Most Khas people typically have black or brown hair, brown eyes and generally speaking sharp features. I had a Kashmiri muslim friend growing up, and I always thought he was Nepali because he had similar features to bahuns and chettris. I must also say that it is very difficult to classify bahuns and chettris. While some look like Indians, others look like Kashmiris. Kashmiris basically look like Afghans and Iranians. I must also mention that I have seen bahuns who have mongoloid features.

    1. Nepalis evidently have rich history, but has been heavily tampered by foreign invasion and the Hindu caste system. The Khas people are scattered from Gilgit to Kashmir, from Himachal to Nepal and the to the far east till Darjeeling and Sikkim.
      I, myself am from the so-called low caste background of Nepali people. But I do look more European than Indian or mongoloid. My friend from Palestine mistook me as an Israeli. In fact, some of my family members feature western looks and complexity. My dad and my uncles had similar complexion like the westerners (extremely fair). My grandmother looked like a lady from Romania. After some thought process I believe that Low caste people who belong to Darjeeling and neighboring places (who entered India due to caste dominance) are more Khas than the Bahun or Chettri who look more like Indian (who have Indian mixture in them, hence some share Indian surname). These low caste people (Including the whole of my cousins and relatives) also share same traits as with the Garwahli people, which in turn look more like people from South-West Iran, Afghanistan.and Northern Pakistan.
      Watch this video for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcNtIp5R_OQ
      The Low caste people of Nepal are heavily mixed with mongoloid and other tribes, that’s why they look different, at least some of them. But some still have retained the purity of Khas trait like their decedents – Kalash and Gilgit people.
      Nonetheless, in this age of technology and science we should forget the racial sub-division and enjoy life as its finest, and respect each other. That’s what makes us more ‘Aryan’ (THE NOBLE ONE) than the word itself.

      1. Adding some more on the list which I forgot.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6u3qgIVync
        The above video is a taken in the North-West region of Nepal. They belong to a low caste background according to Hindu tradition. Even though, the men look to have some mongol influence, but the girl has some-what Caucasian feature and light eyes (similar to Chitral people).
        An ideal Chitrali girl: http://wilfriedgeens.com/hp_scanDS_44181722266.jpg
        Another Chitrali girl:
        http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww156/k2rulez/3272775056_9bebef8353_o.jpg
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgqxwznoV6g
        Another video for reference. Skip to 4:48 in this clip and notice the girl. Doesn’t she have Caucasian trait?
        Another picture of these low caste children. Some have mongol influence, but some exhibit Caucasian trait.:
        http://www.himalayan-healthcare.org/sites/default/files/styles/media_slide/public/Kami%2015.jpg
        Both the girls are low caste children. The girl in the left shows a bit of Caucasian feature: http://ektaphotography.smugmug.com/Travel/Himalaya/15844827_8xRBXv/1/1191092152_97944CZ/Medium
        These are just the reminiscent of the long forgotten tribe that once ruled the Central Asia and West. Places like Khasgar near Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.are the living proof of their invincible power. Reading about Khas people (which is hard to find) is like digging an archaeological site for me. It’s a shame for me I hardly know about my brave ancestors. But to see my own people ostracize their own because of a man-made religion.

    2. I am a magar and I am hearing this for the first time that Magars are from Kirat community.
      Kirats are Limbu, Rai(Raee) and sunuwar
      Magars and Gurungs were never Kirat followers. You would see them following Hinduism or Buddhism and prior to that they were nature worshippers.

  11. I recently went on a month-long backpacking trip around Europe and even though I look like your average Indian, many people mistook me for Italian or Spaniard. It was really interesting although I’m happy being myself, I met a lot of Italians on the road and they all took me for one of their “homies” before I clarified their doubts. It turns out Indians and Italians/Mediterranean types have a lot more in common: we gesticulate a lot while speaking, are fidgety, over-expressive and the food is mainly all-carbs with very little protein. Also Italian food is very popular in India so the warmth is very mutual. Italy did feel like a second home, a home away from home. Northern Europeans, in contrast are cold and inhospitable.
    Again I don’t think all Indians would feel the way I did in Italy and Spain…just the ones that are young and good-looking.

  12. My father told me that our ansestors came from himalchal area, or kumaon and gharwal areas of India (we are Kumai bahun). These places have high frequencies of caucasian looking people.

  13. You literally chose the most Indo-Gangetic and Tibeto-Burmic peoples, with most being of tribal or Madheshi background. Almost none of them look ethnic Pahadi and therefore does not give a proper gauge of the phenotypes of Nepal.

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