Last Kusunda-speaking, near-extinct tribe member 'Raja Mama' cremated

KATHMANDU: Raja Mama Kusunda, the last Kusunda-speaking member of the near extinct tribe who passed away earlier on Wednesday morning, has been cremated. Raja Mama was 75.

He breathed his last today at his home at Vyas in Tanahun, a while after collapsing on the courtyard of his house at Vyas-10 in Tanahun district this morning. Raja Mama is survived by his wife, Indramaya, who belongs to the Tamang community and a ten-year-old daughter. His daughter lit the funeral pyre.

Raja Mama had tied the knot with Indira in 2005 at the initiation of various organisations advocating for the rights of indigenous nationalities.

The Kusunda or the king of the forests are a near-extinct tribe of former hunter-gatherers of the western forests. Most of them have intermarried. With the death of Raja Mama, the Kusunda language, can be now said, is extinct.