Who are the Gurkhas? Let's discuss anything about the Gurkhas here in this thread. Can put up pictures and video that will add more interest to the people and help to those who are presenting about these unique elite frighting force from Nepal. One of my American student was overwhelmed by the total dedication of the Gurkhas he met them in Iraq and in Afghanistan when he was sent to the mission.
He told me that he had never met such perfect soldier in the world.

Here's a video of these Gurkhas fighting the Taliban.

Respect to all the Gorkha Army, the ones who fought the British and impressed them initially and the ones who still fight for them in Afgan and everywhere. If only we could use such great fighters to get rid of our internal enimies maybe we wouldn't have to go work for others.

sumedhu gets 5 stars for his comments.can anyone answer or criticise him.

and lexlimbu bro,u cant compare nepali labours in gulf with the ones who kill poeple for political agenda of some foreign nation. the labours are a lot better than gurkhas.look at the jalianwala bagh massacre, falkland war and sepoy mutiny ,and then u ll know what sort of brainless soldiers the gurkhas are.

here i m not referring to gorkhas or gorkhalis coz they are still in the hills of nepal and in nepal army.they r the real pride of nepal.

crazy horse  bro, in the video,there just reference of feind(enemy ),but not of the gurkhas.hitlers general tells him that the enemy has caught their enemy frmo all sides,hitler orders one officer stationed there to defend and as he knows that the officer has already lost the battle ,he blasts at his officers saying they are cowards.no mention of gurkhas or even the british force.

and that with hitlers biography ,i searched a lot in literature and net, but couldn't find any.neither hitler nor kaiser wilhelm II said anything abt gurkhas.

have ur say.

shiva_linga i think i have to disagree with sumedhu

"The present Gurkhas are foreign mercenaries prepared
to die for money for their foreign masters." (sumedhu)

i think he is being biased. First i think one need to realize the political scenario in Nepal. Nepal is far lacking in opportunities. And then we have to realize that there are no jobs opportunities in Nepal. Can you imagine what these men(gurkhas) will be doing right now if the British had not recruited them? We would probably have seen these men going to Arab and Malaysia as laborers. Till Nepal can fully stand on its own feet and provide opportunities to its citizens, people will continue to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In addition just like many of our brothers and sisters working as laborers in gulf countries, Gurkhas are also sending foreign remittance to Nepal. This has to be realized. Nepal in those times especially during the Rana regime I believed was closed to the outside world. There was no source of foreign income coming into Nepal. Gurkhas beside the Manang traders were the only one allowed to leave the country. The foreign revenue earned by these men no doubt played a significant part in Nepal’s economic. Yet after several decades Nepal is still in a deep_shit_hole. Nepalese population is growing and Kathmandu is already overpopulated. Yet there are neither factories nor any industries that can put our citizens to good use. Therefore we see mass migrations of Nepalese laborers to gulf nations. We also see many Nepalese going abroad in pretext of higher education never to return back. Then one needs to realize we also have many migrants in a form of DV winners and asylum refugee seekers in America alone. This constitutes only a significant portion as we know that many Nepalese are living in many European nations as refugee.

This again all comes to socio-economic factor. As long as Nepal remains under develop and cannot provide its citizens with foundation of life, i.e education, health, jobs, etc Nepalese will continue to look for green pasture elsewhere.

Finally I see that these men have not been working for themselves only. Can you see the deeper meaning into it? With the service of the Gurkhas in the British-Singapore-India, these men have been able to sustain their families back home in the hilly regions. Their children have access to education and shouldn’t have to worry about being farmers in their homes in the hills.

shiva bro, i come from entrenched military family background, my dad served in queens gurkha signal, my grandad fought in burma and hav marched in the street of tokyo after allied victory, my maternal grandad fought with china from indian gorkha, one of my relative was 2OIC in falkland war who led gurkhas of 7GR, my mamas are serving in different ranks n files of nepal army. my big bro is currrently serving in  nepal army in a rank of major. unfortunately our own nepal army had to engage in internal insurgency and purported gross human right violation against own people that nearly cost them membership of united nation and thus foreign deployment in conflict hit areas around the word, it is one of the best source of income for the servicemen and whole institution. i have respect to all, like crazy horse said, it is the socio-economic reality of nepal not the feel for loyalty or stupidity like any of u all who has migrated elswhere for better opportunity. brainless infantry never wins any battle, the professionalism and bravery of gurkhas are world renowned. they are having a memorial ceremony in belgium at the ieper cemetry in rememberance to gurkhas of WW1. but sadly our own country folk hav different views against them.

"one of the major reason was use of cartridge in pattern 1853 enfield rifle, the standard issue for the rifle was greased with pork fat and beef fat and as to load the rifle the soldier had to tear of that part
by his mouth which was unclean for both hindu and muslim sepoys. gurkhas compromising of mostly gurung, magar, rai and limbu clan had no problem with either of the fat, beef was widely consumed in eastern nepal."(sirupate_brigade)

wait i get confuse here sirupate_brigade. you said that beef was widely consumed in eastern nepal.
but in one of my visit to dharan, there was no cow slaughterhouse or any beef market. but i saw the
butchers selling live black pigs and pork. In fact i learned that the pork is a central part in
magar, rai & limbu culture. But regarding beef i am not sure. One question arises from here!
Could the food(beef & pork) restrictions by the "high-caste" Hindus had impact on the British officers not willing to recruit them? The good example is the Indian Mutiny.

There was another good example i read in one of the books. That the story goes like this.
The 7th Gurkha rifles along with the Indian units both of the British army were stranded on the desert front against the Germans and the Italians. The British Army were cut off from their main supply and soon their ration(food&water) were running out. The British officer told his men to cut down their horse for food. While the Gurkhas and other British officers and men ate it, the Indian soldiers protested to eat it since they said it was against their religion.
This again comes to the food restriction by some group that the British officers only favor the "martial race"(gurkhas) in their recruitment.
But i am sure Sherpas have also no restrictions on beef & pork. So are there any sherpas in the British-Singapore Gurkha unit?

before nepal was unified and the national policy and system codiefied as per hinduism, beef was widely consumed especially by ethnic tribes. kiratis in darjeeling and sikkim still consume beef. pork is the most preferred flesh in dharan and eastern regions. beef is sold once a week this days in dharan. but religious doctrine of gurkhas hav maintained strong hinduism tradition, they have special quota for bahun priests too. all the hindu festivals are celebrated by all regiments. it is due to so called high caste influence being the rulers primarily by ranas. most of the commanders in traditional gorkhali army formed by PNS hailed from high caste in accordance to the hinduism heirarchy. but irony is chunk of individuals that formed gurkhas were from ethnic tribes who were traditionally not hindus. this is one of the reason almost most of the gurkhas n thier family started practising hinduism than to thier traditional religion having being spent most of thier youth in the influence of military hindu culture. acknowledging and realising this fact and mistakes recently british gurkhas started recruiting buddhist priests and most of the kirati tribes has strated to write kiratis as thier religion instead of hindu.

Dear sirupate_brigade,
this is according to my research and to my best of knowledge. Prior to General Chhatraman Singh Gurung as newly appointed  Army Chief of Nepal by the President Ram Baran Yadav on Spet. 9 2009, the Army Chief used to be appointed from Rana, Thapa, Shah or then royal family relatives by the King.

After the people’s movement (Jan Andolan) in 1990, Nepal witnessed multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy. Theoretically, the 1990 Constitution transferred the country’s sovereignty to its people. However, in real terms, nothing changed. ‘Democracy’ could not force a change in the army’s high command. The top position of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) remained with only four clans.  According to Deepak Bhatt of Combat Law, the top position of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) remained with only four clans. That is for close to 200 years, among the 37 chiefs of staff, 26 came from the Rana family and the remaining 11 from the Thapa, Shah and Basnet clans.

The majority of officer corps in the higher echelon has historically hailed from the powerful Khas-Thakuri caste close to the royal family. Proximity to the royal family was nurtured by matrimonial ties between the Ranas and the Shahs, and their offspring’s marriages to other high-caste Hindus of the traditional courtier higher class. Feudalism was reinforced by the ruler Mahendra, who, during the Panchayat period, was particularly solicitous of the welfare of the officers and other ranks. He issued royal grants of land and other privileges to create personal bonds between himself and key officers.  The military has historically been engaged with quelling internal threats to the unified Hindu kingdom. Its loyalty is forged to the monarch. It is rooted in a feudal history whose only role has been to repress the people. Consequently, the name of the army was changed to NA from Royal Nepal Army. But the army remains the same in character and structure. It is unrepresentative of the population. The feudal structure is entrenched with the Khas-Thakuri generals who were not willing to include the indigenous people of the hills, Terai and the dalits.

This resulted in “People’s War”: The Maoists announced a ‘People's War’ on February 13, 1996,
with the slogan "let us march ahead on the path of struggle towards establishing the people's rule by wreaking the reactionary ruling system of state."

What do you think of my view?

Regarding your statement that beef was widely consumed especially by ethnic tribes I am not really sure about this.  Even in the market stalls in dharan-kathamandu-pokhara,  I did not come across any stalls that sells beef. As for the pork there’s no doubt that this meat is the most preferred flesh in dharan and eastern regions as you said. Even today one finds many pork stalls in Kathmandu mushrooming. I happened to go to satobatao or “lahure tol” as this is commonly known as several times and I found the lahures communities grilling and feasting BBQ pork.  Even if you go to one of their party or gatherings, pork is always at the menu.

Therefore I am sure meat (pork) is one of the reasons why British officials did not want to enlist other Nepali group because to my deep understanding and knowledge, many Nepalese do not eat pork.

You need to explain to me about  “codified as per Hinduism”?
 I didn’t get it. Thanks. 

Gurkha as Asian Champion.What a honor for Nepal. I found this video of Barja Kumar Rai in Singapore Gurkha unit fighting his opponent from HK.

they are nothing but an opportunist just like you and me. they are not the same gurkhas like in first world war and second world war. gurkhas now are scared to their pants to even be in a front line. waste of british tax payers money.

Its just a socio-economic fact just like someone mentioned above. I have utter respect for Gurkhas who fought for Nepal against England back in the days. But the modern gurkhas are nothing but another form of foreign employment. Now, i am not trying to be derogatory of foreign employment. I myself is benefiting from foreign employment.

Requests for Gurkha haters

Please do not disrespect  or bash Gurkhas for being a hired hand for some other countries. Being a gurkha is just like being a day laborer in the middle east, IT worker, Medical worker and other profession holders in all the western country. We belong to a shitty country and we all sell ourselves to another country with one or the next skill we have. We all have done it and we are all the same.

Request for Gurkha pumpers

Please do not try to associate yourself with "Pride of Nepal". You can be proud of yourself for being brave enough to go fight in crazy places for some another country for money but please do not expect to get credit for being a "National Hero". To give you an example, i am proud of working for different corporations but i will never associate my willingness to work in a foreign country for money with a "National Pride". I often encounter those Gurkha clans in Nepali parties and amazed to see how quick those gurkha clans associate themselves with "Nepali Pride". I do not understand how fighting for another country for money makes it a "Nepal Pride".

Conclusion

Gurkhas were British Creations. We are the product of the whole Divide and conquer strategy. When Britishers were conquering Indian subcontinent states, they were occupying one state with eh help of the other. In India, they favored Hyderabad Kings and occupied other states around it with Hydrabad Kings help. They did the same with Sikhs. In Nepal, they saw the same thing, they observed the willingness and bravery amongst gurkhali soldiers and broke a deal with Nepal to support with Army. Britishers would guarantee the Rulers on Nepal their Rule and Nepal would give Britishers freedom to Recruit as many young men as they needed. Estimated 200,000 young mens from the hills were recruited and almost half of them died with Britishers imperialistic ambitions. In a small country like ours, the loss of 100,000 young workers (farmers) left the country uncultivated and pushed us back 50 years. Elderly, Children, and women dependent on those 100K lost young forces were left into the misery of poverty for next three generations. While the Rulers of Nepal collected 10 Pounds per Gurkha head.

I wish, one day our country will be strong enough to sustain its own people at home, and i wish there all Nepalese would be economically and mentally strong enough for not to have fight for someone's political agenda. After 200 years of loyalty and sacrifice Britishers still treat our gurkha brothers at a sub human level. This is not a matter of pride its a "maajboori"

So until things change, lets do " DON'T TELL, DON'T ASK" You do not tell us how you are so great and we do not ask you how great is it really.

After serious consideration let me say something about the Gorkhas- with do respect I understand and recognize their bravery by heart...but I just don't understand why we as a Nepalese people are so proud of them... In my opinion bravery is accounted for protecting their own land and interests... not to go abroad and protect the interests of foreign interests and their land. If you can't protect our personal interests... going abroad Hong Kong, Iraq, Afghanistan, India you name it and giving up your lives for them... there is no point of being proud. 

Bravo!! Very well said Sidster!

u all r shitholes....it doesn't matter if Gurkhas are created by British as u mfs said or they are foreign machineries and they don't fight to protect Nepal...
Gurkha is a Brand of courage
foreigners hv respect for u assholes because of them, people perceive Nepalese as brave, courageous people because of them...though u assholes r not
its like Mount Everest
and u mfs r criticizing Gurkhas???
@ vyrus --- u dumbass mf...desh ko sima sena le rakchya garne hoina...sarkar le ho...tero bau girija lai dosh de

Nevermind,

You really think a Gorkhali  who sells his entire property to become a day laborer in a 52 degree hot desert is any less courageous than a Gorkhali who signs up to go to Afganisthan to kill an ignorant goat herder???

No wonder why its so easy for  Indians and Britishers to recruit in Nepal.

Ironic how the intelligent beings are using one brave and courageous ignorant to kill another brave and Courageous.

gurkhas arnt seking for national hero tag from nepal after all they r just another profession n means to earn bread n butter, actually they r the predecessor of all foriegn employment n migration. gurkhas r frustrated being lebelled with all deregatory terms like 'bhadako sena', 'merceneries' etc evoking from own country folks. n above all claiming the waste of bravery and courage fighting for another nation instead of protecting own borders, when it is clear duty of the nepalese government and the defence force it controls. all gurkhas r saying is what is the difference between them n anyone who seeks foriegn employment n green card or any kind of permanent residency in that respective countries, then why does a gurkha has to bear such lowly orchestrated abuses?

yes, british policy against gurkhas were discriminatory but it is being gradually corrected n overwhelm number of british publics r for gurkhas and to some extent even from the racist paty like BNP(british national party). gurkhas enjoys the honor of 'legendry' fighting unit which no other fighting units hav recieved and is quite enough for them to get respect from international communities if not from our own folks. also, gurkhas play pivotal role for mutual n healthy relation between british government n other countries where they serve which has drawn huge amount of financial, infrastructural n other aids. this is all they want a mere acknowledgement to b left alone instead of name calling n abuses. last not the least apart from mt everest n buddha the gurkhas r another subject a foreignor would know about nepal.

sidster bro wether they kill ignorant goat herder or highly hardcore brain washed mujhaddin talis  who r ready to blow up thier own asses in afghan is another debate.

Yakthung,

I agree with what you are saying. My whole argument is, keep your gurkha pride to yourself and may be to your family for being loyal to their employer ( UK, India, Singapore governments) and do not force rest of the population to accept this gurkha form of foreign employment as a National Pride.

Personally, Sherpas have way more courage and bravery to conquer the mountains than Gurkhas who are fighting for the superpowers. I love to talk about Sherpas as our National Pride.

At the moment, us Nepalese are lucky that Gurkhas are being recruited by the winners. Imagine that Gurkhas were fighting for the Arabs from the history instead of the whites. We would have been labeled as the most feared terrorists of all kind.
 
And do not make an argument saying that we would have never fought for the Arabs. We are ready to fight for any country that pays more.

you got me wrong brother, gurkhas are not trying to enforce the national pride in them to be bestowed by whole of nepal. they just dont want them to be lebelled as or called upon by different names n abuses by own country folks. i was reasoning within national level since many asked the question of thier contrbution to nation other than fighting for imperials. gurkhas as a fighting units hav already recieved huge respect n recognition from international communitites. april 5 is gurkha rememberance day which will be observed globally. theier profession is to fight a battle like sherpas is to climb mountains but the name they carry is always of nepal n nepali. when argies lost falkland to british, argie gov were pist off at nepalese gov for providing brits with gurkhas.

Onething i dont understand is, why don't gurkhas tell those countries that its not gurkha, but its Gorkha.