ABSTRACT
The indigenous groups of eastern Nepal, the Rai and Limbu, commonly known as the Kiranti, have an oral tradition which can be seen as a paradigmatic case of an intangible heritage which is constitutive of ethnic identity. This chapter discusses the process of ‘scripturalisation’. This implies a religious use of the writings, sometimes including the use in ritual. The chapter looks at the general political context, and looks at the ‘invention’ of a Kiranti script and its subsequent dissemination in the Kiranti language movement. It looks at the importance of the script in the present context of ethnic politics. In recent times, especially since the early 1990s, the Kiranti groups in eastern Nepal have formed an ethnic identity on an institutional basis.
