The Kirat or Kirati or Kiranti or Kirant people are indigenous ethnic groups of the Himalayas extending eastward from Nepal into India, Bangladesh, Burma and beyond.
They migrated to their present locations via Assam, Burma, Tibet and Yunnan in ancient times. Broadly speaking, the Kirat people include the Limbu, Sunwar, Yakkha, and Rai, few segments of the Bahing, Kulung and speakers of Khaling, Bantawa, Chamling, Thulung, and Jerung; and other related ethnic groups.
In Nepal the Kirati people and Kiranti languages between the rivers Likhu and Arun, including some small groups east of the Arun, are usually referred to as the Rai people, which is a geographic grouping rather than a genetic grouping.
Although only the Sunwar, who inhabit the region westward of River Sun Koshi, the Khambu (also known as Rai), the Limbu (also known as Subba), Sunwar(also known as Mukhiya) and the Yakkha (also known as Dewan) are generally called Kirati, the vast majority of ethnic people of the region eastward of Nepal also call themselves Kirati. Their languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.