The Bon-Kirat Substrate: Reclaiming Nepal’s Archaic Religious History as a Himalayan Ritual Multiplex (1500 BCE–300 CE)

Dr. Nawa Raj Subba

ABSTRACT

This review paper examines interdisciplinary evidence to conclude that the syncretic matrix of Bon and indigenous Kirat traditions served as the basic ceremonial substrate for all subsequent organised religion in Nepal. In contrast to legends of late Bon introduction, we show that it was present in all five Nepalese regions by 1500 BCE: Kathmandu Valley, eastern and western hills, southern lowlands, and northern highlands. The data suggest a generative synthesis, a pragmatic “ritual multiplex” in which communities strategically code-switched between Kirat deep ontology and Bon’s spirit-management techné.

This complex, which adapted so well to its surroundings, predates Buddhist and Hindu influences by over a thousand years and has shown a remarkable continuity through the Licchavi era (300-750 CE), during which its base rituals were layered over, rather than supplanted. In short, today’s Ningwaphu heritage must be constituted not as a fresh blend, but as a direct descendant of this ancient amalgam, which has survived for 3,500 years through a series of adaptations.

All these observations raise the need for a paradigm shift in the historiography of the religious traditions of the Himalaya region. We must forsake linear conceptions of cultural replacement and Sanskritization in favour of indigenous agency and syncretism as the driving forces. This transforms Nepal from a passive borderland to an active, generative furnace of early trans-Himalayan trade. The article concludes by describing a new, substrate-centric research program aimed at completely mapping this independent and complicated archaic heritage.

Keywords: Bon religion, Kirat civilization, pre-Buddhist Nepal, religious syncretism, Himalayan archaeology, cultural continuity, Hinduization, Ningwaphu tradition

Citation:

Subba, N. R. (2025). The Bon-Kirat Substrate: Reclaiming Nepal’s Archaic Religious History as a Himalayan Ritual Multiplex (1500 BCE–300 CE). Zenodo.  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18105146