Paruhang

Kirati (Rai) primordial sky-father, classed as deity (cosmogonic creator/ancestor; the 'hang' element = lord/king). Half of the Rai primordial pair with Sumnima; he descends from heaven, unites with Sumnima, and animates the first man. The figure is documented in Martin Gaenszle's ethnographies of the Mewahang Rai Mundhum.

Children

• Hetchhakuppa, Founder of the Agricultural Age

Names and tradition associations

• Paruhang Kirati · same recordParuhang and Sumnima, description of the Rai pair and references (encyclopedia)
• Shiva Hindu · unresolvedParuhang and Sumnima, description of the Rai pair and references (encyclopedia)

Variant accounts

• Modern identification contextGaenszle relates the Shiva identification and imagery to the Kirata hunter episode and modern Rai religious representation.Martin Gaenszle, Redefining Kiranti Religion in Contemporary Nepal (2016), author preprint pp.7–8, section 2 (secondary)
• source review correctionUse the attested name as the display name; retain the earlier descriptive label as an alias.Paruhang and Sumnima, description of the Rai pair (secondary)

Domains

• sky
• creation

Powers

• breathe life into the first man

Relations

• spouse: SumnimaSky-father and earth-mother, the primordial wedded pair of Rai (Kirati) cosmogony.Martin Gaenszle, Origins and Migrations: Kinship, Mythology and Ethnic Identity among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal (2000) (secondary)
• identification awaiting verification: ShivaThe reviewed source describes the Rai pair. A pan-Kirati identification with Shiva is not established by that passage; the older Chemjong/Gaenszle assertion requires passage-level verification.Iman Singh Chemjong, History and Culture of the Kirat People (1966); Martin Gaenszle, Origins and Migrations: Kinship, Mythology and Ethnic Identity among the Mewahang Rai (2000) (secondary); Paruhang and Sumnima, description of the Rai pair and references (encyclopedia)

Sources

• Paruhang is the supreme male sky-god and creator of the Rai (Kiranti), husband of the earth-goddess Sumnima; together they are the primordial ancestral pair of the Kirat.: 'Rai people', Wikipedia, accessed June 2026 (encyclopedia); 'The Spiritual and Cultural Legacy of the Kiratis', thewondernepal.com, accessed June 2026 (secondary)
• Mewahang Rai oral ritual texts (Mundhum) treat Paruhang and Sumnima as the foundational ancestral deities of Kiranti cosmology and genealogy.: Gaenszle, Martin. 'Origins and Migrations: Kinship, Mythology and Ethnic Identity among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal' (2000) (academic); Gaenszle, Martin. 'Ancestral Voices: Oral Ritual Texts and their Social Contexts among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal' (2002) (academic)