Yakkha New Testament

Overview

The Yakkha New Testament (2023) is the first complete Scripture in the Yakkha language, published by Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. and the Nepal Bible Society after a project spanning at least nine years — from the first published Bible portions in 2014 to the complete NT. The translation is written in Devanagari script and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 3769) and the dedicated Yakkha Bible Android app. No complete Bible in Yakkha has yet been produced.

Yakkha is one of the better-documented of Nepal's minority languages thanks to German linguist Diana Schackow, whose doctoral fieldwork at Tamaphok village (Sankhuwasabha District) in 2009–2012 produced the first comprehensive grammatical description of the language: A Grammar of Yakkha (Language Science Press, Studies in Diversity Linguistics 7, 2015 — open access). Schackow's project also produced an annotated audio corpus, a trilingual Yakkha–Nepali–English dictionary, and a learner's grammar, all deposited at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. The documentation project noted that the language was "virtually undocumented until 2008."

Language and People

Yakkha (ISO 639-3: ybh; also spelled Yakha, Yakkhaba) is a Kiranti language (Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman branch), most closely related to Belhare within the Eastern Kiranti subgroup. It is spoken by approximately 14,000–20,000 people primarily in southern Sankhuwasabha District and northern Dhankuta District, eastern Nepal, east of the Arun River, with the cultural centre at Tamaphok village. The 2021 Nepal census recorded 17,460 ethnic Yakkha. UNESCO classifies the language as endangered; transmission to younger generations is weak under heavy Nepali dominance. Three dialects carry separate ISO codes: Mugali/Lambichhong (lmh), Phangduwali (phw), and Lumba-Yakkha (luu).

The Yakkha (also called Dewan — their hereditary administrative title granted by the Gorkha kingdom in the 18th century) are one of the four Kiranti (Kirat) indigenous nationalities of eastern Nepal, alongside the Khambu (Rai), Limbu, and Sunuwar. Their ancestral homeland is called Yākkhālen. After Prithvi Narayan Shah unified Nepal in the late 18th century, the Yakkha concluded a salt-water treaty (Nun-Pani Sandhi) with the Gorkhali state and received land ownership rights under the Kipat communal tenure system. In official statistics the Yakkha have often been absorbed into Rai or Limbu categories, a misidentification that the Kirant Yakkha Chumma (KYC) cultural organization — established at its first national assembly in November 1997 at Mudesanichare — has actively contested.

Approximately 70–80% of Yakkha practise Kiratism (Kirat Mundhum), the indigenous religion shared across the Kiranti peoples: an animist, nature-based belief system combining ancestor veneration, shamanism, and oral scripture transmission (the Mundhum texts). About 20–25% are Hindu; Christians number fewer than 1% (Joshua Project estimates 0.72% — approximately 180 individuals). Christianity is perceived as a foreign or low-caste religion, and family expulsion of converts is not uncommon.

The Yakkha economy is based on subsistence agriculture (millet, rice, maize, cardamom) supplemented by Rudraksha bead collection and trade — Sankhuwasabha District is a major Rudraksha source, a significant Nepali export to China.

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. and the Nepal Bible Society. The NT is distributed via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 3769), the Yakkha Bible Android app (org.tg1.yakkha.ybh), and Scripture Earth. Audio resources include a Faith Comes by Hearing audio Bible and Global Recordings Network evangelism materials in Yakkha. The JESUS Film is also available in the language.

References