Terhathum District

Terhathum District (Nepali:तेह्रथुम जिल्ला Listen ), a part of Province No. 1, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal. The district, with Myanglung as its district headquarters, covers an area of 679 km² and has a population (2001) of 113,111. The word Tehrathum is constructed from thirteen ("tehra") and "thum" (castle or fort). This can be spelled as Terathum, Tehrathum or Terhathum. The town supposedly is the site of one of a series of guard posts once protecting the territory of the Limbus (Limbuwan). Therathum is a word also used to mention Myanglung Bazar which has the district headquarters of Tehrathum. Myanglung is onomatopoeic for the sound of a cat meowing and refers to an old tradition of a Hindu temple (which remains today) in the town which had a resident cat. The "myang" means cat and "lung" means stone in Limbu (Kirat) language. The story is that the cat (myang) in ancient time, pawed the stone (lung) in anger. The stone still exists in Myanglung Bazaar at its gateway and is worshipped by the people entering bazaar.