ETHNONYMS: Sunbar, Sunuwar, Sunwari
The Sunwar are a group of some 20,000 people located primarily in eastern Nepal. The Sunwar have frequent Contact with the Gurung and Magar and are evidently culturally similar to these larger groups. The Sunwar are primarily agriculturalists, growing rice, wheat, and barley in river valleys and maize and millet in the hills. Their patrilineal clans are divided into the endogamous, high-status Bahra Thar and the exogamous, lower-status Das Thar groups. There is some evidence that the Bahra Thar are primarily Lamaist Buddhists and the Das Thar are mostly Hindu, although traditional beliefs of both religions are found in both groups.