Bhotiya or Bhot (Nepali: भोटिया, Bhotiyā) is an Indian and Nepali exonym lumping together various ethnic groups speaking Tibetic languages, as well as some groups speaking other Tibeto-Burman languages living in the Transhimalayan region that divides India from Tibet.
The Bhotiya speak numerous languages including Ladakhi, Drejongke, Yolmo and Sherpa.
The Bhotiyas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand identify as Raghuvanshi Rajput and prefer to be referred as Thakur or Rajvanshi.
The Bhotiya may be the original immigrants to north Oudh in the period of Nawab Asaf-Ud-Dowlah (1775 to 1797).
[3] The Bhotiya people are closely related to several other groups and ethnic boundaries are porous.
These include the Shauka tribe of Kumaon, the Tolchhas and the Marchhas of Garhwal, Gyagar Khampa of Khimling, Bhidang.
The Bhotiya are also related to several dispersed groups in Nepal and the adjacent areas of India including the Tibetans and Sherpas.
[citation needed] Bhoti is not included in the languages with official status in India.
After cremation, a stalk of kusha (grass) is fixed in the ground near a tank of water and sesamum is poured on it for ten days.
In Uttarakhand, particularly Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Uttarkashi, the Bhotiya are semi-nomadic, migratory pastoralists, moving about the border lands between India and Tibet.