The scrips in Mahabaharata depicts this as i extract some paragraphs from the book and quote it down:

"We should recall that as early as the Mahabharata we find the legend of Siva Mahadeva, the Great God, taking the guise of a Kirata,
with Uma with him as a Kirata woman, to test Arjuna when he was practising religious penance in the Himalayas: a legend which may have
its germs in the following vers of the Sata-rudriya section of the White Yajurveda (XVI, 7):

                       Asau yo vasarpati nila-grivo vilohitah
                       utainam gopa adrsrann vdaharyah: sa drsto mrdayati nah

May he who glides away, whose neck is azure, and whose hue is red, he whom the herdsmen, whom the girls who carry water have
beheld, may he when seen be kind to us." (Trans. by Ralph T. Griffith, Benares, 1899.)

And this is quite a high exaltation of the status of the non-Aryan hill people, the Kiratas, when the Supreme God with his consort was
made to take up the guise of a Kirata mountaineer and his wife.

The book, KIRAT-JANA-KRTI also mentioned that in the famous episode of Siva meeting Arjuna as Kirata, accompanied by Uma also in the
guise of a Sabari or a Kirati woman, in the Himalaya regions, when Arjuna went there to propitiate Siva by his austerities with a view to
obtain the boon of the Pasupata weapons from the Great God himself, as narrated in the Kirata-parvan section of the Vana-parvan of
the Mahabharata.
A definite indication of what the Kirata people were like is given also. They were 'gold-like', i.e., yellow in colour (and not dark or black
like the Dasas and Dasyus and the Nisadas and other pre-Aryan peoples of the plains.) Cf. the following passages:---

                  Kairatam vesam asthaya kancana-druma-sannibham
             "Taking up a Kirata resemblance, like unto a tree of gold" (IV, 35, 2);

                  dadarsatha tato jisnuh purusam kancana-prabham
              "Then the Victorious One (Arjuma) saw a Man, shining like gold" (IV, 35, 17);

                 na tvam asmin vane ghore bibhesi kanaka-prabha
              "O thou that art shining like gold (addressing Siva in the form of Kirata), dost thou not fear in this terrible forest" (IV, 35, 18).

It is therefore many scholars also have concluded that Siva was the God of Kirata and later it was Aryan who took Siva as their own God
and Hindunized/Aryanized it so basically Siva is seen more as Hindu God than tribal God.

As one scholar said "To begin with, the kipat system and the mundhum are traditionally uncontested metaphors of Kirata culture. Similarly the worshiping of
 Tagera Nyingmaphuma or the supreme deity was a pan-Kirata symbol. But with the obilition of kipat system and the simultaneous influence
of Hinduism, these symbols have lost their strength considerably. Since Tagera Nyingmaphuma, is often personified as Shiva, who is not
only considered tribal God but also one of the Hindu pantheon, he  cannot be claimed by the Kiratas as their exclusive God" ---Politics of Culture: A Study of Three Kirata Communities in the Eastern Himalayas), 1999 by Tanka Bahadur Subba

In addition,
while doing my research i found another word for Kirat and i have copy and paste the paragrah below:

 "The Kirat (Sanskrit: किरात) mentioned in early Hindu texts are the tribals or Adivasi of the land. They are mentioned along with Cinas (Chinese).
Kiratas are believed to be of Tibeto-Burman origin. Ghatotkacha of Mahabharata fame (Son of Bhima) was a Kirata Chieftain.

In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of kirAteneva vAgurA, “a trap [laid] by Kiratas”, so about BCE Xth Century, they were thought of as jungle trappers, the ones who dug pits to capture roving deer. The same text also speaks of King Suraghu, the head of the Kiratas who is a friend of the Persian King, Parigha.

The most famous Kiratas in Hinduism are the Kiratra avatar of Shiva, Lord Buddha and sage Valmiki, writer of the Ramayana."

You can find this page <http://krismanto.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/mahabharata-sansekerta/>




    In the Mahabharata, the Kiratas are mostly associated with foreign peoples, like the Yavanas, the Sakas, and the Pallavas, who belong
to the west; but especially with the Cinas or the Chinese.
Bhagadatta, the King of Pragyotisadhipah or Western Assam who took part in the Kurukshetra battle; was definitely described as a ruler over Mlecchas or Non-Hindu barbarians, which time again and again Kiratas was label as barbarians by the Aryans in their texts.

Quote from the book reads    "Pragjyotisadhipah suro mlecchanan adhipo bali"
                                                           upon translation is
                                ( "the powerful hero, the lord of Pragjyotisa, the lord of Mlecchas")

And in the Sapha-parvan (26, 9, quoted) in the Raja-mala, I, p. 84) we find---
        
                                 sa Kirataisca Cinaisca vrtah Pragjyotiso bhavat,
                                 anyaisca bahubhir yodhaih sagaranupa-vasibhih
                                                       upon translation is
"The Pragjyotisa (King) was there, surrounded by Kiratas and Cinas (Chinese) and with many other warriors dwelling by the coast of the sea.

Elsewhere (In Stri-parvan, 23), Bhagadatta is described as having his seat among hills (esa sailalayo raja Bhagadattah pratapavan "here is the mighty King Bhagadattah whose home is in the hills").

Mahabharata, V.584, ASB. edition, II, 1836) quote:
            
            Bhagadatto mahipalah senam aksauhinim dadau: tasya Cinaih Kirataisca
                                    kancanair iva samvrtam, babhau balam anadhrsyam karnikara-vanam yatha.
                                                             upon translation is
"The Cinas and Kiratas soldiers appeared to be in gold: their troops had the appearance of a forest of Karnikaras(with yellow flowers)"



The Ramyana also mentiones the golden colour of the Kiratas: thus,

                                     Kiratasca tiksna-cudasca hemabhah priya-darsanah,
                                     antar-jala-cara ghora nara-vyaghra iti srutah
 (Kiskindhya-Kanda, 40, 27,28, quoted by N.N. Vasu in Social History of Kamarupa, Calcutta, 1922, p.92)

                                                  upon translation is
"The Kiratas, with hair done in pointed top-knots, pleasant to look upon, shining like gold, able to move
under water, terrible, veritable tigermen, so are they famed".          

Elsewhere The Ramyana speaks of other Kiratas who lived by the sea and were ferocious, and ate raw fish though i have not found the ancient scripts on this (yet)!



From the Sabha-parvan of the Mahabharata (30, 26-28):

            vasu tebhya upadaya Lauhityam agamad bali:
            sa sarvan mleccha-nrpatin sagaranupa-vasinah
            karam aharayamasa ratnani vividhani ca
            candanaguru-vastrani mani-mauktika-kambalam,
            kancanam rajatan caiva vidrumam ca mahabalam

                                upon translation is
"The powerful warrior receiving wealth from them went to the Lauhitya river.
He (was victorious over) all the Mleccha Kings dwelling by the shore of the sea,
and obtained tributes from them--gems of various sort, sandalwood, agallochum, cloths, gems (rubies), pearls
and blankets, gold, silver and very hard lapis-lazuli."

This gives insight of the Kiratas dwelling in the hills and mountains of the east were supposed to be rich in gold and silver and gems they
obtained from these mountains, and they were experts in making cloth of various kinds as described in the above
passage.

"The above passages, and some others quoted by Sylvain Levi (in his work on Nepal) will give idea about the Kiratas, the place where
they lived, their appearance and their ways of living, round about the time of Christ, when the Mahabharata was in the midst of its
expansion as an encyclopaedia work.
The ways of the Kiratas were simple. They lived mostly on fruits and tubers, dressed themselves in skins, wore their hair in a pointed
top-knot, and were a pleasant-looking people, but terrible with their weapons, and cruel in war.
Their yellow complexion evidently marked them off from other Indian peoples". ----Suniti Kumar Chatterji (KIRATA-JANA-KRTI)

See you again soon!
SKH