the literal meaning of limbu in 'yathung' language is bearer of bow, 'li' means bow, before the formation of 10 limbu and 17 thum in pallo kirat, the people revolted against their rulers who were ruthless and tyrant, and eventually defeated them and thus came up with this new name 'limbu' since the revolution was won by bow and arrow, then they subdivided the area as 10 limbu and 17 thum. they were independent of each other but remained as a unit to deal with external threats. limbu chieftains and people resisted againts gorkha invasion, the war took place, there r remians of chainpur fort, saguri fort, bijaypur durbar and many other forts where limbu still conduct prayers every year as a respect to the ancestors. after the military campaign became futile for gorkha, they offered peaceful solution of allowing limbus to practise thier cultural, religious and linguistic rights, be a rulers as they were (which was still in practise till mahendra era in the form of land rights as 'kipat') but amalgamate to nepal as a nation. tamropatra issued by prithvi narayan shah and many letters and lalmohar issued by latter rulers which is still in existnce are the evidences. among ten limbus, few didnt agree from the area of present illam and taplejung, made an alliance with sikkim and continued resisting the gorkha expansion. it was then the limbus got divided, the ones agreeing the terms of gorkha nd the ones opposing it came face to face in the battle where the alliance of limbu-gorkha defeated the alliance of limbu-sikkim.