Gyani Maiya Sen-Kusunda

Early life Sen-Kusunda was born in 1937 in the Dang district of Nepal to a family of hunter-gatherers and settled in the Kulmor village in Dang. Her mother's name is Puni Thakuri and sister's name is Kamala Sen-Khatri. She and her mother and sister spoke Kusunda until Thakuri's death in 1985, after which Khatri moved to India for work. Then, Sen-Kusunda was believed to be the sole Kusunda speaker. But later in 2012, there were reports of three Kusunda speakers, including the two sisters. In 2010, the Tribhuvan University ran a language documentation and preservation programme by inviting both Sen-Kusunda and Sen-Khatri to Kathmandu, but the project stalled due to shortage of funds.

Career Sen-Kusunda worked with scholars including B.K. Rana, Brian Houghton Hodgson, David E. Watters, Johan Reinhard, Madhav Prasad Pokharel and Uday Raj Aaley for the documentation of the Kusunda language.