8 facts you didn't know about Gorkha Rifles

The country's first Field Marshal Sam 'Bahadur' Manekshaw, an officer in a Gorkha Rifles regiment but not a Gorkha himself, once said: 'If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gorkha.'

The 9th Gorkha Rifles regiment ends its bicentenary celebrations with a grand reunion in Varanasi on November 9 and 10 (in pic). On the occasion, here are some interesting facts about the Gorkha Rifles:

The current Army chief Bipin Rawat is from the Gorkha Rifles. In fact, several Army chiefs have been officers in on of the Gorkha regiments.

The Gorkha Rifles regiments had a tradition of sacrificing a male buffalo on the festival of Dussehra. The defence ministry in 2015 put an end to that tradition.