Khaling Rai is one of the Rai languages. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family. According to the census (2001), the population is around 9,288. Based on the UNESCO Language Survey Report Nepal (2002), the total population is between 15,000 and 20,000. Most of this people group is located in Solu Khumbu, Khotang, Bhojpur, Sankhuwasawa, Terhathum, Panchtar and Ilam districts.

A Khaling orthography was developed by Mr. S. Toba with help of local community members in the early 1970's. An orthography workshop was held in Kathmandu in 2004 at which the Khaling community, SIL linguists and professors of Central department of Linguistics of Tribhuvan University discussed the existing orthography. At the end of the workshop, 3 consonants, ट, ठ, ड, were added in the orthography. These 3 consonants are rarely used.