History:
Humanoid warrior civilization, originally from the planet Qo'noS; a proud, tradition-bound people who value honor.
TOS "Errand of Mercy"
The aggressive Klingon culture has made them an interstellar military power to be respected and feared. There is no equivalent of the devil in Klingon mythology, although a beast known as Fek'lhr is believed to guard the underworld of Gre'thor.
TOS "Day of the Dove" ; TNG "Devil's Due"
According to myth, ancient Klingon warriors slew their gods a millennium ago. They apparently were more trouble than they were worth.
DS9 "Homefront"
In Klingon society, the death of a warrior who has died honorably in battle is not mourned. In such cases, the survivors celebrate the freeing of the spirit.
TNG "The Bonding"
Klingons believe in an after life but there is no burial ceremony. They dispose of the body in the most efficient means possible, confident that the warrior's spirit has now joined Kahless the Unforgettable in Sto-Vo-Kor.
VOY "Emanations" ; TNG "Rightful Heir"
Klingon tradition holds that "the son of a Klingon is a man the day he can first hold a blade."
TNG "Ethics"
Another Klingon ritual is the R'uustai, or bonding ceremony, in which two individuals join families, becoming brothers and sisters.
TNG "The Bonding"
Klingons believe that they have the instinctive ability to look an opponent in the eye and see the intent to kill. Klingon tradition holds that a Klingon who dies by their own hand will not travel across the River of Blood to enter Sto-Vo-Kor.
DS9 "Sons of Mogh"
If a Klingon warrior strikes another Klingon with the back of his hand, it is interpreted as a challenge to the death. Klingon warriors speak proudly to each other; they do not whisper or keep their distance. Standing far away or whispering are considered insults in Klingon society.
DS9 "Apocalypse Rising"
The Klingon body incorporates multiple redundancies for nearly all vital bodily functions. This characteristic, known as brak'lul, gives Klingon warriors enormous resiliency in battle. Despite the considerable sophistication of Klingon technology, significant gaps exist in Klingon medical science, in part due to cultural biases that injured warriors should be left to die or to carry out the Hegh'bat.
TNG "Ethics"
Klingons have redundant stomachs.
VOY "Macrocosm"
Klingons have no tear ducts. Klingon blood is a lavender colored fluid.
Klingons were first seen in Errand of Mercy [TOS], and throughout the original Star Trek series. At the time, they appeared as fairly ordinary humans with heavy makeup and mustaches. Beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, improved makeup techniques, and bigger budgets, led to their present elaborate forehead designs. The differences between the two types of Klingons have never been definitively explained on the show, although Worf, in Trials and Tribble-ations [DS9], made it very clear that this is not something the Klingons discuss with outsiders. The issue was further complicated when three Klingons, Kor, Koloth, and Kang, who had appeared in the Original Series with the original makeup design, appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine wearing the motion picture style Klingon foreheads.According to David Alexander, in Star Trek Creator, a biography of Gene Roddenberry, Roc Books, 1994, the Klingons were named for Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, a friend of Roddenberry who served with him in the Los Angeles Police Department.
Star Trek Encyclopedia II
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