Tharu people
थारू | |
---|---|
Ban Rawats |
The Tharu people are an
Etymology
The word थारू (thāru) is thought to be derived from
Distribution
In 2009, the majority of Tharu people were estimated to live in Nepal.[12] There are several endogamous subgroups of Tharu that are scattered over most of the Terai:[6][13]
- Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh.[14] As of 2020 Rana Tharus are no longer considered a subgroup of Tharu people but a separate ethnicity of their own by the Nepal government.[15]
- Kathariya Tharu mostly in Kailali District and in Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Bahraich districts of India;[6][16][17]
- Sonha Tharu in Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur;[18][19]
- Dangaura Tharu in the western Terai:
- Chitwan Tharu in central Terai: Makwanpur, Chitwan and Nawalparasi Districts;[6][8]
- Danuwar in eastern Terai: Sindhuli, Udayapur, Saptari and Morang Districts;[23]
- Lampucchwa Tharu in Morang and Sunsari District.[6]
Smaller numbers of Tharu people reside in the adjacent Indian districts Champaran in Bihar, Gorakhpur, Basti and Gonda districts in Uttar Pradesh, and Khatima in Uttarakhand.[5]
As of 2011, the Tharu population in Nepal was censused at 1,737,470 people, or 6.6% of the total population.[24] The percentage of Tharu people by province was as follows:
- Sudurpashchim Province (17.3%)
- Lumbini Province (15.3%)
- Madhesh Province (5.3%)
- Koshi Province (4.1%)
- Gandaki Province (1.7%)
- Bagmati Province (1.6%)
- Karnali Province (0.4%)
The percentage of Tharu people was higher than national average (6.6%) in the following districts:[25]
- Bardiya (53.3%)
- Kailali (41.9%)
- Dang (29.7%)
- Kanchanpur (25.8%)
- Parasi(18.4%)
- Banke (15.8%)
- Kapilvastu (12.3%)
- Sunsari (12.1%)
- Nawalpur (11.8%)
- Saptari (11.5%)
- Chitwan (11.0%)
- Bara (10.5%)
- Rupandehi (9.7%)
- Parsa (7.6%)
- Udayapur (7.6%)
History
According to
The Rana Tharus in western Nepal claim to be of Rajput origin and to have migrated from the Thar Desert in
13th century
The
Modern history (1700–1990)
Following the
In the late 1950s, the World Health Organization supported the Nepalese government in eradicating malaria in the forests of the central Terai.[33] Following the malaria eradication program using DDT in the 1960s, a large and heterogeneous non-Tharu population from the Nepali hills, Bhutan, Sikkim and India settled in the region.[34]
In the western Terai, many Tharu families lost the land, which they used to cultivate, to these immigrants and were forced to work as Kamaiya.[7] In Chitwan, after the eradication of malaria, the U.S. government joined forces with the Nepali government in a project to build a new road, schools and health clinics, and distribute land to migrants from the hills. They invited Tharu people to take land but many Tharus preferred staying "voluntarily landless", as they worried that taking land would make them vulnerable to exploitation from Nepali governmental tax collectors and to attacks from wild animals. They preferred to stay as tenants for large Tharu landlords, who were often relatives.[35]
When the first protected areas were established in Chitwan, Tharu communities were forced to relocate from their traditional lands. They were denied any right to own land and thus forced into a situation of landlessness and poverty. When the Chitwan National Park was designated, Nepalese soldiers destroyed the villages located inside the national park, burned down houses, and beat the people who tried to plough their fields. Some threatened Tharu people at gun point to leave.[13]
Recent history (1990–present)
After the overthrow of the Panchayat system in Nepal in 1990, the Tharu ethnic association Tharu Kalyankari Sabha joined the umbrella organisation of ethnic groups, a predecessor of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities.[11]
In July 2000, the Government of Nepal abolished the practice of bonded labour prevalent under the Kamaiya system and declared loan papers illegal. Kamaiya families were thus enfranchised from debts supposedly incurred, but were also rendered homeless and jobless.[36] Bonded labour shifted to children who work in other households for food for themselves and their families, but rarely with access to school education.[37]
During the Nepalese Civil War, Tharu people experienced an intense period of violence, were recruited by and coerced to help the Maoists, especially in western Nepal; several Tharu leaders were assassinated and infrastructure of the Tharu organisation Backward Society Education destroyed.[38] After the Comprehensive Peace Accord was signed in 2006, Tharu organisations postulated an autonomous Tharu state within a federal Nepal, emphasising equality of opportunity and equal distribution of land and resources.[39] In 2009, Tharu people across the Nepal Terai protested against the government's attempt to categorize them as Madheshi people.[38][40]
Culture
The Tharu people comprise several groups who speak different dialects and differ in traditional dress, customs, rituals and social organization.[41]
They consider themselves as a people of the forest. In Chitwan, they have lived in the forests for hundreds of years practising a short fallow shifting cultivation. They plant rice, wheat, mustard, maize and lentils, but also collect forest products such as wild fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and materials to build their houses; hunt deer, rabbit and wild boar, and go fishing in the rivers and oxbow lakes.[13]
The Rana Tharus never went abroad for employment, a life that kept them isolated in their own localities.[42] They developed a unique culture free from the influence of adjacent India, or from the ethnic groups in Nepal's mountains. The most striking aspects of their environment are the decorated rice containers, colorfully painted verandahs and outer walls of their homes using only available materials like clay, mud, cow dung and grass. Much of the rich design is rooted in devotional activities and passed on from one generation to the next, occasionally introducing contemporary elements such as a bus or an airplane.[43]
Language
Tharu communities in different parts of Nepal and India do not share the same language. Several speak various endemic
Folk dance
Sakhiya dance is a traditional dance of Tharu community performed during the Dashain and Tihar festivals by the unmaried young girls and boys.[44]
Lathi Nach, also known as Tharu stick dance is a cultural dance mainly performed during the Dashain festival. Laathi Nach has become a popular tourist attraction in Nepal, particularly Chitwan District.[45]
Art
Mokha is a typical style of painting the outer walls and verandas of homes in colorful forms in eastern Nepal. The artists, mostly women, make a mixture of clay and jute or mixture of clay, rice bran and cow dung depending upon the district and layers of the mixture are applied to the walls depicting beautiful floral and geometric patterns including birds and animals among many other beautiful motifs. When the design dries, they apply a layer of white clay to it and use natural colours to give them a facelift. [47][48]
Dehari is a traditional earthen vessel used to store food grains. It is made by using loamy clay, paddy straw and rice husk and has a round, rectangular or conical shapes. It is mostly made by females and mostly used to store paddy, wheat, rice, maize, lentils and mustard seeds. The vessel is also an integral part of religious festival and cultural activities.[49]
Sikki grass crafts are various handicrafts that are made from a special kind of grass known as sikki or moonj grass. Sikki baskets known as Dhakiya, Mauni or Daliya depending upon the place are baskets made from sikki or moonj grass plays an important role in everyday household activities of the Tharu community. They are also used in every rituals of Tharu community from the birth to death. [50][51]
Religion
The spiritual beliefs and moral values of the Tharu people are closely linked to the natural environment.
Marriage system
Traditionally, Rana Tharus practice arranged marriages, which parents often arrange already during the couple's childhood. The wedding ceremony is held when the bride and groom reach marriable age. The ceremony lasts several days, involving all the relatives of the two families.[55] Among the Rana Tharus in
Household structure
In the western Terai, Rana Tharu traditionally live in Badaghar called longhouses with big families of up to 31 members from four generations and between one and eight married couples. The household members pool their labour force, contribute their income, share the expenditure and use one kitchen. The eldest male person in charge of Badaghar households and associated land holdings is called Mukhiya. He assigns tasks to family members, is responsible for the family's social activities and has to report income and expenditures annually to the family. When families were forced to resettle, some of these Badaghar households broke up into smaller units of up to six households.[57]
Social structure
Tharu people in Rajapur, Nepal are either landholders, cultivate land on a sharecropping basis or are landless agricultural labourers.[56]
Festivals
Tharu people celebrate Maghe Sankranti on the first day of the Nepali month of Magh, usually around the middle of January. Depending on the location they call this day Magh, Maghi, Tila Sankranti, Kichhra and Khichdi.[58] In the western region of Nepal, they celebrate
Cuisine
Tharus have a rich and diverse food culture. Their cuisine varies depending on the region they inhabit.[65] Ghonghi is a fresh water snail dish eaten by sucking the snail from its shell. It is served with rice and this combination, for indigenous people in Terai, had been a staple food for ages.[66] Dhikri is a popular western Tharu dish which is prepared by making a dough with warm water and rice flour and is eaten with spicy chutney.[67] Bagiya is similar to dhikri but is popular among eastern Tharus and consists of an external covering of rice flour and an inner content of sweet substances such like chaku, vegetables and other fried items.[68] Bhakkha is a fluffy rice cake popular among Tharus of eastern Nepal and is usually eaten with freshly made chutney or achaar. [69] Sidhara is a mixture of taro root, dried fish and turmeric that is formed into cakes and dried for preservation. The cakes are broken up and cooked with radish, chili, garlic and other spices to accompany boiled rice.[70]Another short compendium of Tharu recipes includes roasted crab, wheat flatbread fried in mustard oil, and fried taro leaf cakes.[71]
Genetics
Genetic studies on
Resistance to malaria
The Tharu are famous for their ability to survive in the malarial parts of the Terai that were deadly to outsiders.[7] Contemporary medical research comparing Tharu with other ethnic groups living nearby found an incidence of malaria nearly seven times lower among Tharu.[74] The researchers believed such a large difference pointed to genetic factors rather than behavioural or dietary differences. This was confirmed by follow-up investigation finding genes for thalassemia in nearly all Tharu studied.[75][76] Tharu people have limited, not complete, immunity to malaria. Many Tharus, particularly babies, died from malaria.[35]
Notable Tharu people
- Barsha Lekhi - Miss Nepal 2016
- Bijay Kumar Gachhadar - politician and Former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal
- Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary - politician and chief minister of Lumbini Province
- Aman Lal Modi - Nepalese Minister of Federal Affairs
- Water Supplyof Nepal
- Resham Lal Chaudhary - Nepalese politician
- Sarswati Chaudhary - Nepalese track and field athlete
- Tilak Ram Tharu - Nepalese track and field athlete
- Ganga Chaudhary Satgauwa - politician
- Mamta Chaudhary - cricketer
- Teju Lal Chaudhary - politician
- Dipendra Chaudhary - cricketer
- Aditya Chaudhary - Nepali footballer
- Shanta Chaudhary - politician, Nepalese Women Writer
- Arun Kumar Chaudhary - politician
- Mangal Prasad Tharu - politician
- Shivani Singh Tharu - Nepalese former talk show host, model, and playwright
- Arti Rana - Indian social entrepreneur
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{{cite journal}}
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Further reading
- Krauskopff, G. (1989). Maîtres et possédés: Les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal) (in French). Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
- Meyer, K.; Deuel, P., eds. (1998). The Tharu Barka Naach: a rural folk art version of the Mahabharata. Lalitpur: Himal Books. ISBN 0-9666742-0-0.