Tharu people

The Tharu are one of the major and indigenous ethnic groups of [(Nepal)and (India)]. They traditionally live throughout the jungles of the southern Terai lowlands of Nepal in Bardia, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Morang, Saptari and Jhapa districts, as well as in the inner Terai valleys of Chitwan, Dang, Deukhuri Surkhet and Udaipur. Tharu populations also traditionally reside in regions of India contiguous to the Nepal border, specifically Naini Tal, Kheri and Gonda Districts of Uttar Pradesh State and Champaran district of Bihar State. According to Nepal’s 2001 census, there are 1,533,879 ethnic Tharu (6.75% of Nepal's total population) of which 1,331,546 speak one of the seven Tharu dialects as a mother tongue.

The Tharu divide themselves into at least seven major clan groups; Chitwan, Dangora, Deokhari, Kathariya, Mahottari, Rana Thakur, and Kochila or Koshala ( this group has been spread through out Bara district to Mechi) However some Moraniya also habitate in Morang district along with Kochila Tharus and other non-Tharus groups. Each clan group has a distinct dialect, ethnic identity and culture.

Subsistence agriculture is the main traditional occupation and the Tharu maintain a close relationship with the forests and rivers of their native Terai. The Tharu traditionally love and excel at fishing and hunting as other ethic and caste groups do. Infact they are peasant but certainly not huter and gathereres since they have great written historical evidence that they were the landlords of the whole Terai before the unification of modern Nepal and before the malarian eradication. In fact the Malaria was the shield to protect them, since they had evolved resistance and other ethnic groups suffered high mortality in these lands.

Most Tharu are devout [[Hindu] and [Buddhism]]s but many also propitiate forest and household gods as part of syncretic or vestigal animist traditions. They are, according to Dr. Fuhrer (who discovered the Lumbini in 1896) and his followers from India and Nepal, they are the modern descendents of the Ancient Sakya and Koliya Tribes to whom the Lord Buddha belong. But some anthropologists regard this statement as mere myth building which is really myth of myth constructing. Among them, especially in Saptari, Siraha and Udaypur, the Buddhist revivlism has been getting speed. Now there are more than one dozen Buddhist monks and novices from the Tharus. In fact the Tharus are the admixture of various ancient tribes of Buddha's time. Tose who believe in the Theravada Buddhism they become Tharus in spite of this fact that Rana Tharus are claimg to be the descendents of Maha Rana Pratap of Rajsthan, India but without success.

Each Tharu village also has a deity known as Bhuinyar but in east Nepal has other name for it i.e.Gor-raja. Tharu often seek traditional health care and spiritual advice from village witch doctors known as Guruba. Holi and Maghi are the major festivals for the western Thaus.

Tharu women are generally not submissive and may play a strong role in household decision-making, especially among the Rana Thakur who traditionally maintain a female dominant society. Tharu women in some clans traditionally enjoy aesthetic self-beautification practices such as tattooing and/or wearing distinctive brightly colored skirt tartans, large silver earrings, nose rings, bangles, and anklets.

Until recent legislation banning the practice, many Tharu suffered as indentured servants, or kamaiya. Debts were charged exorbitant interest and debtors were forced to work in the fields or as household servants for years and even generations. The kamaiya system has been discontinued but the problems of landlessness and unemployment remain acute. The Maoist Nepalese People's War has drawn militant participation from Nepal’s disenfranchised ethnic minorities, including the Tharu.

References

• Nepal Population Report 2002
• Rastriya Janajati Bikas Samiti
• Nepal Ethnographic Museum
• Bista, Dor Bahadur. (2004). People of Nepal. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.
• Krauskopf, Giselle. (1989). Maîtres et possédés; Les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal). Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. (French)
• Ashokakirti, Bhikshu. (1999). "Searching the Origin of Selfless Self" 'Journal of Nepalese Studies', Royal Nepal Academy, Kathmandu, Nepal.