Tharu people
The Tharu are one of the major and indigenous ethnic groups of Nepal. 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, 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 Saptari. 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. Most Tharu are devout Hindus but many also propitiate forest and household gods as part of syncretic or vestigal animist traditions. Each Tharu village also has a deity known as Bhuinyar. Tharu often seek traditional health care and spiritual advice from village witch doctors known as Guruba. Holi and Maghi are the major festivals.
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). Maitres et posse'de's; Les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Ne'pal). Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. (French)