Tharu people of Nepal
The Tharu people are
an indigenous ethnic group who have lived in the lowlands of Nepal for
centuries. Until recently, the region was covered by a thick malarial jungle
that kept away outsiders and guaranteed the Tharus free but difficult lives.
Their relative isolation led them to develop a distinct and self-sufficient
society with their own language, religion, and culture differing from the hill
people in the north.The
land in Nepali Tarai or plains is the rice basket of Nepal. It is most
productive and sought after agricultural land. But is not much more than sixty
years ago that the area was only sparsely cultivated. A hundred years ago the
vast majority of the Tarai was still covered by thick, malarial jungle. At this
time the area’s only full year residents were various indigenous groups, the
largest of which was the Tharu. They tolerated the jungle’s malaria and wild
animals, in return for which they had ample land off which to live. It
was a time that old men still talk about, when a family entering a new
settlement could have as much land as they could carve out of the jungle. In
this environment, the Tharus developed largely self-sufficient communities in
and around the jungle, with building styles, settlement patterns, religion and
agricultural practices very distinctive from what is practiced in the hills or
further south in the Gangetic Plains of northern India.
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