थारू | |
|---|---|
 A Tharu woman in traditional dress | |
| Total population | |
| c. 1.96 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Nepal | 1,807,124[1] |
| Lumbini | 732,069 |
| Sudurpaschim | 397,822 |
| Madhesh | 301,038 |
| Koshi | 209,519 |
| Bagmati | 110,284 |
| Gandaki | 47,619 |
| Karnali | 8,773 |
 India | 356,572[2] |
| Bihar | 159,939 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 105,291 |
| Uttarakhand | 91,342 |
| Languages | |
| Tharu languages,Nepali,Hindi | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism 96.5%,Christianity 1.9%,Buddhism 1.2%,Prakriti 0.2%,Islam 0.01%[3] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
TheTharu people are anethnic group living in theTerai in southernNepal and northernIndia.[4][5][6] They speakTharu languages.[7] They are recognized as an officialethnicity by theGovernment of Nepal.[8] In the Indian Terai, they live foremost inUttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh andBihar. TheGovernment of India recognizes the Tharu people as ascheduled Indian tribe.[9][10]
The wordथारू (thāru) is thought to be derived fromsthavir meaning follower ofTheravadaBuddhism. The Tharu people in the central Nepali Terai see themselves as the original people of the land and descendants ofGautama Buddha.Rana Tharu people of western Nepal connect the name to theThar Desert and understand themselves as descendants ofRajputs who migrated to the forests in the 16th century.[11]Possible is also that the name is derived from theclassical Tibetan wordsmtha'-ru'i brgyud, meaning the 'country at the border', which the Tibetan scholarTaranatha used in the 16th century in his book on the history of Buddhism.[6]
In 2009, the majority of Tharu people were estimated to live in Nepal.[12] There are severalendogamous subgroups of Tharu that are scattered over most of theTerai:[6][13]
Smaller numbers of Tharu people reside in the adjacent Indian districtsChamparan inBihar,Gorakhpur,Basti andGonda districts inUttar Pradesh, andKhatima inUttarakhand.[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:
The percentage of Tharu people was higher than national average (6.6%) in the following districts:[25]
According toAlberuni, Tharu people have been living in the eastern Terai since at least the 10th century.[6]The Rana Tharus in western Nepal claim to be ofRajput origin and to have migrated from theThar Desert inRajasthan to Nepal'sFar Western Terai region after the defeat ofMaharana Pratap against aMughal emperor in the 16th century.[11] Some scholars refute this claim.[26] Another claim posits that the Tharu people are descendants of theShakya dynasty, who propagatedMahayana Buddhism inNepal from the late 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD.[27]
TheTabaqat-i Nasiri chronicle of the Islamic world contains records of an expedition byMuhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji intoKamrup region betweenGauda andTibet in 1205 AD and refers to the resident people as Kunch, today'sKoch people, Mej/Meg today'sMech people and Tiharu as havingmongoloid appearances.[28] These people impressed theTurkic peoples who had similar features as them, like slanting eyes, snub noses, high cheek bones, yellow complexion of theMongols and who spoke a different language than in the rest of the subcontinent.[29]
Following theunification of Nepal in the late 18th century, members of the ruling families received land grants in theTerai and were entitled to collect revenue from those who cultivated the land. The Tharu people becamebonded labourers in a system also known asKamaiya.[30] In 1854,Jung Bahadur Rana enforced the so-calledMuluki Ain, a General Code, in which both Hindu and non-Hinducastes were classified based on their habits of food and drink.[31] Tharu people were categorized as "Paani Chalne Masinya Matwali", i.e., touchable enslavable alcohol drinking group, together with several other ethnic minorities.[32][33] In the late 1950s, theWorld Health Organization supported the Nepalese government in eradicatingmalaria in the forests of the central Terai.[34] Following the malaria eradication program usingDDT in the 1960s, a large and heterogeneous non-Tharu population from the Nepali hills,Bhutan,Sikkim andIndia settled in the region.[35]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.[36]
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 theChitwan 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]
After the overthrow of the Panchayat system in Nepal in 1990, the Tharu ethnic associationTharu Kalyankari Sabha joined the umbrella organisation of ethnic groups, a predecessor of theNepal 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.[37] Bonded labour shifted to children who work in other households for food for themselves and their families, but rarely with access to school education.[38]
During theNepalese 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 organisationBackward Society Education destroyed.[39]After theComprehensive Peace Accord was signed in 2006, Tharu organisations postulated an autonomous Tharu state within afederal Nepal, emphasising equality of opportunity and equal distribution of land and resources.[40]In 2009, Tharu people across the Nepal Terai protested against the government's attempt to categorise them asMadheshi people.[39][41]
Genetic studies onY-DNA of Tharu people from two villages in Chitwan district and one in Morang district revealed a high presence ofHaplogroup O-M117 (33.3%) followed byHaplogroup H (25.7%),Haplogroup J2a-M410(xM68, M47, M67, M158) (9.9%),Haplogroup R1a (8.8%),Haplogroup R2a-M124 (4.7%),Haplogroup J2b2-M12/M102/M241(xM99) (4.1%),Haplogroup D-M174 (3.5%),Haplogroup L-M20 (2.3%),Haplogroup O-M95 (2.3%),Haplogroup E-M35 (1.8%),Haplogroup O-M134(xM117) (1.2%),Haplogroup Q-M242 (1.2%),Haplogroup C1b1a1-M356 (0.6%), andHaplogroup K-M9(xM70, M20, M214, M74) (0.6%). A genetic study onmtDNA of several Tharus in Nepal showed that the total ofSouth Asian mtDNA haplogroups ranges from 31.6% to 67.5% in the Tharu while the total ofEast Asian mtDNA haplogroups ranges from 32.5% to 68.4% depending on the Tharu group studied.[42]A genetic survey of Tharus from Nepal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh showed that they have both a South Asian and an East Asianhuman genetic origin.[43]
The Tharu are famous for their ability to survive in themalarial 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.[44] The researchers believed such a large difference pointed togenetic factors rather than behavioural or dietary differences. This was confirmed by follow-up investigation findinggenes forthalassemia in nearly all Tharu studied.[45][46]Tharu people have limited, not complete, immunity to malaria. Many Tharus, particularly babies, died from malaria.[36]
The Tharu people comprise several groups who speak different dialects and differ in traditional dress, customs, rituals and social organization.[47]They consider themselves as a people of the forest. In Chitwan, they have lived in the forests for hundreds of years practising a short fallowshifting cultivation. They plantrice,wheat,mustard,maize andlentils, but also collect forest products such as wild fruits, vegetables,medicinal plants and materials to build their houses; huntdeer,rabbit andwild 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.[48] 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 likeclay,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.[49]
Tharu communities in different parts of Nepal and India do not share the same language. Several speak various endemicTharu languages. In western Nepal and adjacent parts of India, Tharus speak variants ofHindi,Urdu andAwadhi.[47] In and near central Nepal, they speak a variant ofBhojpuri. In eastern Nepal, they speak a variant ofMaithili.[22] More standard versions of these dialects are widely spoken by non-Tharu neighbors in the same areas so that there are no important linguistic barriers between Tharus and their neighbors. However, there are linguistic barriers between these dialects standing in the way of communication between Tharus from different regions.[7]
Ashtimki painting is a type of painting drawn on the day ofAshtimki festival celebrated by the Tharus in the western region ofNepal using home-made colors made from red clay (red), bean leaves (green) and burnt wild grass (black). The painting depicts the story of evolution. The main components of the painting areKrishna, aNeolamarckia cadamba tree, a boat, fish, crabs, tortoise, monkeys and other animals, the ten-headed demonRavana,Pandava,Draupadi, a sun and a moon.[50]
Mokha art is a typical style of painting the outer walls and verandas of homes in colourful forms ineastern Nepal. The artists, mostly women, make a mixture of clay andjute or mixture ofclay, ricebran andcow dung, depending upon the district, and layers of the mixture are applied to the walls depicting floral and geometric patterns including birds and animals among many other motifs. When the design dries, they apply a layer of white clay to it and use natural colours to give them a facelift.[51][52][49]
Denhari 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.[53]
Sikki grass crafts are varioushandicrafts made from a special kind of grass known as sikki ormoonj grass. Sikki baskets known as Dhakiya, Mauni or Daliya depending upon the place are baskets made from sikki ormoonj 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.[54][55]
The spiritual beliefs and moral values of the Tharu people are closely linked to the natural environment.[5] Thepantheon of their gods comprises a large number ofdeities that live in the forest. They are asked for support before entering the forest.[13]Tharus have been influenced byHinduism for several centuries. However, since the 1990s, some Tharu groups in the Nepal Terai converted toBuddhism in the wake of ethnic movements for social inclusion and against the religious hierarchy imposed by the Hindu State.[56] In recent years a smaller number of Tharu people have converted toChristianity particularly after the rise of democracy in 1990.[57][58]
Traditionally, Rana Tharus practicearranged 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.[59] Among the Rana Tharus inBardiya District, it is also custom to arrange marriage of a daughter in exchange for getting a bride for a son or vice versa. Parents give particular attention to the working capacity of the groom and bride, rather than the economic situation of the in-law family.Polygamous marriages are also customary among Tharu people, with rich land holders marrying between two and five women.[60]
In the western Terai, Rana Tharu traditionally live inBadaghar calledlonghouses 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 ofBadaghar households and associated land holdings is calledMukhiya. 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 theseBadaghar households broke up into smaller units of up to six households.[61]
Tharu people inRajapur, Nepal are either landholders, cultivate land on asharecropping basis or are landless agricultural labourers.[60]
Tharu people celebrateMaghe Sankranti on the first day of the Nepali month ofMagh, usually around the middle of January. Depending on the location they call this day Magh, Maghi, Tila Sankranti, Kichhra and Khichdi.[62]In the western region of Nepal, they celebrateAshtimki on the day ofKrishna Janmashtami. On this day, people of Tharu communities draw a special artwork known asAshtimki Chitra made on the wall of the living room of the house of the village elder. The art in painting is thought to be related to the creation of the universe.[50]In the eastern Terai, Tharu people celebrateJur Sital on the first day of the year in the month ofVaisakha by sprinkling water on each other. The elders put water on the forehead and head of the young ones with blessing, while the young people put water on the feet of the elders to pay respect. Compatriots sprinkle water on each other's body.[63][64]Tharu women of central and eastern Nepal celebrateJitiya, which is one of the most important Tharu festivals. Theyfast or keep “vrata” for the welfare of their children.[65]Eastern Tharus celebrateSama Chakeva in the month ofKartik to honour the relationship between brothers and sisters. The sisters make clay statuettes ofShama, Chakeva, Sathbhainya, Chugala, cymbalist, drummer, dancer, Brindavan, a wild fowl, a bumblebee and a dog among others.[66]
Sakhiya dance is a traditional Tharu dance performed during theDashain and Tihar festivals by the unmarried young girls and boys.[67]Lathi Nach, also known as Tharu stick dance, is mainly performed during the Dashain festival.[68]
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Tharus have a diverse food culture. Their cuisine varies depending on the region they inhabit.[citation needed]Ghonghi is afresh water snail dish eaten by sucking the snail from its shell. It is served withrice and this combination, for indigenous people in Terai, had been a staple food for ages.[69]Dhikri is a popular western Tharu dish which is prepared by making a dough with warm water and rice flour and is eaten with spicychutney.[70]Bagiya is similar todhikri but is popular among eastern Tharus and consists of an external covering ofrice flour and an inner content of sweet substances such likechaku,vegetables and other fried items.[71]
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| Indo-Aryan |
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| Indo-Aryan of adistinct origin | |||||||||
| Other peoples (M,D,i) ofIndus-Ganga |
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