Tarai Culture: Tharus and Newcomers
Two mysteries surround Nepal's second-biggest ethnic minority, the Tarai-dwelling Tharus : where they came from, and how they came to be resistant to malaria. Some anthropologists speculate that the tribe migrated from India's eastern hills, filtering across the Tarai over the course of millennia. This would account for their Mongoloid features and Hindu-animist beliefs, but it doesn't fully explain the radically different dialects, dress and customs of different Tharu groups. Isolated by malarial jungle for thousands of years, bands of migrants certainly could have developed their own cultures - but why, given such linguistic and cultural evolution, would the name "Tharu" survive with such consistency? Confusing the issue are the Rana Tharus of the far west, who claim to be descended from high-caste Rajput women who were sent north by their husbands during the Muslim invasions and, when the men never returned for them, married their servants. (There's some circumstantial evidence to support this, as Rana Tharu women are given extraordinary autonomy in marriage and household affairs.) As to the matter of malaria resistance , red blood cells seem to play a role - the fact that Tharus are prone to sickle-cell anaemia might be significant - but very little research has been done. At least as significant, Tharus boost their natural resistance with a few common-sense precautions, such as building houses with tiny windows to keep smoke in and mosquitoes (and ghosts) out. As hunter-gatherers , Tharus are skilled at snaring pigs and other small animals, fishing, and using plants for myriad medicinal and practical purposes. Modern times have forced them to become farmers and livestock raisers, clearing patches in the forest and warding off wild animals from flimsy watchtowers called machaan. Their whirling stick dance evokes their uneasy but respectful relationship with the spirits of the forest, as do the raised animal emblems that decorate their doorways. Fishing remains an important activity - given the Tarai's high water table, it's easy enough to scoop out a pond and stock it - and you're likely to see fisherwomen wielding hand-held nets between crossed poles, or carrying their catch home in wicker boxes. Tharu houses are made of mud and dung plastered over wood-and-reed frames, giving them a distinctive ribbed effect. Traditionally, western Tharus built communal longhouses , big enough for a half a dozen families or more and partitioned by huge vial-shaped grain urns, but most have now moved up to detached models. While clothing varies tremendously by area, Tharu women often wear thick silver bracelets above the elbow; tattooing of the forearms and lower legs is common among older women but is falling out of fashion with the younger generation. The Tarai has long been viewed as Nepal's frontier and the Tharus dismissed as primitive aboriginals. Since the early twentieth century - when, as a preliminary step to abolishing slavery, the government encouraged slaves to homestead in the Tarai - it's been seen as a place where a settler can clear the land and start a new life. The government's malaria-control programme accelerated the process, and several million gung-ho immigrants from the hills and India (the border is highly porous) have now cleared, tamed and transformed the Tarai into the breadbasket of Nepal, felling much of the valuable timber in the process. The migration is far from over - the Tarai's population is doubling every twenty years (some urban areas are doubling twice as fast). Prosperity has probably peaked, however, and since productivity isn't keeping up with population, the Tarai's agricultural surplus is steadily declining. In one generation, the Tharus have been outflanked, outfarmed and in many cases bought out and reduced to sharecropping. Traditional culture is still strong in the far west, particularly among the Dangauria and Rana groups, but in other areas it's been all but drowned by a tide of hill, Indian and Western tendencies. Like indigenous peoples the world over, Tharus know more about their own environment than anyone, but they're not being listened to
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