The Tharu Page

The Tharu are a culturally and linguistically diverse ethnic category who live along the Indo-Nepal border, in the region known as the Tarai. There are almost 1.2 million Tharu in Nepal, and smaller numbers live in the adjacent areas of India, mostly in Champaran district of Bihar and in Naini Tal district of Uttar Pradesh. The Naini Tal district in India and the Jhapa district in Nepal are, respectively, the westernmost and easternmost areas of Tharu habitation. This page is a guide to online materials on Tharu society and culture on the web, and is constantly being updated.

 

• Bibliography
• Tharu Languages
  Chitwaniya Dangaura Deokhuriya Kathoriya Kochila Mahotariya Rana
• Dor Bahadur Bista, People of Nepal: The Tharu

Books and Monographs on the Tharu

• Arjun Guneratne, Many Tongues, One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal.
  
  
• Katharine Bjork Guneratne, In the Circle of the Dance: Notes of an Outsider in Nepal
  Reviews: James Fisher (Himalayan Research Bulletin)
  
  
• Gisèle Krauskopff, Maîtres et Possédés: Les Rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal)
  Reviews : David Gellner (Man)
  
  
• Kurt W. Meyer, Pamela Deuel, eds., Mahabharata: The Tharu Barka Naach
  Reviews: Jim Laine (Himalayan Research Bulletin.
  
  
• Ulrike Müller-Böker, Die Tharu in Chitawan: Kenntnis, Bewertung und Nutzung der natürlichen Umwelt im südlichen Nepal
  Reviews: Karl-Heinz Krämer (Kathmandu Review of Books)
  
  
• S.K.Srivastava, The Tharus: A Study in Culture Dynamics
  Reviews: William McCormack (Man)
  
  
• Gisèle Krauskopff and Pamela Deuel Meyer, eds., The Kings of Nepal and the Tharu of the Tarai.
  Digging for Tharu roots: A new book pores through royal records to find how past kings dealt with Nepal’s indigenous Tharu
  

• Sigrun Eide Ødegaard, From Castes to Ethnic Group? Modernisation and Forms of Social Identification among the Tharus of the Nepalese Tarai (Complete text).
  
  
• Maria Løkke Rasmussen, The Kamaiya Movement in Nepal
  (MA thesis in International Development Studies and Adult Education at Roskilde University. Full text of original in Danish and selected portions in English translation available on-line)

Tharu Community Development Organizations and NGOs

• Backward Society Education (BASE) (Western Tarai)
  • Finnish technology group's visit to BASE
• Nepal Indigenous Development Society (Chitwan)
• Campaign to eradicate bonded labour in Nepal (Western Tarai)

Campaign to eradicate bonded labor in Nepal

• Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, Anti-Slavery Award acceptance speech
• Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, Land rights : Next priority for ex-Kamaiyas
• Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, On To The Next Phase Of The Kamaiya Mukti Andolan
• Mukunda Raj Kattel, A Fight against Kamaiya System: an Experience Review
• English language articles from MS-Denmark

People

• Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, President, Backward Society Education (BASE)

Tharus and the Maoist Insurgency

• The Tharu struggle to survive war, impunity and neglect
• The Maoist policy of confiscating land aggravates an already precarious food situation
• Maoist Rebellion Shifts Balance of Power in Rural Nepal

Photo Galleries

• Tharu Art
• The Eastern tarai
• National Parks
• Chitwan
• Backward Society Education
• Rana Tharu: Women of Grace (National Geographic article)