Posted by: JPEG June 18, 2009
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Beauty_of_Never_End_Peace_And_Love of Tharu ni dressed for the Sakiya dance, to celebrate the end of the harvest.
For the last one hundred years peoples around the world have been fascinated by Nepal because of its magnificent mountains, the towering Himalayas. Closed off from the outside world by its potentates, this kingdom lived in secluded splendor until the 1950's, when its doors officially opened to the outside world. The isolation of the Tharu in the Tarai was even more complete: living in villages located in the malaria-infested jungles of the Gangetic plains, they rarely encountered outsiders. Over the millennia they developed a unique culture free from the influence of adjacent India, or from the mountain groups of Nepal. Only recently, when DDT eradicated the malaria, did the Tarai begin to attract settlers seeking to escape the harsh and little productive lands of their own ancestors.
The month of November bears a special significance for Terai dwellers in Nepal. Usually regarded as the month of harvest it brings with it loads of joy to all. The fields, villages and streets are all filled with the aroma of freshly cut paddy. The granaries are generally full with newly harvested rice and the aroma of new rice wafts away from every kitchen in the villages. The children await the harvest with much eagerness. After school hours or taking turns to herd the cattle and goats they glean rice from fields. Scouring the fields they search the rice stalks missed by the reapers. The collected rice is bartered with the petty sellers offering local delicacies (jilebi, kachari, and sweets). The rice is often sold in shops and the sum is saved to spend in the melas (village fetes) and haats (make-shift markets).
Meanwhile the farmers prepare jhuttis – artistic form of rice stalk sheaf weaving. Especially, the Tharus prepare jhuttis for each variety of rice they harvest. The jhuttis are hung high on the meh (the bamboo pole to which the oxen are tethered while threshing rice).
Points to be taken:
According to Nepali author Subodh Kumar Singh, a series of invasions by the other races,from north India across the border and from hills and mountains of Nepal, eroded the influence of the indigenous Tharus. In 1854 Jung Bahadur, the first Rana prime minister of Nepal, developed the Mulki Ain, a codification of Nepal's indigenous legal system which divided society into a system of castes. The Tharus were placed at next to the bottom(lowest touchable,above untouchables) of the social hierarchy. Their land was taken away, disrupting their community and displacing the people. In the 1950s, World Health Organization helped the Nepalese government eradicate malaria in the Terai region. This resulted in immigration of people from other areas to claim the fertile land, making many Tharus virtual slaves of the new landowners and developing the kamaiya system of bonding generations of Tharus families to labour. ~ "The Great Sons of the Tharus: Sakyamuni Buddha and Emperor Asoka" by Subodh Kumar Singh
For the last one hundred years peoples around the world have been fascinated by Nepal because of its magnificent mountains, the towering Himalayas. Closed off from the outside world by its potentates, this kingdom lived in secluded splendor until the 1950's, when its doors officially opened to the outside world. The isolation of the Tharu in the Tarai was even more complete: living in villages located in the malaria-infested jungles of the Gangetic plains, they rarely encountered outsiders. Over the millennia they developed a unique culture free from the influence of adjacent India, or from the mountain groups of Nepal. Only recently, when DDT eradicated the malaria, did the Tarai begin to attract settlers seeking to escape the harsh and little productive lands of their own ancestors.
The month of November bears a special significance for Terai dwellers in Nepal. Usually regarded as the month of harvest it brings with it loads of joy to all. The fields, villages and streets are all filled with the aroma of freshly cut paddy. The granaries are generally full with newly harvested rice and the aroma of new rice wafts away from every kitchen in the villages. The children await the harvest with much eagerness. After school hours or taking turns to herd the cattle and goats they glean rice from fields. Scouring the fields they search the rice stalks missed by the reapers. The collected rice is bartered with the petty sellers offering local delicacies (jilebi, kachari, and sweets). The rice is often sold in shops and the sum is saved to spend in the melas (village fetes) and haats (make-shift markets).
Meanwhile the farmers prepare jhuttis – artistic form of rice stalk sheaf weaving. Especially, the Tharus prepare jhuttis for each variety of rice they harvest. The jhuttis are hung high on the meh (the bamboo pole to which the oxen are tethered while threshing rice).
Points to be taken:
According to Nepali author Subodh Kumar Singh, a series of invasions by the other races,from north India across the border and from hills and mountains of Nepal, eroded the influence of the indigenous Tharus. In 1854 Jung Bahadur, the first Rana prime minister of Nepal, developed the Mulki Ain, a codification of Nepal's indigenous legal system which divided society into a system of castes. The Tharus were placed at next to the bottom(lowest touchable,above untouchables) of the social hierarchy. Their land was taken away, disrupting their community and displacing the people. In the 1950s, World Health Organization helped the Nepalese government eradicate malaria in the Terai region. This resulted in immigration of people from other areas to claim the fertile land, making many Tharus virtual slaves of the new landowners and developing the kamaiya system of bonding generations of Tharus families to labour. ~ "The Great Sons of the Tharus: Sakyamuni Buddha and Emperor Asoka" by Subodh Kumar Singh