Tharu people
sonu tharu
|
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Nepal
|
1,737,470 |
 India
|
|
| Languages | |
| Tharu languages | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism, Buddhism, traditional beliefs | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
The Tharu people (Devanagari:थारू, Thārū) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Terai, the southern foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal and India. The Tharus are recognized as an official nationality by the Governments of Nepal and India.
As of 2011, the Tharu population of Nepal was censused at 1,737,470 people, or 6.6% of the total population. In 2009, the majority of Tharu people were estimated to live in Nepal. There are several endogamous sub-groups of Tharu that are scattered over most of the Terai:
Smaller numbers of Tharu people reside in the adjacent Indian districts Champaran of Bihar state; Gorakhpur, Basti and Gonda of Uttar Pradesh state; and Nainital, Uttarakhand state. In 2001, Tharu people were the largest of five scheduled tribes in Uttarakhand, with a population of 256,129 accounting for 33.4% of all scheduled tribes. In the same year, they constituted 77.4% of the total tribal population of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 83,544.
The Tharu people themselves say that they are a people of the forest. In Chitwan, they have lived in the forests for hundreds of years practicing a short fallow shifting cultivation. They plant rice, mustard, corn and lentils, but also collect forest products such as wild fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and materials to build their houses; hunt deer, rabbit and wild boar, and go fishing in the rivers and oxbow lakes.
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