Friday, June 11, 2021

A multipurpose jungle vine and flowers that make you tipsy

 Text and pictures by Hari Pd. Chaudhary

Can you guess what are these? They are seeds of Phanera vahlii, a multipurpose wild vine found in abundance in the forests. Not only seeds but the whole vine is important for Tharus. Called ‘tata’ in the western Tharu and ‘malhan’ or ‘dama’ in eastern Tharu languages, its seeds, leaves and vines – all are useful.

Its seed pods are flat and long. They burst with a loud sound during the hot summer days in months of Chaitra and Baishakh (April). Don’t get scared of the sound when you’re in the jungle! 

It leaves are flat and coarse. The vine starts flowering during the months of Ashadh – Shrawan (July) and the pods are almost ready to ripe by the time the festival Dashain arrives. Tharus collect its leaves to make plates, bowls, umbrellas (chhatri), and raincoats (jhim). The plates and bowls are used in community feasts. 


Its pods burst open during the month of Chaitra (March – April). It’s also the season to pluck ‘mahua’ (Madhuca longifolia) flowers. People collect its seeds while plucking mahua flowers. Its seeds are roasted or boiled in water and eaten after removing the outer skin. 


Mahua flowers are used to make alcohol. People say no other alcohol can beat the taste of mahua! Fruits of mahua are also edible and sweet. You can get tipsy even chewing mahua flowers!


Tharus distribute mahua trees among themselves just like other ancestral properties and land. The brothers distribute mahua trees as well after deciding to stay separately. There’s, however, an understanding between all – they don’t pluck flowers from the trees in jungle belonging to others!

The post has been adapted from this Twitter thread.

Read the mahua story

Sunday, May 30, 2021

7 finger-licking good mushrooms from Nepal’s southern plains

 Text and pictures by Hari Pd. Chaudhary

Tharus from western part of Nepal’s southern plains have been collecting and consuming different varieties of wild mushrooms that are finger-licking good. They are not just mushrooms for them but they have special names for each variety. That’s the beauty and richness of their tradition and local Tharu language they speak.

Bhemti


This mushroom grows around termite hills. Termites are called ‘sina’ in Tharu language (both eastern and western). These mushrooms are tubular and around 22-25 inches long. 

They are normally found near the root of trees with thick trunk. They grow in troops and are found in an area of maximum 12 – 20 square feet. If you’re lucky, you can gather loads of bhemti from a single place. 

It is found from May till December. It also grows near adobe houses. 

Termite hill by Flickr user jbdodane. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Phutki, bhutki or kutki     


Called phutki, bhutki or kutki in Tharu language, these mushrooms grow in the ashes from forest fire. Thus, it is black but after washing it with water it looks like semi-white.


Gangadhur


The black mushrooms are called ‘phutki’ while the white ones are called ‘gangadhur’ due to their white colour. Both phutki and gangadhur look like button mushroom but they are completely round. 

Normally, after harvesting wheat, the remaining stubble is burnt. Called ‘larwaa’ In Tharu language, the stubble is burnt in April – May so that it is easier to plough the fields. These mushrooms grow in the ploughed field after the first rain and sunshine, as soon as the monsoon arrives. 

Gogwaa

Shaggy inkcaps by Flickr user Derek Parker. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Normally found during the month of July, these mushrooms grow in grazing field around dried cattle dung during monsoon season. 

Generally, gangadhur and gogwaa are washed and cut into two, and cooked over coal embers wrapped in saal leaves  for 5-10 minutes after adding a pinch of salt, turmeric powder and mustard oil. 

Naak bilariyaa          

Parasol mushroom by Flickr user Anita Gould. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

As it looks like a cat’s nose, this mushroom is called naak bilariyaa as a cat is called ‘bilariyaa’ in Tharu language. It is found during monsoon season in jungle and around houses. 

Buselaa


Buselaa means hay in Tharu language. These mushrooms grow in the wet and moist hay. 

Kachiu

It’s wild oyster mushroom and generally grows on timber. They are differentiated as edible and non-edible based on the timber on which they grow. 


Mushrooms growing on logs of mango, saal (Shorea robusta) and aasna (looking like a saal tree) tree are edible. These mushrooms grow on dried logs when they get wet and moist during monsoon. 

Caution: Wild mushrooms can be poisonous. Take advice of local people while collecting and consuming them.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Wild and spiny, this superfood tastes amazing

Text and pictures by Hari Pd. Chaudhary

Have you seen this strange looking vegetable? A bit round and pointed at ends, it looks like a bitter ground with hairy spines all over it. Called कन्ठेस्का (kantheskaa) in western part of Nepal’s southern plains and chatthel in the eastern part, the spiny gourd (Momordica dioica) has several health benefits. It lowers blood sugar and controls diabetes. According to sources, it also prevents hypertension, supports heart health and digestive system, treats cough, reduces excess sweating, improves eyesight, helps remove kidney stones, and also works as anti-aging agent among its many other benefits.

Mostly collected from wild during the rainy season, they are either pan fried or ground in a mortar and pestle to make finger-licking chutney. 

Here’s how you can make its chutney.


Step 1:

First, you need to roast kantheskaa on hot red burning coal or you can use hot oil to roast it. You have to roast until it becomes light brown. Slightly burn few red dries chilies over red coal.


Step 2: Grind it in mortar and pestle, called ‘silautaa’, ‘dokni’ or 'khal' locally.

Step 3: After grinding, put some turmeric powder on it.


Step 4: Now, put heated oil on the turmeric and temper it. 

Step 5: Now mix the turmeric throughout the chutney.


It’s ready now to serve.

Try it and let us know how it tastes!

Friday, January 22, 2021

5 Myths about the Tharu

 Clearing some common misconceptions about the Tharu on their New Year on Thursday

One misconception about the Tharu people is that they never got malaria. In fact they did, but less than hill settlers. A US-led insecticide spraying campaign against malaria in Chitwan in the 1950s. Photo: USOM RECORDS, US NATIONAL ARCHIVES, COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND.

Republished from Nepali Times with permission. 

The Tharu make up 5% of Nepal’s population. One in every 20 Nepalis is Tharu. They outnumber the Gurung, Limbu, and Newa peoples. And yet, most Nepalis often know very little about Tharu culture and history. There are many things told about the Tharu. Most are wrong.

The first day of the Nepali month of  माघ which this year falls on 14 January is ‘Maaghi’, the Tharu new year. Chitwan Tharu celebrate the day with pwakaa (पोका in Nepali) — anadi sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves reheated in the coals of a fire. Dangaura Tharu in western Nepal celebrate with feasts and dancing. They also elect new community leaders known as barghar.

Maagh 1 is also the day when tenants would decide whether to continue with their landlords–some of whom were Tharu and some पहाडी hill people– or move elsewhere. Before the 1950s, because labourers were hard to find to work in the malarious animal infested Tarai, they had more leverage over the terms of their work than in later years.

Several different Tharu groups live across the Tarai, each with its own language: The Kochila in the East, the Chitwan Tharu in the central area, and Dangaura, Deshauria, and Rana Tharu in the western Tarai. One anthropologist wrote a book about Nepal’s Tharu called Many Tongues, One People.

The Tharu are the original inhabitants of much of the Tarai, because although they sometimes got malaria, they got it less often and with less severe consequences than hill people and people from the plains.

The malaria eradication project in the 1960s dramatically changed Tharu lives. In Chitwan, for instance, in 1955 the Tharu (and related groups such as the Bote and Darai) formed almost 100% of the region’s population of 25,000. By 1970, they had dropped to 14% of the population as 125,000 migrants moved in during those years.

Birendra Mahato, Director of the Chitwan Tharu Culture Museum outside Sauraha, says: “Tourist guides and hotel owners used to spread very inaccurate ideas. They often put us down. Now NTNC (National Trust for Nature Conservation) is giving training to new guides. They now have a much better idea.”

Indeed, there are several misunderstandings about Tharu communities. Some of them are:   

Misconception 1: Historically, The Tharu Were Hunters

The Truth: Tharu were farmers who herded cattle and fished but did not hunt.

In The Kings of Nepal & the Tharu of the Tarai, Gisele Krauskopff writes: ‘The hunting practices of the Tharu have been stressed in many hunters’ books and are part of the biased image of ‘the savage forest dwellers.’ But hunting, and especially hunting as a subsistence technique to provide meat, is not central to the Tharu way of life…Their subsistence is based on a close relationship between paddy cultivation and fishing. The Tharu used to live near the forest, but not in it. They were first and foremost forest clearers, which means that the forest had to be pushed back.’ 

Misconception 2: The Tharu Lived in an Ancient Tarai Forest

The Truth: Tharu lived not in the forest but near it, often near grasslands, and over the years the forest grew and fell back.

Krauskopff writes: ‘Because of the relative isolation of the Tarai, a previously malaria-infested land, prejudiced observers of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries created a false image of the Tharu…as savage dwellers of a primeval forest — which the Tarai is not. Old kingdoms have risen and fallen there for at least 2000 years. The forest retreated when farming expanded under prosperous political conditions; the jungle took over in times of instability and conflict.’

Misconception 3: Tharu Are Uncivilised जंगली

The Truth: The Tharu made many ingenious adaptations to their Tarai environment

According to this derogatory inaccuracy, the Tharu are forest dwellers little smarter than animals. They lack knowledge and skills. They collect forest products but don’t use their brains. They do not farm. They are ignorant of the outside world. They are too backward to wear clothes.

“Even now some people in Kathmandu and Pokhara call us uncivilised,” says museum director Mahato. “The Tharu live in the jungle, they say. Many hill people don’t know about the Tarai.”

But in fact, the Tharu have developed many skills useful for their Tarai environment: agriculture, irrigation, house construction, fishing, handicrafts, herbal medicine, forest vegetables, midwifery, wood carving, and animal domestication. All require deep knowledge about the environment.

“If Tharu weren’t smart in this environment, they couldn’t have survived. They were knowledgeable in irrigation, agriculture, जडीबुटी herbs, and fishing. They were skilled in lots of things. That was civilised.”

When outsiders from the hills came to places like Chitwan, they often misunderstood because the Tharu had unfamiliar habits and spoke their own languages. Migrants learned from the Tharu about irrigation, wild animals, and Tarai agriculture. Some learned the Tharu language and respected the Tharu and their traditions. 

Misconception 4: The Tharu Never Got Malaria

The Truth: Tharu got malaria less often than other groups, and died less often than others, but infants often got it, and some died.

Many outsiders, and even some Tharu themselves, think that the Tharu never got malaria. They say Tharu did not get malaria because they ate snails, rice liquor, and spicy chilies. This is wrong. Elderly Tharu will tell you about malaria fever and shivers.

Tharu got malaria and sometimes died from it. ‘It should be remembered that resistance to malaria is acquired after a certain time and that even in a generally resistant population,’ writes Giselle Krauskopff. ‘Tharu children died of malarial fever.’

Compared to hill Nepalis, the Tharu acquired malaria less often and with fewer consequences. They had genetic immunities– high rates of alpha-thalassemia, a genetic pattern common in populations who have lived in malarial areas for generations that reduces both vivax and falciparum malaria, decreasing morbidity by up to tenfold. They also acquired immunities: Those who survived one or two malarial fevers often developed an ability to fight off later attacks.

These immunities meant that malaria posed less of a threat to those who survived infancy. But there was a high infant death rate. A visiting journalist noted in 1962: ‘In hundreds of villages, the child population was destined for malaria in their first year of life as surely as if the mosquitoes flew in with a list of names of the newly-born.’

Mahato says, “Sometimes outsiders, and even the Tharu themselves, say the Tharu never got malaria. Both are wrong. Sometimes I get into arguments with Tharu people who say this. They say to me “नचाहिने कुरा किन गर्छस?” Many are politicised. Older Tharus tell me that they got it.”

To say the Tharu sometimes got malaria should not undercut the argument that the malaria and resettlement programs of the 1950s and 1960s often misunderstood, overlooked, and pushed aside Tharu interests.

Misconception 5: Tharu Society Was Disconnected from Nepali Society

The Truth: Tharu groups before the 1960s had many interactions with other Nepalis and the Kathmandu government. 

Tourist brochures often describe Tharu society with phrases such as ‘untouched by civilization’, ‘timeless’, ‘in total isolation’, ‘living in another time’, and ‘forgotten by civilisation’.

That is hardly the case. Even during malaria days, the Tharu had regular contact with groups from both the north and the south. Traders from the north would come every winter. In many places, Tharu tenants worked for hill landlords. The Tharu worked for the Nepal’s rulers as land clearers and tax collectors. In some places, Rana and other elite visited Tharu areas for huge hunting expeditions. They relied upon Tharu workers to build roads, provide supplies, drive elephants, and find tigers.

That said, it is true that the Tarai’s malaria limited the interactions of the Tharu with outside groups, and gave them limited autonomy.

To learn more about the richness and complexity of Tharu life, please read any of the books cited here or visit the Chitwan Tharu Culture museum near Sauraha, Chitwan. Happy New Year.

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Americans deride Tharu knowledge, 1959

Photo Source: Six Years of Nepal-American Cooperation, 1952–1958 (Kathmandu, 1959)

These official US photos compare traditional Tharu agriculture and modern ‘scientific’ agriculture. The images appeared on facing pages of a book produced in 1959 by the US government to celebrate its assistance to Chitwan and Nepal. At the time, the US ran a large resettlement program in Chitwan. American officials often wrongly saw the Chitwan Tharu as part of an outdated past. According to the implied narrative in the photos, the Chitwan valley was evolving from unproductive ‘backward’ traditions to super-productive, science-based civilisation along the lines of the American Midwest. The photos suggested that the Tharu had little to offer this new Nepal. That was wrong. Tharu taught migrants many things. Some of the new methods succeeded, but some often failed or brought environmental problems.

Rescuing Tharu history from the shadows

A foreign envoy resting on dead rhinoceros, 1913. Photo: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya.


Rana hunting expeditions couldn’t have happened without expert Tharu mahouts, as this 1913 photo (above) from a hunt connected to Tribhuvan’s coronation shows. But Tharus themselves rarely hunted. Instead they farmed, grazed cattle and buffalo, fished, trapped small animals, and gathered herbs and other resources from the grasslands and forests.

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Writings on Recent Tharu History

Dr. Gisele Krauskopff. ‘From Jungles to Farms: A Look at Tharu History’ in The Kings of Nepal & the Tharu of the Tarai, ed. Pamela Meyer (Los Angeles: Rusca Press, 2000).

Dr. Arjun Guneratne. ‘The Tharu of Chitwan, Nepal’. In Disappearing Peoples?: Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Minorities in South and Central Asia, edited by Barbara Rose Johnston and Barbara Brower (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 91–106.

Guneratne, Arjun. Many Tongues, One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.

Muller-Boker, Ulrike. The Chitwan Tharus in Southern Nepal: An Ethnoecological Approach. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999.

Thomas Robertson. ‘DDT and the Cold War Jungle: American Environmental and Social Engineering in the Rapti Valley of Nepal’. Journal of American History 104, no. 4 (March 1, 2018): 904–30.

Locke, Piers. “The Tharu, the Tarai and the History of the Nepali Hattisar.” European Bulletin of Himalayan Research. 38 (2011): 61–82.

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Dr. Thomas (Tom) Robertson is creator of the YouTube Mitho Lekhai video series about writing techniques. He is a historian and the former director of Fulbright Nepal/USEF. He is an advisor to the Chitwan Tharu Culture Museum in Bachhauli, Chitwan. He researches the history of development and environmental change in Nepal.

            He first came to Nepali in 1988 and has lived and worked in Nepal for 12 years. Before working for Fulbright, he taught American and global history for 10 years at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. Tom received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. from Williams College.

            Recent publications include “DDT and the Cold War: American Social and Environmental Engineering in the Rapti Valley (Chitwan) of Nepal,” Journal of American History (March 2018). Tom's current research examines the environmental history of US development projects in Cold War Nepal.  

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This article was published in Nepali Times on 13 January 2021. Republished with permission from the author and Nepali Times. Read the original article.