Talk:Tharu people

Tharu resistance to malaria suggests long residence in Terai
Tharus were the main inhabitants of inner-terai valleys such as Chitwan, Dang and Deukhuri before malaria was suppressed via DDT and other ethnic groups finally arrived in force. Although Tharus have myths of coming from somewhere else, if their resistance to malaria is genetic, that suggests they must have lived in malarial land -- such as the Terai -- longer than ethnic groups that could hardly live there before DDT came into wide use locally.

How many thousand years does it take a human population to genetically evolve to fit a particular niche? Possibly this could be modeled using frequencies of sickle cell and other malaria-resisting genes in populations that did not evolve with malaria, making assumptions about natural selection in the event that these populations moved to the Terai.

Tharus do not seem to have indo-european features, yet speak a indo-european dialect. Did their aboriginal language progressively borrow from Hindi, Bhojpuri and Maithili until it ultimately shrunk to nothing?

Are Tharus racially Dravidian? They really don't look like South Indians to any great extent. Perhaps it would be more fruitful to look for affinities with indigenous peoples in Bengal, Northeastern India and on into northern Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.


 * These people look Mongolic, they are probably of mixed race, with the Mongolic features dominating the other features. One's language is not an indication of one's "race". Black Americans speak English, but that does not make them Anglo-Saxons, they are still predominantly Africans. 2A00:23C5:C102:9E00:D4BC:16C7:19E2:E75B (talk) 18:49, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Putting info from article here for now as it is unsourced
According to Nepal’s 2001 census, there are 1,533,879 ethnic Tharu (6.75% of Nepal's total population) of which 1,331,546 speak one of the seven Tharu dialects as a mother tongue. Thus, 97.63% of the ethnic Tharu are Hindu according to the 2001 Census of Nepal, whereas 1.95% are Buddhist. Mattisse(talk) 18:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Hindu expert needs to look at religion section
This article has a section on religion. There are external links at the bottom of the article but I am not qualified to correctly source that section. Hopefully someone more qualified than I will do it. Thanks! Sincerely, Mattisse(talk) 01:27, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

WP:INDIA Banner/Uttarakhand workgroup Addition
Note: WP India Project Banner with Uttarakhand workgroup parameters was added to this article talk page because the article falls under Category:Uttarakhand or its subcategories. Should you feel this addition is inappropriate, please undo my changes and update/remove the relavent categories to the article --  TinuCherian  (Wanna Talk?) - 13:59, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Not very good photo
The man is wearing a standard Nepali topi and a western-style scarf. Can anyone supply a photo of a man and woman in traditional dress? LADave (talk) 02:34, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

"Indian Origin"
The man didn't look Indian, but Mongoloid, particularly Tibetan-related. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.27.186 (talk) 00:20, 30 June 2009 (UTC)


 * @67.80.27.186 agreed. Muhafiz-e-Pakistan (talk) 14:32, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

History and Langauge of tharu
There is no adequate tharu history in many peer reviewed historical works of the region. Thus the history of the region so far are devoid of the Tharu people, making the histroy of the region itself an incomplete work. Tharu langauge words match with Bhojpuri, Maithali, Nepali and Hindi too. Many wonder if Tharu langauge is derived from these. But in other way it can be equally asked whether Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithali or Sanskrit is derived from Tharu. The second statement is more likely since, Tharus were there before the other people arrived in the region. (Its never that Tharu came to the places where there were Bhojpuri speakers or Maithali speakers or whatever.) Ancestral history among Tharus are kept orally transferred from father to son or grans to gran-children. Thus no written history by Tharu people are available beside based on tales. The life style of Tharu is simple, goods are often from earthly things such as house from mud, roof from grass, Arts and paintwork are done on mud wall, all these deteriorate in very short time that becomes unavailable for any record. Further the information passed generation to generation is in way that newer generation and so forth do not get full information. Researches based on genetic and human evolution only may fill the gap in the Tharu history. 152.78.172.114 (talk)

Tharu cuisine
How about a section on Tharu cuisine? Does it differ from dal-bhat-tarkari? Do Tharu eat any foods not normally eaten by Hindus? LADave (talk) 22:56, 15 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Tharus eat whatever the rest of the population of Nepal eats but our cuisine is still unique and a bit different from the mainstream Nepali society. Tharu tribe mainly resides near marshlands, rivers, and flooded plains, so their foods are also inspired by it. Unlike most Hindus who avoid Pork, Tharus are pork lovers specially in Western Nepal and some parts of Central, Mid Eastern and Eastern Nepal. Not all Tharus consume pork but it is an important part of the diet in Western Nepal. Similarly dishes like Ghonghi (Water Snails), Kokhara/ Gengta / Kakhor (Crabs), etc are consumed only by certain ethnicities like the indigenous Dhimals and Tharus as other ethnicities find it amusing. Majority of the Tharus are Hindu nowadays so we eat like the rest of the population of Nepal but we also consume our traditional unique cuisine which are very different from what the general population eats and as a result Tharu cuisine is kind of popular in Nepal for it's uniqueness. Munal Chaudhary (talk) 05:41, 16 April 2023 (UTC)


 * The dishes are consumed only by the indigenous ethnicities of Terai like the Dhimals and the Tharus and not by the other ethnicities but nowadays everyone seats it so it has become a common food consumed by everyone. Munal Chaudhary (talk) 05:53, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

Yes Aniket singh rana (talk) 12:43, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

They eat the same as a normal Hindu does Shyam ji Rana (talk) 17:55, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 one external links on Tharu people. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100913082128/http://www.ethnologue.com/print.asp to http://www.ethnologue.com/print.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20130418041642/http://cbs.gov.np:80/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/National%20Report.pdf to http://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/National%20Report.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110928051025/http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/58136/1/02whole.pdf to http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/58136/1/02whole.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 17:31, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

"official recognition as nationality"
The article mentioned that "Tharus are recognised as official nationality by the Governments of Nepal and India". Are any ethnic group recognised as such? I think Nepalese Tharus are Nepalese and Indian Tharus are Indians. I know that there is no such system of "official recognition of ethnic groups as nationality" in India, I don't know if there is any such system in Nepal, so I have modified the article.Thanks. - Ind akash (talk) 05:45, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Word origin and idol construction
and, you two have done enough edit warring, now talk it out here before making any further changes.&#32;-- Fyrael (talk) 15:25, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your message, Fyrael. Both sources for the origin of the word are reliable. So it is NOT ok to delete this statement in the lede. The website used by Shyam ji Rana as reference for the paragraph added in the section History starting with The idol of Maharana Pratap will be established .. does 1) not meet Wikipedia's guideline for reliability, and 2) is not verifiable as not written in English. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 17:15, 31 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your kind attention,Fyrael. When it comes to the origin it is all speculation going on by different people and in different way. So it's absolutely misfit to right it here.There is lot of difference what we practice and what is being written about the community. It all looks bogus.


 * Secondly about the idol construction. Ok it may be violation which you can remove. It factual and it's there Barah Rana smark..you can get details here in below link..
 * Visit Tharu samachar YouTube channel Shyam ji Rana (talk) 19:25, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I think in general we do allow speculation on something like this, so long as it is actual experts who are speculating and we specify that it's only speculation rather than determined fact. All of that seems like it's being done here, unless you are questioning the qualifications of the source.&#32;-- Fyrael (talk) 20:22, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I'll read these sources again and will revise later today. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 09:00, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
 * As to the other part, I don't think I agree with you. For one, sources very much do not have to be written in English. Google Chrome had no problem translating that article. And what exactly about the source do you believe is unreliable? It looks like a regular news website to me. It's not self-published or anything.&#32;-- Fyrael (talk) 20:27, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I got this translated too and noticed that the text added here is a word-for-word translation of the text in this newspaper. I think this text should be shortened and the reference to this website formatted to include at least author, date, title and publisher to avoid bare URLs. As it is presented now, it is sub-standard. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 09:00, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, Fyrael and BhagyaMani for this wonderful talk and making me aware of the standard to right in Wikipedia.

But the fact about origin of the community written by BhagyaMani is useless and have no meanings. In current situation also if you see religion followed by them(Tharu community) in Nepal is 95.67% Hinduism and 3.41% Christianity. In india this data is 98.91% following Hinduism and 1.08% Christianity.So where is questions of their being originated from Thervada Buddhism. It's all speculation on the word Tharu only.And also if you read those books, references and links you will find there same speculation going on. Shyam ji Rana (talk) 09:29, 1 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Both scenarios are possible : 1) that Tharu people have been living in the Terai for more than 2500 years since the time of Buddha; and 2) that Rana Tharu coming from Rajasthan settled in the western Terai in the 16th century. This is supported by the circumstance of traditions differing between Tharu people in western Nepal and farther east, i.e. central and eastern Terai. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 10:17, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I think there might also be some confusion here between the word and the community. The statement that you removed, Shyam ji Rana, is only saying that the word thāru possibly originated from "sthavir meaning follower of Theravada Buddhism". We are not claiming that the entire community originated from Buddhists.&#32;-- Fyrael (talk) 14:05, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Exactly!! And it doesn't mean that Tharus have always been Hindus. I'll add a ref soon. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 17:23, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Religion + statistics
Re Rana Tharu followers of Hinduism : referenced was this website joshuaproject.net, which in turn refers to Nepal's latest National Population and Housing Census, which is the 2011 one, published in 2012. This report is also referenced and linked to in main page. See this report's *Table 22: Population by religion* on pages 184–200 : religion of ethnic groups has NOT been censused, but only of males + females in all districts. Therefore, I removed this as ref, since the data presented on this website were obviously misinterpreted. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 17:18, 2 September 2021 (UTC); revised by BhagyaMani (talk) 17:53, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

BhagyaMani uncle, the heading of this page is Tharu, I don't how many Tharus follow Buddhism. But there in no and not even a single Rana Tharu follow Buddhism and even if trace of Rana Tharu are following some Christianity religion you are encircling all and telling the followers of Christianity and Buddhism. It's great blunder on your part. If you are so knowledgeable why don't you know the clear differences. Shyam ji Rana (talk) 18:24, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Many people of our country and even some major caste person follow Christianity can you confidently say them as Christian?? You can't say. It's not that because some people follow some relegion, so you have right to write about them as " they are follower of that religion". Shyam ji Rana (talk) 18:29, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

It's kind request from my side BhagyaMani ji. Please don't write something which is not correct and invalid. First do a thorough research. Almost everyone get to know about Tharu people from Wikipedia only. Their only faith is on Wikipedia. you visit any IAS coaching material on internet.They have just copy pasted it from Wikipedia. So please write the true information only. Shyam ji Rana (talk) 20:54, 7 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Sure is it important that the content on Tharu people presented here needs to be in line with Core content policies, reliable and verifiable. And I have been taking care in the past 10 or so years that IT IS by e.g. removing statements that were added by others without sources or based on dodgy websites or blogs. For the same reason, I removed the section on cuisine that has been poorly sourced for many years. – BhagyaMani (talk) 03:52, 8 September 2021 (UTC)