Tharus

Food Culture

Tharu people traditionally inhabit around water bodies and near forest patches. Therefore, their food ecosystem composed of triangular composition - agriculture - forest and water. The sources of foods are both agriculture, forest and water bodies (river, pond and lakes etc). Therefore, indigenous Tharu people are rich in foods and food culture. One of the reason for being rich in food is that Tharus live in territories with rich in bio-diversity. Tharu people are mostly involve in agriculture. They mostly grow rice, wheat, and other cereals such as beans, mustard etc. Their indigenous knowledge and skills of growing crops and vegetable are very famous for mitigating the impacts of climate change. Their indigenous knowledge and skills helps them to grow organic crops. Knowledge of identifying wild vegetables and food and skills of harvesting them further add the value of organic foods in the main course. Fishing culture of indigenous Tharu people makes Tharu food culture more diverse and nutrition. They are very skillful in catching fishes. They mostly use fishing net, and different fishing tools to catch fishes of different species and size. Their knowledge of fish habit and habitat further helps them to catch fishes and make food more rich and diverse. Tharu's knowledge and skills of preparing foods and ways of serving them further makes Tharu food culture richer, fresh, hygienic and nutritious. Tharus techniques of preparing food is very simple and keeps the food taste natural and original as much as they can. They mostly use clay pots to cook and wooden dishes and tree leaves for serving foods.