A contributor to Global Voices describes how recording Tharu oral traditions in eastern Nepal — songs, place-name stories, tattoos and food practices — uncovers details about seasonal migration, river names, and vanished sago-processing techniques.
Oral songs like Morangsair encode migration routes and local geography tied to seasonal labor movements.
Place names in Tharu language preserve social information — e.g., Biyahi and Samdahi reflect marital terms now altered by administrative renaming.
Tattoos and motifs can record past livelihoods, such as a palm-tree tattoo linked to traditional sago (sabudana) production.
As a child, I used to sit with my grandmother near a borais (a small earthen pot used to make fire) during the harsh winter days. I would listen to her stories of benevolent and malevolent characters — djinns, spirits, ghosts, witches and wizards, trees, birds and animals that had special significance in the Tharu culture and tradition. I never thought of documenting the Indigenous Tharu folklore until she left this world.
You can support this coverage by donating here. Now that she is no more with us, I yearn for those priceless words of wisdom. One needs to spend time with the communities before they are comfortable enough to open up and share their folktales, songs, phrases and idioms, not to mention their personal experiences.
She used to sing folk songs and then explain their meaning. Documenting Indigenous folklore is time-consuming work. In the Indian part, the river has shifted almost 100 kilometres west.
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Too often, resources and meaning flow outward from the community that created them and enrich outsiders — often the same groups that have been oppressing them for centuries.
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