Visit to a small Tharu village near Chitwan

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In addition to looking at wildlife, we got to do a little anthropological study near Chitwan National Wildlife Park. One small Tharu village near Chitwan lets tourists come visit in hopes that they will buy something or contribute to their children's education fund.

Our visit to this Tharu village in early April was my first visit to an agricultural village in the Third World. The Tharus make their living by subsistence agriculture, growing wheat, corn, rice, cabbage and other crops. All around Chitwan we saw colorfully dressed women planting rice, men using water buffalo to plow the fields, women carrying thatch from the forest in gigantic baskets on their backs, and children fishing or swimming in the river. Within the little village, we saw tidy homes constructed of mud with open doorways and thatched roofs. Several of the homes had flower gardens. Chickens and goats were walking around freely.

Dozens of smiling children gathered around us and told us their names. At one point, we got several of the younger children to chant their ABCs and count numbers in English. I saw one young boy trying to fly a makeshift kite -- a piece of a plastic bag with a string. I was very happy to hear from our guide that Save the Children and other nongovernmental organizations are working in the area, and all the childen are now going to school.

After we returned to Safari Narayani in Chitwan, some of the village men treated us to some extremely vigorous and fascinating traditional men's dances involving very large sticks used in fighting and hunting. They even made some of us join in! How these farmers find energy to practice dance steps after working in the fields all day I'll never know.

Love,
Kerry

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Comments

[krishna Chaudhary]

good published