Handicraft Making Practices of Dangaura Tharu: A Study of Hariharpur Village of Banke District, Nepal

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explores handicraft making practices and its changing process of the Tharu people in hariharpur village of Banke district, Nepal. This study gives a kind of insights how handicrafts making practices of the Tharu people and their life styles have been changing day by day with the time and context. Where in earlier days, there were lots of handicrafts making practices in Tharu community, where they would make different kinds of baskets, fishing nets, mats, and so on. They would use their handicrafts in different purposes for their household use, either everyday activities or religious and ceremonial activities. Handicrafts making practices is not a major occupation, it is supplementary occupation of the Tharu people and it is most importantly used in Tharu communities, either everyday household activities or religious and ceremonial activities. But according to the time and context, use and importance of the handicrafts and handicraft making practices are decreasing day by day. Because, nowadays Tharus are more attracted in the modern products which are easily accessible in the markets. For this study, I adopted qualitative research method to explore the perspective of Tharu people on handicraft making practices and its changing patterns in Hariharpur village of Banke district, Nepal. I followed different tools to collect data for my study to explore the multiple realities and their experiences on handicrafts making practices and its change. During the fieldwork, in-depth interviews and observation was used to collect data. The required information and experiences about handicrafts making practices of the Tharu people were collected through the help of check-list. Additionally, some relevant documents are also analyzed for the study. This study has been conducted to explore handicrafts making practices of the Tharu people and find out the responsible factors to change. Result shows that there were lots of handicrafts making practices of the Tharu people in earlier days. Which are disappearing or changing day by day with the time and context. Especially, there are several factors such as globalization, modernization, marketization, education, migration/labour migration, communication and transportation and lack of proper documentation and preservation, which are responsible for the change in handicraft making practices of the Tharu people. Because adoption of new modified or modern products and advance technologies, cultural assimilation, development, ethnic awareness, global opportunities, urbanization, economy, contact and interaction with other people etc. to change handicraft making practices as well as their value system and its features.