Stories
Long reads on the history, peoples, food and wildlife of the plains.
Who are the Tharu?
The oldest inhabitants of the inner Tarai, the Tharu lived for centuries in forests others feared. A short guide to their groups, homes, food, festivals and recent history.
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17 July 2000: the day the Kamaiya were freed
For generations, thousands of Tharu families in western Nepal worked as bonded labourers, tied by debts they could never repay. How the Kamaiya system ended — and why freedom was only the beginning.
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How the end of malaria remade the Tarai
Until the 1950s the Tarai's forests were a feared 'aul' — a malaria belt that protected the hills and kept settlers out. The DDT campaigns that followed changed the population, landscape and politics of Nepal.
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Mithila painting: the women's art of Janakpur
Bright, dense, full of fish, birds, gods and lovers — Mithila painting began on the mud walls of village homes, painted by women for weddings and festivals. Today it hangs in galleries worldwide, and Janakpur is its Nepali home.
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Lost and returned: the Tarai after Sugauli
In 1816 Nepal lost almost all of its Tarai to the East India Company. Parts came back within months; the far-western plains — the 'Naya Muluk' or New Country — only returned in 1860, as a reward for Jang Bahadur's help to the British.
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