Tharu Village

The name of Chitwan is derived from Tharu’s words “Chit” (meaning “dense”) and Ban (meaning “forest”).Indeed for millennia the area was covered by thick jungle-like subtropical forests intertwined with swaths of grasslands.It was an isolated enclave with an “invisible” barrier reinforced by bloodsucking mosquitoes spreading deadly malaria, and to make it even more nasty - infested with equally bloodthirsty leeches and all kind of other more or less lethal and/or unpleasant “stuff”.

Interestingly Tharu people seem to be immune to malaria (recent medical research points to genetic factors acquired by Tharus’ immunological system).

Malaria was eradicated in late 1950’s “thanks” to infamous DDT, but the “collateral” damage was enormous as vast areas of jungle and most of what used to live there perished together with mosquitoes. Actually the latter are still giving signs of life!The Tharu Village (Badrahani) located near Sauraha (at the edge of the Chitwan National Park) is a sort of living museum, place where the time runs at the fraction of its normal speed observed in the Western Hemisphere. You can see mud & clay-built ochre-colored houses with thatched roofs. These simple, mostly one-room structures with no chimney and no windows seemingly have little to hide from the outside world. During a day, life takes place outside. You may spot an old sewing machine on the porch, pots hanging above the fire, goats wondering around, barking dog making clear who is the boss there….