Community Journalism in Nepal: Sharing a piece of culture to the rest of the world

When Google searching “Tharu,” one may find a short Wikipedia page on the Tharu people and the language, images of brightly dressed people with ceramic vases or woven baskets on their heads and several articles on the Tharu history.

That’s correct. Tharu is a name of a group of indigenous people in Nepal, but perhaps what one may not fully get a grasp from this Google search is the richness and elaborate culture of this community. One may get a glimpse of who the Tharu people are — where they live in Nepal, population, their hardships, almost everything. Almost everything.

A gem lies within the internet — a blog called The Voice of Tharus.

In the heart of Nepal, Kathmandu is home to Sanjib Chaudhary, founder of The Voice of Tharus — a blog embracing and celebrating the Tharu community and culture. Chaudhary writes for an English-speaking audience in hopes of bringing awareness of the Tharu people.

“People within Nepal know about this community,” Chaudhary said in a Skype interview. “But I also want people around the world, people who like to read in English, I want them to know about the Tharus as well.” Thus, The Voice of Tharus was created in 2006.

Chaudhary does not consider himself a journalist. In Nepal, journalists are required to receive proper training and must possess a license. He is a blogger. However, according to Angela Romano’s International Journalism and Democracy, The Voice of Tharus would be considered a “Community and Alternative Media” for its independence from state and market and for being a platform for indigenous groups to keep in touch with their community. Therefore, Chaudhary’s work is journalistic.

Unlike most mainstream media outlets in Nepal, The Voice of Tharu focuses on the Tharu culture and the issues involving them. Chaudhary understands Journalism must be objective and look at an issue through various viewpoints.

“You see a lot of stories in the mainstream medias, but as we say in Journalism, we should always see a story from both sides of a point,” Chaudhary says. “But when mainstream media write these stories, they always write about themselves. So, it’s a big problem in the mainstream media.”

However, Chaudhary’s blog keeps away from the political arena.

“I stay away from politics,” Chaudhary says. “There is a lot of politics going on between other communities and this community. I don’t want to get into those things, so basically I just want to promote Tharu culture, traditions, arts, and things like that.”

Chaudhary is active on social media. He has The Voice of Tharus, another blog surrounding communications, he maintains an Instagram account, Facebook and Twitter. During his free time, he also writes for Global Voices.

Although Chaudhary’s articles are mostly written in English, his work attracts the young Tharus in Nepal. He is a member of a community Facebook page for the Tharu people on social media and will often post his stories to the page.

“They have more than 400 thousand followers,” he said. “Sometimes I run my stories, and they will translate it into Nepali.” He references the translation assistance.

On social media, he shares news on issues pertaining the Tharu community. For example, he wanted to raise awareness on the displacement of Tharu people. Tharu villages have been destroyed and taken over in order to create national parks in Nepal. Chaudhary explains the natural environment is an essential part to the Tharu livelihood.

“They were near nature, so their livelihoods depended on collecting mushrooms in the forest, bamboo and grass to build roofs of houses,” he said. “But now, they need to get into the park with the permission of the park, which was their home earlier.”

Chauhary’s stories not only impact his readers, but it also influences the way he looks at the Tharu people. One of Chaudhary’s favorite stories he reported on is the diminishing tattooing culture. In his article, “Wear tattoos — they will accompany you to the next world,” Chadhuary explains tattooing is a popular, spiritual tradition amongst Tharu women. Tharu women decorate themselves with tattoos because they believe other material objects, such as jewelry, will not stay with them in the next world. However, he says the “youngsters” have different perspectives on beauty and are not interested in tattooing.

“They have some indigenous backgrounds, indigenous motives that can be revitalized,” Chaudhary said. “But the young people don’t like getting tattooed at all, so I wanted to raise awareness about this issue.”

Chaudhary’s motivation for writing about the Tharu community stems from the lack of representation of the group in mainstream media.

“I saw nobody writing about the Tharu people,” he said. “Especially nobody in the foreign countries know about the Tharu people. There were only a handful of researches written about them, so I just wanted to get this message around.”

His message is the Tharu people exist. They have a colorful culture, and a history full of triumph and pain. Chaudhary runs The Voice of Tharu in hopes that his people’s voices will be heard across the globe.