It may be difficult to understand how something we discard without a second thought – for instance, empty Coca Cola cans – can be used to fashion out jewelry.
But that is precisely what a group of Tharu women performers at Sauraha in Chitwan did when they did not have enough funds to buy silver jewelry to complete their cultural attires.[break]
“When we were offered a chance to perform at the Tharu Culture House a year ago, we had no traditional jewelries to complete our getup,” says Ganga Chaudhari, 24, the group leader of the female performers at the culture house and a B. Ed. second year student at Shaheed Smriti Multiple Campus in Chitwan.
According to Ganga, they managed to pool together just enough money for their traditional apparels and did not have much extra left, let alone to buy expensive silver adornments. Traditionally, the cultural attire of Tharu women is complete only with heavy silver necklaces and bangles. But with the escalating price of the metal, it was next to impossible to be able to afford jewelry in gleaming silver.
Prem Thapa
“Then it struck to us that aluminum could work just as well,” says Gauri Chaudhari, 23, adding that they agreed that if they could use aluminum cans to serve the same purpose, they would not have to worry about getting money for expensive silver jewelry.
Gauri is also a member of the same group and a B. Ed third year student at the same campus. She cannot recall who came up with the novel idea of making jewelry out of aluminum cans but she says that each one of them thought it could work and that it was indeed a very good idea.
Armed with nothing more but a couple of jute sacks, the young performers roamed the streets picking up whatever they could find that was made of aluminum – mostly beverage cans. The next step was to get in touch with the local silversmith and have him craft traditional jewelries out of the cans they had collected. The finished products had an uncanny resemblance to actual silver jewelry.
Tharu cultural performances are an integral part of Chitwan’s tourism industry. But until quite recently, the shows had been limited to men-only performers showcasing the traditional dances. Without women performers, the traditional dances lacked completeness.
Maria Elizabeth, a physiotherapist from the Netherlands, agrees and says that the dance performances, however beautiful, looked incomplete without women performers.
“During my first visit two years ago, Tharu cultural shows lacked a certain charm because there were no women performers performing their parts of the dances. Though the performances used to be good, something felt seriously amiss.”
The absence of women performers on stage also raised questions about whether the culture did not allow them to perform on a commercial platform.
“There was rarely a day when I didn’t get badgered with questions regarding why women weren’t a part of the Tharu dance performances,” says Ranjan Shrestha, a host of Tharu cultural show in Sauraha.
It became necessary, therefore, to incorporate women in the traditional dance shows and women were invited to perform.
However, the women performers have different stories to tell. It was not an easy task. Seeing them perform today, one will not be able to tell that these very women suffered from bouts of stage fright to extreme unease.
Of her first stage experience, Harimaya Mahato, 42, the eldest member of the group, says, “I felt very awkward in the beginning. It could’ve been because I had never performed on stage before.” She says that foreigners taking pictures while she danced – which she now does not even notice – was something that added to her miseries in the initial days.
Now there are fifteen members in the cultural group. All of them are local women, and their ages vary. The youngest of them is fifteen and the oldest is in her early forties. Eleven out of the fifteen members are regular college students, the youngest one is in high school, and the rest of the members are homemakers.
Other than Ganga, who managed a lodge owned by her parents, no other member held a job prior to getting involved with the culture house. So the cultural shows opened a new economic avenue for these women. According to Ganga, their group draws Rs 25,000 per month, and during tourist seasons, it even crosses thirty thousand.
“I feel extremely happy about the money we make each month from performances that last for ten minutes each,” says Bhima Chaudhari, another performer, adding that since it is a part-time job, it allows her the freedom to pursue other things as well.
Being engaged in cultural dance shows gives women like Bhima an opportunity to make proper use of the time they otherwise would have spent watching TV at home or mindlessly chatting with friends. Moreover, the fact that she does not have to ask her parents for daily allowances gives her a reason to feel good about herself.
Similar is the case of Anisha Mahato, a 15 year old girl, the youngest in the group. Currently studying in class ten at a local school, she says that being able to take care of her school expenses, mostly textbooks and lunch, makes her more confident and instills in her a desire to do better.
“I haven’t asked my parents for money for the last nine months. Now I can also buy clothes for myself without burdening my family,” she says, adding that her family takes pride in her achievements.
The women performers not only put up shows but have also been giving dance lessons to girls of the age group 12-14 in recent times. Ganga says that this is to ensure that the current members will find replacements when the need arises.
“The current members may get married off and relocated. In such cases, the young girls can take their place,” she says, explaining that this way the tradition of cultural dances will live on.
In the meantime, there are positive vibes among fellow Tharus and other locals as well.
“As a fellow villager and also being the father of one of the performers, I’m proud of the group’s initiative in preserving our culture,” said Hareram Chaudhari, 47, a farmer.
Similar sentiments are shared by the locals who are delighted to see their little girls taking up traditional dancing and earn a living from it.
“It feels good to see little girls from our village learning to dress and dance in the traditional style and earning enough to take care of their own expenses at the same time,” says Shreeram Silwal, 33, a tourism entrepreneur at Sauraha.
What started as an effort to cater to the demands of tourists to include women in traditional Tharu dances has given birth to a society where women are becoming independent and confident, all the while taking an active interest in their culture as well.
These women who improvised and worked with aluminum cans when they could not afford to buy silver jewelry have definitely come a long way, and their cultural dance shows have not only made them economically secure but it has also become a part of their lives they cannot do without.
preminnthapa@yahoo.com
Related story
Within a decade, first Tharu museum in ruins
