Sohrai in Tharu settlements: dhikar bread and sky lanterns

The Tharu community has begun celebrating its major festival, Sohrai, in traditional style from Sunday, the day of Laxmi Puja.

According to Balkumari Chaudhary, a Tharu leader from Chitwan's Kalika Municipality, while other communities observe Laxmi Puja on this day, the Tharu community marks it as Sohrai. The festival is celebrated with wishes for peace and happiness throughout the year and for granaries to stay full.

The main dish of the festival is dhikar bread, also called nagar roti or Chaudhary roti. Rice-flour dough is shaped and steamed in a traditional vessel called an 'etalhari'.

According to Ganeshman Mahato, a Tharu leader from Nawalpur, the festival is called Sohrai because, unlike the smaller offering of rice made during Dashain, a full share (sohra aana, or sixteen annas) is offered during Tihar. It is also said to be called Sohrai because it falls 16 days after Dashain.

It is customary to make bread of various shapes from newly harvested rice flour and to worship items associated with farming. On the evening of Aunsi, the bread is worshipped, handed out to children, and then brought into the house after being shown to the cattle. The next morning, all tools, the rooms of the house, and household and local deities are worshipped.

In ward 5 of Kalika Municipality, Tharu settlements weave the stalks of a plant called 'larkat' into sky lanterns. These are hung in homes and cattle sheds and lit from the evening of Laxmi Puja onward. Some Tharu settlements are still preserving this skill, even as it gradually disappears amid the spread of electric lights.