Thar -- Pakistan's largest desert of living traditions

Tharparkar consists of two words, Thar means ‘desert' while Parkar stands for ‘the other side'. Years back, it was known as Thar and Parkar but subsequently became just one word ‘Tharparkar' for the two distinct parts of Sindh province. On the western side, Parkar is the irrigated area whereas Thar, the eastern part, is known as the largest desert of Pakistan with a rich multifaceted culture, heritage, traditions, folk tales, dances and music due to its inhabitants who belong to different religions, sects and casts.

The Parkar area has been formed by the alluvial deposits of river Indus while Thar mostly consists of barren tracts of sand dunes covered with thorny bushes. The only hills of the district, named Karon-Jhar, are in the extreme south-east corner of Nagar Parkar Taluka, a part of Thar. These hills are spread over about 20 kilometers in length and attains a height of 300 meters. Covered with sparse jungle and pasturage, they give rise to two perennial springs as well as streams caused after rain.

Climate:
The Thar area has a tropical desert climate. The months of April, May and June are the hottest ones during the day. The average maximum and minimum temperatures during this period remain 41 centigrade to 24 centigrade respectively while December, January and February are the comparatively coldest months with average maximum and minimum temperatures 28 centigrade to 9 centigrade respectively. Rainfall varies from year to year. Most of the rain falls in the monsoon months between June and September whereas the winter rains are insignificant.

Water and housing in the desert:
The rains play a vital role in the life of all parts of Thar as the water deposits in tobas (small ponds) are used for drinking, washing and other purposes. These tobas are the only source of water for animals and human in most of the desert area. Just for this reason, major portion of the  population lives like gypsies.

When a toba comes to dry, they move to the next destination around the water-filled toba. The human settlements are mostly found near the Karon-Jhar hills where two seasonal streams flow but not in all the seasons. The underground water is rarely found in Thar desert. If luckily found, after digging a very deep well, it comes out quite sour and putrid.

Simply undrinkable. Sometimes fortune do knock the doors of the Thar inhabitants, when sweet water comes out of a very deeply dug well. Then the housing units start increasing around that well. Digging the well is not so easy a number of times, it claims the lives of the well-diggers. According to 1980 housing census, there were 241,326 housing units of one or two very small rooms. The degree of crowding was six persons per housing unit and three persons per room.

For most of the housing units (approximately 76 per cent), the main construction material of outer walls is unbaked bricks whereas wood is used in 10 per cent and baked bricks or stones with mud bonding in 8 per cent housing units. A large number of families still live in jhugis (one room housing units formed with straws and thin wood-sticks). The wind storm proves these jhugis unsustainable all the times. But the poverty leaves no other option to these jhugiwalas (people living in jhugis).

What attract you most:
The life is miserable and uncertain in Thar but full of  action and thrill for those tourists and visitors who take pains to discover and see new cultures, lifestyle and traditions. Right from a travel on kaikra (the 2nd world war army truck) which is the only transportation for people and animals together to reach inside

Thar and to the sun-rising and sun-setting scenes, camel caravans, grazing and traveling herds, big and small sand dunes with thorny bushes, traditional dresses and jewelry of women, folk music and dances may attract you for their richness and originality.

Some worth-seeing places:
Though sand is all around in Thar.  But, in the Nangarparkar, the egg-shaped hills of Karon-Jhar and the charm of its valleys coupled with some sacred places for Hindus may give unforgettable memories.

A few kilometers away in the north-western side from Nangarparkar, Hindus' holy place Saroharo attracts its believers as hindus denote this temple to their Mahadev (the biggest god). Saroharo is on the brink of a seasonal stream and a all-season-pond where Hindus come for their rituals. Since they have faith on the presence of these hills and pond in their holy books, they throw the bones and ashes of dead bodies into whirlpool of this pond after burning them.

They also celebrate Shorateri fair here every March. Above Saroharo, there is the Rishi's aasthan (a very small room used for worship) and ten impressions of his fingers of feet. According to a belief that Rishi worshipped here for ten thousand years but finally lost his invocation by touching a young girl. (He is the same Rishi whose request to the god turned the sea into a desert.)

Gaomakhi is another aasthan, just a kilometer away in the north of Saroharo. Here the tips of two hills join each other, making the shape of a cow. A 30-feet high waterfall may be witnessed here during the monsoon season. Hindus come here too for their rituals. At the distance of a few yards in the south of Gaomakhi, here is a very deep pond named Bhemgoda.

It is 20 feet wide and around 30 feet long pond that never dries up. Inchlas is another aasthan towards the south-western of Nangarparkar. Here, three streams come out of different hills. Water flows from these natural streams all the year. A tavern is here for the travelers and Hindus who visit Inchlas aasthan. Chandan Gud is a fort, built by Rana Chandan, one of the Parkar rulers, in 1859. Now, only its remains are there.

Some customs and traditions:
The common life style in Thar is based on joint family system. All three generations; grand-parents, parents and children prefer to live under one roof. However, the men and women have divided out-door and domestic responsibilities among themselves according to their ages and skills.

Main duties of the men in the family are ploughing the fields, animal-grazing, weaving and house-construction or other money-earning actvities whereas the women responsibilities include bringing water from the well or pond, cooking, washing, maintenance of house, thread-making, embroidering, knitting etc. The  money earned through any means by anyone is the common property of the family.

The daughter is given more respect and honour. If someone swear upon his daughter's head, it considered more valid than any other swear. The Hindus and other non-Muslims settledown the engagement of their daughter in her childhood where Muslims go for daughter's wedding in her adult age without giving any importance to her consent, age-difference or financial status. Mostly close relatives, family circle or caste is preferred for weddings even in Muslims too.

Muslims have also acquired another tradition from Hindus that they wed their daughter and son in the same family together. If a daughter is married to a family with no girl, it has to pay some money to daughter's father. If a family has no son to get married in replication then daughter's father gets married with bride's sister. Boy's family celebrates the wedding by singing songs and beating dhol (the traditional drum) while girl's family remains grim and no such activity is seen there.

 The wedding procession goes on well-decorated camels to girl's house. In case of Muslim bridegroom's death, the younger brother weds to the bride whereas Hindus have no such tradition and the widow cannot have her other marriage rest of his life.

If someone passes away in a Muslim family, they put on black dresses, women break their bangles and start weep-n-cry together. They mourn for three days. The Hindus shave their heads and mustaches and put on an unstitched cloth on their heads for 12 days of mourning. At the end of mourning in both religions, meal is served to family, relatives and neighbours after offering some prayers for the soul of dead one. Muslims have their graveyards but Hindus burn the dead-bodies and throw aches into sacred ponds and whirlpools.

Adopting a son by issueless families is common in Thari Hindus. They celebrate it like weddings by singing songs and beating drum in a crowd of relatives. The ownership rights of man's property goes  to the boy, adopted by him.

Main Professions:
Woodwork, wool-weaving, leather work, jewelry-making, cloth-dyeing, embroidery, snake-charming, agriculture (in a few parts), herd-grazing