A travelling exhibition on the worldwide rice culture currently at the Fowler Museum at the University of California in Los Angeles has a section devoted to Nepal's Tharus.

The Art of Rice, Spirit and Sustenance in Asia celebrates the cultivation of rice in many Asian cultures, and displays images and folk art from these cultures, which includes the Tharu of Nepal.

"This magnificent travelling exhibition examines the interplay between rice and culture through a study of an astonishing array of visual art, including works from China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal and other Asian countries," says UCLA in its introduction to the exhibition.

The United Nations has declared 2004 the International Year of Rice in honour of a food grain that is staple to more than three billion people, most of them in Asia. The growing and eating of rice are so fundamental to life in Asia that rice epitomises food, and by extension, symbolises life itself, as well as fertility and social continuity.

The Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia
till 25 April 2004 at
UCLA's Fowler Museum.
http://www.fmch.ucla.edu/incEngine/