Home > History & Culture > Historical Places > Thar

Thar

The origin of the Thar desert is a controversial subject. Some consider it to be only 4000 to 10,000 years old, whereas others state that aridity started in this region much earlier.

The rains play a vital role in the life of all parts of Thar.

The land area of Thar is spread over about 22,000 sq. km.

The historians say that thousands of year ago the Thar desert was all under Arabian Sea. There was a great Sea Port at Wirawah, which was then called Parinagar. Sea merchants used this port for their business.
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.

The average annual rainfall of the region varies from 100 to 500 mm, it is distributed very erratically, occurring mostly between July and September. The mean average temperature varies from a minimum of 24 degrees C to 26 degrees C in summer to 4 degrees C to 10 degrees C in winter. One unique feature of this desert is that there is neither an oasis in it nor any artesian well. Due to the diversified habitat, the vegetation and animal life in this arid region is very rich. About 23 species of lizard and 25 species of snakes are found here and several of them are endemic to the region.

The rain is the main source of water in Tharparkar arid region. It is very erratic and the annual rainfall varies from 0-300 mm. All agriculture and livestock activities are dependent on rainfall. The failure of monsoon would mean no agricultural crop and no fodder for the Thari cattle and livestock. The main crop of Thar is bajra and guwar. In good rainy years, the lintels, melons and sesme are also grown as mixed crop with the main crop of bajra and guwar.

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. 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. A large number of families still live in jhugis (one room housing units formed with straws and thin wood-sticks). The windstorm proves these jhugis unsustainable all the times. But the poverty leaves no other option to these jhugiwalas (people living in jhugis).

Life Style

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.

Culture

Thar is a cultural island in the mid of Sindhi, Rajhestani and Gujrati ocean of cultures. The Rajhestani culture overshadows the other two cultures. Thari music seems to be more inspired by the Rajhestani music traditions but with its own emotional rhythm and colours.

Occupation

The main occupation of Thari people is cattle and livestock rearing from which about 60% of their living derived. At present there are about 4.6 million cattle and livestock comprising of buffaloes, sheep, goat, camel, donkeys and horses. About 10% household get regular flow income through services in various private and public jobs.

The rest of them derive their income through selling handicraft, pottery, shoe mending, tailoring, carpet weaving and other micro-enterprise undertaking.

Of the total land area of 4.5 million acres, 3.4 million is cultivable land and the remaining 1.1 million constituting about 24% is the grazing land for cattle and livestock and the waste land.