Far from Nepal’s famous Himalayan trekking routes lies the lesser-known Terai lowlands, home to dense wildlife, national parks, sacred Buddhist sites and the indigenous Tharu people. Travelers who venture south discover a warmer, slower Nepal – rice fields instead of snow peaks, buffalo-skin drums instead of prayer wheels – and a culture that prizes hospitality so deeply that locals say, “the guest is god.”
One such welcome awaited a visitor staying through the Community Homestay Network, which connects travelers with local families and channels tourism income directly into rural communities. In the village of Bhada, host Shyam Chaudhary invited her guest into her mud-and-thatch kitchen to prepare dishes for Auli – a harvest festival celebrating the end of rice season. Together they cooked starfruit pickle and other foods, while villagers set up a bamboo shrine decorated with marigold garlands.
As celebrations began, farmers gathered with music, dancing and chhyang rice liquor served in leaf cups. A central ritual involved barbecuing and sharing a rice-field rat – a symbolic offering meant to protect crops in the coming year. Guests danced with locals and were welcomed by the village’s Guruwa priest, an animist spiritual figure. Women running Bhada’s homestays shared how tourism has helped their community grow while preserving tradition.
Visitors to the Terai gain more than scenery; they enter homes, join rituals and eat at family tables. As one host put it, “People can see our traditional way of life… the guest is god.”
