text: Smaller numbers of Tharu people reside in the adjacent Indian districts Champaran in Bihar, Gorakhpur, Basti and Gonda districts in Uttar Pradesh, and Khatima in Uttarakhand.
  As of 2011, the Tharu population in Nepal was censused at 1,737,470 people, or 6.6% of the total population. The percentage of Tharu people by province was as follows:
  Sudurpashchim Province (17.3%)
  Lumbini Province (15.3%)
  Madhesh Province (5.3%)
  Koshi Province (4.1%)
  Gandaki Province (1.7%)
  Bagmati Province (1.6%)
  Karnali Province (0.4%)
  The percentage of Tharu people was higher than national average (6.6%) in the following districts:
  Bardiya (53.3%)
  Kailali (41.9%)
  Dang (29.7%)
  Kanchanpur (25.8%)
  Parasi (18.4%)
  Banke (15.8%)
  Kapilvastu (12.3%)
  Sunsari (12.1%)
  Nawalpur (11.8%)
  Saptari (11.5%)
  Chitwan (11.0%)
  Bara (10.5%)
  Rupandehi (9.7%)
  Parsa (7.6%)
  Udayapur (7.6%)
  History
  According to Alberuni, Tharu people have been living in the eastern Terai since at least the 10th century.
  The Rana Tharus in western Nepal claim to be of Rajput origin and to have migrated from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan to Nepal's Far Western Terai region after the defeat of Maharana Pratap against a Mughal emperor in the 16th century. Some scholars refute this claim. Another claim posits that the Tharu people are descendants of the Shakya dynasty, who propogated Mahayana Buddhism in Nepal from the late 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD.