~ Detail Photos ~

This beautiful set of tribal bracelets is from the area in southern Nepal known as the Tarai. It came from the Tharu people who trace their origins in Nepal to either to the Rajputs of Western India or a time when there ancestors were refugees fleeing the war described in the great epic, the Mahabharata. This is the battle between the Pandavas and Dhartarashtras that also contains the spiritual epic the Bhagavad gita.

Anyway, the Tharus have a particular aesthetic within their culture which reveals itself in day to day traditional clothing as well as distinct architectural and decorative motifs. This ankle bangle is a product of this unique culture which values big, fairly colossal jewelry and brightly colored textiles.

The bracelts are hollow and though it looks like silver, they are the less expensive "white metal" also known as nickel brass. It has repousse work featuring floral, fish and geometric shapes. Fantastic antique tribal ethnographica and very reasonably priced.