Siraha, headquarters of the district of the same name in Nepal’s Madhesh Province, lies in the heart of the Maithili-speaking Tarai, close to the Indian rail-head of Jaynagar. A town of farms, bazaars and the same festival calendar as Bihar’s Mithila, it is part of the cultural belt that gave the region its language and its arts.
The Siraha–Saptari country is especially associated with the worship of Raja Salhesh, the Dusadh warrior-god whose open-air shrines (gahvar) and folk theatre flourish on both sides of the border.