Celebrating Jatra at Khokana

Many Nepalese have told me, that I am very lucky to be able to witness the Dashain festival, which is the biggest Hindu festival of the year. Dashain celebrates the triumph of good over evil. It is especially the festival of mother goddess Durgha, to whom thousands of animals are sacrificed during the festival. I didn’t actually celebrate Dashain, but I was honored to be invited to the village of Khokana, to celebrate Newari’s Jatra.  Jatra is also a religious festival celebrated by the Newaris, which lasts for three days.

The whole village was in festival mood: people laughing, music playing and different kind of happenings around the village. On the first night, in the villages square there was set up a stage, where young people performed songs and dances. These weren’t very traditional ones, but more like performances which one could witness in any European country. I was quite surprised about the bold nature of many of the dances. Not that I would have found them too outrageous, but this is a country where for example public displays of affections between a man and a woman are frowned upon. And I was very pleased to see young men performing some dances. Also later on it was mainly the young men that might start a dance on the streets. The boys are more encouraged to dance I was told.  

Some people stayed awake the whole night, we went to sleep at twelve, to be woken at three am, when the gods where meant to leave for the holy place called Sikali, a small hill 20 minutes walk from the village. An altar kind of thing, inside of which were statues symbolizing the gods, was carried around the central village three times, and after this it was carried to Sikali. After this smaller holy artifacts gathered from surrounding villages and temples to the villages center and were carried to Sikali as well. 

The next morning the villagers gathered to the field, where the holy artifacts had been taken. There was a small temple and the atmosphere was festive, a bit like a carnival or a fare. Many had new clothes on, salesmen where selling treats and people where chatting to friends and family. Then the mangods appeared: the moment people had came to witness. Mangods are specific men from the village, who are said to become the gods they represent during the ritual. They represent different gods, there are 14 of them in colorful clothes, jeweler, masks and wigs. I didn’t recognize them all, but there seemed to be the elephant headed Ganesh and his parents, Shiva and Parvati, and the monkey faced god. The mangods came through an isle formed by the spectators jumping with the assistance of some villagers. After this they performed a ritual dance.  During the ritual some boiled rice was thrown to the crowd, which people wanted to catch because eating this rice is said to bring good health. Along with the mangods travelled some holy men, dressed in white. Some of them carried a long horn and some other things. During all of this there where people playing the traditional Newari music, which meant a lot of percussion instruments.   

After this people returned to the village. Met friends and dined. We also had some Newari delicacies, with beaten rice of course. Beaten rice is flat and dry rice, it’s not boiled, but seems to be somewhat raw. With it are some meat and bean and lentil dishes. And I could also try the quite good home made rice beer, which has a sweet taste. When the evening came the mangods returned to the village and danced some more. After this we strolled around the village and also visited the Buddhist monastry of the village, where we were invited to have breakfast.

After the breakfast the next morning, the villagers had again gathered to wait fore the mangods in center of the village. Again we could hear the traditional music, and first came the holy men in white, then the mangods again jumping. People, mainly women, took some offerings to the holy men and to the mangods. The mangods made their way to the square of the village, where they would perform rituals and stories by dancing. We could for example see the story how Ganesh got his elephant head. After the dances was the time of the animal sacrifice. A bull was to be killed on the square and some of the gods would drink its blood. I couldn’t see much of this, because everybody gathered so tightly around the bull and the mangods. But a bull was killed, and the gods got their blood.

I fully enjoyed the Jatra and the atmosphere of the Khokana village. Eventhough I couldn’t understand the meaning of the rituals, it was interesting to watch and see how alive and how practical forms religion can take. On the other hand these kinds of rituals and traditions tell you how much of an outsider you are, cause everything is so unfamiliar and in a way meaningless to you, cause you are not socialized to the traditions. But as said I enjoyed the Jatra on many levels, even though I could only understand parts of it.