KATHMANDU: Jujubhai Shrestha of Bode, Bhaktapur, pierced his tongue for the sixth consecutive year as part of the nine-day Bisket Jatra celebrations today.
The 33-year-old has been piercing his tongue for the last six years to give continuity to the centuries-old tradition to mark the new Bikram Era. Before the ritual of tongue piercing with a spike dipped in mustard oil, a blacksmith offers special prayers to the deities.
With the spike lodged in his tongue, the Bhaktapur youth performed puja in all local temples before taking the spike out in front of the Pancho Ganesh temple.
Jujubhai later applied sacred soil in the tongue as part of rituals, which, according to legends, date back to the Lichchhavi era.
Legends have it that tongue-piercing signifies the conquest over demons and evil spirits, who were haunting communities, taking away their children and killing them.
A tongue piercer should fast for three days starting from the last day of the Nepali month of Chaitra.
Bisket Jatra, one of the most colourful festivals of Bhaktapur, dates back to the Lichhavi period. It began last Thursday with the pulling of a three-storey chariot of Bhairav from Taumadhi-based Bhairavnath temple to Gahiti.
Source: The Himalayan Times