The Kathmandu Valley, which was already called “Nepal” centuries before the emergence of the modern nation-state of that name, is a 220 square mile bowl, 4,000 feet up in the lap of the central Himalaya. Its history begins with a myth which tells of how the Bodhisattva (“Buddha-to-be”) Manjushri came down from the north and cleaved the valley rim to release the waters of an enormous lake, thus rendering the valley habitable for the propagation of the Buddhist faith. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
KATHMANDU, APR 10 – Bisket Jatra, one of the historically and culturally important festivals of Bhaktapur, began on Wednesday as per the tantric rituals, heralding the start of new Nepali year. The festival, which runs for nine days and eight nights, starts four days before the New Year day and runs after five days of the New Year. The festival began in the morning with traditional rituals by worshipping Bhairav Nath. Continue reading
As Bode, a sleepy village in Bhaktapur district, prepares to celebrate Bisket Jatra during the first two days of Nepali New Year, Juju Bhai Basan, who has to pierce his tongue with a metal skewer on the second day of the festival, is growing restless. Continue reading