Dashain Days in Dolpa

Dashain is the biggest holiday in Nepal (or other Hindu countries), somewhat similar to Christmas. It celebrates the goddess Durga and her slaying of lots and lots of demons… for this reason, tons of goats are sacrificed to Durga on the day of Dashain; the temples literally run with blood. The vacations for Dashain last one entire month for public schools, and give most people the chance to travel home to their families and visit for a long time.

Two days before the actual feast of Dashain, we got to participate in another festival, more locally based, that again involved Gunga’s brother, the “goddess” Diphendra. This festival was very similar to the others, with lots of dancing and handing out of strands of colored fabric (red and white) and handfuls of rice. This time it also involved roti, the fried flatbread made of flour and water, although we think some kind of cornmeal was involved in some of the roti this time, which was delish.

Making chapati at the temple.

Diphendra and another priest handing out cloth thingies.

I woke the day of Dashain early because of a nightmare and had some extra time to go out and lay out on the roof to watch the stars (I saw three shooting ones!). Once the rest of the town was up, we waited to hear on the radio when the official priest-astrologers would declare the best time for starting the Dashain celebrations (it was 10:55 this year). We were invited to the home of one of the founders of the boarding school, Hom. He was there with the principal of the school, Gopal, and the remaining teacher, Gurung (as the other two teachers had been fired a week before for beating the children as punishment). We sat and chatted for a while, had a Tuborg beer (I don’t even like beer, and that was one of the most delicious drinks I’ve had), and then at 10:55 started the festivities with tika giving. Hom gave his children tika as blessings and some rupees as treats. He, Gopal, and Gurung also gave Sam and I tika, and eventually, after more chatting and more beer, we had some lunch. Sam and I decided to be true Nepalis today and eat with our hands. Sam also partook of some of the mutton that had been slaughtered the day before. ‘Twas nice.

The Dashain fare at Hom's house.

At around 12:30, we left Hom, thanking him so much for his hospitality and the chance to teach at his school. We went to Gunga’s family’s house (as we had missed the tika at Tarak’s house because we were at Hom’s… It is a lot like Christmas, isn’t it?) in the neighboring village, where we were tika-ed and we received rupees this time as well! I got 40 whole rupees (about 50 cents) from Gunga’s mum and pop, which I was extremely pleased with--not kidding--as we’ve sort of run out of money up here in the mountains. We also got to see Gunga’s niece’s first Dashain; she got lots of tika, lots of money, and also at her first food, some dudh bhaat, or rice with milk. (She doesn’t have a name yet--they just call her “bhoine” (little sister) and they will name her when she turns a year old.) We were invited to have some dudh bhaat as well, rice with warmed buffalo milk--it was almost sweet and very good, although difficult to eat with hands and no spoons.

Baby bhoine getting tika and her first rice.

Then we were led by a kindly relative away from Gunga’s; we misunderstood and thought she was taking us home, so we were a little surprised when we stopped at another house. It was a lovely house, full of lovely women and children who tika-ed us again and gave us more rupees and more food. Just tarkari this time and some sweet roti and these little circle thingies that are kinda like giri but without syrup. Delish. It was a lovely time, we had some great conversations, I think; it’s difficult to tell when none of the Westerners speak Nepali and none of the Nepalis speak English. But it was nice. Eventually we left there, led away by another nice woman with a baby (named Mahan) on her back; we went took some shortcuts through cornfields, stopping to pick up some fresh cobs to roast on the fire for supper, and strolling through the beautiful sunshine and breeze whispering through the stalks. It was beautiful.

Me in kurta and tika at the end of the day.

My haul--100 rupees and an ear of corn.

I ate so much that I was fit to burst by the end of the evening. The next day brought our flight out of Juphal to Nepalgunj, where hotel and bus were taken care of remarkably easy, and the day after was a fourteen hour bus ride, the last hour (and curviest roads) were driven in the dark. But we made it back safe and sound, and were very happy to find the volunteer house. It was packed with new volunteers (six of them) which has been a little difficult (although I shouldn’t, I get a little irritated when they explain to me Nepali etiquette as if I hadn’t been living with it longer than they have… Understandable, but irritating). Soon everyone is leaving on a trek, however, and I will be spending the next week at Boudanath enrolled in a short course on Buddhism and meditation. I can’t wait for the short time to relax and rejuvenate so I’m ready for my new placements in October and November!

Terminal One at the Juphal Airport... on our way to Nepalgunj again.