A Day for a Goddess

Sarah, Diphendra, me, and Sam with some of his family.

September 4th was a big festival for the locals here, and Sam, Sarah and I were lucky enough to get to be a part of it, even more so because Tarak‘s brother-in-law Diphendra was a main part of the ceremonies (which happen to be gender-bending). Around one in the afternoon, we started heading up the hill to the temple where we had been gazing on events the past few nights and from there we joined a huge crowd of people and started even further up the hill to a bigger temple. It took us about an hour to make it up the steep hillside with the rest of the village, but everyone did pause in their walking every so often to take a dance break. During these dance breaks, random cucumbers and other fruits would be thrown out into the crowd surrounding the main dancers.

At the lower temple: the festivities begin...

About halfway up the hill everyone stopped around a tree and Diphendra had his clothes changed from his young boy’s jeans and t-shirt (he’s 13) to a big red skirt, golden women’s jacket, and a golden veil topped with flowers. (He couldn’t change them himself since he had been fasting from food, water, and sleep for the past 24 hours.) Diphendra was becoming a goddess, or a queen, we were told. After we made it all the way up the hill, where the women and children had been gathered for hours around the temple, there was much singing and dancing, and by much I mean about four hours of it. Eventually they started handing out rice and colored strings again, and this time I was chosen! I felt oh-so-special (not kidding). I ate the rice and tied the red string (which I’ve now found out symbolizes power, woot) around my neck. During the four hours of dancing we took a little break to eat some apples and giri (like funnel cakes, but dripping in a gooey sweet syrup) on the hillside. When we went back to the festivities, Diphendra was in his own “personal” temple and he gave us some apples and strings as well.

The hundreds of people gathered around the dancing and the temple.

Diphendra handing out red strings.

Then we headed over to the feast. Most of the families in the village had made little camps around the temple where they had cooked tarkari (curried veggies) and roti (fried flatbread kinda like tortilla chips). We were invited to sit with so many families; we only sat with three, but had food from at least seven groups who brought their own version of the tarkari and roti over. The roti was sooo delicious, I ate a whole whole lot, but most families had a whole whole lot so it was ok. We headed back down the hill stuffed like Christmas geese.

Diphendra's mother with all her roti

On our way back down we got stopped to try the local raksi (alcohol) which was, um, kinda gross, but then again, I’m not a huge alkie. We also got stopped by a crowd surrounding some singing and dancing. Unfortunately, the locals pushed and prodded me into joining in the dance (I promise this had nothing to do with the raksi)… I was the only woman dancing with a couple of men, I tried to do the local dances, but ended up just trying to get out by laughing a lot. And now, of course, everyone I see wants me to dance when they see me. Not gonna happen. Sorry, locals.

Trying the raksi

Trying to escape the dancing ring