More Festival Images from Nepal: Colecha Jatra at Thaiba or Funeral Procession: You Decide

Another festival update from my intrepid friend and fotog in the field in Nepal, Diwakar Maskey. This posting is for a Goat Festival in Thaiba, south-east of Patan near Kathmandu, en route to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I didn't even know there were Royal Botanical Gardens SE of Patan.

I enjoy Diwakar's update emails - they're more of a personal communication, and almost as a post-script, there will be an attachment with some photos and the name of the festival. I usually don't get much more than that information, the assumption being that I've been there a few times before, and everyone should be familiar with such events. I suppose we all have similar ethno-centric tendencies. What I do enjoy, though, is having to do a little research on my own to learn what a particular festival name is - emailing Diwakar back and making sure I'm getting my facts straight, or asking for more information. Usually, if I ask for a fact, I'll get a 3 page email response, with about a half-page of apologies for not including the facts in the first place, so I don't want to make anyone feel badly for not including them - and I do enjoy digging up the information.

At any rate, this festival was a hard one. "Colecha" more often than not has Spanish-language references. But I was able to learn from Diwakar it's 'just the traditional name of that festival'. "Jatra" is a Nepali term for Festival, and Thaiba is akin to the suburban Kathmandu location. So, mystery solved - it's a locale celebration. What we weren't able to figure out is what the story is in the photos. To me, it looks like a funeral procession.

So, I'll chalk this one up to:

(a) Colecha Jatra at Thaiba
(b) Funeral Procession at Thaiba
(c) Mix of Both
(d) Interesting Subject Matter Lost in Translation

Holi of Holies! March 3, Nepal - Holi Festival, Full Moon, & Lunar Eclipse. Can you say Trifecta Festival Event?

I've mentioned my friend Diwakar previously, who allows me to see what's going on in Nepal when I can't be there. It’s mostly festival-themed, though as hard as it is for him to refrain from presenting anything than a smiling, happy, positive correspondence countenance; sometimes we can share brief commentary in between the e-lines about progress with the country's attempts at a republic in the midst of maoist-led demands to break the strangle-hold of its dictatorial monarchy. But, I digress.

In early March, the globe enjoyed a full moon, and some parts more than others were able to enjoy viewing a full lunar eclipse. In addition to this, in Nepal, it was also the Holi festival. This is often a time of mayhem. Young people wear old clothes and finish the evening in a decidedly multi-coloured look. Holi, also known as the festival of colors, has roots in various Hindu myths and is celebrated in Nepal in a myriad of methods.

(this photo is a bit blurry: no tripod, pre eclipse)



I understand in prior days, people used to hurl buckets of paint at each other, or water balloons of dyed water. Nowadays, it seems, the paint seems to be more of the Halloween make-up version, and it seems to be relatively self-applied - at least from the start. The festival symbolizes the victory of good over evil and heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

I like to think of it better thusly:
As nature blooms into the colors of spring, so do the people of Nepal!

Of course, many of the people - particularly the malefolk - seem dourly serious in the photos attached, this is fairly common. Most of my friends in Nepal are male, and most of my photos of them are similar in nature to those of men in the old west U.S. at the turn of the century - By God Serious. But this belies the nature of some of the warmest people on earth.

Even so, with the myriad of traditional theatrics that go on - you can see the tension in these young boys. They live with daily "disappearances", political ambiguity, an uncertain future, and being citizens of one of the 3 poorest countries on earth while their King is one of the richest rulers on the planet. They will either go into the army to fight the maoists, join the maoists to fight the corrupt government, become monks, become petty criminals to support their families, or become one of an ever-growing population of locals who feed off of the tourist industry. Tourism, incidentally, is suffering intermediary to long-term damage due to the violence that the maoists have embraced initially to get their message heard, but have been reluctant of late to release now that they have driven change in the country.






The future is less bright for the young women and girls of Nepal. Many are being forced into prostitution or kidnapped across the border into India, never to see their families again, doomed to an early diseased death. Gloomy, huh! And Nepalis, despite this, are still the most genuinely warm people you could hope to meet.

I hope that the leaders in Nepal working on an Interim Government truly bridge their differences and work toward a Republic, as they've stated, rather than let things disintegrate further into tribal friction and further fractionation of such proud, hard working, talented, culturally and geographically wealthy people.