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By APD writer Ishwar Khanal
**KATHMANDU, April 16 (APD) ** – Bhaktapur and Thimi towns in Nepal was painted red with revelers smearing their faces with vermilion powder to celebrate 'Sindoor Jatra', a festival of vermilion. This is a part of popular Bisket Jatra celebrated annually in Thimi and Bhaktapur.
On this day, locals hurl vermilion powder at each other in celebration to welcome the advent of spring as well as the Nepali New Year in the mid of April.
In Thimi, revelers sang and danced beating traditional drums and jhyalis, a traditional instrument, while carrying chariot of various deities around this ancient city. On the third day of this unique festival, male representatives from the area bring out a procession of 32 palanquins – khats in the local language, with images of different Gods.
"This is a part of our age-old tradition," Gyan Ratna Maharjan, a local said who informed that as the 32 khats come together, locals start hurling vermillion powder at them."
According to him, the ceremony reaches fever pitch as the khat carrying Lord Ganesha) arrives from the village of Nagadish.
Likewise, in another interesting episode, 46-year-old Buddha Krishna Shrestha, a local of Thimi, pierced his tongue with one foot long sharp iron spike, for the consecutive sixth time in front of the crowd as part of the tradition on the occasion of Bisket Jatra. According to the tradition, Shrestha has to undergo a strict fasting for four days and that blood should not bleed while piercing his tongue. The iron spike was dipped into mustard oil for a few days for purification.
"This is the sixth consecutive year that I am piercing my tongue," Shrestha said before piercing his tongue saying, "If blood comes, it is considered as a bad omen."
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
