Adarsh Youth Club

The Youth Club is a sister organisation of the Social Welfare Committee. It works to mobilize young people in the village and to raise awareness of education, health and sanitation issues through drama and cultural programmes. It also organises games and development activities. For Dasain, the club organised a song and dance show with awareness raising sketches focusing on social issues. As Jancis was visiting Ghumna, she opened the show.

Although the weather is still hot in the daytime, mornings and evenings are cool and early morning mists are common.

After the festival, farmers have a busy time. The rice needs to be harvested and threshed in the old-fashioned way and the fields have to be ploughed in readiness for the winter crops.

After the blessings, people eat a variety of meat and vegetable curries. Chickens, pigs, goats and sometimes sheep are sacrificed in large numbers at Dasain. Most families sacrifice 5 chickens, one to each of the five major gods. If a son has been born into the family in the past year, a goat has to be slaughtered in celebration.

Here Gita is carrying Sel Roti and Fini Roti, fried breads which can be made in advance of the festival and are commonly eaten at Dashain.

For the blessing ceremony, the Tika is made from a mixture of vermillion powder, rice and yoghurt. Each elder person sticks the Tika on the younger person’s forehead three times (some of it always falls off!), wishing them all the best for the coming year. They also put the cut Jamara shoots and bebri in the person’s hair (ladies) or behind their ears (men). Then they give gifts of fruit and money.

Within each family, Tika is also given, starting with the head of the family. Here Anita and Hallu are giving Tika to their son.

Old and young enjoy the dancing, even if the younger generation think they are a bit too cool!

After the tika ceremonies, the villagers gather in the headman’s compound to sing, dance and drink.

Every year, at Maghi (the Tharu new year, 15 January) the villagers elect a head-man and on the morning of Dasain, the men go to his house to celebrate and receive Tika (blessings). This year, in a departure from tradition, the women also received Tika. Each person takes a bottle of chanki (rice wine). In this photo, Hallu has received the Tika (the red mark on his forehead) and Jamara behind his ears and is drinking chanki from a traditional leaf bowl.

On the tenth day of the festival, everyone should wear new clothes. This can cause quite a strain on poor families, who have to buy clothes as well as food for the celebration. The SWC arranged a sale of clothes donated in Kathmandu on the eve of Dasain so that even the poorest people could have something ‘new’, albeit second hand, to wear for the festival. A group of committee members sorted through the clothes, pricing them according to what they thought people would pay (ladies to fix ladies’ clothes’ prices and men to fix men’s), and then organised the sale in the early evenings when people had free time. The sale raised over 2000 rupees which will be used for emergency relief for flood or fire victims.

As well as worshipping the household gods, the gods of the area around the house are also worshipped.

A puja room with oil lamps

The different gods are represented by various household items:
a broom (barni) symbolises Laxmi, the goddess of wealth
a healer stick (bet ke lathi)
a horse (bherwa) symbolises a powerful Tharu god, worshipped for heatlh and wealth
a man (saura)
a woman (maiya) representing devi and khekari (sister of devi)
a snake (sapuwa ) This god is kept outside the house and is worshipped only with cows milk, not wine

In contrast to the dikris eaten at Tihar, Dewari in Tharu, (see last year’s photos), those used for the Puja are top-shaped.

The festival of Dasain, (Dashiya in Tharu), one of the two biggest Hindu festivals, was celebrated in October this year. The name means ‘tenth’ – the festival lasts for 10 days.

In Tharu families, the eldest son is responsible for looking after the family gods and worshipping them during the Dashain festival. On the first day, Ghatasthapana, Tharus pray to the moon, saying ‘Ditiya ditiya ram ram’. Maize seeds are planted in an earthen or clay pot called a Handi in the Dehurar (the Puja or worship room).

By the 10th day, the Jamara (shoots) are tall and yellow and ready to be used for the Puja.

This man, the head of his family, has fasted for the entire day before beginning the ceremony in his dehurar (Puja room). Here he family gods are in the pata, an area of the dehurar where the main gods are set up. The oil lamps here are in the pata. For the Puja, he offers each one a leaf plate containing Jamara shoots, bebri another green leaf, dikris (steamed rice flour balls) and an oil lamp. He then sprinkles the god with drops of rice wine, praying all the time.