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Festival season starts in Nepal with devotees honoring a living goddess

AP |
Sep 18, 2024 09:12 AM IST

Nepal's festival season commenced with thousands pulling a chariot carrying a living goddess. Families feaster and honored the dead.

Nepal’s monthslong festival season began on Tuesday with tens of thousands of devotees pulling a wooden chariot with a young girl revered as a living goddess.

Living God Ganesh Rodin Shakya is presented in front of the crowd while being carried into his chariot during the annual Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season in Kathmandu, Nepal.(REUTERS)
Living God Ganesh Rodin Shakya is presented in front of the crowd while being carried into his chariot during the annual Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season in Kathmandu, Nepal.(REUTERS)

Families gathered for feasts and lit incense for the dead at shrines. Men and boys in colorful masks and gowns representing Hindu deities danced to traditional music and drums, drawing throngs of spectators to Kathmandu's old streets.

The Indra Jatra festival marks the end of the monsoon and rice farming season and signals the dawn of fall. It's celebrated mostly by the Newar community, the native residents of Kathmandu. It is also known as the festival of deities and demons and especially honors Indra, the Hindu god of rain.

The masked dancers, one of the highlights of the ceremony, can be fearsome, entertaining and awe-inspiring, depending on the performers’ movements.

Kumari, a young girl who is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal as a living goddess, left her temple palace and was driven around the center of the capital in a wooden chariot pulled by devotees, who lined up to receive her blessing. Among the spectators were President Ram Chandra Poudel, officials and diplomats.

The weeklong Indra Jatra precedes months of other festivals in the predominantly Hindu nation. They include Dasain, the main festival, and Tihar, or Diwali, the festival of lights, in November.

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