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FESTIVALS AND
ENTERTAINMENT |
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Stumbling onto a local festival may prove to be the highlight of
your travels in Nepal (and given the sheer number of them, you'd be
unlucky not to). Though most are religious in nature, merrymaking, not
solemnity, is the order of the day, and onlookers are always welcome.
However, some celebrations, while public, are also personal: don't
photograph worshippers without asking permission.
Music and dance are also integral parts of the culture - so much so that
they can only be briefly introduced here
Festivals and other rites
Festivals are a sophisticated brand of performance art in Nepal, as
exotic as the religions that underlie them, which may be Hindu, Buddhist,
animist or a hybrid of all three. Hindu events can take the form of huge
pilgrimages and fairs ( mela), or more introspective gatherings such as
ritual bathings at sacred confluences ( tribeni) or special acts of
worship ( puja) at temples. Many involve animal sacrifices and jolly
family feasts afterwards, with priests and musicians usually on hand.
Parades and processions ( jaatra) are common, especially in the
Kathmandu Valley, where idols are periodically ferried around on great,
swaying chariots. Buddhist festivals are no less colourful, typically
bringing together maroon-robed clergy and lay pilgrims to walk and
prostrate themselves around stupas (dome-shaped monuments, usually
repainted specially for the occasion).
Knowing when and where festivals are to be held will not only enliven
your time in Nepal, it will also help you avoid certain annoyances such
as closed offices and booked-up buses. Unfortunately, festival dates
vary from year to year, as most are governed by the lunar calendar , and
determining them more than a year in advance is a highly complicated
business best left to astrologers. Each lunar cycle is divided into "bright"
(waning) and "dark" (waxing) halves, which are in turn divided into
fourteen lunar "days". Each of these days has a name - purnima is the
full moon, astami the eighth day, aunsi the new moon, and so on. Thus
lunar festivals are always observed on a given day of either the bright
or dark half of a given Nepali month. Confused? The easiest strategy is
just to consult a tourist office when you arrive. There are also Nepali
festival calendars on the Web , though they're not very comprehensive -
try Friends in High Places ( www.fihp.com/festivals.html) or the Nepal
Home Page ( www.info-nepal.com/homepage).
Similarly jubilant (and public), Nepali weddings are always scheduled on
astrologically auspicious days, which fall in the greatest numbers
during the months of Faagun, Magh, Chaitra, Baisaakh and Mangsir. The
approach of a wedding party is often heralded by the sound of a hired
brass band - one of colonialism's stranger legacies, sounding like a
Dixieland sextet playing in a pentatonic scale - and open-air feasts go
on until the early hours. The bride usually wears red - an auspicious
colour - and for the rest of her married life she will colour the
parting of her hair with red sindur.
Funeral processions are understandably sombre and should be left in
peace. The body is normally carried to the cremation site within hours
of death by white-shrouded relatives; white is the colour of mourning
for Hindus, and the eldest son is expected to shave his head and wear
white for a year following the death of a parent. Many of the hill
tribes conduct special shamanic rites to guide the deceased's soul to
the land of the dead.
Music and dance
Music is as common as conversation in Nepal. In the hills, travelling
minstrels ( gaaine) make their living singing ballads and accompanying
themselves on the sarangi, a hand-carved, four-stringed fiddle.
Teenagers traditionally attract the attention of the opposite sex by
exchanging teasing verses. After-dinner singalongs are popular, even in
Kathmandu, and of course music is indispensable in all festivals.
Traditional Nepali music often gets drowned out by the rising tide of
Indian film music , with its surging strings and hysterically shrill
vocals, and ghazal , a more langourous, crooning style of music often
performed live in Indian and Nepali restaurants. Yet Nepali folk music
still gets a good airing; in contrast, it sounds mercifully calm and
villagey. A few tourist restaurants in the budget quarters of Kathmandu
and Pokhara host regular free performances by local folk groups.
Nepali music is almost inseparable from dance , especially at festivals.
Nepali dance is an unaffected folk art - neither wildly athletic nor
subtle, it depicts everyday activities like work and courtship. Each
region and ethnic group has its own distinct traditions, and during your
travels you should get a chance to join a local hoedown or two, if not a
full-blown festival extravaganza. Look out, too, for the muscular stick
dance of the lowland Tharus, performed regularly at lodges outside
Chitwan National Park.
Staged culture shows in Kathmandu and Pokhara are a long way from the
real thing, but they do provide a sampling of folk and religious dances,
and hint at the incredible cultural diversity contained in such a small
country. Most troupes perform such standards as the dance of the jhankri
(shaman-exorcists still consulted by many, if not most, hill Nepalis);
the sleeve-twirling dance of the Sherpas; the flirting dance of the
hill-dwelling Tamangs; the Tharus' fanciful peacock dance; perhaps a
formal priestly dance, to the accompaniment of a classical raga (musical
piece); and at least one of the dances of the Kathmandu Valley's
holiday-loving Newars.
Cinema
Nepal's love-hate relationship with India is perhaps best illustrated by
its cinema : Nepalis might grouse about India's cultural imperialism,
but that doesn't stop them rushing to see the latest schmaltz and
pyrotechnics from Bollywood. Nepali and Hindi are similar enough that
movies aren't usually dubbed. Nepali films are still the exception, and
are less slick than Indian productions, but much more popular when
they're on. Video rental shops are commonplace in the main cities,
though less so since the advent of satellite TV. Some tourist
restaurants screen Hollywood flicks on video, many of them amazingly
current - bootleg tapes often hit the streets in Kathmandu long before
their official release on video.
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