D&C 93:39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.

Dashain is here!!!!! What is Dashain you ask?  There is not an easy or quick explanation but this newspaper article is the first indication that the biggest Nepali festival of the year has arrived. One of those traditions that makes one wonder if Nepal is really in the 21st century.   I found this modern day explanation in the Kathmandu Post last week:
"Like always, Dashain arrives with much fanfare.  Goats being led about on leashes, goats on top of buses, and goats herded onto the back of pickup trucks--all become common sight.  In Kathmandu, New Road buckles under the collective strength of a thousand hurrying feet, darting this way and that, searching for that elusive bargain.  The press of people and vehicles creates labyrinthine traffic jams where pedestrians are trapped in between taxis and motorbikes vying for space.  Shops don't always lay out their best wares but offer extravagant discounts on grossly inflated prices.  There are cars to be bought, microwaves, washing machines, sarees, kurtas, daura suruwals and coats to be stitched.  This majority Hindu country goes into a tizzy, ebullient at the coming festivities. For Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and atheists, it is the holidays.  A week or two off from work, a month off from school.  There are plans to be made, friends to meet, coffees and beers to be imbibed and Hindu or not, gambling to be entertained."  Are you wishing you were here yet?
"Soon, Kathmandu will empty out.  The road clean and clear for once.  The Valley will feel ghostly, quiet and forlorn, missing that great mass of humanity that bring it to life.  Those who leave ride rickety buses to far off villages, laden with gifts for their families; workers from the Middle East, toiling under an unrelenting sun and the stoic gaze of robed Arabs, board airplanes, jostling others with duffel bags full of keepsakes and takeaways; the few and wealthy take holidays abroad, hop-skipping to Europe and East Asia.
For most, Dashain means a time of connection, however fleeting.  It brings together warring clans, disgruntled progeny and lascivious uncles who always seem to comment on how 'big' you've gotten.  The goat meat, freshly slaughtered, is a peace offering and over heaping platefuls, relatives relive old memories, comment on the banal and make small talk, relishing the connection that is absent most days of the year.
At parties, old incidents are recalled and new shenanigans performed.  There are always those who get too drunk, lose too much money gambling or suffer intensely from eating too much.  Dashain is a time of extravagance, it is a time of indulgence.  It is a time to live beyond your means, even if just for a while and forget how bad things are.  It is a season of relations, of family of meat, of animal slaughter, of culture and tradition and most of all of memory."
Can you understand now why I picked the scripture in D&C to go along with this post?   There are just some traditions that should probably end.  We're told that many people go into debt to celebrate this holiday.  I'd just like to share the last two weeks through pictures what Dashain is like in Nepal.

People leaving the valley to go and spend time with their families in the village.

I just hope they all make it home home alive or a least in one piece.

Let the Party Begin?!?!?!

Sacrifice, certainly not in the way we think of sacrifice.  Everywhere we go we see chickens, goats, ducks, water buffalo on their way to the temple to be sacrificed.  They are frequently killed in the temples and the head of the animal is given to the priest and they take the rest home to be eaten during festival. However, some are slaughtered on back porches, we've heard the baaaaing of the poor goats and then an eery silence.

  

Wouldn't you just love to eat this goat after he has eaten all this garbage?

We understand that black goats are the best offering, I certainly wouldn't think that they taste any better.

We were told that on one day during Dashain, they would kill 144 water buffalo in one of the temples and I read that the blood would be ankle deep.  Luckily they would only let Hindus inside the temples.

This is a picture of our next door neighbors knife after he had just killed the goat on his little patio.  I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the poor little goat.

Here are some of the ducks that were being sold in the markets.

On the first night of Dashain we were invited to Rakeesh's home to celebrate with his extended family.  They don't celebrate all the days of Dashain but they do like the eating part.  We ate, mutton ( I assumed we were eating sheep, but I was told it was goat), wild boar and chicken.  It actually wasn't too bad, but I think I'll stick to our Thanksgiving dinner.

The first day of Dashain, Hindus plant wheat grass and let it grow for 9 days.  We even rode in one taxi that had it growing on his dash board.  I would've taken a picture but I didn't get what it was.  On the day they receive Tika they cut the grass and wear it in their hair as a blessing.  Notice the wheat grass in her hair.  Men usually wear a little behind their ear.

Brother Pana from our branch wanted to take the Rempps and us to Dubar Square to experience Dashain.  Remember when you see these next pictures that over 1.5 million people have left Kathmandu Valley to visit family in their villages and believe it or not you can really tell a difference.  I know by looking at these pictures it still looks pretty crowded but on a normal day you can hardly walk, there are so many people.
This first picture is one of the big temples.  This temple used to be where the King would go to worship everyday and now they open it up one day a year and let all who want enter in to worship.  Brother Pana said he had never seen these lines so long, people were probably waiting up to 4 hours to get in.  Elder Rempp wondered what Disneyland ride was waiting at the end of the line.

The entrance into the King's temple

Brother Pana and Kent and I in Dubar Square

Holy Men in Dubar Square - during Dashain they walk around with their little tin buckets begging for money.  

The next pictures are of the living princess or Kumari, a young girl is chosen from one of castes when she is around four.  She is taken from her family and lives in the palace.  Here are some interesting facts regarding Kumari.  Eligible girls are Buddhists from the Newar caste, the clan to which the Buddha belonged.  She must be in excellent health, never have shed blood or been afflicted by any disease, be without blemish and must not have yet lost any teeth.  Girls who pass these basic eligibility requirements are examined for the battis lakashanas or "thirty-two perfections" of a goddess.  Some of these are poetically listed:
a neck like a conch shell
a body like a banyan tree
eyelashes like a cow
thighs like a deer
chest like a lion
voice soft and clear as a duck's
In addition to this, her hair and eyes should be very black, she should have dainty hands and feet, small and well-recessed sexual organs and a set of twenty teeth.
The girl is also observed for signs of serenity a fearlessness (after all she is to be the vessel of the fierce goddess Durga) and her horoscope is examined to ensure that it is complimentary to the Kings.
As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the head of ritually slaughtered goats and buffalos without showing fear, again keep in mind she is usually around four years old.
Once the Kumari is chosen and walks across the Durbar Square it is the last time her feet will touch the ground until such time as the goddess departs from her body.  From now on, when she ventures outside of her palace, she will be carried or transported in her golden palanquin.  Her feet like all of her, are now sacred.  The shortest amount a time a girl has been Kumari is one year, the longest is nine.  An interesting side note, popular superstitions says that a man who marries a Kumari is doomed to die within six months by coughing up blood. Anyway, people come to see her, she appears at a window, rarely smiles and stays for about 5 minutes at a time.  On the day we were there during Dashain, people had to go inside to view her and foreigners were not allowed in.

This is the current Kumari, she has been Kumari since 2008 when she was four years old.

The next pictures I've lovingly called Temple Square, there were so many temples we couldn't visit them all, some are Buddhists temples but most are Hindu temples.

The next pictures are of people and places where they worship

Worshiping is called Poja - they bring an offering to the gods - usually in a bowl that is made from leaves, it usually has red rice flour, or tika, coins, marigolds, usually some fruit.  They also leave these outside their doors.  It's quite a messy sight to see.

Also during Dashain you'll see marigold garlands all around, they are worn by animals, motor vehicles, and are also used in poja.

These pictures are of Rakeesh's car, though he doesn't celebrate Dashain besides eating the meat, his wife insists that on the day poja is for you motor vehicle that his car gets blessed so that he will be safe.

Rakeesh's engine, with tika and ducks blood

Rakeesh's wheel splattered with ducks blood

Other blessed vehicles

There is a poinsetta on this motor bike

Tika day is when the father blesses his children with tika

They really put it on during Dashain, Buddhist also wear tika but their's is white.

Dashain is over tomorrow, everyone will be coming back to the valley and just in time for the Tihar festival  in two weeks.  Will the party never end?

Next week Elder Gong from the Quorum of  Seventy is coming for a day.  We will be meeting with him for a little bit and showing him some of the humanitarian projects that we are involved in.  Kent and I will be showing him the Sewing center in Kathmandu and the knitting project for the blind along with the cyber center where the blind come and learn the computer.  He'll mostly be spending time with Rakeesh who is our "champion" with most of our projects because of his access to government officials.  Elder Gong will be meeting with many government officials, with the hope that the government will recognize the LDS Church and allow missionaries into Nepal someday soon.   Yes we really are doing missionary work.