Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Inside Himalayas Issue 5 | Page 50

INSIDE HIMALAYAS | NEPAL | TIBET | BHUTAN INSIDE HIMALAYAS | NEPAL | TIBET | BHUTAN Traditional Newar guards locally known as “Gurju Paltan”, lead the procession. Photo: Sudeep Singh. chariot on this one day. But, perhaps this is another aspect of Nepal’s urban-rural divide on display. All of these details are very challenging for a non-Newar, non-Nepali to find out. As I live in Patan, I saw the chariot being built, but I didn’t know when it was going to move. I stopped to watch in fascination every time I passed. Because festivals in Nepal generally follow the Nepali calendar and the cycles of the moon, the dates aren’t fixed. In 2015, the Rato Machchhindranath festival was held in April (it actually started a couple of days before the earthquake), whereas Chariot under construction. Photo: Guido Weers. 50 www.insidehimalayas.com | By Royal Mountain Travel Women worship the god inside the chariot. Photo: Elen Turner. in 2016 it was in May. My attempts to look up information online didn’t come up with anything. It’s only because my Nepali teacher is part of the Patan Newari community that I was kept informed. We discussed my fascination with this unique cultural phenomenon in my broken Nepali, and he rewarded my interest by feeding me information when it filtered down to him. There is something very moving about seeing so many people gathered to celebrate an aspect of traditional culture. In a world in which ‘tradition’ is increasingly packaged for the consumption of travellers, the Rato Statue of Macchindranath being taken inside the chariot. Photo: Sudeep Singh. Machchhindranath festival could be nothing further from that. Other similar chariot-based festivals are held in other Newari centres of the Kathmandu Valley. Patan’s Machchhindranath festival is ‘red’, whereas Kathmandu’s is white—Seto Machchhindranath. The three day festival is held in March/April, and resembles the Rato Machchhindranath festival is some important ways: the enormous chariot, the placement of the idol inside the chariot, and the involvement of the Kumari of Kathmandu. A final touch. Photo: Sudeep Singh. www.insidehimalayas.com | By Royal Mountain Travel 51