Bhaktapur's Biska Jatra: Drums, Chariots Herald Nepali New Year

On the eve of the formal start of Biska Jatra, the nine-day-long festivity of the ancient city of Bhaktapur, dozens of denarians and vicenarians performed a synchronised musical performance.

Every beat of the Dhime, the traditional double-headed cylindrical drum, tells a different story, and the dance narrates a story which carries its own significance.

"The performance was made by the Newa community. It is performed to welcome the Nepali New Year, the Bikram Sambat. It is performed by Newars in their traditional attire, which is generally understood as Newa dress (the Haku Patasi)," Manish Ghimire, an attendee of the cultural performance on the stairs of Nepal's tallest temple, the Nyatapola, told ANI.

The temple, which stands in the ancient Taumadhi Square of Bhaktapur, is packed with revellers and devotees during the Biska Jatra, which, as per folklore, signals the arrival of the Nepali New Year.

"It was really cool. Every single person was dancing in a well-coordinated way, and there was not even a single mistake made by the performers, which made it really nice to watch and beautiful as well," Ghimire added.

Biska Jatra, one of the popular religious festivals of Kathmandu Valley, starts with the ascension of Lord Bhairab onto a chariot built in front of the Nyatapola temple, the tallest temple in Nepal. Two groups of locals struggle to pull the chariot to either side amid a show of strength, which has been followed for ages.

The three-storey chariot, made of wood in the pagoda style, is pushed and pulled around the settlements with the statues of Bhairavnath and Betal as a part of this festival. This festival of cultural and historical importance is celebrated for nine days and eight nights.

Believed to have started during the Malla Dynasty, Biska Jatra formally starts four days before the beginning of the Nepali New Year.

According to a myth, whoever marries a local princess dies on the very first night of the marriage. Later, a brave young man married the princess. During the night, two snakes attacked him, and the young man killed them.

Biska Jatra is the only festival that does not follow the lunar-based Nepali calendar. It commences after a special Tantric ritual is performed in the Bhairab Temple in Taumadhi Tole in Bhaktapur.

- ANI