Final Days in Gaunshahar: Tihar

Tihar is a special holiday in Nepal where people give tikka and puja to animals. It always happens toward the end of October or the beginning of November (the Nepali calendar is different from the Gregorian calendar we use in the West). Also, unlike the stricter schema for holidays over here, the specific dates and number of days seems to differ from region to region, and even from village to village. But everywhere has in common that on the final day, sisters give their brothers long beautiful tikka on the last day. Most online sources say there are five days:

1. Crow Tihar
2. Dog Tihar
3. Cow Tihar
4. Ox Tihar
5. Brother Tihar

In Gaunshahar, we had a crow day, a dog day, a cow day, and a brother day. Back home, my favorite holiday is Hallowe'en, and as I was planning this trip, I realized that I would be missing Hallowe'en if I went to Nepal in October. But I realized as I was researching for my trip that the "dog worshipping day" I had seen pictures of long ago is actually one of the days of Tihar, which happens right around Hallowe'en time this year! If there is one thing I love to a degree comparable to how I love Hallowe'en, it is dogs! I was willing to sacrifice Hallowe'en this year if it meant I could experience the Dog Day of Tihar! So as you might imagine, the closer we got to Dog Day, the more and more excited I became. I was soon to find out that there is much more to Tihar than simply giving dogs what they deserve.

October 26th - Crow Tihar?

I began today by going down to the temple. Lucky for me, it was open, and the guardian was there to allow me into the inner sanctum where I was able to give puja to usher in a great Tihar.

I was hoping for a whole flock of crows to come around, but there were not really many at all. Today ended up being a rather quiet day. Bimala, who is one of our hosts, taught us some Nepali dancing, telling us we would need to know it for when the dancers come. The dancing is Bimala's favorite part of Tihar. I memorized some traditional Nepali dance moves and look forward to showing them to my friends and family when I get home. We figured the dancing would happen some time over the next few days. After all--she would give us some fair warning...wouldn't she?

This beautiful river nook is where I have been taking my showers. Nothing cleanses quite like standing under a gushing waterfall of cold, clean Himalayan mountain spring water.

While I was enjoying myself reading, some music started playing from near the tree. It turns out some locals were filming a dance music video! These women move so elegantly.

Here is the henna I got after it had fully set.

So little happened today that I did not even take many pictures. We volunteers made a small bonfire, but even so, I felt tired pretty early, so after sitting there for a bit, I went to bed. A nice, relaxing day was over...

...Or so I thought! The sound of drums and jubilation woke me from my slumber around midnight. It sounded really close, but as I usually am when jarred from a restful sleep, I tried to just block it out and go back to sleep. But then I realized that Tihar is part of why I came to Nepal at this time. I roused myself and sleepily stumbled out to the porch to discover that the dancing had come right to us, in a surprise dance party! In these videos you can see the joy and laughter that comes with Tihar. I had to get myself into step and get down with some Nepali dance!

For at least an hour we all danced together. I learned that groups like this will go throughout the village all night long, waking people up to dance. That's right--all night long! Let's just say that by the time the carousing crowd left, I was glad I did not have that responsibility. Even after getting my heart pumping again, I managed to get back to sleep pretty easily.

October 27th - Dog Tihar

Today was the day I had been waiting for. I even got my own red tikka powder and some biscuits, and my host family provided me with some Mala necklaces to give to put around dogs' necks!

I started the day off with a good breakfast--(dal bhat 3 times a day can get old, so we get ingredients from Besisahar to cook our own food sometimes). I learned this English breakfast from the English volunteers: Baked beans and toast with eggs and cheese. It is one of my favorite breakfasts now and I'm sure I'll be making it when I get back home as well.

The first dog was hanging out nearby. I went and started him off, and then another volunteer came to give him puja as well. He was a happy boy!

I give the friendly fellow his tikka.

Here I give him a biscuit.

Ready to get on with the doggie blessings!

One lady got confused and gave the family's cow tikka today.

A little dal bhat left out at the front gate for any passing doggos.

While I sat under the tree, I snapped a photo of this passing fellow giving tikka to our nearest furry friend.

Such a good boy.

Next, we gave this little pupper his tikka, and a good bunch of snuggles as well.

Biscuit time!

Could this one get any cuter?

This little sweetheart followed me back to the homestay and hung out with me for a while, hoping to get some more biscuits. He was cuddled well.

After waiting a while for more dogs to come, I realized that I had lots of love to give and not enough dogs to give it to! I suppose with it being a small village, there wouldn't necessarily be a pupper parade. So I decided that if the dogs wouldn't come for puja, I would go around the village to bring the puja to the dogs. Another volunteer accompanied me on this adventure.

This poor baby was too scared to let me get close. No wonder she didn't have any mala or tikka already--nobody had been able to get close enough to give her puja.

This doggie was a bit scared at first, so I pacified him by offering a biscuit.

After getting his biscuit, he allowed me to apply the tikka.

Putting the mala on.

This part done, I decided to give another biscuit for good measure--and because he had been such a good boy.

Blessing complete!

Walking through this village, there are always beautiful sights to see.

My last little doggo of the day was perhaps the cutest one yet!

He looks calm and docile, but he definitely jumped up and gave me some kisses when he wasn't on camera!

The new things the sky does around here every single day never cease to amaze me.

Looks like the kitty had a relaxing day while I was away.

It appears that the family smeared some sacred cow dung on the floor... I soon realized that this was just a primer for the next stage of Tihar!

As the sun sank below the mountains, we began preparing some special Tihar circles called Rongoli as the host family lit candles. Tihar is Nepal's versionof India's Diwali. While Tihar is celebrated rather differently than Diwali, one thing they have in common is that it is the time known as the Festival of Lights. Lighting lanterns and candles invites Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance, into people's homes. It was truly an honor that the family allowed us volunteers to prepare the Rongoli. The special (and colorful) circles are made outside of everyone's house and business, all throughout Nepal and India.

We prepared two different circles, one outside of each threshold.

This is the completed Rongoli outside of Shamser's threshold.

This is the Rongoli I helped to make, situated outside of the threshold of Bimala's home.

This candle was lit outside of my room. Every room got a candle set outside of it. Perhaps a bit of a fire hazard, but I wasn't about to say anything against this ancient tradition.

I do a walkthrough of the house with all the candles in this video.

October 28th - Cow Tihar

Today I started the day by giving puja to the only baby cow in the village, who was conveniently located at our homestay. It also meant watching many villagers come through to give the same blessing.

The puja for the cow involved throwing flowers on it, putting mala on, adorning it in tikka, oil, milk, and other liquids. By the end of it all, the calf must have had at least ten mala on its neck. Needless to say the little creature was not very happy with the whole situation. Poor baby! I guess when you're the only baby cow in a rural village in Nepal on the Cow Day of Tihar, you have to deal with a lot.

The grandma cooked up some delciious sweet rhoti, whcih we all got to try a piece of.

Tonight all of us volunteers planned to make some momos--delicious dumplings based on a Tibetan recipe. We had gotten the ingredients from Besisahar, so now we had only to do the cooking--all from scratch.

The momo filling: cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic.

Home made momo dough.

Our special tomato-based momo sauce, with lots of onions and garlic!

We had enough ingredients to make about 300 momos. We started flattening dough and filling them up in a systematic manner. Once the first batch was ready to steam, we had our team keep folding momos while some steamed. Through this process we eventually just ended up cooking and eating at the same time, as we were all so hungry after slaving away over the raw ingredients.

Our Chilean volunteer made some Empanada-style momos.

I sure look good folding momos.

In the steamer and ready to cook!

Sauced up and ready to nom.

Tasty steamed momos were on the menu, but I knew that what we really needed were to fry some of these bad boys. I took the initiative and started frying some while the rest steamed. My past experience as a fry cook certainly helped.

With the leftover dough, we decided to make a chocolate and banana-filled dessert roll!

Eating the last batch of dinner momos while we prepared dessert momos filled with nutella and peanut butter.

Delicious dessert--momo style.

As if dessert momos wasn't enough, it was Charlotte's (one of the volunteers) birthday, so one of us made her a cake. This was also delicious.

Singing happy birthday.

What is a birthday celebration without some good beer?

Bimala came out to celebrate with us for a bit.

A lucky one of us got a moth resting on their leg. Some of the moths around here are more beautiful than some butterflies.

October 29th - Brother Tihar

The last day of Tihar is the biggest day for the locals (for me the biggest day was Dog Day). Today we all got to have colorful long tikka put on our foreheads. But of course, we had to start it off with the delicious dessert roll we had prepared. Not having access to an oven, the best method was to fry it. And of course the resident fry-cook, yours truly, was the one to do the honors.

I'd say it turned out beautifully.

Chocolatey-banana-y goodness. Yum!!

First, we watched the family do the tikka. Everyone gets tikka, but only the brothers get the puja offfering.

Brothers get a full plate of goodies as puja today. Lucky me that Bimala offered to play the role of my provisional sister!

Apparently this little one thought the flowers seemed tastier than the plate of snacks he got!

Here is me getting my tikka done by my Nepali sister, Bimala. The first step is being anointed in oil, brushed around the head in three clockwise circles.

Next, a rainbow of beautiful colors is applied to the forehead on a white canvas of some kind of milk.

The volunteer boys got to share our one puja plate. And boy, was it delicious!

I was practically shining with beauty at this point.

The dal bhat was partiularly yummy today.

A youthful group of dancers came by midday today. Of course, I joined them.

While I could have stayed in the village, I elected to go for a walk with the other volunteers to a nearby village. Perhaps, I thought, we would find some Tihar festivities happening over that way as well.

Around these parts, finding strange sigils and animal parts strewn about is actually a fairly common occurence.

Walking through the jungle farther up the mountain is really a beautful way to go. At this point I was already glad I went on this little adventure.

We soon came upon an amazing valley.

Below us sat a small hamlet.

The steady beat of drums told us that there was indeed more Tihar dancing happening around here.

We made our way down to check out what was going on here.

I did not record this moment, as I was too busy dancing, but in this first little village we found some friendly and welcoming people. Soon I realized that one of my fifth graders lives in this village! She was very happy to see me doing a Nepali dance with the locals. We stayed around for about 20 minutes before sallying forth to the next village.

As we made our way through this mystical mountain valley, I kept trying to remember when I had last walked through a wardrobe... because I really felt like we were in Narnia!

We finally came to another very remote village, marked by these colorful flags.

We were greeted by an amazing group of welcoming people. In this village they never get tourists or any foreigners for that matter, and they were so excited to have us join them. They gave us all snacks and tea, and added on some extra tikka. I learned that you get a new row of tikka on your forehead for every sister you have. In the case of us guests, we ended up with a row of tikka for this village, and a row of tikka for Gaunshahar. I played my Ocarina and danced with the locals here, and we sat and spent some good time with them.

This village's Rongoli.

I am not one to refuse free food and tea, as this picture clearly shows.

My second row of tikka had sparkly gold glitter! And I got a second mala as well.

The Norwegian volunteer, Selina, getting her tikka.

Each color of rice bread had a slightly different taste.

Richard from the US on the left, Mahdi from Netherlands on the right.

Some of the villagers here.

The village brought out their patriarch. At 85 years, they claim he is the oldest person in the whole Lamjung region.

As the sun drew low, it began to get a bit chilly. We were invited to stay, but we needed to head back, and the villagers warned us that the journey back to Gaunshahar can be dangerous after dark. So as we headed off, they bequeathed one of the daughters with the task of setting us in the right direction.

As we headed down the stairs, a group of kids enthusiastically followed us along, waving goodbye the whole time. It really felt like being in a movie.

We encountered another student on our way down. She was dressed in lovely traditional garb.

On our way down we ran into Pabrita, one of my students. Her and her group of friends helped set us off in the right direction.

The way back was so beautiful, I was disappointed it started to get so pitch black, as I would have loved to keep taking in the scenery. It is a long walk to Gaunshahar, and some of my students make that walk six days a week!

This scorpion is perhaps one of the most dangerous things I had encountered so far. Good thing none of us stepped on it. I did not want to get any closer to get a better photo.

Back in Gaunshahar, I was delightd to see the cascade of different lights that they had set this fountain up with. All the time I had been here, the fountain that sits next to the temple was dry, and yet on my last night here, it was on and lit up to greet me. Now I'll call that a good omen!

I was sad to say goodbye to Guanshahar, but also ready to move on. I still had plans to see other parts of Nepal, as well as make my journey south through India to get to my next Workaway. Tihar was truly a magical time, and I am glad I experienced it in the traditional and authentic way--in a rural village setting in the mountains of Nepal. I would be leaving this place, but it still and will forever stay in my heart.