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Ghanto Jatra: Gurung Tribal Festival in Nepal
| Article
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20477 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1992 |
4,456 Words |
| Author
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Jon Burbank
Jon Burbank is a free-lance photojournalist living in Japan. |
It could have been a full moon in May one or two hundred years ago--rather than this one tonight. The entire Gurung tribal village of Yangjakot in central Nepal danced and sang around a massive tree. People laid hands on each other's foreheads, murmured blessings, and exchanged twine necklaces. Teenagers showered each other with handfuls of crimson powder, a fixture at any Gurung celebration. Miles from the nearest electricity, the silvery moon provided all the light needed.
After a while everyone walked uphill to the village for a night of feasting and celebrating. All were tired from three days of singing and dancing to retell the epic story of the king and queen--their life of glory, live, tragic death, and return to heaven until next year.
All over central Nepal, ridges are crowned with Gurung villages, and up to a generation ago each held this Ghanto Jatra festival. The Gurungs, one of Nepal's main tribal groups, consider the three-day celebration the main festival of their traditional calendar.
Yet today it has almost disappeared, lost in the rush of change sweeping the Gurung culture. Yangjakot, just a few miles northeast of Pokhara, is now one of the last places Ghanto Jatra is celebrated, and it is difficult to say how much longer the festival will last.
Ghanto Jatra involves the entire community, and its fading is ominous for the health of Gurung communities and culture in general. Through the efforts of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), though, there is reason to hope that Ghanto Jatra will be enjoyed for generations to come.
Where Hindus and Buddhists meet
Ghanto Jatra is an example of the tolerant, overlapping relationship Nepal's diverse cultural groups maintain. The Buddhist Gurungs from north of the Himalayan range see nothing strange or unusual about the subject of their epic story being a Hindu Rajput king and his wife from the south.
The epic is, like most, a mix of history and myth. A handsome king wins the hand of a beautiful princess. They wed and have a life of domestic bliss and high adventure until the king is called to war. After exhibiting divine valor, he is killed. His heartbroken wife decides to follow Hindu tradition and commit sati,
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