Sixteen hundred years old "Bhoto Jatra"

Bhoto Jatra ( the traditional Bhoto display ceremony of Macchindranath).Bhoto means sleeveless vest and Jatra means festival. The BHOTO (a velvet vest embroidered with jewels) is shown to people thrice towards all the four directions from the chariot of Machhindranath itself on the last day of the four-day-long chariot-pulling procession of Rato Macchindranath and Meennath, at Jawalakhel . According to the Jatra rituals, the head of the state has to worship the deity .With the "bhoto display ceremony" ends the month-long Machhindranath festival and the idols then are taken back to their own places(Machhindranath to Bungmati and Minnath to Patan.) The chariots are then dismantled and stored for the next year to rebuild.

History :

It is believed that this Bhoto (vest ) was rewarded to a farmer by Karkot Naga(king of serpents) for curing the eye ailment of his Queen. But the farmer lost the Bhoto while working in his field. A year later when the farmer went to attend the Machhindranath festival at Jawalakhel, he saw the same giant wearing his vest. The farmer then started a fight with the giant.The Karkot Naga was also there . He then submitted the Bhoto to Machhindranath for safe keeping until someone claims it with evidence. Since then the BHOTO is displayed every year on the last day of the festival to assure that it is still safe and one might prove his ownership of the bhoto.

This luckily was my first experience of attending the Machhindranath festival that too from the very beginning as I come from a different city of Nepal .I was very excited to witness the one of the oldest and longest festival of Nepal. I captured all the pictures by my nokia n95. This post (end of the festival) is a continuance to my previous post on the Machhindranath (the beginning of the festival).

The chief of the Guthi displaying the BHOTO to the citizens

The chief priest of the Machhindranath festival

Thousands of devotees attending the Bhoto Jatra

The chariot has been pulled by the devotees to Jawalakhel ( the last stop )

"The chariot puller" .Many people together keep pulling these ropes to make the chariot keep moving .

The devotees worshiping the deity and offering small oil lamps(Deeyo/Batti)

The chariot has reached its final destination(Jawalakhel) and the thousands of devotees are impatient to worship the deity to get his blessings.

There was a nice arrangement for drinking water too for the festival attenders .It really was a hot day!!

Thousands of devotees had gathered in Jawalakhel to witness the historical event and to offer their prayers to the Machhindranath .

Special security was also provided around Jawalakhel to avoid any unwanted incident. The festival ended peacefully.

With much enthusiam and very peacefully ended the hundreds of years old ceremony in the evening .