Monday, July 28, 2008

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).
rato machindranatThe chief of the Guthi displaying the BHOTO to the citizens
culture and festivalsThe chief priest of the Machhindranath festival
historyThousands of devotees attending the Bhoto Jatra
people in n95The chariot has been pulled by the devotees to Jawalakhel ( the last stop )
lifestyle"The chariot puller" .Many people together keep pulling these ropes to make the chariot keep moving .

JawalakhelThe devotees worshiping the deity and offering small oil lamps(Deeyo/Batti)
bhoto jatraThe chariot has reached its final destination(Jawalakhel) and the thousands of devotees are impatient to worship the deity to get his blessings.

n95 picturesThere was a nice arrangement for drinking water too for the festival attenders .It really was a hot day!!
culture
Meennath
people in n95Thousands of devotees had gathered in Jawalakhel to witness the historical event and to offer their prayers to the Machhindranath .
nepal festivals
JatraSpecial security was also provided around Jawalakhel to avoid any unwanted incident. The festival ended peacefully.
Nepali culture
mobile photographyWith much enthusiam and very peacefully ended the hundreds of years old ceremony in the evening .

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! nice pictures!
You know, when I look at these images, it's like being in a different place really.. your place is totally unlike ours!

Liam said...

There are a great many wonderful pictures in this post; they really capture the festive atmosphere. I particularly like the images of small candles, and the one of rope; it has a nice abstract quality.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Very nice pictures. I didn't know anything about the festival at all so it was really interesting to read about. (even if I'm still not entirely sure what it's about, haha)

Nice job!

Unknown said...

Hello,

It's amazing to think that such beautiful images are done with a phone :)
Even the images taken in low light (boys with candels) looks very nice.

I think that camera makers will have to be very innovative and performant in the next years if they don't want to loose too much sales due to the capabilities of such phone cameras ...

And of course i don't forget that if you publish here some good reportages it's not only due to the camera :)

Mike said...

Very cool post!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Great pictures and with a phone too, I am amazed. This was really interesting and the pictures added allot. Thank you for sharing this.

Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby

Bikran said...

@mantiz : thank you for the comment . though india and nepal have many things in common it still looks so different , isnt it?

@ liam : thank you for the comment . the image of those candle are my favourite too . I just loved taking those pictures . thanks again .

@ corey freeman : haha yeah we have so many festivals and legends sometimes we too do not know why it is celebrated .but still we keep going lol. thank you for the comment
btw the first part of this festival is in my older posts u can have a look at them .

@ patrik : thank you patrick for your words . yeah its really amazing that n95 mobile camera works perfect . even i was amazed at the beginning .and along with the photos i always try to give a little hint so that one can understand what is it about .thank you again for the wonderful words .

@ milke : thank you . i m glad u liked them .

@ angelbaby : ain't that amazing photos with a phone . i just love this phone . thank you for dropping by angel .

Michael said...

I was just going to say, interesting photos. Then your comment makes me quote my good friends signature:
"You gotta love my Nokia n95 8G, I do!"

Cheers,