Nepali Culture

Introduction

Since there are 18 states west of Kaligandaki, 18 Magaratar means 12 states east of Kaligandaki, which means 12 Magarat. Bhume Parva is the largest and most important festival celebrated in the Kham region of 18 Magarat and 12 Magarat. This festival is celebrated from the middle of the month of Jeshta to the Sakranti of the month of Asar. Some people also call Bhume Puja as Bal Puja, but in most of the Kham areas, this Puja is called Bhume Puja.

Indigenous tribes in Sisne, Putha Uttarganga, and Bhume villages east of Rukum, especially the Kham Magar caste, celebrate Bal Puja with special significance, which makes the Magar as well as other castes happy. This festival has gained special significance in Hukam, Makot, Taksera, Kol, Rangsi, Kankri, Mahat, and Rukum West of Rukum East. This festival started on the 1st of May and ends on the 1st of Asar.

The original identity of the Magar community, Woke’s Bhume Nach, once a year for a month, showcases its own art, identity, and way of life. People who go out to celebrate Bhume Parva also come home at this time. This community gives more importance to Bhume Parva than Dashain Tihar.

The elders are worried that the preservation, promotion, and propagation of their culture are declining, saying that the concern and interest towards the original Sanskrit and traditions have been lost in the last generations.

Every day during this festival, the locals gather and dance together.

In the dance, women wear Gunni, Choli, Patuka, Gada, Pachyori, and old types of jewelry. The men wear chauvandi, pakhi patuka, feta, gada, dhaka hats, and dance with khukuri at the waist. According to the local Bhuman Gharti, if the land is not worshiped, the land deity will be angry and unhappy, crops will not be produced and floods and landslides will cause damage.

He said that Bhume Parva is important for preventing natural and divine disasters. Sheep are offered to the land deity in various ways. One day before the end of the Bhume festival, a flag and incense are burnt to the Panthi deity by going to a high lake.

In the same place, flowers are brought and the valley is decorated and a sacrificial offering is given. From June 1 to July 1, the Kham Magar people of Rukum East and Rukum West have a tradition of wearing original costumes and dancing to the beat of the baja.

Bhaginta Budha, president of the Langhali Sewa Samaj, said that people have been worshiping the land for centuries because of the belief that the deity would be happy after the worship of the land and then there would be no famine, no catastrophe on earth and happiness for all the people of the world.

Kham Magar has a settlement of about 300 households who have migrated from different parts of Rukum East, including Martyr’s Ground and Patukhola in Khalanga, the district headquarters of Rukum West. It is believed that all the crocodiles of this region will forget their sorrows and be happy when they have fun together.

Land worship is land worship. Bhume (land) worship is still called Bhume (land) worship in the village settlement. The planted crops should be good. , Bhairamathan, Maithan, Mandalithan, Astha are also associated with the word ‘temple’ as it is now.

How was Bhume Puja performed?

Our social rules were in place even then. This is the first fair to be celebrated collectively. Especially in Bhume Puja crops, do not get insects, do not get hail water. The land was worshiped so that the grain produced could be eaten. It had its own rules and is still in vogue. Worship is done according to their own customs. But the main thing is the uniqueness of worship. Since Nepali society is a society united in diversity, even if others do it in other ways, it is not separate worship, it is just a different rule of transfer, worship land.

What is Ban Barney?

Depending on the place of worship, it falls on Baisakh in some places, it falls on Jestha in some places and it also falls on Tuesday. It is said to burn the forest one month before the day of Bhume Puja. On that day, no one can go to the forest to cut firewood. The main meaning of this forest fire is to prepare for the land worship. On this day in the morning, Ghok (Katuwal shouting — shouting the collective / public message loudly so that everyone can hear it) is put on.

What is Ghok Halane / Aurasne?

Sitting on a high hill, the villagers spread the message of collective news so that everyone can hear it. Those who did this message received food from house to house. The act of shouting in this way was also called aurasne. Oras is the word for news, invitation, and message of any time.

What was called in Ghok ?

Today is the day for the villagers of Falana village to go to the forest for bhume puja. No one can say no. After hearing this, the villagers started making preparations for Bhume Puja. This jaundice is called chhang. Collective changs are prepared from house to house or by picking grain for land worship. Evidence that our ancestors used to have mass feasts even at that time is Bhume Puja. On the day of land worship, no one was plowing the land at that time. Weeding was also done on the previous day.

What would happen on the day of Bhume Puja?

Large trees were grown in Bhumethan. No one used to cut firewood for that tree. Women from all over the village used to sit on the big grass and pick the leaves. Rice was picked from house to house and cooked to reach all the villagers and guests. Plates, bowls and glasses were all taken from their own homes. In the morning, everyone would take firewood from house to house and start cooking rice. Bhume was worshiped by cutting goats and all the villagers used to cook meat and eat it with chhang and rice. At that time, goats used to be kept by the herdsmen outside the village for using the forest. Gradually, due to lack of forest and lack of food, the habit of living in a herd has disappeared. This is done by raising money in some places and in some places by selling the waterfall trees of the forest committee.

Bhume pooja remembered by mother

In the past, people used to take rice and meat from the house and eat it on a meat plate. And the rice was sifted in such a way as to reach the village by counting the number of people present there. Then goat meat and rice husks were distributed among the leaves.

Later, in the last period, the people of the villages, the people of Tol Tol, were called Neja. It could have been a different name and method for their respective villages. Someone would bring a red flag and sing a song. The song to be sung at this time is “Bhaich Silo Bhanne”

Song to be sung only 1 day of the year — Bhume Pooja song

“Why don’t you feed the cows and buffaloes, kill the goats?”

This song was sung only on this day. It was a kind of rebellion. At that time, cows and buffaloes were left unattended in the cowshed, and goats were kept in cages. For security reasons, goats were kept in cages as they were easily attacked by wild animals. Therefore, it is a symbolic song that women retroactively keep men in bondage instead of cows and buffaloes (why not damlo) in place of Fukuba and goats (themselves) in cages (within bondage). It took many years to understand the meaning of this song and many people had to ask. The tradition of floating tablecloths at fairs and festivals has been with us for hundreds of years now. Similar songs were sung from every tool and group who came carrying bhuja (flag) in Bhume Puja. These songs were composed at a time when daughters were being banned from singing and dancing. In our ancestral song, Kheli, Sorethi, dancing as a man or a woman is also a remnant of this ban. Mixing more and more of God’s name in songs like ancestral songs, Kheli, Sorethi was to inspire women to sing songs from home in the music even more than it is a religious transgression. Based on this, it is not too late to label the song of our antiquity as a song of transcendence. See also Nepali culture and civilization