In 2035 BS (1978/’79), among the dissatisfied members of the community, five Subbas – Rup Singh Nembang, Faudarup Nembang, Dhan Prasad Nembang, Narad Nembang, and Dalaman Nembang – of Imbung in Pachathar District decided to boycott the Dashain festival as a protest to the government’s decision to strip them of their right of absolute control over the tenure of land, granted by the Kipat System.
“Boycotting the Dashain celebrations, which wasn’t the Limbu community’s original festival but was forcibly imposed upon them by the then rulers two centuries ago, was a symbolic protest against the kings,” informed Bir Nembang, who himself had encouraged the five Subbas for the protest against the state.[break]
Emulating the protest initiated by the Subbas, other members of the local community also started to eschew observing Dashain.
Bir Nembang, who had devoted to the-self study of the language, history and culture of Limbu community at that time, started to advocate that the Dashain was not his community’s original festival; therefore, it should be shunned.
“I was not communal. But I landed up in prison just because I wanted to establish a school for the study of Limbu language to enhance the local culture and festivals,” Bir Nembang said. “The incident further encouraged me to delve into the study of my mother tongue, culture and the history of my community.”
After the dawn of the multiparty system in Nepal in the aftermath the 1990 People’s Movement, leaders such as Gore Bahadur Khapangi and Gopal Gurung from indigenous communities came down harshly against Dashain celebration as they started Dashain boycotting campaign itself.
The rapid development of the information technologies, educational awareness, mixed up societies, and migrations among others have helped the festivals to cross the communal boundaries, subsuming varieties of varsities of societies. Now Chhat festival is not limited with the Madhesi community while Teej festival is observed not only by Hindu women with hill origin and the tradition of savoring of Kwati, a curried sprouted bean soup, does not remain with the Newar community.
Nevertheless, indigenous nationalities in the country are gradually giving up the celebration of Dashain by stating that the festival is the greatest one only for the Hindu community.
According to the organizations of indigenous people, only half of the indigenous nationalities in the country observe Dashain festival. The indigenous nationalities are gradually giving up the tradition of receiving Tika, a mixture of rice, yogurt and vermilion, as the main ritual related with Dashain.
“In the wake of the movements of the separate communal identities, different indigenous nationalities started to give primacy for their original rites and rituals, feasts and festivals,” Uttam Singh Thangden, Chairman of Kirata Yakthung Chumlung, informed.
Nagendra Kumal, Chairman of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) was also of the opinion that the Dashain falls in the least priority for the native communities as they have started promoting their own original festivals.
“We are not against Dashain festival. But it has lost its primacy among the indigenous communities over the years for it is not our traditional festival,” Kumal added.
The mushrooming of the organizations of the indigenous peoples in the aftermath of the reestablishment of the multiparty system in Nepal encouraged the native communities to emphasizing the primacy of their traditional festivals over imported ones.
Organizations including the Rastriya Jana Mukti Party (RJMP) and Mangol national organizations had launched Dashain boycott campaign two decade ago. “Our policy was not boycotting the Dashain, but we started to encourage our people to observe only our own festivals,” said RJMP’s State Committee Secretary Lok Angla. “Meanwhile, the indigenous communities were caught by the wave of conversion to Christianity, to whom Dashain means nothing,” he added.
According to historian Mohan Sing Thebe, an administrative system had been established at the local level to impose Dashain on the indigenous community since Prithivi Narayran Shah’s regime itself. However, the Limbu community in eastern hilly region started observing Dashain only in 1842 BS.
“At that time, the Subbas in Pachthar District had gone to meet the king in Kathmandu after people started to revolt against the forcibly imposed festivals. The king handed them weapons like shields, guns and other ammunition and ordered them to start the tradition to establish an altar called ‘Maulo’ on the eve of the Dashain festival, and offer sacrifice of the livestock to it. After the Subbas returned to the village with the royal order, Dashain was observed for the first time by the community,” Thebe informed.
According to Thebe, at the beginning, a male goat was used to be sacrificed to the Maulo. However, later, King Rajendra Bikram Shah also permitted to sacrifice male buffalo to the altar at the time of Dashain in 1862 BS. After the king was requested that not all the Subbas could afford male buffalo to sacrifice, he issued another diktat in 1891 BS saying that only those capable of affording it would sacrifice, if not there would be not compulsion for male buffalo sacrifice to the altar during Dashain. Dashain also provided the people as an occasion to meet relatives and visit in-laws, and visit the maternal sides.
Thebe further informed that Prime Minister Janga Bahadur Rana made amendment by introducing stringent rules to impose on Dashain festival even more rigorously. The king would send police in civvies to learn if the indigenous people really observed Dashain as per the diktat. People are ordered to place hand marks of the flesh blood of the sacrificed animal at the main gate of their houses as evidence that they conducted Durga pooja duly.
In 1942 BS, the then regime had executed Ramlihang Aathpahariya and Ridama Aathpahariya of Dhankuta on the charge of flouting the royal decree by not observing Dashain festival. But the Aathpahariya community never toed the line forcibly laid down by the then rulers to observe Dashain. They never observed it.
Amali, Rai, Jimidar, Talukdar, Mukhiya and Subbas used to work as local administrative authority. Local people used to receive blessings from them. Dashain would also work as the occasion to renew the local administrative unit at that time. Despite shunning Tika tradition in Dashain, the native community members have been using the Dashain vacation as an opportunity to visit their relatives and to recreate themselves with fanfare.
“The government has prioritized Dashain. Employees receive the extra allowance for the celebration. Dashain vacation is also quite long comparatively and all administrative works come to a halt during the time. So, even those people who do not observe the festival are forced to kill time in eating and paying visits to the relatives,” NEFIN Chair Kumal said, underscoring the need to decrease the number of holidays allotted for Dashain festival.
Nevertheless, indigenous people observe Tihar festival with great enthusiasm. The trends of furnishing and embellishing houses in the Tihar festival have increased among the native community. The native festivals also started to exhibit a huge show at present.
Sociologist Chaitanya Mishra opines that it is usual for any community to give primacy to their tradition and oppose alien tradition. “But the transitions and cultures of the different communities are beginning to get mixed up. Such internal conflicts would gradually cease to exit as our society has embarked on the journey toward multiculturalism,” Mishra added.
White Tika
In opposition to the Red Tika being used by the Hindu community in Dashain, the Kirat community uses white Tika (only rice and yoghurt without red vermilion). But in the mixed up society, Kiratis also uses red tika. There are many legends behind using the white Tika by the indigenous community.
“Our ancestors used to use white color on any auspicious occasions. So the tradition of white Tika continued,” said Thangden, Chair of Kirata Yakthung Chumlung. “Red is the color of victory and the indigenous nationalities do not take the Dashain as victory. Rather they take white as the national color.”
According to Yam Prasad Limbu, though their ancestors shunned sacrificing animals and started offering fruits and flowers to the gods with the use of white Tika, red, the color of blood, has encroached. Some even express the logic that Dashain was the victory of the Aryas over non-Aryans; so observing Dashain is like conceding defeat.
Related story
Videos to Document Kirat Rai Culture
