No more space for bells

If you are heading to Baitadi to make a wish at its temples and offer a bell, then be warned that there is no space for you to put your bells! Well known for its many temples, pilgrims at the bigger and more popular temples of Baitadi are having problems because they don’t know where to place their bells which they bring as offerings to the deities.[break]

However, it is the priests of these temples who are in a bigger dilemma. “Because we ran out of space in the temple, we’ve started to pile bells in the storage,” says priest Bishnu Dutt Lekhak of Tripura Sundari Temple at Ward Dashrath Chand-8. “We can’t tell worshippers not to bring bells but we also don’t have a place to put them.”

Since it was built at the beginning of the 19th century, people have been placing bells as offerings at the Tripura Sundari Temple in hopes of having their wishes fulfilled. Even the trees surrounding the temple are covered with bells, and even the priests can’t really put a finger on the number of bells. “We get thousands of visitors each year. Some offer bells, some don’t; we can’t really tell,” says Lekhak.

On the day of Navaratri during Dashain, people from other districts in addition to locals come to the temple with bells, goats and buffaloes. Bells are also offered with daily prayers.

“There are at least some 500,000 bells,” Lekhak tries to estimate and adds, “There are rumors that many bells were stolen in the past.” Bells are still stolen today and the temple keeps no records. Apart from Navaratri, ceremonies are also held at the temple every full moon, new moon and on Sakranti.

There aren’t any villages in Baitadi that don’t have temples. Locals claim that some villages have two to three. Despite the high number of temples, people have still maintained the animistic tradition of worshipping nature (plants and bushes). Along the nearly 100-kilometer-long Dadheldhura-Baitadi road, there are more than a dozen of such nature “deities.”

Some of the other temples which are facing space problems like the Tripura Sundari Temple are Nigaulasain Temple of Dehimandau and Durga Temple of Tallisorath where the number of bells are rising year after year. All three temples are popular in and outside the district and have grand architectures.

While priests are worried, locals believe that these temples could become potential tourist attractions. Ganesh Thapa, who lives near the Tripura Sundari Temple, thinks that if the different kinds of bronze bells are arranged properly for viewing, they could increase the number of tourists.

Although it is illegal, the tradition of offering young virgin girls to the deities still occurs in this part of the country but the practice is not conducted as openly as before. The girls offered in the past in this manner are still cleaning the temples and living there as Devakis.