Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Happy New Year: 1127

Niraj Aryal

It happened some one thousand one hundred years back, drought in Kathmandu and the starvation thereafter saw people dying due to hunger. Then the emergence of Shanka Dhar Sakwa, an elderly citizen from the valley who belonged to the Newar Community saved people in the valley from starving to death. According to ancient texts, Shaka Dhar Sakwa who had prayed to the god was later directed to collect sand from the Bagmati River that turned into gold as instructed by the deity. The sand turned gold was thus used to feed people and also to bring prosperity back into the valley. The Newar community living in Kathmandu and those migrated throughout the country celebrate this occasion every year as Nepal Sambat (or Nepal Calendar). The community also claims that this calendar being locally formed one should be given official status rather than the present one the Bikram Sambat, which was brought from India. The demand seems logical one but the question that comes directly into the mind is the present popularity of the proposed calendar throughout the nation. Some intellectuals belonging to the same community also claim that even in the recent past the popularity of this calendar was well restricted within Bashantapur area in Kathmandu, whereas people living in Bhaktapur or Lalitpur do not had idea of its very existence.

This week the Newar community in the valley celebrated 1127 Nepal Sambat remembering the heroic deeds exhibited by Shankhar Dhar Sakwa. People belonging to the community this year took part in an hour long procession as every year in the Newar strong hold in the capital as well as other parts of the country wearing colorful tradition dresses, singing songs, playing traditional musical instruments and also drinking locally made wine while riding imported motor bikes. This Newari culture has represented the whole of the Nepali culture that is known all over the world, someone who perhaps do not belong to the community while witnessing the procession commented.

The leaders of various civil societies representing the Newar Community led the procession chanting slogans demanding equal rights, recognition of Newari language as official one as well as demanded inclusion of the Nepal Sambat as official New Year in the country.

Unfortunately, for the leaders belonging to this community, as others belonging to various communities living in Nepal, celebrating this occasion has remained as a tool to divide the already divided Nepali populace in the name of language, ethnicity and others that in contrary could have been a boon for the whole of the Nepali nationalism.

In the end, for the leaders who claim to advocate for the national recognition of Newari language, preventing playing Hindi songs in the procession while promoting their own traditional songs could have justified their effort to protect their rapidly vanishing newari language.

Happy New Year:1127