Laxmi Puja : The day to worship Goddess of Prosperity

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Nov. 13 – Meena Aryal of Teku is busy buying a bunch of marigold garlands at a flower shop in Tripureswor in downtown Kathmandu. "I’m buying these flower garlands to hang on the doors and windows of my house to welcome Goddess Laxmi," says Meena.

Meena is one among tens of thousands of people who thronged to the city today to buy ingredients necessary for tomorrow’s Laxmi Puja, the special day to worship Goddess Laxmi who is the symbol of wealth and prosperity.

People decorate their houses, especially doors and windows, with marigold garlands and clean up their homes before they begin worshipping the Goddess in the evening. The flower garlands, combined with typical Nepali oil lamps and candles, can be seen in every house and shop throughout the Kingdom, as these are the ways to beautify the houses to welcome the Goddess.

"People will never have to face monetary problem if they manage to please Goddess Laxmi," says Arjun Prasad Rimal, a Brahmin priest. "The proper worshipping of Goddess Laxmi will bring prosperity and happiness in people’s lives."

People involved in the financial sector and businesses celebrate this occasion with more enthusiasm as this particular worshipping of the Goddess is related to money. This is why shops and other financial and business institutions are highly decorated with flowers, oil lamps, candles and even electric lights. Many people even paint their houses during this time.

People start celebrating Laxmi Puja in the evening and continue till late night as they believe Goddess Laxmi travel only at midnight. There is also a belief that the Goddess will enter those houses, which are clean and bright.

Many women members in a family take a fast for the whole day tomorrow to prepare for the puja in the evening, after which only they eat. Women in the family get-together the whole day tomorrow and prepare different types of typical Nepali sweets like Sel, Puri and Anarasa, among others. These are later offered to the Goddess during her worship.

One of the major attractions during the Tihar festival is the singing of Deusi and Bhailo. Deusi and Bhailo are sung only during this festival. People go around in groups to different houses to give blessings through these Deusi and Bhailo songs and house owners offer them different presents, including some cash. Though the number of people singing Deusi and Bhailo has gone down in the recent years, people in the villages have still maintained this age-old tradition.

For the first time, three different events of Tihar - Kukur Tihar (worship of dog), Gai Tihar (worship of cow) and Laxmi Puja – have fallen on the same day on Wednesday this year.

Photographer’s love for Himalayan Kingdom

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 13 - Japan-Nepal Photographic Exchange Society (JNPES) has finally made an appearance in the Nepali world of photography. They are now ready to present their first exhibition in town.

JNPES takes immense pride to present the photographs of world famous photographer Kenichi Komatu in Kathmandu and Pokhara. Kenichi is also the president of JNPES.

The photographs are finally ready to be presented after Kenichi’s immense hard work in the last 10 years of his regular visit to Nepal. The photographs will be displayed under the theme "The Gods of the Mountain Kingdom- Himalaya Mustang - Dolpa" and "Himalaya Nepal- Pilgrimage of the Old Temples."

Born in 1953, Kenichi graduated from the graduate course of Modern Photography Institute. He started his career working as a newspaper journalist and later transferred to a freelance photoj-ournalist in Japan. He has already published four books containing pictures taken in Nepal laying maximum emphasis on Mustang and Dolpa in the western region of Nepal.

Travelling widely from the remotest part of the world, Kenichi’s aim in life is to take pictures of people living in the hidden geographical and difficult climatic conditions around the world. "Nepal has intrigued me highly. The rich cultures and the importance of the values of lives that the Japanese used to possess 50 years back is no longer available in Japan. Nepal still has that richness and values," he said.

"Nepal has immense amount of energy suppressed. I have captured a lot of Nepalese beauty in my photographs and won great appreciation and admiration regarding the country’s hidden beauty from lots of people," he said. "The Nepali people’s belief towards God is the most beautiful thing I find here which is not available anywhere else."

"I want to spend the last days of my life in Mustang. I want to be buried here," he said expressing his attachments to the Himalayan Kingdom.

Commenting on the Nepalese Photographers and their works, Kenichi said, "Nepal still has its dark phase on as far as photography is concerned. They still have a long way to go", he said. "Including feelings and message in your photograph is very important and that is what makes a perfect picture, "he added.

Kenichi’s works will be on display in an exhibition to be held in Nepal Art Council Gallery, Babarmahal from November 22 to December 7.

Locals yet to reap benefits from KCAP

By Dharma Prasad Poudel

LELEP (Taplejung), Nov 13 - While people are preparing for organising the Kanchanjangha Fair in the district headquarters of Phungling of this north-eastern hill district, stakeholders of the Kanchanjangha Conservation Area Programme (KCAP) say that they are yet to reap benefits from the conservation efforts.

The people of five remote northern Village Development Committees have not fully understood how the conservation efforts initiated some four years ago would benefit them.

The Kanchanjangha conservation area occupies a total of 20,000 square kilometres of area of Nepal, India and China and it is also known as a tri-national reserve. This area which falls on the foot hills of Mount Kanchanjangha (8,586 m), the third highest peak in the world, is being developed as a tri-national friendly reserve with a view to protecting the bio-diversity of the region as well as improving living condition of the local communities.

But the people in the Nepali side complain that the wildlife such as deer and bear destroy their crops made and they cannot chase them away from their farmland.

Management Committee chairman of Saraswoti high school, Kunga Sherpa, said that population of the wildlife had increased after the KCAP started protecting the tri-national area. Sherpa says that the project does not compensate the locals for the damages of their crops by the wild animals.

The stakeholders said that in the beginning the KCAP authorities did not educate them well about the far-reaching impact of the conservation efforts. Lelep VDC chairman Gyapu Bhotiya says the authorities only taught them disciplinary lessons instead of educating them about the benefits they would reap from the programme in the long run.

But we have now realised what sort of benefits the KCAP can provide to us in the days ahead," says Bhotiya.

The KCAP has envisaged to improve the living condition of around 7,000 population of Olangchunggola, Yangden, Tapethok and Lelep VDCs by conserving the bio-diversity of the protected area. For this, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have jointly launched various integrated conservation and development programmes in the area with active participation of the local communities. The KCAP authorities said that they had already identified 14 different areas of community development schemes which would be executed with the community participation.

The Kanchanjangha conservation area is home to rare wild animals such as snow leopard, musk deer, Himalayan black bear, wild cat, blue sheep and dozens of rare birds like pheasant and eagle. The villagers, however, complained that in spite of the KCAP’s strong vigilance, poachers still land on the hill top of Cherem hill by helicopter in the name of rescuing the stranded tourists.

Some of the locals said that their sources of income suddenly declined and price of daily commodities soared when the KCAP was introduced. Nreepu Sherpa added that his Rs. 70,000 investment on a Nepali paper industry was at great risk as the KCAP authorities have banned to operate it until the next arrangement. He said 20 people were laid off due to the ban on the paper industry. The raw material for the paper industry is extracted from a special plant which is available in the conservation area.

Despite the local displeasure, KCAP’s community motivator Lakpa Sherpa has a different
story to tell. She said that local women have formed their Mothers’ Group and have started saving money on their accounts. Besides, the members of the group have focused their attention on sanitation, she added.

KCAP officials claimed that inflow of the tourists has increased as compared prior to the KCAP started conservation efforts in the Kanchanjangha region. According to the statistics made available by the KCAP, more than 2,300 foreigners visited the area last year.

Dwindling pasture land affects Kimathanka farmers

Post Report

KIMATHANKA (Sankhuwasabha), Nov 13 - People engaged in livestock farming in this remote mountainous village are facing difficulty due to inadequacy of pasture land in their surrounding area. This shortage of pasture land has consequently forced them to depend on Tibetan land for their livestock.

The tradition of taking cattle into Tibetan plateau during the summer season has been a part of annual routine for the people of this hill district. The grazing land in the Himalayan area can sustain only for four months period during the winter .

Despite the age-old practice the Tibetans are constantly harassing the Himali sheapards and have asked them to depend on the grazing land in Nepal itself, although they have been paying ghee as a token of tax for grazing opportunity.

According to Tshiring Bhote, VDC Chairman of Kimathanka, the Nepalese farmers have to pay a tax of 2.5 kg of ghee per month per yak to the Tibetan authorities at Lugdke when allowed to graze. However the local administration does not hand over any receipt upon receiving the tax.

"It's our compulsion to please the Tibetans for the sake of pasture land", said Bhote. "Since we pay ghee as a tax, there is no reason to harass us ", adds Bhote.

Finding pasture land during the summer season is turned out to be a common problem for the mountainous people involved in livestock keeping in Mustang, Bajhang, Sindhupalchowk, Darchula, and other Himalayan districts. The problem intensifies during the summer season when cattle finish up grazing the grass land in the Himalayan area and Tibetans deny allowing grazing in their land.

Local People of Kimathanka say that agreement should have been made demarking the boarder between the two countries . "If the traditional practices were acknowledged then the problem would not have evolved", locals said.

Apart from this, the locals say that unfriendly activities of the Tibetans towards the Nepali shepherds has escalated in recent days as District Security Committee decided to remove the Boarder Police Post citing security reasons." We had informed the concerned authorities about the Tibetans activities but all in vain", said Krishan Khanal, Secretary at Kimathanka VDC.

The major portion of the income of these people comes from selling by-products of yak and its milk products in neighbouring Tibet. They procure rice, salt and other commodities like clothes in return. The locals say that government should exert diplomatic move to protect the age-old tradition.