Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Indra jatra

Indra Jatra is an extremely important festival for Bhuddists in Nepal and it is celebrated in September. This festival has a number of key elements; one is to celebrate Indra and his mother Dagini, the second element is to pay homage to those who have died in the last year and the third key element is to mark the end of the monsoon period and the transition into more comfortable weather.

Indra Jatra is believed to have been the ancient god of rain.  The basis of this festival is based on a story told in Nepal regarding Indra Jatra's capture as a child when he was out picking a particular flower for his mother who wanted the flower to use in the celebration of another festival.  Unfortunately, during the act of picking the flower, Indra Jatra was caught, accused of stealing the flower and imprisoned.
  It was thereby necessary for his mother to petition Indra Jatra's captors for his release. The story told in Nepal tells that the captors were very happy to release Indra Jatra once his mother had revealed his identity as the ancient god of rain. As a gesture of gratitude for Indra Jatra's release, Dagini committed to water the crops every day for the next few months.  She also committed to take anybody who had died during the past year to heaven.

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