Photographers: Ashish Parajuli, Balkrishna Lachhimasyu, Bidha Rimal, Dhilung Kirat, Keshav Basnet, Nammy Kirat, Manish Shakya, Rina Maharjan, Sangharsha Bhattarai and Shamesh Joshi
Date: 2008/10/26 – 2008/10/30
Caption: VishnuK/DhilungK
Report: Saurav Dhungana
Creative Support: DijupT/PallaviS/RinaM/DhilungK/
Coming right after the great Festival of Dashain, Tihar (तिहार /tihAr/ ) (Deepawali or Diwali) is a festival celebrated with much enthusiasm throughout the country. Most famously known as the festival of lights it is perhaps one of the most colorful festivals of all. It is celebrated from Trayodashi of Kartik Krishna to Katrik Shukla Dwitiya every year (Oct 26th to Oct 30th this year). The five day festival known as Yama Panchak (यम पञ्चक /yama panchak/) is considered to be of great importance as it shows reverence to not just the humans and the Gods, but also to the animals like the crow, cow and dog, who maintain a close relationship with the humans.
First Day
Tihar and Crows – Here comes Tihar to teach you a lesson! Early in the morning of the first day of Tihar, family prepares a good meal. Each member of the family takes the first portion of the meal outside on a platter. The crows come down in large numbers and partake of the feast, they will call others before beginning to eat : Share, Share what you have with all! Crows ( काग /kag/ in Nepali) are considered as the messenger of the Lord of Death, Yama. There is a popular Nepali superstition of crows too: When the crows caw, sadness is coming.) On this day crows are worshiped and are kept happy. Where there are no crows, any winged animal of the heavens (bird) will enjoy the feast. So Tihar is also about appreciating animals around us.
Second Day
Tihar and Dogs – On the second day of Tihar, Dogs (कुक्कुर /kukur/ in Nepali) are adorned with flower garland around their necks, red tika on their forehead, and are offered great meals, they are the king of the day! On this day, people pray to the Kukur to guard their homes. There are lots of Kukur running around in search of a loving home. You can find them on streets and in your backyards, but on this day, even the most unsightly Kukkur will be treated like a king – every dog has its day!.Tihar is also about breaking the boundaries that humans have created, “The Good”, “The Bad”, “The Ugly”… In Hinduism it is believed that Kukur guard’s the underworld empire just like it guards our everyday homes!. Tihar is about loving Kukurs too!
Third Day
Tihar and Cows – The 3rd day of Tihar is about worshiping the mother of the universe – cow (गाई /gAi/ in Nepali). According to Hinduism, the human infant is fed breast milk by its human mother for under three years. After weaning, the cow acts as the surrogate mother providing milk for the rest of the human life – through childhood, adult age and old age. Cows are the mothers of the universe, the sacred animal. The gaai puja is performed by giving a tika to a cow on her forehead, and a flower garland (Flower Leis) on the neck, and offering good meals. Those performing gaai puja place her manure in different parts of the home, drink a drop or two of the cow’s urine, as a part of a purification process. Also dip a blade of grass into the urine and lightly sprinkle it on each other’s body to become closer to the mother of the universe – the cow.
Tihar and Laxmi Puja – One of the most important days of the festival is Laxmi Puja (लक्ष्मी पूजा /laxmi pujA/ ). On this day the Goddess of wealth (Laxmi) is worshiped in every household in the entire country by means of Puja, decoration, candle lights, and oil lamps. In this 3rd day of the Tihar Festival, the entire nation becomes an illumination of lights. Pictures and icons of Laxmi Devi ( Goddess) are placed and worshiped in a Puja room (or a place in a living room or a dedicated room for worshiping Gods) Puja is performed using flowers, incense, oil lamps, color-powders, bell and money (both notes and coins). Laxmi puja is performed at dusk using red mud, and puja is often done by a female in the family. She uses her hand covered with red mud to make a symbolic foot-print on the floor entering the home and makes a trail leading to the Puja room. Since Laxmi likes cleanliness, on this day every house/street is made spotlessly clean.The eve of Laxmi Puja Day is made spectacular not only by lights but also by echos of a special song known as Bhailo (भाइलो /bhailo/) that’s played only on this day in the entire year! A group of girls known as Bhailini (भइलेनी /bhaileni/) get together and sing Bhailo door to door, giving blessings to the family in return for money or homemade treats.
Fourth Day
Tihar and New Year- On the fourth day of Tihar, there are three different known pujas. Most perform Goru Puja, or Worship of Oxen. People who follow Krishna perform Gobardhan Puja (गोभर्धन पूजा /govardAn pujA/) , worshiping Cowdung symbolizing the Gobardhan Parbat (गोभर्धन पर्वत /govarDan parbat/). The Newar community on the night of this day perform Mah Puja (म्हः पूजा /mHa pujA/) , or Worship of Self. Because this period is also the beginning of Nepal Sambat (नेपाल संवत /NepAl Sambat/), or the new year of Nepalese especially commemorated by Newars, it ensures prosperity for the new year.
Tihar and Songs : Dheusi Songs – Male members sing what is called Dheusi or Dheusiray ( द्यौसीरे /dHeuSire/). You can write just about any Dheusi song as long as each line ends with the word `Dheusi !’ or `Dheosiray !’. A group of males get together, carry what-ever musical instruments they have or can play, and sing Dheusi door to door blessing the home and family in return for money and/or refreshments.
Fifth Day
Tihar and Tika – On the final day also known as Bhai Tika (भाइ टिका /bhAi tikA/ ) Day, sisters give tika ( टिका /tika/ – a colored powder placed on once’s forehead) consisting seven colours, and maala ( माला /mALA/ – a necklace of flowers or also known as flower leis, similar to that’s used elsewhere like in Hawaii!) to brothers along with wishes for long life and prosperity. To sisters, Tihar is also the time to re-call their continued love for their brothers. After tika sisters give their brothers a variety of foods, sweets, fruits and clothes to please them and brothers in return give dakshinas (दक्षिणा – /dakshinA/ money given as blessing).
This great festival then concludes after these five days of merrymaking and celebration. What is remarkable is each day carries it’s own significance and truly encompasses every aspect of our culture and religion.
EverestUncensored would like to thank all the photographers for their valuable contribution to this featured series.[piclens-lite-link] Please click on the image to see its large version.
 |
| 01 Season of Celebration |
|
 |
| 02 In respect to the oil lamp |
|
 |
| 03 Dog of the Day |
|
 |
| 04 Wishing a Happy New Year 1129 Nepal Sambat |
|
 |
| 05 Fishing goddess of wealth |
|
 |
| 06 Glowing Bashantapur |
|
 |
| 07 Street art celebration |
|
 |
| 08 Light me up |
|
 |
| 09 Mandala |
|
 |
| 10 Thanka shops at Basantapur |
|
 |
| 11 Swayambhu turned golden on the eve of Laxmi Puja |
|
 |
| 12 Light rally in the valley |
|
 |
| 13 The Big BANG… |
|
 |
| 14 and here borns the Pyrotechnical Milky way |
|
 |
| 15 The firing Canons… |
|
 |
| 16 …and the victim |
|
 |
| 17 Baneshwor |
|
 |
| 18 Brightening Bajra |
|
 |
| 19 Cracking Kalopul |
|
 |
| 20 Once in a year here you go dear |
|
 |
| 21 Dhime and Dhunya |
|
 |
| 22 Standing Tall |
|
 |
| 23 Lalupate |
|
 |
| 23 Waiting to be plucked |
|
 |
| 24 Newa People on the rally |
|
 |
| 25 The Symphony of Tihar |
|
 |
| 26 Made for kids |
|
 |
| 27 Guess what is he buying |
|
 |
| 28 Nutty buddies |
|
 |
| 28 Please choose your favorite color |
|
 |
| 29 Busy Bashantapur |
|
 |
| 30 Twin Pagoda in romantic mode |
|
 |
| 31 Nepal Sambat flying high |
|
 |
| 32 Festive Harvest |
|
 |
| 35 Dhime |
|
 |
| 36 Mah Puja – Ready to celebrate life |
|
 |
| 37 Shankhadhar Sakkhwa here we come |
|
 |
| 38 1129 NS |
|
 |
| 39 Tihar in perspective |
|
 |
| 40 Zoom in |
|
 |
| 41 Flutist Fairies |
|
 |
| 42 Happy New Year 1129 |
|
 |
| 43 Tihar Celebration |
|
 |
| 44 Let there be light |
|
 |
| 45 Smoke in the light |
|
 |
| 46 Little Bipasha |
|
 |
| 47 Shawan ko bhel bani timi aauna… |
|
 |
| 48 Fireworks do not listen to the Home Minister |
|
 |
| 49 The handmade flames |
|
 |
| 50 The handmade flames 2 |
|
 |
| 51 The rally continues |
|
 |
| 52 The shooters through a wide angle |
|
|
[piclens-lite-link]
Posted on
November 5th, 2008 by
Administrator
Loading ...
November 5th, 2008 at 7:22 am
[...] On this day the Goddess of wealth (Laxmi) is worshiped in every household in the entire country by means of Puja, decoration, candle lights, and oil lamps. In this 3rd day of the Tihar Festival, the entire nation becomes an illumination … Read more [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Great Work,all ya!
November 5th, 2008 at 7:59 am
marvellous, Superb, extraordinary, incredible
November 5th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Beautiful pictures with very nice description of our great festival!!!
Thanks for great effort
November 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am
gr8 pics..
its really wonderful to see beautful nepal during the festival of lights.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:01 am
@Snap 15:
That’s uncle’s best pose..squat and take snap
Squat and Snap…
November 5th, 2008 at 10:45 am
November 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
wow…………pic 12…no words …..
November 5th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Great pictures… The festival of lights has been beautifully captured…
Keep clicking!
November 5th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Great pictures. Well Captured.
Thanks Guys.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
The extra mile was worth it!!!Well captured, Beautiful pictures.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
What a marvelous shots. These are the snaps, I have ever seen before on EU.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I think in the pic 03, the caption is typed mistake.
I think it should have been Day of the Dog and not Dog of the Day.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Awesome……..
November 5th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
pic 40 zoom in: I’m really excited how do people take this kind of shots,
like in “MATRIX”
Whoever is the photographer of that pic could u please let us know how to capture it.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Hi,
Its really great to feel our tradition and cultural. So guys plz keep on be a part of it in order to save to strengthen the gift of culture from our ansester’s.
May god bless u all on this occasion..
Be Happy
November 6th, 2008 at 12:13 am
32 Festive Harvest – lovely colore tone
)
40 – very good experiment. been longing to experiment with such shots (i seriously need a sturdy tripod…
47 – Nice portrait
nice pictures overall…thanks to all the photographers… all canons blazing…
November 6th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Abi you let your canon be in the shade and we missing the hit it off at its best!
November 6th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Thank you all for admiring our pictures. I would also like to thank the TEAM who has put huge effort to make this beautiful post happens. Thank you. Let me share how I took the Picture no: 40.
‘Zoom effect’ is a great technique to show motion or to create wow effect in photographs. There are different ways to achieve this zoom effect in picture.
For this technique to work best, you obviously need a zoom lens and good tripod. In my case I have used 28-200mm lens and mounted my camera on a tripod. Then composed my picture and focus a house which was decorated with colorful electric lights at exact center of the frame. Then I set the shutter speed at bulb setting so that I can expose my picture as long as I prefer to. I moved the zoom lens from a longer focal length to a shorter focal length while I kept the shutter open. One more tricky thing I did while zooming the lens, is I have also rotated focusing ring to get bubble effect in lines of those colorful electric lights. I have exposed this picture about 20 seconds.
I am learning more this technique and obviously I didn’t get this effect at one click. I have tried several shots to find out the best zoom speed and the range of focal length.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:22 am
A wonderful collection of pictures that has captured festive moods and moments perfectly well. These beautiful pictures are proofs to tell how well photography is flourishing here in EU. My both thumbs up! To all emerging Shutterbugs. Honestly speaking, each new feature post of EU comes with lots of quality pictures and make my job tough to rate. Well I am happy and very excited.
Okay here’s Shutterbug’s Pictures Rating.
Perfect Shot: ‘ 41 Flutist Fairies’ & ’37 Shankhadhar Sakkhwa here we come’
Well Capture Shot: ’44 Let there be light’ & ’48 Fireworks do not listen to the Home Minister’
Creative Shot: ’32 Festive Harvest’ & ’40 Zoom in’
Well composed shot: ’41 Flutist Fairies’ & ’01 Season of Celebration’
Prize Winning Shot: ‘ 41 Flutist Fairies’
Happy clicking !
November 6th, 2008 at 3:33 am
have closer look there is sign ‘NO PHOTOS PLEASE’
tara k garne photo li halyo
November 6th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Great pics taken…love it
November 6th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Nice work team, it is all perfectly captured. Missing all those stuff though.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
baneswor kun thuan ko ho shutterbug ji?? ma pani baneswor katyani ko ho..
November 7th, 2008 at 5:17 am
You are right, we can see it too ‘NO PHOTOS PLEASE’ but this caution in only for taking pictues of the God ‘Harati Agima’ inside the temple not outside. Tesaile don’t be afraid to take our your camera whenever you visit the temple ni.
October 18th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I’m glad I waited for my sluggish dial up to load this page. It’s proven to be quite an education for me.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Hehe Terry, We understand what you meant to say. I have heard that if a new site is hosted somewhere under the clouds, and those new clouds are always slow for monsoon. Never worry, the latest technology is always sluggish, imagine our first Apple of 1980s or those giant machines like Turing Machine during WWII , world war 2 during 1940-1945. Again Thanks a lot for posting your views.
We want you again with your dialup line.
Frankly, I have 5 MBPS link, but still I felt sluggish. Let technologies mature so that we can have faster loading.
In Facebook, When I do Add a friend and it shows Suggestions of other friends, I always have my browser hang even in 5 MBPS bandwidth. I have seen google waiting to send mail for hours and hotmail saying “Are you Slow?” lets see old version….
It is life Thanks Friend The new blogger.
add me in hi5 ok.
This post has most beautiful pictures, so, it is heavy and takes time to load.
January 1st, 2012 at 12:02 pm
… [Trackback]…
[...] Read More here: everestuncensored.org/3325/2008/11/05/tihar-2008-dipawali/ [...]…