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Over the last four days, more than half of the Bright Horizon Childrens Home „boarders“ (2/3 of the children are permanently living on the campus, 1/3 are dayscholars and come by bus lor by feet in the morning and leave in the afternoon) travelled home for mid-year vacation. The school year starts and ends in April. Some of the kids have not been home for 7 years – their home being almost 2 to 3 days travel away. Street infrastructure is pretty poor, especially in the higher Himalaya regions, kids living in the mountains often need to walk for a day or more to get home.

Dasain and Tihar/Deepawali are the two biggest Hindu festivals. Although the majority of children at BHCH have a buddhist background, there is no class in the next four weeks because most of the teachers are Hindu. The boarders staying at the Childrens Home still have a full day program: breakfast at 7.30 am, study/reading time till 9am, games/computer before lunch and in the afternoon dance/music classes or TV. Weekly excursions will allow for practical discoveries: Friday we will visit a few Hindu temples to celebrate Dasain.

Dasain started last saturday with the so called Ghatasthapana: in their house, people installed a sacred jar of water as well as a vessel filled with cow dung and red soil. If the sowed maize and barley seeds sprout a few centimetres over the next 10 days, a good harvest (mainly of rice) is supposed to be guaranteed. Dasain is also known as Durga Puja (puja=worship): the festival celebrates the victory of the goddess of power Durga over the forces of evil personified in the buffalo Mahisasura. Since Durga is bloodthirsty, the festival is marked by the biggest animal sacrifice of the year. The average Nepali family does not eat much meat during the year, but most families enjoy goat dishes on the eight day of Dasain, also called Kala Rati. Cars and vehicles are sprinkled with the goat‘s and buffalo‘s blood – it is said that each Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation aircraft will have one goat sacrificed to it. This ensures a safe year on the road/in the air. On the last day of Dasain, families exchange cards and gifts. Parents place a tika (red powder) on the forehead of their children. The festival ends with processions and masked dances everywhere…and with gambling in many households and public places. After a pause of 10 days without festival , Tihar/Deepawali starts.

Yesterday, muslims (appr. 4% of the population) celebrated the last day of ramadan, called ead. Food was offered and shared with the poor.

Religion is the cornerstone of Nepali life. Officially Nepal is a Hindu country but Hinduism and Buddhism (high Himalaya regions and appr. 12000 Tibetian refugees in Kathmandu Valley), Shamanism/faith healing/animism (Himalaya region) and Islam (close to the border to India, so called Terai region) peacefully coexist. Hinduism has penetrated slowly from India and made its home in Nepal „by adapting itself to a primitive religious world wherein the terror of men faithful to the cruel motherhood of the earth holds sway“ (G. Tucci. Nepal. The discovery of Malla. p 51) . The main element in Nepali religion/spiritualism is the adoration of the linga as the horned phallic god and the Cosmic Mother/Mother Goddess as the source of fertility and productivity going back to 2700-1700 B.C. This worship of images rather than abstract principles combines the lingam with the Yoni or the matrix. The lingam-yoni symbol represents the union of two resulting in the act of creation, that is, genesis. This symbolism was absorbed by all following influences, i.e. Shiva, Vishnu and the many Hindu gods and goddesses. Also partly by Buddhism who is supposed to have entered into Kathmandu Valley from India. The first great teachers crossed the Himalaya in the 8th and 11th century to make lasting contributions to Tibetian Buddhism. Nepal has not only served as a relay-station for transmitting Buddhist religious and cultural products across the Himalaya region but also received and assimilated influences from both the Indian Continent and central Asia.

Nepal is a melting pot of religions – thus Hindu and Buddhist religious festivals are occasions for common rejoycing…

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