Bisket Jatra: Bhaktapur's New Year Chariot Battle

Most of Nepal greets its new year in mid-April with picnics and family visits. The old city of Bhaktapur does something more strenuous. For nine days around the turn of the year, its residents haul massive wooden chariots through the narrow brick streets, raise and topple a pole as tall as a temple, and celebrate with an intensity that makes Bisket Jatra one of the most dramatic festivals in the Kathmandu Valley.

Timing

Unlike most Nepali festivals, Bisket follows the solar calendar. It begins four days before the first day of the month of Baisakh, which is new year's day in the official Bikram Sambat calendar, and continues for four days after. New year's day normally falls on 13 or 14 April.

The story

Several legends explain the festival. The best known concerns a princess of Bhaktapur whose every bridegroom was found dead the morning after the wedding. At last a brave prince stayed awake and saw two serpents slither from her nostrils as she slept. He killed them with his sword. The next day their bodies were hung from a pole for all to see. The two long cloth banners that hang from the festival pole today are said to represent the serpents.

The chariot of Bhairav

The festival opens in Taumadhi Square, beneath the five-tiered Nyatapola temple. An image of the fierce god Bhairav is placed in a huge, heavy wooden chariot with solid wheels, built and assembled beside his temple in the square. A second, smaller chariot carries the goddess Bhadrakali.

Then comes the tug-of-war. Residents of the upper, eastern half of the city and those of the lower, western half each take hold of ropes attached to opposite ends of Bhairav's chariot and pull, each side trying to drag it into their own quarter. The contest is noisy, rough and taken seriously; it can last for hours and occasionally boils over into scuffles. Whichever side wins is believed to enjoy good fortune in the year ahead.

Over the following days the chariots are pulled down a steep lane to an open space at the southern edge of the city near the river.

Raising and felling the pole

On the last evening of the old year, a tree trunk about twenty-five metres tall, with a crossbeam near the top and the two long banners hanging from it, is hauled upright by hundreds of people using ropes and bamboo props. It is a dangerous, exhilarating operation watched by a vast crowd.

The following afternoon, on new year's day, the pole is rocked back and forth until it crashes to the ground. The moment it falls marks the official beginning of the new year in Bhaktapur. A smaller pole is raised in the potters' square.

Other things to see

Sindur Jatra in Thimi. On the second day of the new year, the neighbouring town of Thimi holds its own celebration. Dozens of palanquins carrying deities are borne through the streets by teams of men while everyone throws orange vermilion powder, covering the crowd, the buildings and the air itself in colour.

The tongue-piercing at Bode. In a nearby village, a volunteer has his tongue pierced with a long iron spike and walks through the settlement carrying a flaming bamboo rack, a vow believed to bring blessings to the community.

Watching safely

Bisket Jatra is thrilling and carries real risk. People have been seriously hurt by the chariots and the falling pole.

• Stay off the street when the chariot is moving. Find a place on a temple plinth, a raised step or an upper-floor balcony. Several cafés and guesthouses around Taumadhi Square have rooftop or window views; book ahead.

• Never stand in the line of the ropes or downhill of the chariot.

• At the pole-raising, keep well back behind the cordon and follow police instructions.

• Carry little, keep your hands free and agree a meeting point with companions in case you are separated.

Practicalities

Bhaktapur is about an hour from Kathmandu by taxi. Roads into the city are congested on the main days, so arrive early or, better, stay overnight in a guesthouse in the old town, where rooms are in high demand during the festival. Foreign visitors pay the usual entry fee to the city.

Why go

Bisket Jatra shows a city acting as a single organism. Each neighbourhood has its role, its rope, its inherited duties. The rivalry between the two halves of the town is fierce and affectionate at once. To stand on the steps of Nyatapola as thousands of people strain against one another to move a god through the streets is to see a medieval festival that has lost none of its force.