Yesterday we woke up early from jet lag and wondered aimlessly around the streets, alleys and backyards of Kathmandu as the locals got up and did their morning prayers and offerings before the Hindu and Buddhist temples and shrines that litter every corner of town and vary from the magnificent multistory pagodas to the random 6 inch circle drawn on pavement and from the modern to the 1,500 year old Buddha statue being used as the base of staircase to a dentist’s office next to a CRT TV repair shop.
At around 8am we wondered into Dumbar square, the city’s central royal and religious complex, only to refuse to pay the entrance fee as, given the shack-like ticket counter and complete lack of entry control, we were certain that. some enterprising Nepali had simply set up a quick con for the morning’s tourists. As we were refusing, the gentleman was approached by an army officer in ceremonial regalia who, through our new found and enterprising interpreter waved us toward a closed off courtyard and insisted that we should “come watch.” We found ourselves, along with four other westerners brought in off the street to satisfy the days quota for foreign dignitaries, in a grandstand marked “Foreigners” overlooking the courtyard of the central police station where the country’s top generals with the help of some local butchers along with a full regalia of officers and a 24 gun salute on every chop proceeded to ceremonially behead several dozen goats and water buffalo and subsequently splatter their blood on the insignia flags of the army’s various military units, but I guess when your annual military budget falls short of two joint strike fighter jets, you can use all the help you can get.
Having done a little bit of research on what we walked in on, here is the scoop. Hindus celebrate Dasain twice a year in Nepal and one of these is Chaite Dasain. A public ceremony commencing at 8am and lasting about two hours is performed by the army in the courtyard of the police station at Hanuman Dhoka. All foreigners are allowed to come and watch. This courtyard is also known as Kot Square and is the location of the 1846 massacre where Jung Bahadar slaughtered 55 of the country’s most important noblemen and thus sidelined the Shah dynasty and initiated a hundred years of Rana rule.