Dashain
Introduction:
Dashain, the
main southern Bhutanese and Hindu festival/celebration which normally falls in October
every year and it is especial occasion for Hindu religion. During this holiday,
all the houses are cleaned and re-plastered to bring good luck, gifts are
exchanged between relatives, and families gather together for the celebration.
Dashain has been a public holiday in Bhutan which was declared by our Fourth
Druk Gyalpo. Also known as the Vijayadashami, Dashain is the
biggest festival of the year in Southern Bhutanese which falls in October
(corresponding to the 10th day of the ninth month in the Bhutanese
calendar) and is celebrated by the Hindu community over here. Therefore to find
out more about this particular festival, its importance, cultural life and the
festival and how it is celebrated in this locality, I carried out a small
project with the help of the local Hindu priest and some elderly people of this
gewog.
Data collection tools
In this project, data was mainly gathered
through field notes, semi-structured interviews and observations. For in-depth
study of the Dashain festival in the locality four Hindu scholars and four
elderly villagers were selected. A series of interviews was conducted with all
the participants for in-depth information. The interviews were recorded and
transcribed later and I as a participant observers gathered field notes and
collected information from all the documents related to the past Dashain
celebration in the locality. Thus interview, observation and document analysis
were the main tools used in this research project.
Elder people who helped me in
sharing their valuable insights during interview
Gaining Access:
Before starting the project, I obtained formal
consent from all the concerned participants, and the Gewog authorities
concerned. Written consent from each participant was also obtained before
interviewing and recording their interviews. Conducive and interactive
atmosphere was created to discuss the modality of conducting interviews and
observations. The medium of communication was Lhotshamkha but I took the help
of one of my colleagues to interpret the language to me as I am not very
familiar with the language. I made the participants fully informed and aware of
the purpose of the project. This was done in order to avoid suspicion of the
participants which may affect in getting the correct information from them. The
participants should feel safe to speak from their heart without any fear of
being cheated or even defamed later on. The participants were also informed
that their anonymity, confidentiality, privacy of participants’ opinions,
views, expression, roles, incidents and identity shall be valued and kept top
secret. Lastly, all information regarding the project materials, such as field
notes, interview recordings,
photos and transcript and
observation records has been kept under top secrecy. This will be available
only to me.
A brief historical overview on Dashain
According
to pundit (Hindu scholar) Narapati Bhandari of Semjong Gewog, Vijayadashami
also known as Dussehra, is one
of the most important Hindu festivals and is celebrated in various forms, across
southern Bhutan, and all the Hindu community across the country. The name
Dussehra is derived from Sanskrit. Dasha-hara
literally means Dashanan ravan
(the name of Ravan and in short Dasha
and Hara (defeat)) referring to
Lord Rama's
victory over the ten-headed demon king, Ravana. He also
explains that for decade’s people have been celebrating this festival and it is
very important for every Hindu in this locality to continue celebrating this
important festival in order to keep our valuable culture alive. He also asserts
that we must make sure that people continue to celebrate this festival every
year in order to keep alive our rich cultural heritage and religious beliefs.
He says that if we lose this festival, it will be like losing our customs and
tradition.
Puret (Hindu Priest) Chandra Lal Sharma of Semjong
Gewog also asserts that the Dashain day also marks the victory of Goddess Durga over
the demon Mahishasura.
The Goddess fought with evils for nine nights and ten days. The name
Vijayadashami is also derived from the Sanskrit words
"Vijaya-dashami", literally meaning the victory on the dashami (Dashmi
being the tenth lunar day of the Hindu calendar month). He explains that many
people do not understand why they celebrate it but they do it because it has
been the custom for everyone to celebrate it. He says that in fact only the
learned Hindu pundits (Hindu scholars) and purets (Hindu priests) actually know
why we celebrate this important festival. Common people only know that it is
celebrated in respect for Lord Ram who defeated the evil Ravana.
Objectives of the festival
According to Pundit Narapati Bhandari, in this
locality the people believe that the harvest season begins at this time because
the Mother Goddess is invoked to start the new harvest
season and reactivate the vigor and fertility of
the soil. That is why the locals believe that by performing religious activities
and rituals cosmic forces are invoked which rejuvenate the soil. As a result
they will be blessed with more vigorous agricultural success the next season.
Many people of the Hindu faith observe the festival through social gatherings
and food offerings to the Gods at home and in temples throughout the village.
According to the Astrologer of the locality, Mr Pal Man Saru, the local people
enjoy this dashain festival with great vigor and do everything possible to make
it as enjoyable as possible. He asserts that there is no other festival like
the dashain where all the family members gather to celebrate joyfully. Family
members travel from far distances to get tika (rice mixed with curd and colour)
from the elderly village people. Therefore, I firmly believe that this festival
shows the strong family bond that exists within the local culture.
Locality and celebration
Though
this festival (Dashain) is celebrated throughout the southern region of Bhutan,
people respect and celebrate this particular festival and belief that it is
very significant celebration in the locality where I have been working for the
last five years. An elderly member, Singh Bir Pradhan, of this village states
that, there is a very strong belief in the culture that they must celebrate
this festival to show that they all are bound by the power of God Ram who
defeated the Demon king Ravana. He also mentions that if one cannot celebrate
it meaningfully, he or she is miser or has no respect for the religion and
culture. As I have observed that people celebrate Dashain at all cost, even by
taking loan from the richer villagers. They believe that if they cannot
celebrate it, it is a shame for them; they even sacrifice some domestic animals to offer to the God as
to satisfy their spirituality/believe. Therefore, Dashain celebration is
strongly rooted in their culture.
The role of the festival in cultural life
As already mentioned above that Vijayadashami is
the biggest festival of the year in this locality, people celebrate it
differently according to the different classes. As quoted by Pundit Narapati
Bhandari, the 10th day of Dasain is Vijayadashami, on which elders put Tika
(rice mixed with curd and colour) and Jamara (tender shoot of corn) on the
forehead of younger members of the family. Jamara is sown on the first day of
the festival which becomes greenish yellow of about 10–20 cm length which
represent symbol of victory.
All the people continue to receive tika and
blessing until the following full moon, which is about two weeks. Depending
upon the relationship, people offer 'Dakshina' (present) after receiving the
Tika and Jamara. As mentioned by Puret Chandra Lal Sharma, people sacrifice
animals to Goddess Durga. But this is not done by everybody. As mentioned by some
other elderly people of the village, meat is heavily consumed after the
sacrifice taken as the gift of god. People visit their relatives and exchange
greetings throughout the 15 days of the festival. For many people; especially the
children, buying of new clothes and other wears are considered to be the most
important to them as celebration comes once an every year
Its impact on curriculum
Dashain is the festival that marks the victory of
lord Ram over the evil Demon King Ravana. Thus, Dashain festival epitomizes the
victory of Good over Evil. Therefore it has great significance in education by
building good values in the life of school going children which teaches those
arts, family values cultural bond and how to differentiate between good and
evil. Though the epic Ramayana is not found in the curriculum, but there are
lots of books found in the school library which narrates the story of Rama’s
victory over the evil Demon King Ravana. By reading such books or even by
giving project works to the students about such important religious text we can
inculcate good values and develop the concept of taking right action in our
life and impart to the students. On the other hand, we can also teach the
students values family, by citing the examples of the gathering of family
members during such festival. Such practices could bring GNH for the society.
By dramatization of such important religious epic students can learn the art of
drama which is as good as the drama of Shakespeare. Even some paragraphs are
reflected in social studies text which talks about how God subdued the Demon. This type of story gives our children to
imagine and analyzed, improve how to think and to create stories.
Importance of festival
In
this locality Dashain is the most important festival which is celebrated once a
year by every house hold irrespective of their religion, Hindu or Buddist. As
responded by all the participants in my project, they have pointed out that
without this festival our life would be stale and everyone would feel that
something is missing from their life. In some families this festival would
start well in advance, about a week before the actual date, which shows that
they are so eager to celebrate that they could hardly wait for the actual
celebration day to arrive. In most of the families alcohol is consumed heavily
for more than fifteen days to show their joy and also as a means of relaxation
after a year of hard work in their field.
As
reflected by a very old person in the gewog, people used to work very hard for
one whole year and save some money in order to celebrate Dashain when he was
young. He also agrees that it is a very important festival in this society
because we have been celebrating it for our whole life and it was handed down
to us by our great grandparents. He concludes that if we discontinue
celebrating Dashain, we would be betraying our forefathers which would bring
bad luck to our society.
My opinion on festival
As
already mentioned above that I have been working in this society for more than
five years, I have visited many houses during Dashain celebration and I also
felt that it shows, it is deep rooted in this society which they feel is very
important to continue to celebrate in order to keep strong family bond and also
respect for elderly people. I have observed that usually the elderly people
give tika, blessings and presents in form of cash to the younger generations.
They younger generations usually visit their elders like the parents,
grandparents, paternal and maternal uncles with gifts and new clothes. People
also prepare delicious dishes and offer to any guests that visit their houses.
I have observed that young children enjoy the most visiting their relatives
whether near or far. The children feel that the more they can visit the more
fortune they receive from the elderly people. Most people that I interviewed
reflected that once the celebration is over they feel very happy and satisfied
that they could celebrate it successfully in order to keep at par with the
society.
Receiving ticka from head of the family
& participated during celebration last year, 2015.
Conclusion
After
I carried out this small project I learnt a lot in comparison to what I already
knew. In the past years I just visited the families who invited me, enjoyed the
delicious meals and came back without knowing anything about the festival. But
now, after doing a through interview and inquiry, I really learnt the in-depth
content about this important festival. In fact I have great respect for this
festival because it has deep meaning in it. It was fit for the society about a
thousand years ago, it is fit for the society now and it will be fit for the
society after another thousand years from now because it talks about respect
for the religion, respect for the elders and the respect for the tradition and
culture of this society. It’s like story how mask dances came into an existing
in Buddhist history and other famous stories of Buddhist religion.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Bhutan retrieved on 8th March 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami
retrieved on 8th March 2016
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