Ancient custom hopes to auger better times
KATHMANDU, Nepal — The last time the five-storyhigh chariot crashed during Nepal’s Rato Machindranath festival, participants knew something bad was coming. Months later, in February 2005, then-King Gyanendra seized absolute power, and the Himalayan nation was in the grip of political unrest, an escalating communist insurgency and a dwindling economy.
This year, as workers from the ethnic Newar group finished building and decorating a new chariot, they hoped for good times ahead. The 48-foot tall wooden chariot, which began its annual monthlong procession Sunday, is meant to please gods so they can provide for a generous rainfall, harvest and prosperity.
“We have to build it strong so that it does not collapse. If anything happens to the chariot, there will be bad luck for the country,” said Krishna Dangol, the latest in a generation of chariot builders.
The Rato Machindra festival, in which Hindu and Buddhist devotees pull two thick ropes tied to the chariot though the narrow streets of Patan, a Kathmandu suburb, preludes the monsoon season in a nation where a majority of population still depend on farming.
It is believed this year is the 1,350th for the chariot. There are no texts describing when it originated, but the stories have been passed down generations along with the skills and task of building and pulling the chariot.
The chariot is based on a chassis that is only as wide as a small truck. Four giant wheels, which are twice as tall as humans, make it mobile. The wooden wheels are painted with giant eyes, and the towering beams are tied together with canes and covered with green pine leaves.
Devotees line up the street praying when the chariot passes through their neighborhood. It takes days for the chariot to complete the 2-mile route as it stops in different neighborhoods. People offer flowers, sweets and fruits to Machindranath — a deity whose statue is made from clay and covered in red paint with eyes wide open.