Chariot festival of Karunamaya

The chariot festival of Lord Matsyendranath is a month long festival that Nepalis celebrate pulling a chariot through the narrow lanes in Patan and making several halts at different neighborhood.

The chariot is actually a spire built on the metallic-cum-wooden platform set on four large wooden wheels. Lord Matsyendranath sits in the inner sanctum built at the bottom of the spire. An attendant to the lord also sits there.

Local devotees and volunteers pull the spire-chariot through the narrow lanes in Patan. The chariot makes a halt at several neighborhoods following the schedule set for stoppage in ancient time. It takes so much time, as it halts so many days at each place. Currently, people believe that it is done so to give the opportunity to the local people of making offerings to lord; however, the purpose of lord passing through the narrow lanes of various neighborhoods and stopping at various places is to check how the people are faring in their living. On one occasion, women only pull the chariot in the early morning hours.

In ancient time devotees pulled the chariot from the township called Bungamati to Patan and back every year. It was arduous job to pull such a spire-chariot up and down hill and across a small river. So, currently, this festival of pulling the chariot from Bungamati to Patan and back to Bungamati is done once every twelve years.

A legend has it that Licchavi King Narendradev of Bhaktapur, Tantric priest Bandudatta of Kathmandu and Nevah porter Rathan Chakra of Patan brought the Lord from Kamarupa: current day Assam in India to remedy the 12-year drought in Nepal. The porter could not move further when they arrived at Bungamati, so they thought that the Lord wished to stay there. They made a huge Sikhara style temple to the lord at Bungamati.

Lord Matsyendranath is the god of compassionate; so, the lord is popularly known as Karunamaya means the compassionate one. We have four Karunamayas: two red and two white. Currently, the chariot festival of Red Karunamaya is going on in Patan.

Kathmandu has white Karunamaya. They also make similar spire-chariot but shorter than the spire-chariot to Red Karunamaya in Patan. The chariot-pulling festival also very short, it lasts only three days if everything goes smoothly.

Another white Karunamaya is in Nala about 20 kilometers to the east of Kathmandu and another Red Karunamaya is in Kiritpur about 10 kilometers to the South of Kathmandu. Both of them do not travel on a chariot and celebrate a chariot festival.

All four Karunamayas undergo the life cycle rituals. A priest removes the divine spirit from the mundane body of the lord, and preserves it in a holy water jar called ‘kalas’. Then the concerned priests perform a bathing ceremony to the spiritless body of the lord, and then do small repair to the body made of clay, wood and metal. Then a priest puts back the divine spirit from the ‘kalas’ to the mundane body. Thereafter, priests perform various both male and female life cycle rituals to the body. After performing all the rituals to the body of the deity, it becomes ready for a chariot festival. Once every twelve years, priests renovate the body of Karunamaya. They remake the body and the head of the lord anew, and paint it.

At the end of the month long chariot festival, a festival of displaying ‘vest’ embroidered with jewels is held at Jawalakhel. A legend has it that a Naga King gave it to a farmer who healed the eye ailment of the Naga Queen. A ghost stole the vest from the farmer. Once the ghost went to watch the festival of Karunamaya wearing the vest, the farmer recognized it and immediately grabbed the ghost in a human form. The ghost did not give in rather fought back claiming it was his own. The issue reached the head of state watching the festival but he could not judge whom it belonged to due to the lack of evidences. So, he decided to keep it with Karunamaya and display it once a year at the end of the chariot festival to the public giving a chance to anyone to claim it with evidences.

Note: Currently, Lord Karunamaya is sitting at Mangalbazar and waiting for completion of the repair of the chariot damaged at Mangalbazar for making further tour of the town.