Sakeva Festival of Kirantis

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The Kirant community celebrates the festival of harvest called Ughauli on the full moon day in Marga (Nov-Dec) and the festival of planting called Ubhauli on the full moon day in Vaishak (April-May). Kirantis celebrate the festival of planting revering the land and the god of rains called nagas for timely rains and good crops on the full moon day in Vaishak, and then they celebrate the festival of harvest thanking the land and the rain god for the good crops on the full moon day in Marga.

The Kirant community comprising Rai, Limbu, Sunuwar and Yakkha has started celebrating the festival jointly. The Rai sub-community calls this festival ‘Sakeva or Sakela’; Chamling Rai calls it ‘Chhirinam’; Limbu calls it ‘Chasok Tangnam’; Sunuwar calls it ‘Fulsyadar’; and Yakkha calls it ‘Casuva’.

The Kirant community starts off the festival making offerings to ancestors at everybody’s home. Almost all communities have the tradition of making first offerings to the ancestors. Our belief is that we first need to make our ancestors happy then only we will be successful in our businesses and then certainly in our lives. So, the Kirant community also makes the first offerings to the ancestors.

In preparation for celebrating this festival, every sub-community of the Kirant community cleans the house, do laundry and go shopping for buying everything required for the festival including new clothes for all the family members. Using everything clean, and wearing new clothes, members of the Kirant community make offerings to the ancestors at home on the first day of this festival. If we do not use every thing clean, fresh and pristine for making offerings to our ancestors they might not accept our offerings and would not be happy with us. This is not auspicious to us.

Then, every sub community of the Kirant community makes offerings to the god of land and rains called in different names following the community’s tradition at the community center if they have one if not they set up one for this occasion. They believe that the god resides at the community center. They do it through a priest if they have one if not they nominate a person from among them to a priest for performing various festival rites and rituals and for making offerings to the god. However, they do not use faith healers such as ‘dhami or jhankri’ on this occasion as a priest.

Each sub-community makes offering of sacrifices of buffalo, chicken, pigs, and pigeon to the god and then offers other hard drinks such as homebrewed and home-distilled beverages. In addition, they make the offering of ginger to the god on the full moon day in Marga in appreciation of having a good harvest in the year. They also make the offering of ginger to the deity on the full moon day in Vaishak praying to the god for good and timely rains for planting food crops. They believe that the ginger is the most pure food item.

Each sub-community prepares the festive dishes from the meat of the sacrificial buffaloes, pigs, chickens and pigeons. They eat the meat dishes of the sacrificial animals and birds as the blessings of the god. So, they prepare different meat dishes on this occasion and used to dine on the festive dishes several days in the past, and every day revelers dance to the tune of cymbals and drums at the community center. However, they have reduced the number of days of celebrating the festival to cater the needs of the 21st century.

In the past, they have danced to the tune of cymbals and drums for months when the population has been small and the food has been abundant. Their dancing has been most of the community members standing in a circle, step back and forth following the tune of music. They have more than one hundred types of dance. They have a tradition of selecting one-woman dance leader and another man leader for guiding other dancers to different dances.

During the celebration of this festival of planting called Ubhauli on the full moon day in Vaishak, dancers portray the plowing of land, sprinkling of seeds and other activities of the planting season in their dances. Similarly, during the celebration of the festival of harvest called Ughauli on the full moon day in Marga, dancers portray the harvesting of crops in their dances.

Each sub-community of the Kirant community has developed a story of origin of this festival. However, this festival is for appreciating the nature god for providing the people with food.

One of the stories about the origin of this festival tells that evolution of the food habits as they go on inventing fire and farming system in ancient time. People have lived on the wild roots for quite some time before inventing the farming system. They ate the wild roots raw because they have not known the fire yet. So, they had the problems of digesting the uncooked food such as yams and other roots found in the wild. Then, they invented fire and then learned the method of roasting the wild roots. Then, they solved the stomach upset.

Ultimately, they learned how to cultivate land for different food crops. Then, they do not need to depend on the wild roots. So, they have set the tradition of appreciating the land and the rains for giving them good crops and bumper harvests. So, the Kirant community has set the tradition of celebrating this festival of appreciating the nature god for providing them with blessings twice a year: Once, at the beginning of the planting of crops and another after harvesting the crops.

Kirantis are the indigenous people of the eastern Nepal. They belong to the warrior ethnic group. So, most of their cultural activities are centered in the eastern Nepal. However, recently, they have built temples to the god in the Kathmandu Valley. Kirantis living in the Kathmandu Valley celebrate this festival making offerings to the god at those temples and holding dances at the open areas.

Some of the Kirantis have said that this culture of worshiping the nature god for providing the people with food has been on the verge of extinction at one time. However, after the fall of the Shah dynastic rule in Nepal, the young generation of Kirantis has been vigorously reviving this unique culture, and celebrating the festival twice a year livelier than used to be.

December 22, 2010

Note: this festival started off on December 21, 2010.