Traveling To Dolkha Bhimsen And Back

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

It was one of the fall-Saturday mornings; we got up at four o’clock in the morning for preparing to go to Dolkha Bhimsen. It was November 12, 2011 morning. It was still dark and we began our preparation under the electric light. By the six o’clock, the driver has come and then the housemaid to help us. The driver checked the small car and started off cleaning it in preparation to our trip to Dolkha. My spouse made a call to Chickanmugal bhauju for waking her up and asking her to be prepared for going to Dolkha. She had already been out of bed and obviously making preparation. In a few minutes we were ready to set out for Dolkha and then back.

Both of us wake up at four o’clock in the morning and then took a shower in turn. My spouse began putting all the items of offerings to the deity called Bhimsen in Dolkha. We put all those things in a plastic basket, and then other items of foods for us to eat on the morning as breakfast and then as a lunch in the afternoon.

It is a long drive. So we have to start so early in the morning. If we drive smoothly without a hitch on the way, it takes us about four hours but you never know what happens on the way. So, making provision for any unknown events we have started off at six immediately after the driver became ready for it.

We live with our 96-year-old father. He is very smart even at that age but somebody needs to cook food for him. The housemaid is for two-hour work in the morning. Somebody needs to be with my father. We made an arrangement that our youngest sister would keep the company of our father. She promised to come at 7 O’clock in the morning before the housemaid would finish her work and leave the house.

We set out precisely at 6 o’clock morning. Before leaving the home, my spouse made a call to bhauju again and informed her that we were coming to pick her up and be sure that she would be absolutely ready by that time as we did not have much time to spare for waiting and so on.

As soon as we reached Chikanmugal, the driver parked the car at a small open area. I went to pick bhauju up at her home. She had been waiting for us. I helped her to carry a small bag with some foods to the car. Four of us including the driver started off from Chikanmugal in a high mood.

After traveling for about 20 minutes we came to complete halt at Jagati, Bhaktapur. We did not know what had happened. We did not expect such a thing to happen so early in the morning. Moving very slowly and after about a half hour, we came to the police barrier. Two policemen were checking each vehicle. When our car took the turn for checking, one of the policemen asked, “Where are you going?” The driver replied, “We are going to Dolkha Bhimsen.” The policeman gave us his hand signal to go.

I was really surprised what the checking was for. After thinking a few minutes, recent newspaper reports came in to my mind. The news said that the police seized a truck full of sandalwood that was intended for taking to Tibet illegally. Then I thought that if the police suspected that somebody might be illegally taking something then the police should check the trucks and buses that could hide such items for illegally taking to Tibet or somewhere else. The police had delayed us for a half hour absolutely for nothing. I came to the conclusion that the Nepalese police perform their duties without even a bit of regard for the public convenience. They don’t care for whether other people would suffer from their needless checking for others’ illegal activities in the past. The police checking at other places have proved to be true my notion about the police disregarding the pubic convenience.

After crossing the ‘lamosangu’ bridge over the Bhote Koshi River, we were climbing a hill when the driver noticed that the left rear wheel was giving up. He stopped the car at the area where he could park the car without causing any convenience to other vehicles. The tire had gone flat. He quickly replaced the flat tire with a spare one. He took the flat tire to the market area called Khandhichaur at the ‘lamosangu’ about two kilometers down hill to fix it

The small area where the driver left us was the right place for us to have a breakfast. We spread out a mat and over it a sheet. We sat cross-legged and made us comfortable. The two not-so-young ladies took out one item of foods after another and a vacuum flask (thermos) with hot water to make tea. My spouse handed out one boiled egg to each of us. Then, bhauju opened a plastic box and offered ‘jerri’ and ‘malpua’ to us. ‘Jerri’ is a typical circle made of dough with circular rings around it cooked in boiling oil and then dipped in sugar syrup for sweetening. ‘Malpua’ also is a circular one but made of sweetened floor cooked in oil. Both these items have been the items of breakfast for Nepalis.

By the time we finished the breakfast, the driver came up with the repaired wheel. We offered him a breakfast, too. While the driver was eating, every one of us took a turn to drain our bladder in the open hidden place. Then, we were ready for travel.

The road to Charikot: the district headquarters of Dolkha branches away from the two-lane Kathmandu-Kodari highway at ‘Lamosangu’. This single lane road is called ‘Lamosangu-Jiri’ road. The Swiss government had provided funding for building it. From the mid 1970s, the Swiss government through its agency called Swiss Association For Technical Assistance (SATA) had implemented the rural development project called Integrated Hill Development Project (IHDP) in the Sindhupalchok and Dolkha districts. The ‘Lamosangu-Jiri’ road was the backbone of the IHDP.

The ‘Lamosangu-Jiri’ road has benefited millions of Nepalis living on both sides of it. They can easily reach the market towns and weekly market areas because of this road. So, they can sell their products at the reasonable prices and buy the items of their basic needs at the highly reduced prices at the weekly markets or the market towns linked by this road. This road has helped to grow Charikot to a modern market town, and of course Jiri at the end of this road to a market town, too. This road has brought considerable positive changes in the life style of the local people. We noticed that the clothing of the people living in this area was not absolutely different from the people living in Kathmandu.

The Swiss had made this road with solid foundation. So, we did not see any damages to the road even after 30 years of existence. However, the black surface has weathered at several areas and need repair for smooth driving. This single-lane road has been serving the mid central and some parts of mid eastern Nepal. So, we found several heavy-load-carrying trucks and large passenger buses traveling on this road. Fixing the black-surface-damaged areas has been quite necessary for smooth driving and for keeping the road safe from any heavy damages.

We noticed that both sides of this road from the lamosangu to Charikot have been covered with nice forest. We also noticed the continuous flow of water from the creeks on the way. Most probably, the trees on the hills have created the water. The trees have put the environment in this area back to normal. No landslides were visible. It was quite pleasant to drive along this road due to the green on both sides of it.

Development of a tourist industry is visible along this road. We saw several roadside hotels, trekking and rafting offices. We even saw some tourists. Surprisingly, not a single market place except for Mude has been developed between Khandichaur at Lamosangu and Charikot. Mude is still a small market area where anyone could repair a flat tire, buy some fresh potatoes and drink teas and have snacks at any time of a day. Mude is 25 km from Khandichaur and mid way to Charikot.

Charikot has been developed to beyond all recognition. I was in Charikot about 30 years ago when the road was in progress of construction. At that time, Charikot had only wooden houses built on both sides of the road. A few government offices were there to serve the people. It did not give any signs of urban settlement at that time. It was a small market area. Now, Charikot has three to five storey concrete modern buildings, a large market area, and even modern hotels. This has been a typical hill settlement in Nepal. We need to build such settlements across the hills in Nepal to bring all the people living in the scattered villages to such settlements for providing them with the modern amenities.

In Charikot, we took a road branching away from the Lamosangu-Jiri Road to Dolkha: a few kilometers away from Charikot. After driving a few kilometers from Charikot to Dolkha, we came to a wide under-construction road. While driving on this wide road we missed a narrow lane hidden under this wide road, and moved on this road for a few kilometers before we realized that we were on the wrong road. We turned back and came to the narrow lane to drive to the shrine of Dolkha Bhimsen.

After parking the car on one side of the narrow lane, we walked about 50 steps of the steep stairs down, and then passed the hawkers’ tables with the items such as flowers, fresh coconut, vermillion, and incense sticks of offerings before reaching the shrine of Bhimsen. Then, we saw wide stairs at the front of the shrine.  That stairs are for the people coming from the Dolkha settlement.

Dolkha is a Nevah settlement. The Nevah is the indigenous people of Nepal. Some of them are the traders by professions. Dolkha was on the ancient trade route between Tibet and India via Nepal. So, Dolkha was once a flourishing trade center. Some Nevah in Dolkha believe that Dolkha is the cradle of the Nevah culture. Dolkha Nevahs also have the festival of pulling the chariot of Karunamaya, celebrate the festival of Living Goddess Kumari, and other cultural events that we see in the Kathmandu Valley.

The Nevah traders worship Bhimsen as the deity that brings good fortune to them. Some traders offer not-burnt incense sticks to the Dolkha Bhimsen seeking the blessing of the deity, and then take the blessed incense sticks to the areas of their trade and burn one stick a day believing it would bring additional volume of trade to them.

The deity has four roles to play in a day. First, the deity plays the role of Goddess Durga and takes the offerings of animal sacrifices, and then God Bhimsen and also accepts the animal sacrifices. Thereafter, the deity washes off the animal bloodstains and becomes Lord Shiva called Bhimaysvore and finally, becomes Lord Vishnu called Narayan.

Two signboards attached to the front wall surrounding the shrine of Bhimsen say that ‘rudri’ is performed from noon to 2:00 PM every day. ‘Rudri’ means water and other liquid offerings to Lord Shiva. The signboards also say that animal sacrifices are absolutely avoided on certain days. Such days are two days immediately after the full moon day in Kartik (Oct-Nov), then some days of the Dashain: largest festival of Hindus and some other days.

In fact, my spouse and bhauju had to stand on the line for one hour to make offerings to the deity that takes four different forms a day. We reached the shrine just few minutes before noon after buying some items of offerings. We don’t know that the door to the shrine will be closed for the public at noon for performing the daily regular worship to the deity.

My spouse and bhauju put together all the items of offerings on two copper plates especially made for such offerings. Then they took off the shoes as nobody was allowed to enter the shrine with shoes and any other items made out of leather. These things are prohibited because they are made of the cow-skin leather. So, nobody should take them to the shrine.

The two not-so-young ladies walked barefoot to the shrine and stood behind the last person of the line to the entrance to the inner sanctum of the shrine. The number of people standing on the line was not more than ten when the two ladies went to stand on the line. However, it was just noon at that time and it was time for the regular daily offerings to be made to the deity. The attendants to the deity closed the door and performed the regular offerings. By the time the door was opened to the public, the line of devotees had been built up around the shrine.

It was already one o’clock after the door was opened to the public. My spouse and bhauju did not take much time to complete the offerings to the deity. The deity was so small and covered with flowers and other items of offerings, my spouse had even to ask the attendant to find a deity to make offerings.

From noon to 2:00 PM, it was the turn of Lord Shiva to take the offerings made by the devotees. So, rudri was going on. Rudri is the process of making offerings to Lord Shiva. A copper pot shaped in a cone with a small hole at the end of the cone is placed upturned above the deity. Then, the attendant pours holy water and any other liquid offerings into the pot and the small hole at the end of the cone lets out the liquid on the top of the deity. This is called rudri. It is performed only to Lord Shiva.

My spouse and bhauju each had a fresh coconut. They offered the coconuts after making offerings of other items to the deity. The attendant broke the fresh coconut and poured the liquid in it to the copper cone above the deity so that the liquid would flow on the top of the deity. The attendant returned the broken coconuts to the concerned devotees as the blessings of the deity.

The two ladies bringing the leftovers of the offerings made to the lord offered us those leftovers as the blessings from the lord. We took the vermillion and the flowers and applied the vermillion on our foreheads and put the flowers on our heads as the blessings from the deity and ate a piece of the coconut also as the blessing from the deity. Thus, we completed the making of offerings to the deity that takes four forms a day. The first two forms such as Goddess Durga and God Bhimsen are of the Tantric deities, and the latter two forms such as Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu: Narayan are of Vedic deities.

Then, our concern was for having a lunch at a suitable place. We had carried a lunch with us so we needed only a place to sit and have a nice lunch.

It was afternoon and drizzling. So, we needed a spot with a roof or a cover. After driving through the Charikot market and coming down to some extent, our driver spotted a shed with a tin roof. It looks like a bus stop. It must be built for sheltering the passengers waiting for buses but at that time we did not find any waiting persons nor we found the signboard stating it was a bus stop.

We took out the lunch box and unfold the lunch packages. We had a typical Nevah lunch. It comprised flattened rice, roasted chicken, curried chicken, pieces of ginger, roasted peanuts, potato salad and of course a peg of hard drink. Soft drinks followed at the end of the lunch.

After the lunch, it was already 3:00 PM. We needed to travel quite a bit and face the police checking at several places. So, we could not idle there. After emptying our bladders just behind a wall hidden from the public view, we immediately started off the return journey.

It was already late afternoon when we reached Mude. A young man was selling potatoes in a 25-kilogram pack. The price of potatoes in Mude was almost two-thirds of the price in Kathmandu. So, we grabbed one pack of 25 kilograms and moved on.

By the time we reached Khandichaur it was already dark and the market was crowded with incoming and outgoing buses and other vehicles. However, we needed to buy something. Again we found that the prices of some items were two-thirds of the prices in Kathmandu. However, we bought only one blanket and a hot case, as we were in a hurry and our small car had not much room to spare for other voluminous items.

We drove straight home under the headlight of the car. We reached home at 8:30 PM. Thus, we traveled to Dolkha and back home in a day. We burnt almost 30 liters of gasoline for the travel.

November 16, 2011