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Celebrating Bhoto Jatra In Patan
By KTM Metro Reporter
June 23, 2012: the government has announced Sunday, June 24 as a holiday for celebrating a Bhoto Jatra in the Kathmandu Valley. Living Goddess Kumari of Patan presides over the Bhoto jatra celebration. Following the tradition, the President, Vice-president, Prime Minister and other high-ranking official go to Jawalakhel to watch the Bhot Jatra, and receive the blessing of God Matsyendranath, and Living Goddess Kumari.
About a month ago, a spire-like chariot is built at the Pulchok square in Patan, and God Matsyendranath is set in the inner sanctum of the chariot and pulled it through the narrow lanes of the Patan core town for a month keeping it overnight or several nights at one spot or another so that the locals have an opportunity to celebrate the arrival of God Matsyendranath at their neighborhood.
Then, the chariot reaches at Langankhel. Here, the god stays on for celebrating a coconut-tossing jatra. This is the place, too where the god takes a purification bath before going for a long journey of about a month in Patan. A man rides the spire and from the top of the spire tosses a coconut, a coin and flower to the devotees standing around the chariot on the ground. Every smart young man wishing to have a son rushes to catch the falling coconut in the air if not on the ground. Nepalis believe that anybody catching the falling coconut would have a son in that year.
From Lagankhel, only the women pull the chariot to the crossroads at Podetole. By tradition, women before dawn pull the chariot from Lagankhel to the crossroads. Thus, women have a special privilege in pulling the chariot.
The chariot stands at the crossroads for several nights. Devotees make offering of lamps, flowers and many other food items to the god. Then, a group of expert astrologers meet at the public place called Kumaripati to find out the most auspicious day for pulling the chariot out of the crossroads to Jawalakhel. When the chariot is pulled from the crossroads, Living Goddess Kumari of Patan sitting at Kumaripati watches the chariot pulled to Jawalakhel.
Once, the chariot reaches Jawlakhel; on the fourth day, a Bhoto jatra is held. Bhoto jatra is the display of the mythical vest kept in the custody of God Matsyendranath. A legend has it that a farmer was ushered to a kingdom of serpent-dynastic rulers to treat the eye ailment of the queen after none of them in that kingdom could heal the ailment. However, the innocent farmer healed the eye ailment of the queen. The farmer received a vest studded with jewels as a reward.
One day when the farmer was plowing his land, he took off the vest and laid it on one of the beds of his plowed land and went on working. A stray goblin saw it and stole it. After a year at Jawalakhel, the farmer found a man wearing his vest studded with jewels and watching the festival of God Matsyendranath. The farmer immediately claimed the vest as his while the goblin turned into a man fought back counter claiming it. As the fight went on, some of the security reached there and took the vest away from them. However, nobody could decide whether it belonged to the farmer or the goblin, as both of them had no evidences at all. So, the vest was kept in the custody of God Matsyendranath and displayed it every year for anybody to come with evidences to claim it. (source: Siddhi Ranjitkar)
