Photo Essays
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The painstaking work needed to get the Rato Machindranath on the road has already been done. But the festival will only take place once the government and Lalitpur’s locals agree on the jatra date
The rains have already come this year. But the god who brings the rains has remained stuck in Pulchowk. In most years, the Rato Machindranath chariot would have already done the rounds of Lalitpur by the seventh month of the Nepali lunar calendar. But this year, although the chariot has been built and the artisans have readied the chariot for the Rato Machindranath festival, the god still remains stuck in stasis. The people of Lalitpur would like to pull the chariot, but the government is worried about large throngs of people congregating in the middle of the Covid crisis. The festival date has been postponed twice already. There is now talk that the chariot will finally trundle through Lalitpur’s streets on the first day of Bhadau.
In this photo feature, I document the tireless work done by Lalitpur’s artisans in getting Machindranath ready to shower this town with blessings--blessings we so desperately need.
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Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi Photographer Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi has been documenting the Kathmandu Valley for over 15 years.
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