The strange walking Odaan of Gol Kot

By Nabin Shishir BK,Baglung, Jan. 5: Gol Kot, located in Galkot Municipality–3, Baglung, is a place holding immense historical and religious significance. A fort built by Jitaribam Malla in the mediaeval age, the round building, which used to function as a residential and administrative quarters, is located at an altitude of 1,500 metres above sea level five kilometres south of present-day Hatiya Bazaar. 

According to senior citizen Shiva Dakta Subedi, Malla arrived at Gol Kot in the year 1574 AD and spent the next few years constructing many buildings, offices and storehouses. None of them exist today except for the main fort which stands in a dilapidated state. At present, the Kot area houses the tutelary goddess of the local Khadka clan and a few old weapons and military ordnance.

Among the armaments though is an interesting curio – a fireplace tripod, called Odaan in Nepali. The object, in itself, is hardly exciting but the tale associated with it is because it is unlike any other tripod found in people’s homes or the market.

“It is different in its very structure,” called Ganja Bahadur Khatri, secretary of the fort’s Kot Puja Management Committee. Normal Odaans have three legs welded on to a ring. But in this one, one cannot see the welds, implying that the entire structure was forged at one, said Santa Bahadur Khatri, a resident of the area. “That is why the locals call this particular trivet a Garbhe Odaan,” he said.

It is said that the ancestors of Jhanka Bahadur Basnet, a man who presently lives in Teuwa, Galkot–5, presented the Odaan to the Kot. Basnet has also confirmed this story in his book ‘Kotko Itihaas’ where he has stated that his forefathers provided the tripod around 380 years ago. 

“It was because several of the family members saw a peculiar dream one night,” he writes. “In the dream, a sage appeared and prophesied that they would obtain vast riches, but only if they cut off their little finger in front a specific marriage procession that would depart Teuwa the next evening with sheep, horses and elephants and offered it their blood.”

This startled the family a bit but they did not make much of it. The next morning, they woke up and went to work in their fields at Lamai, in present-day Galkot Ward No. 3, as usual. The day passed and as evening approached, they heard of a procession that was preparing to leave from Teuwa. This made them remember their dream and they rushed to the spot. However, they hesitated to stop the wedding parade and cut off their finger.

The procession left and thinking they had missed their chance, the Basnet family also sought to return home. But, when they turned back, they saw a lone sheep walking around. This gave the Basnets hope and they hit the animal with a stick to capture it. But as soon as the stick touched the ram, it turned into an Odaan. 

Amazed, they took it home and tried to put it in a corner when the three-legged stand jumped out of their hand and began walking around. This was shocking and frightening in equal measure and the family could not believe their eyes. They immediately caught it and tied it to a column. But it was so strong that it began pulling the column and the house with it. 

“This was no ordinary Odaan,” Basnet states in the book. This was cursed, haunted or both. They called a shaman to calm it but instead the tripod possessed him and screamed out, “I am a Khadka. Put me in Gol Kot at once.”

So, Basnet’s forebears took it to the Kot the very next morning where it was consecrated as a form of divine energy Shakti. 

“To this day, we put it with the weapons and worship it, with special Pujas being performed during the Bada Dashain and Chaite Dashain festivals,” secretary Khatri said. The people of the area worship the Odaan with great devotion. However, the Basnet family who left it there do not and have not done so for centuries. As per Basnet, his family stopped praying at the Kot after they and a king of yore got into an argument.