The cost of preserving culture for Banmalas

BY A STAFF REPORTER,Kathmandu, Jan. 20: The need to preserve culture and unfortunately, prevented many members of the Banmala community of Bhaktapur from pursuing educational opportunities.

For about eight months a year, the Banmalas have to perform the culturally significant Navadurga Dance at 21 places in the ancient township of Bhaktapur and also at Changunarayan, Sanga, Banepa, Dhulikhel, Panauti and Sankhu. The rest of the time, they are busy preparing for the dance and carrying out different rituals related to it. This leaves little time for personal chores, family affairs 

and education.

As the holy dancers, this group within the Newa ethnicity is required to observe strict abstentions during the dance period to incarnate deities including Mahakali, Barahi, Kumari, Gujekali, Mahakali, Mahadev, Maheshwori, Bhadrakali, Balkumari and Swet Bhairav. This often keeps the younger members of the troupe, who are as young as eight years old, out of school.

“This is what we accept to stage the Navadurga Dance and protect the culture we inherited from our ancestors,” Narayan Prasad Banmala, a member of the Navadurga Devgan Festival and Temple Management Committee and the dancer who personifies Bhairav in the dance, submitted.

In addition to obstructing study, the hard dance also caused health problems as the Devgan, as the dancers are called, have to remain on their [bare] feet from morning to evening, wearing masks that weigh as much as 13 kilograms. “It is quite demanding on the body,” Banmala shared. “We get chest pains and stomachaches.”

The latest installment of the dance began with a performance at Pashupati, Kathmandu on December 2 last year. This time was special as the group visited Tokha to stage the ballad after a gap of 33 years. “It was a happy occasion made possible by the invitation extension by the local people and the local government,” Banmala said.

Now, the 19 members of the Navadurga group are scheduled to visit Bhaktapur on Friday. “During this time, the Banmalas living at Sankhu also visit Bhaktapur for their turn to dance,” he informed The Banamalas of Bhaktapur have been managing to give continuity to the Malla era dance despite facing financial difficulties too.