Sujan pierces tongue for first time

By Binu Shrestha,Kathmandu, Apr. 16: Sujan Baga Shrestha, a resident of Khasi, Bode, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, pierced his tongue for the first time on Saturday on the occasion of Jibro Chhedne (tongue piercing) festival. Sujan, 27, performed the tongue piercing act in an effort to preserve the dying culture.

Sujan pierced the right side of his tongue to give continuity to the tradition after his father Buddha Krishna stopped doing this act.  Buddha Krishna got his tongue pierced nine times between 2005 and 2022.

Krishna Chandra Baga Shrestha, older brother of Buddha Krishna, who has got his tongue pierced 12 times, pierced Sujan's tongue this year.

On the day, Naike Krishna Chandra Baga Shrestha performed special worship of the various gods of the localities before the ceremony. And the ceremony of tongue piercing was organised on Ganesh Temple premises.

The traditional music called ‘Nathakhi’ was played amid the ceremony.

After the tongue was pierced by a 10-inch long, three-line-thick iron needle, he visited different localities of Bode for two to three hours carrying a half-moon shaped Mahadeep, made by using 13 sticks of Nigalo (a types of bamboo).

After circumambulating the Bode area, the iron needle was taken out at the Mahalaxmi Temple and the hole in the tongue was filled with mud from the temple’s premises. The needle was then kept at the Ganesh Temple’s door, located on the right side of the Nrityanath Temple.

Sujan had started a three-day fasting from Thursday night at the temple of Nrityanath, where a fire camp was lit for his religious duty. Logs were brought from the nearby 

Nilbarahi jungle.

Drinking only water, he abstained from non-vegetarian meals. It is believed that something will go wrong or there will be bleeding while piercing the tongue if he violates the rules 

and customs.

Legends had it that ghosts, vampires, ghouls and skeletons lived on the right and left side of Nilbarahi in Bode and inflicted untold pain on the Bode people. According to the tantric lore, after knowing this, tantric Bhimadatta Karmacharya came there and laid a trap.

Then he asked people to not go to work in the fields for a month. When evil spirits looked at the field from the courtyard of the Nilbarahi and did not see anyone, they tried to enter Bode.

A vampire, who tried to enter through the western door of the four entrances to Bode, fell into the trap of Bhimadatta.

When Bhimadatta found out that the long hair and tongue of the vampire was the right hand of Nilbarahi, he cut his hair, stripped him of his clothes and forced a long needle into his tongue and tied him in a noose so that he could not escape.

The tongue of the vampire was pierced and made to carry a heavy load of wood. Unable to bear the pain, the vampire pleaded for mercy, assuring that he would comply with any order.

The vampire then promised to not cause trouble to Bode people and came to pierce his tongue on the same day for seven years.

After Nilbarahi expressed his anger in a dream that he would not spare Bhimadatta because he had insulted his doorman, Bhimadatta repented and performed a ritual of forgiveness before piercing his tongue, which is still practiced today.

According to the promise, the tongue of the vampire was pierced seven times and after that it did not come; it is believed that Bhimadatta Karmacharya established the tradition of piercing the tongue of Bode residents.

Records show that 13 people have had their tongues pierced in the festival's 111-year-old history.