Rais in Khalsa mark Papani festival

By Kabiraj Ghimire,Hile, Nov. 18: The Rai community of the Khalsa area in Sahidbhumi Rural Municipality, Dhankuta, is currently busy celebrating the Waadhangmi festival.

The Rai community has a tradition of worshipping their ancestral deity, Waadhangmi, after harvesting the new crops. With the arrival of the festival, the Khalsa region has come alive with Mundhum, local music, and traditional dance.

Waadhangmi is the main festival of the Chyolung and Namchahang Pachha of Rai communities living in the area. The festival begins on the first Tuesday after Kartik Purnima and marks the celebration of the new harvest. After it begins, the Mundhum priests worship Budhahang (ancestral deity) for 15 days. Locals also worship their deities and ancestors and celebrate Papani by dancing and singing for six days and six nights. 

Local resident Jas Bahadur Rai said that people remember Budhahang by releasing a pair of pigeons, believing their wishes will be fulfilled.

During the festival, the Kirat Rai worship their ancestral deity and perform a dance involving three steps forward and three steps back, accompanied by drums and cymbals.

A week-long fair is held on different days at the forts of Khoku, Chhintang, and Ankhisalla in Sahidbhumi Rural Municipality. The Papani dance and songs are performed at these gatherings. The Bantawa Rai community living in the Khalsa area also celebrates the festival.

Recently, the younger generation has taken the lead in preserving the Papeni dance. They are working to safeguard this traditional dance, musical instruments, and Mundhum rituals, which have been fading with the older generation.

“Although this dance is disappearing with the older generation, the youths are now trying to preserve it,” said local youth Mohan Rai.

In earlier years, locals from Dhankuta, Morang, Sunsari, and Tehrathum also came to watch the dance and participate in the festival, which was once limited to a single ethnic group. Many visitors continue to enjoy the local celebrations.

A fair has also been organised to preserve the festival, said local resident Narendra Kaschit. “This festival is not limited to us anymore. People come from different places to watch it. We have also been organising the fair alongside the dance,” he added.

The Rai community forms the majority population in Sahidbhumi Rural Municipality, with about 80 per cent of residents belonging to this community. Around 50 per cent of the population participates in the festival. The festival, which began last Tuesday, will officially conclude on Tuesday morning. In recent years, the number of visitors coming from outside to observe the festival and the local fair has been increasing annually.