Sindhupalchowk, Oct 10 : A cultural ritual in which people splash curd at one another has been observed in Tauthali, Tripurasundari rural municipality of Sindhupalchok district on Wednesday.
The ritual is held the next day of the Bada Dashain festival, marking the conclusion of Bada Dashain, the biggest festival of Nepali Hindus. This revelry starts after making offering of curd to local goddess Tripurasundari.
This festivity of splashing curd is believed to have started in the 13th century AD during the rule of the Malla dynasty kings. This is a unique tradition practiced only at the Goddess Tripurasundari Temple at Tauthali every year, Tripurasundari rural municipality chairman Bhupendra Shrestha said.
As part of this ritual, curd is first offered to the goddess in the belief that there will not be shortage of milk and curd in the area and the cows and buffaloes of the locality will always give milk.
It is said the face and body of the revellers is covered with curd all over after the curd splashing is over and it is even difficult to walk as the curd covers the whole place.
According to locals, a stream of curd used to flow at the spot during the ritual some 10 years back due to the sheer amount of curd that used to be splashed. But the amount of curd brought for the ritual has diminished over the years as the number of farmers rearing cattle has reduced.
