Village #3--Parental Guidance Suggested

This post might be upsetting to young kids--Parental Guidance is Suggested.

Each village in this area which holds this festival (not all do) holds it for three days straight. The second day is usually the "biggest" day. On this day, at this village, the main Lhawa cuts himself and the local men pierce their cheeks with skewers.

Again, the temple was too small to hold the dancing inside so we were in an open space next to the temple. It was very hot and shadeless.

This village has two Lhawas. This first picture is of the main Lhawa. Notice the stick! He would use it.

The next picture is of the second Lhawa. You can see blood in his hair from when he cut himself while possessed on the first festival day. This Lhawa was the most unpredictable of all of those we saw in any village. At one point he threw a couple of stones at people in his way and then ran and grabbed a rock almost as big as my head to follow up. His handlers had to restrain him and shoo the people out of the way!

I definitely stayed out of his way.




This young man has chosen to have his cheek pierced by a metal skewer. Several villages perform or used to perform this practice. I am not an anthropologist, but it seems they do it to prove their devotion to the village's mountain deity. Some of them had their cheeks pierced by the Lhawa, but most by village elders. The men dance with the skewers in for 10-15 minutes then they are pulled out. Many of the men washed their mouths out with grain alcohol afterwards. They continued to dance the rest of the afternoon, often with blood dribbling down the sides of their faces. One wonders if the alcohol mouthwash will help keep the wounds from getting infected???

At the end of this ceremony, the main Lhawa climbed a post with a picture of the mountain god possessing him. He takes the knife from between his teeth and hits it against his head numerous times. Then he runs his hand through the blood on his head before wiping it on the painting above him.