Crowd and Cannabis! We are about to celebrate Shivaratri !!
Shivaratri or Maha Shivaratri is one of the important festivals in Nepal and is celebrate as “Night of the Shiva”. “ShivaRatri”: Shiva mean Lord “Shiva” and Raatri mean “Night” in Nepali so this festival is Night of The Lord Shiva. It is celebrated annually on the 14th day of the dark fortnight of the Magh month (late winter in February/March), as per the Hindu calendar. This day is marked as public holiday here in Nepal. Lord Shiva is the one of the supreme God in Hinduism. Hindus take him as the Creator, protector and transformer of the universe. Lord Shiva is the symbol of Power, Purity, Strength and Dedication. People also consider Lord Shiva is the god of yogis (Practitioner of Yoga, Medications and Prayers).
Temple and gathered people !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
People believed that on Shivararti, Siva Principle is most active and the stars and planet are at most favorable positions which is helpful to gain spiritual energy. It is also believed that this is the night when Shiva performs the heavenly dance (Tandav Nritya) of creation, preservation and destruction and also we mark this night as the symbol of “light overcoming darkness " in our life and the whole universe through Lord Shiva.
Devotee bending in front of the symbol of Shiva !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Maha Shivaratri is marked as the "Light overcoming darkness" !
Hindu devotees on this day visit Shiva shrines but the largest and greatest of all is happens in Pashupatinath temple which is the holiest shrines of the Hindus and is located on the banks of the Bagmati River in north-east side of the Kathmandu. Devotees ring bells, burn Incense Sticks and chant Om Namah Shivaye, Jay Sambho, Jay Bhole, Bhole Baba ki Jay… during their visit and prayers.
Crowd at the one of the many entrances !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Thousands of tourists visit this place in this day and they enjoy the festivals with curiosity. Apart from Prayers, Puja and Darsan the major attraction for tourist and other visitors are crowd including Sadhu Babas came from different parts of Nepal, India and China (Mansarobar Tibet).
Sadhu having long long hair and holding Trusul !Trisul: A trident, commonly used as the principal symbols in Hinduism and Buddhism .(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Babajees/Sadhus/Yogis are the attraction in Pashupatinath Temple in Maha Shivaratri ! They are the practitioner of Siva-ism and they scarifies their family life and live alone.
A lots of people come to Pashupatinath to see and observe the activities of different kinds of Sadhu Baba. Some sadhus wear unique dresses, some covered with ashes and few stay completely naked. The colorful and naked Sadhus (yogis) are seen meditating, dancing, smoking Ganja (Cannabis) and blessing others. Interacting and taking photos with Sadhus is interesting.
Naked Baba (sadhu) posing for photos . !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Another naked Baba !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Tourist Taking selfies !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
And one amazing thing you guys can’t believe is that few naked sadhus have Rings on their Penis. We can see such sadhus inside the temple.
Baba firing cannabis !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Smoking Ganja in Maha Shivaratri became a culture here in Nepal !
Some teenagers and youngsters celebrate this festival as the festival of Cannabis by smoking Cannabis. We can see people smoking Ganja in backyard of the temple and surrounding jungle area. Carrying, trading and smoking Cannabis is completely illegal in Nepal but in Shivaratri this is almost free. This is not officially free but authorities don’t take care of it. You can easily buy it from most of the Sadhus. Smoking Ganja in Maha Shivaratri became a culture here in Nepal. So, some people celebrate this festival as the festival of Ganja (Cannabis).
Ganja on sell, and one baba is making ganja and a guy smoking !(photos taken 7 years ago with my old Samsung digital camera)
Tomorrow is the Maha Shivaratri and all arrangements are completed there in Pashupatinath Temple. I just visited today at evening to see the decoration and Sadhus. I will visit tomorrow too but there will be huge crowd. People started gathering there. Hundreds of thousands of people will visit Pashupatinath tomorrow.
More than 1.5 millions people visit Pashupatinath Temple in Maha Shivaratri !
People need to stand more than 2 hours on queue to enter temple. Authorities are expecting more than 1.8 million people from across the world. More than thousands of Police personals and hundreds of volunteers already deployed to manage the crowd so that devotees can complete their Shiva Puja and Darshan fast and easily.
Preparation completed(decoration, lights, deployment of security personals). People already started gathering there. Photo taken at evening today at 8pm with Canon 700d . I made one signature logo as placed on this and first photo and I am gonna use this logo in my photos from today.
If you love Cannabis and Crowd, schedule your itinerary during this festival.
Tomorrow I will be there and will take lots of photos and videos with my new Canon 700d and share with you soon. Stay in touch for the whole photo story.
I would like to dedicate this post to a wonderful challenge #culturevulture by @eroche ! I also like to use one tag from today #mycountry
#culture #festival #cannabis #marijuana #religion #nepal
Happy Maha Shivaratri ! Stay Blessed !!
Wow.. It very awesome docummented @akkha,cannabis in My country still illegal for today even in My province Aceh sumatra have good product of cannabis plant after Thailand in Asia.
I Just know the information if babak smoke for cannabis in festival that very awesome party of Nepal culture :)
Yes, It became the culture here ! Glad you enjoyed my post !!
My pleasure and I am very enjoy it, In the past our province culture also has done cannabis party in the night of merriage ceremonial, This is party for the younger in the Village for doing some thing in the ceremonial tommorrow, such as washing plate, welcoming the guess, but Now we never hold This culture of younger again, because police would like to smell cannabis everywhere and will catch us :D
Wow !This looks interesting !! Yeah you are right my friend , some important cultures are disappearing because of security and legal boundaries imposed by the governments.
Absolutely right, I do not know what in their mind.. In Aceh cannabis very usefull for herbs of Some culinary, but Now we rarely found it, and we have a traditional food in the past it name was "Dodol Ganja" it was Amazing food and tradition of our cultural but Now never find again.
"Dodol Ganja " sounds interesting ! Yeah, here in Nepal too, this is used as herbs for Ayurbedic Medicine. #cannabis has a vital role in Ayurbeda.
Thank you for taking part in this months #culturevulture challenge. Good Luck.
Thank you so much !
You did a good job here! It seems like you had dedication and patience for this article! It is wery well written and easy to read! Cheers :)
Wow ! Beautiful appreciation !! Many thanks for your support dear !!
1.87% @pushup from @akkha
Last year i visited India, I hope to be visit your country. This year? Maybe, nothing impossible. I want a visit to Bhaktapur, Changu Narayan and hiking to ABC or Everest Basecamp. Your country is very beatiful, really. Keep in touch, brother! Best regards.
Wow ! Great to hear that you wanna travel Nepal. Yeah, you mentioned the awesome places. Hope to see you in Kathmandu soon !! Lets be in touch !!
Yes, good luck for u brother. Best regards.
You too, All the best ! Have a nice day bro !!
Wow! Such an interesting festival! So happy Shivaratri! :) Thanks for letting us know about this really beautiful festival. Need to visit Nepal ASAP! :)
Thank you so much my friend ! Glad you like it !! You can visit Nepal during this festival to celebrate Shivaratri !!
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