Darjeeling 'Tihar' event set to showcase tradition

SNS, DARJEELING, 5 November 2018: A special 'traditional treat' awaits locals and tourists during the Diwali festival called Tihar in Darjeeling this time.

The Darjeeling Municipality is organizing a 'deusi and bhailo' programme on Wednesday, which will not only be a source of good entertainment for the locals during this festive season,but will also showcase the Hills" tradition and culture to the tourists.

During the five-day 'Tihar' festival, which is celebrated by the Nepali community, and which began today, 'Bhailo' is a traditional Nepali group song sung by women during the third day of the five day celebrations, followed by 'deusi' which starts on the fourth day where it is the turn of the boys to sing traditional Nepali songs.

"Apart from showcasing our culture to the tourists, we also want to preserve this age-old tradition, which is slowly fading away. In the programme, we also want to teach locals how deusi and bhailo is actually played as these days we see that the younger generation has modernised them with them singing popular songs instead of the traditional ones," said the Darjeeling Municipality vice-chairman, Sagar Tamang.

The event at Chowrasta is being organised by the civic body, along with the social organization, Jan Sevak Sansthan, which has also been organizing a three day flower exhibition-cum-sale since yesterday at the Gorkha Dukha Niwarak Sammelan grounds here.

Tradition has it that sisters, on the day of Laxmi Puja (Diwali) go from house to house singing Nepali traditional songs and collect money to buy stuff needed for 'bhaitika') where sisters worship their brothers), while 'deusi' is played from the next day and is believed to be done by the brothers to collect money to give it to their sisters on bhai tika.'

There are others who also believe that 'deusi an 'bhailo' could have been started by people to foster community spirit in the past

"Earlier, people did not meet much as the distances between two houses were great with big jungles in between while the population also being very thin," an elderly man said here today.