Tihar

The fourth and last night of Tihar is the day for sisters to celebrate their brothers. That photo of Rom with all the sparkly garlands around his neck? Those were brought to him by his sisters who hiked down to Tambuchet that day to see him.

During our stay we learned that Rosainy and Karma don't have any brothers. Clancy jokingly said, "I'll be your brother!" At some point Craig got named "big brother," making Clancy "little brother," and Heather "bausu" (sister-in-law). Craig, Heather, Clancy and I sort of figured that was the end of it; it was just kind of cute that they kept calling each other big brother, little brother, and calling Rosainy and Karma "sister."

Late that afternoon, Rosainy and Karma started picking marigolds. We thought nothing of it. But around 6 they gathered us all in the dining room where we got to participate in the full ceremony.



On the table were two plates piled high with homemade breads, candy, and fruit, and topped with huge garlands of marigolds. There were 2 glasses of beer, a pomelo with incense stuck in it, 2 bowls each with a hard boiled egg and a piece of candy called son papadi, which reminded me a lot of halva, two shot glasses filled to the brim with Rom's homemade honey, a bowl filled with marigold petals and rice, and a tray with many colored paints.




The first order of business was giving the brothers their tikas with the paints. These were no simple red spots on the forehead. The sisters started with a vertical smear of pink, then put seven colored dots over it.




Then the brothers were draped with the garlands and white silk scarves:




The sisters rubbed mustard oil in the brothers' hair and piled marigold petals and rice high on their heads.






Then the sisters handed the brothers the beer and bowls, which they had to take with crossed hands:



Craig and Clancy picked up their trays of breads and other goodies and held them to their foreheads.




After the brothers had been thoroughly feted, it was their turn to put tikas on the sisters, this time just simple red spots:






The brothers and the sisters


That evening is sure to remain one of my favorite memories of Nepal. It was so amazing to get to be included in the family in this way.