Description
Mustang-Tiji
The Tiji Festival tradition began during the 17th century in the Mustang capital. The locals believed that a demon settled in the land destroying crops and drying waterbeds. The King of those times invited a Tibetan monk to come into Lo Manthang and help relieve the kingdom of its demonic curse. The monk came and practiced a meditation ritual from the Vajrakilaya tradition. Vajrakilaya is the manifestation of all of the Buddha’s activities in a wrathful form. It is one of the highest tantric teachings in the Buddhist tradition. Through this ritual that consisted of dance steps and prayers, all the nefarious and destructive forces in the area were eliminated.
The monks learned the practice and every year since those times cleansed their town of demons in a spectacular Buddhist event, the Tiji Festival.
A meditative dance… hypnotic… repetitive… with slow movements where each step has its own significance. The prayers and magical steps consecrate the grounds of the festival. The sagacious movements mentally prepare the monks to fight the demon that conquered their land and souls. All deities are called into the square to assist in the rebirth of the local hero. This hero will cleanse the land of all ruinous influences which thwarted the spiritual progress of the villagers.
The dances are just the preamble to the extermination of the demon in the most significant Tibetan festival in Nepal… Tiji…
For centuries, the snow-capped Himalayan summits have kept Mustang’s sacred traditions untouched by the outside world. During the tumultuous history of the region, a local chieftain carved this territory out of the kingdom of Tibet and established here the Lo Kingdom.
To access the kingdom, merchants led their caravans across harrowing mountains and chasms. This perilous trek granted the kingdom its nickname: “The Forbidden Kingdom”.
Nowadays, the ancient caravan route is navigated by jeeps that carry locals and tourists between the kingdom’s villages.
I traversed the land on a road marked by legends where holy men once fought against the powerful demons which sought to dominate the villager’s land and souls.
On my journey, I stopped to see long mani walls which lined the road and archaic monasteries which towered over villages lost in oblivion.
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