भैरव | महाकाली नाच 2081 | Bharab | Mahakali Dance | Nilbarahi | Digu Bhairab | Layaku Bhairab Dance

Another important traditional dance in Madhyapur Thimi is the Layaku Bhaila Naach which is also performed by people of Thimi in the month of August in Thimi after four days of Gaijatra. Altogether five men dance in this traditional dance with four youth and one child. The men wear masks of Bhairab and Daagi (Kumari). There are two Bhairabs and Daagis and one Jyapuga (the child artist). They dance with traditional spiritual music and after dancing they start shivering (except the child artist) because of the divine powers of gods. When they are shivering they lose their sense and know nothing about what happened. The adult dancers who are dancing, get hypnotised when they hear the sound of Daaga baja, Bhusya baja and Ponga baja (Different Newari musical instruments).
According to the recent dancers, they feel like a divine power embracing them to encourage dancing more and more. According to them when they are dancing they loose half of their consciousness, heavy clothing starts becoming lighter and when they shiver they feel like in the state of unconsciousness or like when they are asleep. This shows that the community has strong devotion toward their tradition and culture. They must not stop dancing even if it is raining.
Thimi too hosts piercing tongue jatra the night after Indra Jatra. In Thimi, tongue is bored in front of Bhairab temple of Digu tole. After boring the tongue, the very person is taken around the town and sometimes even in other towns and distant places, Changu, Pashupati, for instance. Thus it becomes almost morning when they reach back home. The tongue-bored person has to give customary feast party to one and all who follows him during the circumambulation of the town. Since the people eat feast in the morning without washing their faces, they often chant a slogan, which goes like - Khwah masisen bhoe naye which means not other than eating the feast without washing the face.
Albeit there is no written substantiation regarding this tradition, there is a popular legend behind it. Thus runs the story -
Thimi was once haunted by man-eating demons. The behaviors of demons scared the living daylights out of the people. Nobody could walk in the streets even in the daytime. In the absence of farming, food scarce spread, and the people got into a panic. After many people died off, some people petitioned the royal palace to protect their lives. They said that they had been troubled by the demons and they were unable to do any work and their lives had been ruined by the demons. The king immediately summoned parliament. In discussion, Tantrik said that the demons could be punished by the charisma of lord Bhairab. So the tantrik performed the rituals.
With the divine power of lord Bhairab, the demons were caught. Some demons hid under the eaves but each of them was also caught with the help of Yanmata, explicitly a long handled torch. In front of Lord Bhairab, with permission of the king, their tongues were bored. Each of them was made to carry 108 dhani (1 dhani=2.4 kg) heavy vey (flaming torch) on the shoulder, ghangala (small bells) were tied, then all were made to walk around the country. They were exiled from the settlement and made not to return again under a promise of not giving such troubles.
To remind the thing that one who does bad things for people and the country and those who distresses others will be punished in this way and dishonored in front of all and even exiled from the country, tongue boring festival was celebrated every year.
Many customs support this legend.
ऐतिहासिक महाकाली नाच :
नगदेश सांस्कृति पुचःद्वारा मध्यपुर थिमि नगदेशमा सोमबार राति ऐतिहासिक महाकाली नाच प्रदर्शनका क्रममा सामूहिक तस्बिर खिचाउँदै कलाकार । महाकाली नाचमा महाकाली एक, महालक्ष्मी एक, कौमारी एक, सिंह एक, बेता चार, भूतभैरव दुई, कवं दुई, ख्याक दुई, माकः (बाँदर) दुई गरी १६ नर्तक (कलाकार) छन् ।
Similarly, there are 26 people associated with the Mahakali dance. Of them, 17 are Devgans who dance as various deities- Mahakali, Mahalaxmi, Kumari, Vetals, Bhairav, Kawang, Khyak, Simgha, Maka and others, said Birendra Bhakata Shrestha, a local.
The remaining members play music and carry out other activities to successfully portray the battle between the goddess and the demon Mahisasur through the colourful masked dance. They also go around the designated route.
Believed to have been started by King Subarna Malla in the 16th century, the folk dance was last performed in the 1940s.
Last year, the Mahakali masked dance was limited to a single day due to the route around the junctions and platforms (Dabalis) of the Bhairav and Mahakali dances overlapped. The route of the two dances should be different. When the dances passed through the same route, the Mahakali dance concluded in a single day. This year, separate routes were managed for the dances by holding a meeting, said Sankhadev.