Mustang-muktinath: an awesome place to visit.

Equipped with natural beauty,straddled among himalayas,marvellous geographical structures,Mustang's been able to manage a place between top ten destinations of world.

Mustang where you can feel the presence of nature very closely is blessed with immense scenic grandeur which definitely makes you fall in love with this place.

Mustang on the whole cannot be summed up in paragraph,one must have to visit to get real life experience of heaven on earth.

This place attracts thousand of tourists from the nation itself and all across the globe.

First time witnessing mustangi culture and tradition for anyone is heartwarming  and fascinating  experience.

Mustang is one of the 75 districts of nepal.It lies in western region in dhaulagiri zone and situated between dhaulagiri and nilgiri mountains.It is small and very beautiful place of nepal covering an area of 3573  square km. and approx 13452 population according to latest census.Jomsom is the headquarter of mustang.

Mustang is connected both by roadways  and airways.By road it takes around 6 hours from Myagdi,Beni to reach jomsom and by airways it takes 20 minutes from Pokhara.Due to difficult geographical structures roadways is bit more challenging and risky.Despite being risky most of the visitors prefer travelling by their motorbike.one can either trek or hire keep.

Attractions:

Mustang is divided into two parts: upper and lower mustang.There are 16 VDCs in mustang among which 8 lies in upper mustang.upper mustang is influenced by tibetian culture where as lower mustang is filled with thakali culture.Tribes of Gurung and Thakali are mainly dispersed in mustang.sherchan,gauchan,bhattachan,tulachan and muktinath are some of the temples of mustang.

Muktinath temple,kagbeni and upper mustang are the main attraction of mustang district.

Both upper and lower mustangi people are seen busy in promoting and preserving their own cultures and set of traditions.

TG parva is one of the popular festival of upper mustang which continues from 17th century.

Mustang is also called as the city of Stupas as there are almost 64 stupas.

Kaligandaki river flows from Nhubine Himal Glacier in the mustang region.Due to avalibility of shaligram stone(lord vishnu),the colour of water seems black.

This place is also famous for Apple,including yarsagumba and many herbal plants.

The houses here are more than 700 years old,mainly made up of clay and stone.

                                            Muktinath temple:

Muktinath is regarded as sacred and holiest place for both Hindus and Buddhists.It is located in muktinath valley at an altitude 3,710 at the foot of Thorong la mountain parts in mustang,nepal.The temple premise is close to Ranipauwa village.It is one of the 51 Shakti peetha(significant pilgrimage site).within hindus muktinath is reffered as mukti kshetra,it literally means the place of liberation(moksha).Although temple is small,it is one of the eight most sacred shrines of Hindus.
The temple courtyard is surrounded by 108 bull faced holy taps for sacred bath purpose.within hindus,it is believed that sacred bath under these all holy taps removes all bad karma.The worship at this temple is conducted by buddhists.

After holy bath pilgrims are expected to offer a prasad to deity. suitable time to visit muktinath is from march to June due to good weather.

लक्ष्मी नारायण शिल्पकार #The Flag Man

"विश्वमा हरेक मानिस पागल छन् फरक यति मात्र हो कि कोही आफ्नो लागी, कोही अर्काको लागि, कोही देशको लागी त कोही विश्वको लागि र विश्वमा ल्याउने तरङ्गहरु पागलले नै ल्यायेका हुन् |"

यो भनाई हामी बसन्तपुर दरबार घुम्दै जाँदा नजिकै रहेको राजा पृथ्वीनारायण शाह्को शालिक अगाडी नेपाली  झणडा बोकिरहेको करिब ६० बर्ष उमेरका लक्ष्मी नारायण शिल्पकारको हो |हुनत उनी कुनै विद्वान  होइनन् तर उनको यो कुरा ध्रुबसत्य भन्दा कम छैन|नेपाली झणडा फेर्ने भन्दै गरेको बेला शरीरमा दौरासुर्वाल शिरमा नेपाली टोपी र हातमा नेपाली झणडा बोकीरहेका शिल्पकारलाई पहिलो चोटि भेत्दा जोकोही आशचर्य चकित हुनु स्वाभाभिकनै हो|कालिमाटी भिम्मुक्तेशवर निवासी शिल्पकार प्रायजसो काठमाडौं ,पाटन दरबार,बसन्तपुर दरबार,भक्तपुर दरबार नेपाली झणडा लिई घुम्ने गर्छन् |

बिश्वमाझ नेपाली झणडा चिनाउनका लागी लक्ष्मी नारायण शिल्पकार झणडा बोकेको करिब १० बर्ष जति भइसक्यो|यस कार्यमा उनलाई घरपरिवारले पनि साथ दिएेेका छन् |उनी यस कार्यमा निश्वार्थ कसैको अर्थिक सहयोग बिना आफ्नो देश र झणडाका लागि लगिपरेका छन्|उन्लाई भेट्ने अधिकांसले राजाबादी अथ्वा पागल भन्ने गरेका छन् |२२ बर्षको उमेरमा भक्तपुरको रेडक्रोस्स संस्थामा उपसभापतीको रुपमा काम गरि सेवा प्रदान  गरे| निश्वर्थ देशलाई माया गर्ने ब्यक्ती आएमा मात्र देशको बिकाश हुन्छ|उनी नेपाल आमाको झणडा बोक्न पाएको मा खुसी व्यक्त गर्छन् |

हाम्रो यो सानो लेखले उन्को ब्याक्तित्व,नेपाल र नेपाली प्रतिको मायालाई बर्णन गर्न असम्भव छ|आज उन्को नेपाली झणडा संगै खिचियैको फोटाे विभिन्न देश र सामाजिक संजालमा देख्न पाइन्छ र यहि झणडाले उन्लाई कैयौ बर्ष सम्मन नेपाली  भनी विश्वमाझ चिनाउनेछ|झणडा फेरेर देश फेरिदैन,भाषन दिएर देश बन्दैन,निश्वर्थ भई देश र जनताको सेवा गरे मात्र देश फेरिन्छ र बनिन्छ पनि|परेका लाई सहयोग,नेपाल र नेपाली झणडा लाई निश्वर्थ माया गरौ|

जय नेपाल !!!

Souvenir from Nepal

Apart from Serene nature,mesmerizing beauty and friendly people,this beautiful country nepal has lot more to offer.The art forms expressing different cultures and traditions are widely present in the street of nepal.

Street vendor at basantapur durbar

If you are willing to visit nepal or say you already arrived in nepal,then definitely you might wanna take something back home to keep as memory of nepal.
There are several things found at various tourist destination such as patan durbar square,bhaktapur durbar,bauddhanath stupa,basantapur durbar.
You can see these street vendor selling various items including singing bowls,indigenous masks,wheel,pottery,thangkas,khukuri knives,player's wheel,puppets etc....
Take a look at these......

Thangkas

Player's wheel

Singing bowls

Khukuris

Hand knitted woollen wear

Wooden puppets

                     

Traditional masks

Traditional Tribal Masks of Nepal.

Nepalese Masks:

Traditional masks are regarded as the cultural heritage of Nepal reflecting Nepalese culture and religion.This uniqueness separates Nepal from entire world in its own way.It has vivid collection of arts to offer to world.These traditional masks belonging to different ethnic groups have been in use for hundreds of years.Different ethnic groups take part in various rituals to prevent of the risk of extinction or losing essence.In these rituals,these masks plays a major role.
Almost all ethnic communities such as Gurung,Newark,Magar,Rai have their own set of masks, referred as shaman's mask ( Shaman is a spiritual leader of tribe and is believed to protect from evil powers) also there are classical masks of hindu God's and goddess.These unique masks separate groups from other communities.

Types of Masks:

These traditional masks adds up the same value but are made up of different raw materials such as mud & paper,wood,metals such as copper,bronze.Different colours are used to give  elegant look.

 But nowadays local communities prefer metal masks than that of mud and paper as it is lighter and safer to use and there is no need to remake year after year.problem with the mud masks is that if it rains in the middle of jatras,they may melt away.

It takes around 15-16 days to fully complete one mask depending on their size and structure.

Traditional Mask Makers:

Traditional Mask Makers hail from local communities of Nepal carrying their tremendous skills from one generation to another.It's hard to find sufficient skilled mask makers these days.only few experts are left at this field who are doing their job with all their heart.

Undoubtedly the making of this types of masks requires amazing sets of skills

Varieties of Nepalese Masks:

The wide collection of masks are made by the fully experienced artist who have been in the business from a long time ago.These masks speaks a lot more about nepali  culture in itself.Masks of different dieties such as shiva,hanuman,Ganesh,durga,laxmi,varahi,

Bhairabha, Buddha,Indra,various puppets,animal skulls and many more are made.

These different masks symbolizes independently in Nepalese communities.

Shiva is very powerful God and helps whenever there is evil in this world.

Bhairabh is considered as very angry God.

Lord hanuman is of immensely powerful and most worshipped in kaliyug.It is believed that still there is a presence of lord hanuman as he is blessed for longevity by shiva.Also hanuman is the reincarnation of lord shiva.

These mask makers should keep themselves in a very pure state,it should be done without breaking manual rules and regulations.If the rules are not followed properly,a deity can take a demoniacal form and cause casualty.

These traditional mask are used in the following rituals and dances performed by people of different communities.

• Lyaku Bhaila Dya jatra
• Bhairav naach(dance)
• Nava Durga Naach of Bhaktapur
• Lakhe naach(dance)
• Manjushree naach(dance)
• Indra jatra
• Krishna janmasthami &many more

Significance:

These traditional masks have their own significance in Nepalese culture.you can see these types of masks used for decorative purpose and it is believed that it protects from evil power.people hang mask of lord ganesha infront of their main door for blessing purpose every times one enters or leaves home.

Mud masks are destroyed after performing rituals,so it is believed that lucky are the ones who get to worship or take part in these rituals.

Like humans they are born,live with people then the time comes to death where they are destroyed.

Economically these traditional masks have higher demands in nepal as well as in Asia.

You can buy traditional masks of nepal from here 1.ebay/nepali masks

                                                                                         2.himalayantrade

                                      .................JAY NEPAL....................