Badhe Festival

Badhe festival was a forgotten festival in Manang until 2004 when the people of Manang made serious efforts for its revival. Badhe festival is basically a performance art in which actors in costumes tell a story about two warring brothers. On the other side, it is a performance about the story of a Ghale king sending his army off to battle. There are two groups and the narration begins with two brothers visiting a temple. The elder one gets offended when the smaller one enters the temple first. Then the fight begins. They wage a poetic war and one team berates another with traditional ballad songs called dohori. All this is done in a very witty way and role play is never forgotten. To boost the morale of their teams, both sides also display their war skills through role-playing. It is all done for the prosperity of their village and to keep away evil spirits and bad omen. Many years back when Bon religion was dominant, virgin girls were sacrificed during this festival. Later goats replaced human beings and they used to be killed not by slitting their throat but brutally by smashing their heads. The people would think of the goats as their enemies. The time when Bon must have been quite morbid. It was only later when Buddhism prevailed the sacrifices stopped. Badhe festival is celebrated once every 3 years on the first day of the 10th month of Tibetan calendar. The last time it was celebrated was in the year 2013. Therefore the next festival is on 2016. Here are the predicted dates for the upcoming five festivals (the dates may not match 100%, so it is advised to confirm when the festival nears): 2016: 30 November, Wednesday 2019: 27 November, Wednesday 2022: 24 November, Thursday 2025: 21 November, Friday 2028: 17 November, Friday