Last weekend we were fortunate to attend the Hindu festival of Rath Yatra in the town of Dhamrai, about an hour outside of Dhaka. I have to admit that I have minimal actual understanding of the religious festival, but I really wanted to see what a Hindu festival would be like here. Bangladesh is about 85% Muslim now, and while people generally get along (so far as I can tell) there is also a definite awareness of religious differences. Dhamrai is a mostly-Hindu village and a center of religious and cultural life for the community, so it was the place to go to see this festival.
The Rath Yatra festival celebrates the return of Jagannath (or Krishna) to his home after a long absence. (Everything I know I learned from wikipedia.) In practice, this means that the worshipers carry the god on a chariot throughout the town, and the triumphant return to the temple is the highlight of the festival. We went with a group of friends and were lucky enough to get to watch the proceedings from the balcony of a friend’s house.
Waiting for the big moment:
You’ll note that there were quite a few people there.
And here’s us:
This man is selling bananas to be given as an offering to the gods. It is considered good luck if you can toss your banana directly into the chariot of the god as it passes by. Thus there was much banana-throwing – and re-throwing, as people rescued bananas from the ground and gave it another go. In the video below you can see bananas winging past as the chariot approaches.
And finally the chariot itself!
The video quality on this is so bad I’m a little embarrassed to share it, but I think it might help you experience the moment. The arrival of the chariot, via YouTube:
[...] was told that eventually there were huge numbers and no place to move. People after filling the street were lining terraces, balconies and roofs of the buildings along t…. In a way it was better that we left when we did as else we’d never have made it back home [...]