‘If we fail to perform our rituals properly, it will bring a bad fate’

‘If we fail to perform our rituals properly, it will bring a bad fate’

“We have been unable to reconstruct our guthi house [small temple]. It is the traditional place where we Newaris perform our rituals. Some of these rituals have to be performed in secret. We cannot do that in tents. There is no privacy. And it is not safe to store our religious and cultural items in tents. So we carry them around all the time. It is very sad and it pains me to perform our rituals nowadays. But whatever the condition, we have to keep our culture alive. This is what makes us unique in this world. Despite the hardships, we must perform our rituals. If we fail to do it properly, it will bring a bad fate.”

Photo: Sameen Poudel