Baisakh purnima bhoj (Khoi) was successfully concluded in Ghyuasibas

Organiser

Baisakh purnima bhoj (Khoi) was successfully concluded in Ghyuasibas, a very small village just in front of Dudh pokhari Himal, a 45 minute uphill walk distance from Udipur and 30 minute by Mahendra jeep or bike.

The youth of Ghyuasibas performed chutka on the day of Baisakh purnima and organized the Bhoj (Khoi) on 28 and 29 Jestha 2067 to preserve the Gurung culture with the support of village elders. The organizer informed that they regret that, Sati Ghanto has been fading away from their villages. As their only Guru Ba , Akil Bahadur Gurung passed away some years ago and nobody mastered his arts.

Since then they are performing Chutka or baramasye ghanto at the interval of 3 or 4 yrs to preserve Gurung culture and promote village due to the shortage of manpowers. As the younger generation are away for earning bread for their family

The event was attended by the people of 27 villages and during this event they people forget their worries and exchange friendships, even love sometimes. The organizer thanked everyone for attending and making a big success.







Some images from Ghyuasibas Village



More about Ghanto

The Ghanto nach or dance festival takes place in the month of Magh Panchami in Magh (towards end of January) and ends on Baisakh purnima which falls around the end of April or beginning of May. This final performance lasts from morning to evening for three days. Not a single episode must be omitted; if a mistake is made it is believed that the dancing girls will become sick and may die.

Young girls around the ages of 12 (pre-pubertal) perform the ghanto and are called ghansaris or ghatonis. They wear typical ghanto dress comprising of traditional Gurung dress, jewellery and special headgears. They dance trance-like and it is extremely graceful, twisting, rising, and sinking and then turning in a squatting position with the hands just touching the ground, with eyes closed, in a story that is sung by a group of men, a slow chant to the rhythm of a double-ended drum. The language of the ghanto chant does not appear to be either modern Gurung or Nepali, perhaps archaic Nepali. It is even unintelligible even to the ghanto gurus who can only say what each part is about generally.

The story tells a long story of a legendary King Parsuram and his queen, various events in their lives including the death of the king and the immolation (sati) of his queen and her subsequent return to life. This is the most important part of the ghanto. It is said that if a ghansari cannot be resurrected after she swoons when the part about the self immolation is sung, then she is liable to die. The rest of the story depicts a long and eventually successful hunting venture followed by a gambling spree.

There are two types of ghanto dances that are performed are the sati and baramasye ghanto. The former is performed at a fixed time as described above, whereas baramasye can be performed at any time and is not rigid following strict adherence as the sati ghanto dance.

A distinctive Gurung institution, ghanto is fading away, as the old men who sung the songs die; young girls have less time from their school work; and the rich soldiers who paid for performances no longer come to the village. Yet, one can still find ghanto being performed in Lamjung and Gorkha districts

http://gurungs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=58

Posted on:June 15, 2010, 8:29 am