Himalayan people crowd together at Devidhura Festival in Champawat, Uttarakhand, for stone pelting

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Himalayan people crowd together at Devidhura Festival in Champawat, Uttarakhand, for stone pelting occasion.

Kumaoni villagers of the western Himalaya smile and wave to our camera from the air, as our drone hovers over the massive crowds waiting to see the stone slugging fest.

Through the shifting monsoon mists one comes across an otherwise enchanting Himalayan village with a strange story to tell each season during the time of the rakhi festival. Rakhi itself represents the bond of consideration, love and protection between a brother and a sister, but the festival of Baghwal at Devidhura is something else altogether. It involves two villages' villagers throwing stones at each other, in an age-old practice. This stone pelting continues until such time as the blood of one human being is shed. Then the two sets of villagers go together to offer the blood to the Devi or female goddess of the Birahi Devi mandir or temple.

Two sets of opposing villagers send in their troops to stone each other, and once the devi has her offering readied, the festival comes to an end. After throwing apples and pears, the festival turns to harder stuff.

#devidhura #bagwal #uttarakhand #champawat #stonepelting

Devidhura Festival in Champawat district, Uttarakhand 19 August 2024

In the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand in India, a dangerous festival of stone pelting is organized annually now done with fruits. Outside of this region, to the rest of the world, this festival would seem bizarre.

An hour's drive away from Lohaghat, is Devidhura Village, which is famous for its Barahi temple where a bizarre festival is held once every year on the day of the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan. This unusual fair, which attracts people from Kumaon, Garhwal and Nepal among other places, is held every year at the temple of Barahi Devi. During this festival, known as Bagwal, two groups from different clans throw stones at each other while trying to protect themselves with large wooden shields.

The participants do not care about the injuries they receive. In fact, the injuries are believed to be a blessing from the goddess. It is claimed by the people of Devidhura that nobody has ever died as a result of the stone-pelting during this unusual fair.

All the warriors of the different khams are in high spirits. They jump around the courtyard as if warming up before the battle. The priest stops the ritual, as soon as he realizes that the blood of men equivalent to that of one man has been offered to the goddess. To stop the Bagwal the priest goes to the battle field and asks the warriors to stop the bloodshed.

Jumping along or rather hopping on both legs, village boys sally forth to throw stones and shed blood from the other village during the Bagwal Mela at Devidhura. Once the blood of about one human being's volume has been shed, it is offered to the devi at the temple and the fight is called off!

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