The Horse Races

The races are the core of the day and the shortest part of it.

Riders run the length of Tundikhel, the long parade ground in the middle of Kathmandu, at full speed with the city on both sides and Dharahara above the rooftops. It is over in seconds at a time, and the sound of it — a few thousand people going quiet and then not — is the thing that stays with you.

The ritual logic is simple and is stated plainly by everyone who keeps the festival: hooves on this particular ground, on this particular day, hold something down. That belief is what has kept the field open in a city that has built on nearly everything else.

Lalitpur keeps its own variant of the day with a distinct local racing custom of its own, rather than simply repeating Kathmandu's.