The Jana Baha Dyah Chariot

The chariot is built fresh each year at Jamal, the spot at the top of the old city where tradition holds the deity was recovered — which is why the procession begins from there rather than from the temple.

It is a tiered wooden structure on solid wheels, rising to something like thirty-five feet with its spire, draped and decorated, with the image installed in a shrine at its base. It has no engine and no animals: it is pulled on ropes by whoever takes hold of them, which in the narrow lanes of old Kathmandu means a great deal of shouting, stopping and careful negotiation around balconies and overhead cables. Crews of men work the base with poles to steer and brake it.

Steering a chariot this tall through Asan and Indra Chowk is the whole difficulty of the festival, and the crowd is part of the mechanism rather than an audience to it. Stand back at corners. The chariot does not stop quickly and the ropes sweep a wide arc.