DAMAULI, OCTOBER 30

For majority of people, the happy moment of Dashian celebration is still fresh in their memory. Unfortunately, the festival has just gone leaving back loans for the Bote people.

People from Bote community have set out to search for gold to pay back the loan taken to celebrate Dasahin on the river banks at Kumaltari of Tanahun's Byash Municipality.

Impoverished Bote families take loan to celebrate Dashain and go for gold hunt as soon as Dashain is over to pay back the loan.

With the loan amount, Bote people purchase meat, salt, cooking oil, and clothes for themselves and their children.

Mekhlal Bote said that he was heading to the riverbank to pay a loan amount of Rs 25,000. 'I have great hope to get gold as the flood has been large in the river this year,' Bote stated.

Most Bote families have already reached the riverbank to sort out the precious metal. Gold hunt on the river is a long-held tradition in the Bote community.

Those capable of searching for the gold carry utensils, and clothes to the river.

A version of this article appears in the print on October 31, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.