KATHMANDU, AUGUST 1
With the onset of the rainy season in Nepal, the number of foot traffic in the Himalayan regions of the country subsides as tourists make their way back to Kathmandu and their homes. Meanwhile, in Mustang, preparations have neared completion for the celebration of the Yartung festival celebrated annually on the occasion of Janai Purnima, replacing feet with hooves. The festival scheduled from August 15 to 19 will hold a series of programmes and competitions, bringing in domestic and international tourists.
As per locals, the Yartung tradition dates back to the first settlements in the region, when locals would celebrate the end of summer months, bringing people from all over the region together for worship, celebrations, horse races and archery competitions. Any unflattering comment about one's horses would and still leads to a competition on such occasions, which also showcases the deep connection between an owner and their horse, the locals shared.
The festival is said to have been celebrated by the early kings of the then-divided states and is continued in the region with horses being an integral part of people's livelihood, Karma Gurung, a local entrepreneur, and proprietor of Chimley Orchards Pvt Ltd, shared adding that it is also believed to bring good luck when riding a horse during the occasion.
"Yartung is a combination of the local tongue - Yar and Tung, meaning 'summer' and 'farewell'," Gurung explained.
Horses and people of Mustang have been coexisting for over a thousand years and will continue to do so still. In the early days, people were said to flaunt their horses during the summer gathering and would even compete in races to see who had a better and faster horse. The tradition continues till this day. Now, each household has at least one horse and they are treated much like their own family members.
According to Kesang Thokya Thakuri, chairman of Jana Priya Youth Club, Purang, the annual organiser of the festival, preparations for the festival have neared completion with a few adjustments yet to be made in the coming days.
"Horses were used as the main means of transportation, trade, and a source of income and are still considered so today and the tradition is as old as the earliest human settlement in the region," Gurung said, adding that owning a horse also signified status and wealth.
Although many had stopped owning them, each household in the region owns at least one horse at present. While owning and taking care of one is already expensive itself, the price of a good strong horse can take up to over Rs 1.2 million and even more.
Not inclusive to the locals, people aged 18 to 60 - including women - from any part of the country are welcome to participate in the races.
"The festival will kick off on August 15 with a blessing ceremony followed by the start of football competitions between surrounding villages and locals. Archery competition begins on August 16 and the following day will see the results of both the sports," Thakuri shared, adding that the following two days will be focused on horse races and cultural programmes.
"On August 18, horse racers will be called forth from 8:00am and the race will take place from 10:00am till late noon. The race track is around a five-kilometre dirt track starting from Chher Thanga to Ranipuawa Purang On the last and most important day of the festival on the occasion of Janai Purnima. Locals of Ranipauwa Purang, Jharkot, and Khinga start the day with a puja ceremony at the local monastery followed by cultural dances and horse procession to Muktinath Temple for worship. Locals also wear their ancestral clothes, beautify and feed their horses and make merry till the end. Various artists and musicians are also invited on the occasion to further add life throughout the end of the festival," he informed THT.
With around 40 hotels established in Ranipauwa, around 1,000 people - both local tourists from surrounding regions and others including some foreigners - are expected to arrive in Mustang for the festival.
Furthermore, stakeholders have called on all three tiers of the government to promote the Yartung, also one of the biggest horse festivals in the country to further attract a very large number of international and local audiences, fostering tourism activities and economy.
"While Mustang has huge prospects in terms of tourism, they are hindered due to a lack of programmes and promotional activities and mainly due to the sluggish progress on the road construction project connecting it. Although over 400,000 tourists visited the region in the last fiscal year, the rapid development of necessary infrastructure could further help boost the numbers," Gurung said, adding that with many hotels including the Shinta Mani Mustang (SMM), first luxury hotel located outside Kathmandu, which was also listed among the top 22 'best new hotels for 2024' in National Geographic's 'Best of the World' list, highlight the region's potential in the future.
Mustang, a prime tourism destination renowned for its iconic landscapes, snow-capped and bare peaks, culture and lifestyle, and various sites of historical and religious importance welcomed around 427,000 domestic and international tourists in the fiscal year 2022-23, a significant increase compared to the previous fiscal when 379,767 tourists made their way there.
The Ghasa Police Post, which tracks the entry of tourists and vehicles into Mustang via land routes, reported that 427,271 tourists arrived in 74,374 vehicles over the past year. Among them, 318,814 were domestic tourists, 99,276 were from SAARC countries, and 9,171 were from other countries.
