Bajrabarahi Rice Planting Festival

In Nepal there is a festival every year to celebrating the monsoon. Rice is one of the most important commodities and to celebrate there is a rice planting festival. Rice is grown in about a foot of muddy water in large waterlogged fields. It's a messy job and has to be done quite particularly. I went to Bajrabarahi in the outskirts of Kathmandu valley with some friends to help plant the rice.

The ladies in the picture work very quickly but they were patient with us and taught us how to plant the rice correctly. The scenery was beautiful and it was great to be part of the process. It's hard work to plant rice which will make me appreciate rice all the more!

After the rice planting and mud wrestling (in a separate field) we were taken for a traditional Newari meal. Newari is the type of people who live in Kathmandu and their traditional food consists of beaten rice, dal, chickpeas and curried vegetables. In the evening I went to a party at Canadians house to celebrate Canada day.