The eight-day Indra Jatra festival is one of the most important festivals of the Newar community in the Kathmandu Valley. It also marks the beginning of the month-long autumn festival season. It begins with the erection of a pine tree in Basantapur Square in front of the old Hanuman Dhoka Palace.
Masked dancers perform on the first day of the Indra Jatra festival at Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
Masked performers, known as lakhay, take to the streets almost every evening, accompanied by loud drums.
People commemorate the moment when god Indra descended from heaven to earth, in human form, in search of a herb.
A girl dressed as the goddess Kumari participates in Kumari Puja (a festival during Indra Jatra, where young, unmarried girls are recruited to dress up as the goddess Kumari). The candidates go through a rigorous selection process before one of them is chosen to represent the goddess.
A girl's feet are washed before being dressed as the goddess Kumari
The girls were preparing for Kumari Puja.
It is believed that the child chosen to be dressed as the Kumari will be blessed with good health for the rest of his life by the goddess.
