Bhai tika: My Nepali sisters

Sunday I received Bhai tika from my three Nepali sisters. A ceremonial blessing from sister to brother, the practice derives from a legend in which a sister saved her brother from Yama, the god of death, by performing a special ritual. Bhaitika now takes place on the last day of the 5-day Tihar (or Dewali) holidays. For a description of the ceremony, see "Tihar Day Fifth."

Back in March I met sitar player Bijaya Vaidya, who now has some of his cds available for sale at our online shop, CDJam. This fall I had the pleasure to visit his home and meet his lovely wife Merina, who was so very kind to invite me as her brother to attend their family's Bhaitika. If you have a careful look at the photos, you might notice the elaborate preparations, which took many hours of shopping and arranging. The ceremony itself took perhaps 15 or 20 minutes for all three of us – Bijaya and Merina's son, me, and a student of Bijaya's.

Afterwards I visited my Nepali family for tikas from my sisters Laxmi and Yamuna. You might notice that one of the girls is named after the goddess who figures in the holiday mythology. As the Basnets are of a different caste than the Vaidyas, the ceremony was slightly different, most noticeably in the multicolored tika and in brother reciprocating tika to sister.

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I came home with bags of fruits and sweets and a neck-full of garlands. I washed up as best I could, but this morning one of my classmates noted that my head is red, leftover color from the holiday blessings from my lovely Nepali sisters.

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