Nava Durga masked dances of Bhaktapur

In Bhaktapur the goddesses walk the streets. For much of the year, a troupe of masked dancers called the Nava Durga Gana moves from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, performing sacred dramas in the squares. Each dancer is believed to become the deity whose mask he wears.

The deities

The troupe represents the nine forms of Durga — including Brahmayani, Maheshwori, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Barahi, Indrayani, Mahakali and Mahalaxmi — along with Ganesh, Bhairav, Shiva and several attendant figures. Each has a distinct mask colour and costume. The dancers come from a particular community, traditionally the Gathu or Banmala caste, who are also gardeners and flower-sellers.

The annual cycle

The masks are made fresh each year by Chitrakar painters of Bhaktapur, from sacred clay collected at a field north-east of the city, and consecrated through tantric rites. The season runs for about eleven months, from Gathemangal (Ghanta Karna) in the monsoon to Bhalbhal Ashtami the following summer. The dancers live in the Nava Durga Dyochhen, the god-house in Gachhen, and perform in different neighbourhoods on a traditional schedule, often at night. At the end of the season the twelve masks are cremated near the Hanumante river — the dancer wearing Bhairav's mask lights the pyre — and after a two-month pause new masks begin the cycle again.

Watching a performance

Performances take place in the squares and courtyards of Bhaktapur, accompanied by drums and cymbals. They can be intense: the dancers are considered divine, and some rituals involve animal sacrifice. Watch from the edge of the crowd, ask locals about the schedule, avoid using flash, and never touch the masks or the dancers.

A living tradition

The Nava Durga dances connect craft and worship in a unique way: the Chitrakar painters give the gods their faces, and the Banmala dancers give them bodies and movement. Scholars see them as one of the most complete surviving examples of Newar tantric ritual theatre.