339. Ehee
Photo By: Siddhi Lal Kayestha
Posted Date: 13th March
Description:
Ehee, also known as Bel bibaha is a ceremony in Nepal in which pre-adolescent girls are ‘married’ to the bel fruit tree, which is a symbol of the god Shiva , ensuring that the girl becomes and remains fertile. It is believed that if the girl’s husband dies later in her life, she is not considered a widow because she is married to Shiva , and so already has a husband that is believed to be still alive. [wiki]
Really enjoyed this blog. Great.
This is good. Cheers!
Dear Auditor,
I am a mother of a daughter who is going to have “ihii” in the nearest future. I have been looking for the details so that i could tell my daughter about it during the process if she asks whats and whys.. and apart from this, I am also keen on knowing about the traditional dresses that is worn on these two days. Yours have provided me little information on what I wanted to know, but a little more detail should have been there to my expectation.
Anyways, thank you for the information……
Lenscape,
Your detailed comment is much more appreciated as I agree that title is short, comment is not much informative and ‘wiki’ is referred. As ‘mabi’ has mentioned above, there are different thoughts regarding ‘Ehee’ ceremony. Belonging to a same ethnic group, I am aware of one kind of thoughts (the weeding with Shiva). Description was not much informative as I have a consideration that anyone can Google ‘Ehee’ for detail :smile:. But from next post, it will be my endeavor to write description clearly so that it will be easy to understand.
Mabi, the three girls were actually set ready for a shot and were ready to face camera in front. I was just trying to capture details of ornaments and traditional clothing with those girls happy in their own world.
For comments, thank you Lenscape and mabi.
@ Mabi:
Exclusive Information!! Good Job!! 🙂
Believing in Rituals is one Part, but the important other part is about Understanding the Essence of it.
Thumbs up to a great Father, am sure U are!! 😆
And thanks to Siddhi Lal Kayestha for chosing this theme, it is inducing knowledge in us…
I pretty much aggre with Lenscape.
Having my daughter’s IHI recently, I got interested in the tradition.
Actually, a lot of meaningful and tedious activities for two days to complete the whole ceremony.
I asked the Buddhist priest about IHI and he corrected me that IHI is not actually the wedding with Bel (the fruit) contrary to the popular belief. (बेल सित बिबाह – is termed by non-Newars for IHI). He said “ it is the wedding with Subarna Kumar, who literally does not have any form” (possibly meaning that a girl has potential to get married with any male).
I did google on IHI and found out that there are two main thoughts on who the Newars girls get married to during IHI. The Shakyas/Bajracharyas etc believe that it is Subarna Kumar and other believe, Bishnu and Bel ( a representative of Shiva) is the witness only.
Some more information on IHI
http://colorfulnepal.com/culture-and-religion/newars-of-the-valley.html
http://www.ritualdynamik.de/ritualdynamik_en/ritualdesmonats/index.php
There are lots of websites which are very inconsistent with the information.
There is a informative book written by Laxman Rajbansi about Newari Culture.
About the photo:
It is hard to take a photograph with the girls looking at the camera or same direction. This is a very casual photograph. But a photographer should have patients to take multiple photographs and select one that does not distract the viewer. OR, use the “depth of field” – accentuate by focusing on one particular girl and others with gradual soft images. So the multiple directions that the girls were facing would not have distracted a viewer.
Since the shot was not taken spontaneously or instantly, a little instruction could have produced far significant better results.
However, the details on jewelary and cloth worn by the girls are wonderful.
Just a thought.
Mabi
Thumbs up for the Theme you chose. It is good and reflects Life in Nepal clearly.
My personal rating for this picture is Average.
The change of perspective could have helped emerge this picture more bold and informative.
The title is TOO Short to interpret(You could have used the 30 characters limit wisely).
The description is not that impressive. Some more detail should have been scribbled. I hope you need not rely only on the information from ‘wiki’ for this. You seem to be from the same community (the community is also not highlited in the description) where this ritual takes place, so could have compiled the description with suggestions also from elderly people who can go down to the elaborated importance of it. One day of delay in collecting information and then posting could have been good.Let us all write our picture’s description so that it is more clearly understood by large masses (not only targeted to Nepali) all over the world.
Sharing Pictures is Fun and Keep Posting… 🙂