5 reasons you should fly kites in Kathmandu every Dashain
There was a time when kites were flown all around the year in Kathmandu, so the story goes. Whenever people of the valley had time to spare, they would go to the fields with their lattai and fly kites. They would not think much about the inconvenience the birds of the valley were facing. Every day, a number of birds got entangled in the manjha and others suffered cuts. This ruffled their feathers (literally). A delegation of birds met the king and demanded that the people be stopped from flying kites. The king and the birds then reached a deal, which came to be known as the Treaty of Kathmandu . The treaty says kites cannot be flown during the winter, the spring, and the summer. It can only be flown when the monsoon ends and the afternoon westerly winds start to blow–exactly when Dashain sets in. So why do we need to continue this tradition ? 1. Rain, rain, go away! Kites send a message to Indra, the god of rain, to stop the rain as the rice fields do not ...