Inside Bhumi Mela | Nepal’s Wildest Cultural Celebration | part 2

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:28]Good Morning from Tim Simco Lagon here in western Nepal for day two of the Bumi Mela. It's been an extremely rainy start to the day. Uh but everyone is slowly uh coming out of their houses cleared of their hangovers from yesterday's uh drinking let's say.

[00:00:52]And we are now awaiting the arrival of the Toba. And Toba is, I guess, if you were to translate it, uh, kind of like a jester or a joker. Uh, someone kind of possessed almost uh they wear old clothes, ripped clothes, cover their faces with masks, and it's all about uh laughter and happiness. and appeasing the god the deity boomie to make him happy him or her I'm not quite sure to make them happy and to give good harvest here in this region uh the band is just slowly on their way with the horns and the drums and we're going to play music and wait for the tuba to arrive slowly from the bottom of the village from this side of the village from up and from on the other side. They all come together from different angles and we congregate in the main ground for traditional dance and music.

[00:02:06]At the moment, it's still a little bit quiet, but I can hear music and drums in the distance. So, I will join you over there when they arrive.

[00:02:40]Look at the daddy.

[00:02:47]Go.

[00:02:51]Let's go.

[00:03:14]Let's go.

[00:03:51]Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

[00:03:54]Yo.

[00:04:50]All right guys, we are now approaching the ground where uh all groups of toba will congregate and join together for dance.

[00:05:02]The rain is still coming hard.

[00:05:07]It's made this walk a little bit treacherous on the stairs.

[00:05:19]But as you can see, everyone is still having fun.

[00:05:36]Somehow the show must go on rain or shine.

[00:05:43]There are makeshift shops.

[00:05:46]People are selling uh all kinds of uh children's toys by the looks of it. Maybe some clothes.

[00:05:55]There's a a few few games going on. Cards, dice.

[00:06:01]I imagine there's probably more >> millet, beer, wine.

[00:06:07]>> Just like yesterday.

[00:06:09]The old ladies here sheltering from the rain. Namaskar.

[00:06:14]All right, I will see you guys in the ground in just a minute.

[00:06:40]Come on.

[00:06:59]Come on.

[00:07:17]Okay guys, so the dance of the tobo is just about to begin.

[00:07:25]Everyone is gathering here in the middle of the ground.

[00:07:30]the AMA Samar the mother committee and they are all gathering hands to dance here in the circle. The rain is not letting up but it's uh slowing down a little bit.

[00:07:52]Everyone is here trying to enjoy it best they can.

[00:08:15]The old grandfathers in the middle here are singing very old folk songs from the Mar uh community, from their culture.

[00:08:29]So in Nepal there's many many different cultures >> here in Timcola in Miyagi district.

[00:08:37]It is predominantly the mar culture and this festival in particular is specifically a mar festival.

[00:08:46]Namaste brother.

[00:08:59]>> So I think we have a little bit of a selfie photo shoot coming along.

[00:09:04]But uh yes, here we are at the start of today's dance and music.

[00:09:15]Give me glory. Even glory.

[00:10:16]kill.

[00:10:56]What are you going to do?

[00:11:05]Thank you guys.

[00:11:29]Come on.

[00:12:07]One more.

[00:12:27]Okay, we we have just reached we've just uh witnessed the toba nas and I just wanted to uh speak with one of the elders here and ask exactly what that was about what that was for.

[00:13:10]ladies.

[00:13:24]chill.

[00:13:33]Okay. Okay.

[00:13:38]foreign.

[00:14:20]This is the next part of the ceremony here in Bumi Ma and this is a wedding uh supposedly of Bumi and Bumini, male and female and marrying on this day is a very very sacred and special event.

[00:14:42]These uh children actually are not getting married. It's more a demonstration.

[00:14:48]However, in the history of this village, there's been a few examples of these children growing up and actually marrying one another.

[00:15:00]They circled this totem in the middle three or four times.

[00:15:09]Very very interesting.

[00:15:18]As you can see the young young boy there is the groom and here is the daughter just here. And this is to make happy.

[00:15:45]>> Very very traditional culture, very unique culture. Very rarely seen here in Nepal.

[00:15:59]Hello.

[00:16:08]Hello.

[00:16:35]Okay.

[00:16:55]This is in the morning.

[00:17:48]Wow.

[00:18:27]Yep.

[00:18:56]Hello Hello.

[00:19:23]You're done.

[00:19:25]Hey,ch.

[00:20:01]What?

[00:20:03]Some people Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.

[00:20:32]Yes.

[00:20:56]Love.chech.

[00:21:32]1 2.

[00:21:37]My dear. My dear.

[00:21:54]Look, don't sing.

[00:22:13]Okay.

[00:22:46]My Load.

[00:24:31]Okay guys, so the main ceremonies uh for Buma have almost come to an end. Uh now everyone is setting up for the cultural dancing and music. Uh but before it's all set up, I would like to take a little look behind the scenes. If you can see all of these tents, they are makeshift kitchens and restaurants. So, we're going to go and see what is going on over there. Okay. So, we're going to have a little look at what's going on inside these tents. Some of them are restaurants, some of them are bars, and some of them are games.

[00:25:09]Over here, we have a game. Essentially, you put your money >> uh on one of those symbols on the table on this guy.

[00:25:36]There's I think four dice or five dice.

[00:25:39]>> What?

[00:25:40]>> And if your symbol comes up, you win bunny essentially. Um >> yeah, very very busy at the moment.

[00:25:48]Moving on. Have a look at some of the other tents. How you doing, brother?

[00:25:55]Over here we have some singing, cooking going on.

[00:26:08]Seems to be a bit of a party going on in there.

[00:26:13]We have some longer tents over here.

[00:26:18]Let's go and check it out. Huh?

[00:26:28]>> Momo soup.

[00:26:28]>> Momo soup. On >> chicken.

[00:26:37]French fries wings.

[00:26:41]>> Blackp sausages.

[00:26:43]>> Sauses.

[00:26:44]>> Uh-huh.

[00:26:45]Noodles.

[00:26:47]>> Okay.

[00:27:19]Let's try some momos and summit meeting. Roxy meeting. Cheers.

[00:27:28]Cheers.

[00:27:29]>> Cheers.

[00:27:33]Okay, take a seat.

[00:27:51]Special hot sauce.

[00:28:00]Chicken chicken mas dumplings.

[00:28:11]Very, very good.

[00:28:13]I'm going to tuck in guys and I will join you for some more cultural dancing, music and everything else in between.

[00:28:23]Cheers. Okay guys, so we have sur which is about to start here.

[00:28:31]This is a dance to worship the deity Sorti which is the goddess of wisdom. As you can see, some of these men are dressed as women and some are dressed obviously as men.

[00:28:48]It's going to be a very, very interesting dance. I will explain a little bit more afterwards.

[00:29:17]Foreign speech. Foreign foreign foreign speech.

[00:29:50]Lord.

[00:30:25]Okay guys, I'm here with Mr. Bahun who's the let's say the chief of that lovely dance.

[00:30:46]You're nuts.

[00:30:48]Important.

[00:31:30]Kitty man.

[00:31:46]for I Huh?

[00:32:36]Camson.

[00:32:47]Okay.

[00:32:56]Okay. Okay.

[00:33:02]team.

[00:33:24]Last Thank you.

[00:33:57]Thank you so much.

[00:34:01]Thank you. Okay guys, so before the next dance, there's a lot of speeches going on.

[00:34:07]A lot of uh respect and uh gratification gratitude uh has been given for those who have donated to this event and to this uh committee I guess to the development of Tim.

[00:34:26]So all of that is going on at the moment.

[00:34:30]After that there is talinat which is very very indicative of the mar culture. This is a dance with plates.

[00:34:40]Two plates one in each hand. Uh and it's an extremely awesome dance which will be coming shortly. Uh I am also being called up on the stage to receive a small gift, a token of love from the team here.

[00:34:57]Uh, it's hard to speak over all of the speeches.

[00:35:02]Everyone here is enjoying the rain has stopped.

[00:35:10]I'll be up on the stage in Okay guys, so it is time for the talin nuts which is about to start here. The ladies getting ready with their plates.

[00:35:44]Uh for this there is a backing track so I think copyright might get involved if I u take too much of a video unfortunately. We'll see what we can get away with.

[00:36:25]Woo! Woo!

[00:36:48]Hey world.

[00:37:16]Okay guys, so unfortunately the plate dance is not yet come to the stage and we might not have time for that today.

[00:37:24]But we are very very lucky to be sat here with the lady who actually started and originated this dance.

[00:38:11]foreign.

[00:38:39]foreign.

[00:38:43]Uhhuh.

[00:38:53]David.

[00:39:28]I'm likech Huh?

[00:40:14]Has knows.

[00:40:26]Oh, mighty.

[00:41:06]foreign.

[00:41:35]Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.

[00:42:02]Thank you.

[00:42:22]As the people here in Chimora dance on into the night, uh it is sadly time for me to say goodbye to you all. Um but I do uh really hope you've enjoyed this experience, this adventure. Um, I feel very privileged um to have been allowed and welcomed to this festival, to this ceremony, uh to make uh a documentary hopefully for the world to see. Um, if you do perhaps uh want to visit Chimca um either for this festival or just in general, um from Chimca there are routes up to Dairi. There are trekking routes everywhere. There's plenty of places to visit and here in the village itself uh there are many things to do, many things to see and plenty of facilities here to accommodate you. Uh if any of that interests you, if you're in Nepal and you want to travel here, please uh feel free to get in touch with me. You can send me a message directly uh on Instagram, Facebook or Tik Tok all under the name Jackdai Nepal. I would be more than happy to give you an itinerary uh or some contacts of the home stays here.

[00:43:39]Uh but there we go. I think uh that's about enough from me today. Um but join me next time. I will be traveling further west uh into Nepal into Nepal's um remote regions to capture more events like this, more adventures uh and to show the real Nepal from my perspective. Um if you haven't enjoyed this video, don't forget to uh like, share, and subscribe. Um and I will see you on the next one. Thank you so much.

[00:44:14]Good night.