Sakela Festival: Ubhauli, Udhauli & the Kirat Yele Sambat

Sakela (also spelt Sakewa, Sakle or Saya) is the principal festival of the Kirat peoples of eastern Nepal, chiefly the Rai (Khambu), Sunuwar and Yakkha communities. It is a festival of nature worship and thanksgiving in which the community prays to Mother Nature for healthy crops, good health and protection from natural calamities. Because it is tied to the farming cycle, Sakela is celebrated twice each year rather than once.

The two celebrations are named after the seasonal movement of people and livestock between the highlands and the lowlands. Ubhauli (उभौली, literally 'going up') marks the upward migration towards the cooler hills as summer begins and the sowing season opens; it is observed on Baisakh Purnima, the full-moon day of the month of Baisakh (April-May). Udhauli (उधौली, 'going down') marks the downward migration to warmer, lower altitudes as winter approaches and after the harvest is gathered; it falls on Mangsir Purnima, the full-moon day of Mangsir (November-December).

Together the two festivals frame the Kirat agricultural year: Ubhauli is a prayer for a good harvest before planting, and Udhauli is a gesture of gratitude once that harvest is in. The Limbu, another major Kirat group, keep a parallel harvest cycle but under their own names, Chasok Tangnam (thanksgiving) and Yokwa, rather than 'Sakela'.

The defining ritual of both Ubhauli and Udhauli is the Sakela Sili, a large group circle dance performed by community members of all ages and both sexes in traditional dress. Dancers move around a central sacred spot to the beat of the dhol (drum) and jhyamta (cymbals), following a lead couple: the Silimangpa (male leader) and Silimangma (female leader), who set and choreograph the steps that everyone else imitates.

Each named sequence of steps is called a 'sili'. The silis are imitations of the natural world and of daily agricultural life - the movements of birds, deer, the muskrat, oxen ploughing, sowing and harvesting - so that the dance is in effect a danced memory of how the ancestors learned to live with nature. Communities recognise dozens of distinct silis, and different Rai sub-groups keep their own variations.

The ritual is also known among some Kiranti groups as Chandi Naach (Chandi dance), performed at a shrine or dancing ground called the Sakela Than, typically beneath a sacred tree. The dance is not merely entertainment; it is the visible, communal form of the Kirat's animist Mundhum tradition, binding oral scripture, ancestor veneration and seasonal farming into a single act.

The festival formally begins at the Sakela Than, a consecrated open ground or platform under a sacred tree. Proceedings are led by the Nakchhong (also written Nakchong or Nagi), the traditional Kirat ritual priest, who recites verses from the Mundhum - the oral scripture of the Kirat - and makes offerings on behalf of the community.

At the Than the Nakchhong performs the opening rites, which traditionally include the sacrifice of a rooster and offerings of grain, ginger and local liquor to the ancestral and nature deities. Only after the priest has completed these rites and taken the first dance steps himself or herself does the mass Sakela Sili dance formally commence around the shrine.

These rites make explicit what the dance expresses: a request for permission and blessing from the land and the ancestors before the season's work, and thanks to them afterwards. The Nakchhong's role therefore anchors Sakela as a living religious observance rather than a purely cultural performance.

Sakela's homeland is the eastern hills of Nepal - the Kirat heartland of districts such as Khotang, Bhojpur, Solukhumbu, Dhankuta, Sankhuwasabha, Udayapur and Ilam - and the surrounding Terai and urban centres of Dharan, Dhankuta and Itahari, where large public gatherings are held. It is also celebrated by Kirat communities across the border in Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong in India, and by the diaspora worldwide.

In the Kathmandu Valley the biggest single gathering takes place at Tundikhel, the central open ground, where thousands of Rai and other Kirat people assemble in traditional attire to perform the Sakela Sili together. The Tundikhel event, organised with community bodies such as Kirat Rai Yayokkha, has become the most photographed public face of the festival and a focal point for the wider Kirat community living in the capital.

Dharan in Sunsari district hosts one of the largest and most famous Udhauli celebrations in the country, drawing participants from across the eastern hills. These mass urban gatherings sit alongside thousands of smaller village-level observances at local Sakela Thans across eastern Nepal.

The Kirat community keeps its own era, Yele Sambat (also Yelambar or Yele Dong), named after Yalambar, remembered as the first Kirat king of the Kathmandu Valley. It is a distinct year-count used alongside the official Bikram Sambat and the Gregorian calendar. Different Kirat groups have their own name for it: Rai call it Yele Dong, Sunuwar Yele Thoche, Yakkha Yele Naamsam and Limbu Yele Tangbe.

The Kirat New Year under Yele Sambat is observed in mid-January, coinciding with Maghe Sankranti / Makar Sankranti (around 14-15 January). Yele Sambat year 5085 began on 15 January 2025 and year 5086 began in mid-January 2026, so contemporary community usage places the era roughly 3,060 years ahead of the Gregorian year. The Government of Nepal formally recognised Yele Sambat in 2010.

Ubhauli and Udhauli are the great seasonal markers within this calendar. While the New Year opens the year, the two full-moon Sakela festivals structure its farming rhythm - the sowing prayer of Ubhauli near the Baisakh full moon and the harvest thanksgiving of Udhauli near the Mangsir full moon - giving the Kirat year its distinctive up-and-down agricultural shape.

Because both festivals track the full moon, their Gregorian dates shift each year. In 2082 BS (2025/26 AD), Sakela Ubhauli fell on Baisakh 29, 2082 - 12 May 2025 - the same Baisakh Purnima full moon as Buddha Jayanti. Sakela Udhauli in 2082 BS fell in the second half of Mangsir (around late November 2025, close to Yomari Punhi). For any given year the reliable reference is the Mangsir and Baisakh full moon in the national Nepali patro.

Both Ubhauli and Udhauli are gazetted public holidays declared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, but as regional/community holidays for the Kirat community rather than nationwide closures - reflecting the concentration of the Kirat population in the eastern hills and the Valley. The government's holiday notice for 2082 BS specifically listed the Rai/Kirat Ubhauli festival, and essential government services remain open even on these days.

For the most authoritative dates and observances, the Nepal Tourism Board's festival listing and Kirat community organisations - Kirat Rai Yayokkha (Rai) and Kirat Yakthung Chumlung (Limbu) - are the primary points of reference, alongside the official Nepali calendar.