Newar Masked Dances (Pyakhan): Lakhe, Bhairav, Asta Matrika & Kartik Naach

In Nepal Bhasa (the Newar language), pyakhan simply means "dance", but in the Kathmandu Valley the word has come to signify a very specific and sacred genre: the masked ritual dance-dramas (dyah pyakhan, "dance of the gods") in which performers wearing painted masks become vessels for Hindu and Buddhist deities. These are not folk entertainments but tantric acts of worship. The mask (khawpa) is consecrated, and once a dancer puts it on he is believed to be possessed by the deity depicted; in many traditions he may not speak, eat ordinary food, or remove the mask until the performance ends.

The dances are almost always performed by all-male troupes drawn from specific castes or localities, and the right and duty to perform is hereditary, passed down within families and managed by a guthi. A guthi is a Newar socio-religious trust that owns endowed land and organises a particular festival, temple or dance in perpetuity; it recruits dancers, feeds them, funds the masks and instruments, and preserves the secret mantras and choreography.

Masked dances cluster around two ritual seasons: the monsoon festival of Indra Jatra (Yenya) in Kathmandu in Bhadra-Ashwin (August-September), and the great autumn festival of Mohani (Dashain) that culminates the Navaratri worship of the goddess. Almost every major Pyakhan depicts either Bhairava (the terrifying form of Shiva), the group of mother goddesses known as the Matrikas, or the demon-slaying Durga, reflecting the Valley's deep tantric Shakta and Vajrayana heritage.

The Majipa Lakhe is the single most iconic masked dance of Nepal and the star of the lakhe dance seen during Indra Jatra. The dancer wears a huge, ferocious red mask with bulging eyes, protruding fangs and a mane of dark hair, and whirls through the streets of Kathmandu to a driving drum-and-cymbal rhythm, often chasing children and spectators. Despite his demonic look, the Majipa Lakhe is a guardian, not a villain.

According to the local legend, a flesh-eating demon (lakhe) living near the Majipat neighbourhood fell in love with a local girl. When caught, the king spared him on the condition that he give up eating people and instead protect the children of the town. In gratitude the Lakhe became the community's protector, and his annual dance re-enacts that pledge. The Lakhe is enthroned in a ceremony a few days before Indra Jatra begins, and then dances through the festival, in some years for roughly a week.

The Majipa Lakhe is maintained by a guthi based in the Majipat/Lakhenani area of Kathmandu, and the performers have traditionally been drawn from the Ranjitkar (dyers') community. Indra Jatra itself is one of Kathmandu's oldest street festivals, traditionally said to have been begun by King Gunakamadeva to mark the founding of the city, and its main venue is Kathmandu Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage monument zone.

Indra Jatra (locally Yenya Punhi) is an eight-day festival honouring Indra, the king of heaven, and it is essentially a moving stage of masked dances. Alongside the Lakhe, the most striking is the Bhairav Naach (bhairav naach), the dance of Bhairava, the wrathful aspect of Shiva who is the tutelary deity of the Kathmandu Valley. Performed by Newar troupes, the Bhairav Naach features a set of deities that typically includes Bhairav, Kali/Budhi Bhairav, Kumari, Indrayani, Barahi, Brahmayani, Maheshwori, Vaishnavi, Ganesh and attendant figures, dancing the eternal battle of gods against demons.

Several other Pyakhan appear during the festival. The Sawa Bhakku Bhairav dance comes from Halchok and portrays Bhairava with attendants; the Pulukisi (Pulu Kisi) is a white elephant effigy representing Indra's mount that runs through the old city; the Devi/Dee Pyakhan brings out masks of various goddesses; and the Mahakali Pyakhan and its comic Khyah figures travel in from Bhaktapur. Each dance has its own guthi, locality and lineage of performers.

Because these dances are strictly tied to ritual, the performers observe fasting and purity rules, bathe and don ceremonial dress before masking, and remain silent while masked. The masks, drums and costumes are worshipped before the dance and stored with the guthi between festivals, which is why the survival of each Pyakhan depends directly on the survival of its trust and its endowment lands.

In Patan (Lalitpur) the great masked dance of the autumn festival is the Asta Matrika Naach, known in Nepal Bhasa as Ga Pyakhan or Gaan Pyakhan (asta matrika dance patan). It dramatises the eight mother goddesses, the Asta Matrika, together with additional patron deities, in a tantric performance meant to ward off fear and secure the prosperity of the city. The dance is roughly 350 years old and is traditionally said to have been introduced in 1667 CE during the reign of the Malla king Srinivas (Sri Nivas) Malla.

The origin story holds that King Srinivas Malla saw the mother goddesses dancing towards his palace in a dream, their anklets ringing, and was advised by his tantric priests to install their dance as an annual rite. The Ga Pyakhan is staged in the royal courtyard complex of Patan Durbar Square, associated with the Mulchok courtyard, and begins on the night of Ghatasthapana, the first day of the Mohani (Dashain) festival, continuing through the Navaratri period.

The troupe presents a set of masked deities that combines the eight Matrikas, Brahmani, Maheshwori, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrayani, Chamunda/Mahakali and Mahalakshmi, with patron figures such as Bhairav, Ganesh and Kumar, and fierce animal-faced companions. Reflecting Patan's strong Vajrayana Buddhist character, the dance is performed by young men of the Bajracharya and Shakya communities, who undergo purification, fasting and meditation to embody the goddesses.

The Kartik Naach (kartik naach) is Patan's monumental open-air dance-drama, performed each year in the Kartik month (October-November) on the Kartik Dabali, a raised stone platform in Patan Durbar Square. Unlike the goddess dances, the Kartik Naach is chiefly a dramatisation of the exploits of Vishnu, and its most celebrated episode is the appearance of Narasimha, Vishnu's fierce man-lion incarnation, who tears apart the demon king Hiranyakashipu to save the child devotee Prahlad.

The tradition was begun in 1641 CE by King Siddhi Narsingh Malla of Patan. Oral tradition relates that, facing a crisis in his kingdom and pressed to appease the deity through human sacrifice, the king's Rajopadhyaya priests instead devised a tantric dance-drama to invoke Narasimha, thus giving birth to the Kartik Naach. Marketed in recent years around its long history, the festival is often described as more than 380 years old.

The first performances lasted only two days. King Srinivas (Shree Niwas) Malla, son of the founder, extended it to educate the public in the Vishnu legends, and later King Yog Narendra Malla stretched it to as many as 27 days, presenting a cycle of tales of Vishnu. Today the dance runs for a variable number of days and remains a defining cultural event of Patan, maintained by its dedicated guthi and community performers.

Bhaktapur is famous for the Navadurga Naach (also Gathu Pyakhan), a nine-month cycle of masked dances embodying the Nava Durga, the nine fierce forms of the goddess who are regarded as the living guardian deities of the city. The tradition is attributed to the Malla period, with the founding often credited to King Subarna (Suvarna) Malla in the fifteenth century, and it is bound to the legend of a tantric priest who used mantras to "bind" the wandering goddesses into service of Bhaktapur. The dance is performed by the Banmala/Gathu (gardener-garland-maker) community and organised by the Banmala Guthi.

The Navadurga troupe carries thirteen masks, including Mahakali, Kumari, Barahi, Brahmayani, Maheshwori, Vaishnavi, Indrani, Ganesh, Bhairav, Shwet (white) Bhairav and the companion figures Sima and Duma. The cycle formally begins around Gathamuga (Gathemangal) and runs until the following monsoon, during which the masks are ritually cremated and remade each year, so the goddesses are believed to be reborn with every cycle.

Bhaktapur also gives its Mahakali Pyakhan, a dance-drama of the goddess Mahakali destroying the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha, drawn from the Devi Mahatmya (Durga Saptashati). It is traditionally linked to the Malla king Jayasthiti Malla (late fourteenth century), who is said to have promoted dance-dramas based on the goddess texts. The Mahakali Pyakhan, with its blood-red tusked mask, travels to Kathmandu to perform during Indra Jatra, one of several ways Bhaktapur's dances connect the three royal cities of the Valley.

These Pyakhan are inseparable from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Kathmandu Valley, whose seven monument zones include the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur where the dances are staged. The masked dances are the living, performative dimension of that heritage: while the temples and courtyards are the fixed monuments, the annual dances animate them and keep their meaning alive for the community.

Yet the tradition is fragile. Each dance depends on a guthi and on the endowment lands that historically funded it; the nationalisation and erosion of guthi lands over the twentieth century has left many trusts underfunded. Falling numbers of trained dancers, the cost of masks and instruments, urban change and the 2015 earthquake (which damaged several courtyards) have all put pressure on the dances, and observers have repeatedly warned that some, such as Bhaktapur's Navadurga cycle, face an uncertain future.

For visitors, the dances remain among the most powerful cultural experiences in Nepal, best seen around Indra Jatra at Kathmandu Durbar Square and during Dashain and Kartik at Patan, and through the Navadurga cycle in Bhaktapur. They are also increasingly documented by the Nepal Academy, municipal cultural offices and heritage bodies as intangible cultural heritage deserving formal protection.