Inside a Vibrant Newari Culture Tradition | Gufa / Surya Darshan скачать в хорошем качестве

Inside a Vibrant Newari Culture Tradition | Gufa / Surya Darshan

Gufa is part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Newars, an indigenous group of people in Nepal (Levy 1990, Nepali 2015). Gufa—also known as Surya Darshan or “sun’s observation”—is a unique ritual. It is a puberty ceremony of a girl and her lifelong connection with the sun. During the twelve-day long ceremony, which starts when she gets her first period, she is prohibited from observing the sun and therefore stays in a room heavily curtailed to keep out the sun’s rays. “Great care is taken to ensure that no ray of sunshine can enter the room since an explicit aim of the rite is to ensure that the girls are seen neither by men nor by the sun. The first three days are said to be especially dangerous because this is the ritually prescribed period of bleeding throughout the Hindu world. The room becomes her own sanctuary where she learns her own body. From her female relatives, she learns the etiquette of being a woman and receives education about living in a society. The community celebrates her ritual as she is taken as a life bearer.