Thousands in Reynoldsburg celebrate Tihar, the Nepali version of Diwali
Kaushila Rizal, a grandmother of 17, wore a wide smile as she surveyed the scene at Civic Park in Reynoldsburg.
Around her, children’s colorful kites pierced a radiant blue sky, and thousands of people circulated around an outdoor stage where youth groups sang deusi-bhailo, or call-and-response carols, in the Nepali language. Men wearing topis — traditional hats with geometric designs — and women in saris and kurta surwaldresses snacked on South Asian street foods and sweets.
It was Tihar — also known as Diwali — which is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains from across South Asia this week. It holds different meanings for different groups across South Asia, but a common theme is the victory of good over evil, light over darkness.
Tihar is an important holiday for the Bhutanese Nepali community in Greater Columbus, who number around 30,000, according to the nonprofit Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio. On Saturday, the Reynoldsburg City Council and various Bhutanese-Nepali businesses sponsored the city's first-ever Diwali-Tihar Festival, with various folk dances, food stalls and children’s activities.
Rizal, 70, said it was the largest Tihar celebration she had seen since leaving Nepal, where she lived in a refugee camp, 12 years ago.
“We always used to have fairs like this in Nepal and where I was born” in Bhutan, she said.
Bhuwan Pyakurkel, who became the first Bhutanese-Nepali-American elected official in the nation when he joined Reynoldsburg City Council in 2020, helped organize the festival. He told The Dispatch that the event was one of his proudest achievements so far.
“We were born in Bhutan, and we were citizens there, but despite that, we were persecuted because of our religion, our culture, our language, and evicted from the country. As refugees, we struggled to preserve our culture. And here, in this country, we’re able to celebrate our culture openly,” he said in Nepali.
In Nepal and Bhutan, Tihar celebrates the victory of the god Ram over the demon-king Ravana, who kidnapped Ram’s wife, Sita, and spirited her away to his lair on the island of Lanka.
In addition to lighting their homes with lamps — as is done throughout South Asia — Bhutanese Nepalis also celebrate Tihar by worshiping crows, dogs, and cows. At the event on Saturday, a Reynoldsburg police department dog named “Bahadur” was garlanded with marigold flowers, as is traditional.
“In Hinduism, we worship nature,” Shree Narayan Sandilya, the head priest of the Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple in Reynoldsburg, told The Dispatch. “We worship dogs because they protect us.”
Some non-Hindus also celebrate Tihar. Among the Nepali Bhutanese community, there are significant minorities of Christians and Buddhists, some of whom also celebrate the festival.
For many among the younger generation of Bhutanese Nepalis in Ohio, Tihar serves as an opportunity to learn about their own culture.
“A lot of our parents are working parents, and a lot of them work at warehouses, and they don’t have time to sit down and explain our religion,” said Arati Chapagai, 21, a senior at Ohio State University. “I’m learning about our culture and our community, and my younger siblings are also here — it’s their first being exposed to something like this.”
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here: bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Tihar, the Nepali version of Diwali, is celebrated in Reynoldsburg
