Nepal cast with omen after grand chariot falls

For 15 centuries, a grand wooden chariot has been revered as the guardian of prosperity in Nepal. When it falls, as it did this week, holy men know a rough spell is ahead.

For 15 centuries, a grand wooden chariot has been revered as the guardian of prosperity in Nepal. When it falls, as it did this week, holy men know a rough spell is ahead for the Himalayan kingdom.

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Political observers already see the signs of tumult in the land of Mount Everest. Opposition parties are rallying in the streets of Kathmandu against King Gyanendra and Maoist rebels are battling troops across the countryside.

But for the superstitious, the clearest foreboding of ill fortune came Sunday when the 40-metre (130-foot) tall Rato Machhendranath collapsed in its procession through Lalitpur on Kathmandu's outskirts.

The official explanation is that the red chariot -- worshipped as a guardian of the harvest much like the Romans regarded the goddess Ceres -- lost balance because local people took it out without proper guidance.

But the fall of the Rato Machhendranath, revered by Nepal's Hindus and Buddhists alike, was not an isolated incident.

Earlier in April in another town near Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, worshippers tried to raise the Yosin, a 30-meter (100-foot) pole of freshly cut logs, to lift an idol for the festival of the war god Bhairav.

The logs fell, crushing to death two people and injuring six others.

"These incidents look simple, but they are very bad omens," said Hindu priest Ram Sharan Rajopadhyay.

"The breaking of the Yosin, which symbolises eight Hindu gods, and the tumbling down of the Rato Machhendranath spell disaster for the head of state and the country as a whole," he said.

According to legend, the Rato Machhendranath was brought to Lalitpur in the sixth century when no rice grew in the fields. Ever since it has been paraded out during the harvest to ensure a prosperous year.

The protector of wealth is now in a homeless shelter waiting for holy men to bless it.

"We must perform a special prayer so that we may be pardoned for any wrongdoing in the country," said Punya Ratna Bajracharya, a Buddhist astrologer and mystic.

Nhuchheman Shakya, a 62-year-old Hindu priest who was on the chariot when it tipped over, said he knew of at least five past times when it fell.

"Every time it happened either the monarch or the nation suffered," he said.

The chariot broke in 1932 and soon an earthquake destroyed two-thirds of the Kathmandu valley, killing thousands.

It was fixed but lost balance during a harvest procession in April 1971. In January 1972, the same year under the Nepalese calendar, King Mahendra suddenly died.

In 2001 the collapse of the chariot foreshadowed more tragedy: the killing of 10 members of the royal family, including King Birendra, gunned down by the drunken crown prince.

"This year the country is undergoing its biggest-ever escalation of insurgency, economic hardship and the political turmoil," political analyst Haricharan Shrestha said.

King Gyanendra has faced a month of massive protests by the main political parties furious that he dissolved the elected government in 2002.

The royal-appointed government has voiced fear that the protesters may link up with the Maoists, who launched an armed campaign in 1996 to overthrow the monarchy and who ended a ceasefire in August.

Many traditionalists revere the king of Nepal as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Some said there had been signs portending the fate of King Birendra, the current monarch's late brother.

Before the palace massacre, the Kumari, a virgin kept in isolation in Kathmandu and worshipped as a goddess, developed rashes on her face for weeks, said Jujukazi Shakya, one of the girl's caretakers.

Worshippers months earlier had also noticed that an idol of the god Bhimeshwor at a temple in Dolakha east of the capital was developing moisture -- or, in their view, sweating.

A white towel with the god's sweat was sent to the late king with a request that he offer prayers to avoid bad fortune. The king, the worshippers note, did not do so.