Dog Worship festival in Nepal

Kukur Tihar, the festival were dogs are worshiped and honored.

Every year on the month of Kartik, when there is festive seasons for the Indians, we Nepali celebrate Deewali as Deepawali and we call it "Tihar". The Tihar has five days which starts with worship of crows and then worship of dogs, worship of Mahalaxmi and then Govardhana Puja and then the Tihar concludes on Bhaiya dhuj or popularly in Nepal, "Bhaitika"

The five days series of the festivals falls under the period of "Panchak" meaning five times. When the moon passes through the series of five nakshetra then Panchak takes place. The Panchak or five days is celebrated as the festive season. The first day starts with crow worship and the second day is the Dog worship.

The Dog worship day takes places in the auspicious day of "NARKA CHATURDASHI". In this day, Bhairava is extensively worshiped. Narka means the pinnacle of tamas. It is in this day, the tamas form of deity are worshiped. Deities like Mahakali and Bhairava are worshiped. But in Nepal, Bhairavas are specially worshiped by the tantric Newar of Kathmandu valley. The Bhairava is worshiped because Bhairava destroys the intrinsic tamas of the worshiper. In front of him, no Tamas stands.

The Dog are worshiped and honored because Dogs are the vahana of Bhairava god. If the Bhairava god is happy then the dogs start to serve and protect the worshiper because like Bhairava, the Dogs are also Kshetrapala meaning "protector of the area". So reversely worshiping the dogs is also worshiping the Bhairava god. So, from religious and spiritual point of view, basically dogs are worshiped to communicate with Bhairava god so Bhairava god protects the worshiper from evil spirits and to destroy all intrinsic tamas.

Now, the dog worship and honoring festival also known as "Kukur Tihar" in Nepal is celebrated from multitude perspective.  Lets explore some perspective.

1. Celebration by Armies and Police:

The armies and police in this day worship and honor the trained dogs because it is the dogs that help them in many of their search ventures. Dogs is internationally used for searching the crime scenes. The police and armies pay special tribute to the dogs for helping them in all their day to day office duties. The armies and police worship their own trained dogs.

Nepal Police worshiping their trained dogs. It is an yearly event on Kukur Tihar

2. Personal celebrations:

A personal dog being worshiped inside the room.

This is the day where lot of house holders who have dogs as their pet worship and celebrate by worshiping their own dogs. I personally have so many friends who have dogs as their pet and they treat the dogs no less then their relative. In fact they treat their dogs as their siblings. They worship and honor it with such zeal because the festival gives them the opportunity to appreciate the constant company the dog gave them.

3. Religious celebrations:

"Every dog has its day". This axiom couldn't be more true then when it comes to "Kukur Tihar" in Nepal. Because its a religious celebration, even the stray dogs are treated with utmost respect. The stray dogs might be treated badly in any other day but because it has religious value that day, the stray dogs receive such special treatment. Not only they are worshiped and honored but they are also offered foods to eat. Once a year Narka Chaturdashi is the day of the stray dogs.



Whatever be the perspective while celebrating the festival of dog worship. But one thing that is commonly accepted is the fact that the "dogs are human's best friend". They give you constant company and they are the most faithful companion one will ever find. A day attributed to celebration of their service to human society is praise worthy and this date should be made an international accepted day for saying thanks to the dogs for whatever they have contributed to the human life.