Ropain mahotsav to promote tourism, preserve culture

Pokhara, June 29: The ropain mahotsav (paddy plantation festival) has been organized in a bid to promote tourism and preserve culture in the touristy city Pokhara on the occasion of the Ashar 15 and the 14th Rice Day today.
The ropain mahotsav is being marked for 13 years here. The 14 mahotsav was organized at Batulechaur of Pokhara.
The festival promoted by Nepal Tourism Board was held this time at eight ropanis of land in Thulibensi owned by local Govinda Bahadur Khadka. It was marked under the slogan, ‘Pokhara for all seasons’. The festival was attended by locals, and domestic and foreign tourists.
Inaugurating the festival, Mayor of Pokhara-Lekhanath Metropolis, Man Bahadur GC, said the festival was significant event to promote tourism and agriculture.
Once we are elevated from the traditional farming, our dependency of foods on foreign countries would be reduced, he argued.
Similarly, Chairman of Pokhara Tourism Council, Kedarnath Sharma, said the paddy plantation festival was given continuity in Pokhara, so that it would contribute to tourism and agriculture together. “The culture of agriculture is linked to tourism to keep intact farmers’ interest in agriculture despite growing urbanization,” he said, adding that another important culture is the dahi chyura feast.
Vice-Chairman of the Council Bharat Raj Parajuli said the paddy plantation festival would help attract youths in agriculture. “Agriculture is our traditional and original profession. Nepal’s geography is also favourable to agriculture. But, time has come to commercialize it,” he pointed out.
To everyone’s fun and gaiety, various competitions as Ashare songs, fishing, ox race and mud race were conducted as part of the festival where the locals and domestic and foreign tourists took part enthusiastically.
Festival coordinator Nawaraj Adhikari informed that in the recent years, the festival has gathered numerous tourists. The festival has been original identity of Pokhara city now, he argued.
A German tourist attending the festival said, “I enjoyed the festival very much.”
“I’ve taken the mud splashing fun under this festival as a unique culture of Pokhara,” observed Malia Durbano come from the US.
Worrying is the fact that Nepal which continuously exported rice till 1960 is now depending on others owing to urbanization.
In addition to the paddy plantation of Pokhara city, the RSS has got similar news from different districts across the country, marking the paddy plantation and dahi chyura feast with fun and merriment.