LHUTI POONI

Lhuti Pooni, the full moon day of the month of Chaitra (March-April) is the day of festivity or Mela at Balaju in he outskirts of Kathmandu where people bathe in 22 water spouts made artistically in a row. It is a popular belief that the waters of Debighat where the river Trisuli flows some twenty miles west of Kathmandu oozes out of the Nagarjun hills. Spouts of Balaju at its base, thus, receive water, that also on this same full moon day. A miniature replica of Budhnilkantha and a small temple of goddess Ajima (Grandma), both forming the parts of Balaju garden are also worshipped as well. 

LHOTSE, MT.

Mt. Lhotse is the second highest peak in the great himalayan range known as Khumbu Himal, first being the Everest. Lotse with its 27,809 ft. high peak and the other peak Nuptse remain side by side flanking Mt. Everest when viewed from Khumbu region. 

LEPCHAS

The ancient Lepchas are believed to have originated from the foothills of Mount Kanchanjunga, which they revere as their deity. Lepchas presently live in the Ilam District of Nepal, and in Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong of India. They consider themselves of royal stock. Their language is a derivation from the Tibeto-Burman family. They have their own script, and their holy scripture is called Astachyo. Animist in origin, many Lepchas now adhere to Buddhism and Christianity. In Lepcha society, alcohol is considered “clean”. There is no animosity and caste system among the Lepchas. The dead are taken out through the broken wall of the house and are buried. The Lepchas social council is called Rong Senungthi. Their dance is called Loknen. Commerce and agriculture are their major occupations.

LAXMI PUJA

Laxmi puja means a very special day chosen for worshipping Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. People save their earnings to spend lavishly for this day with firm belief that  wealth is the boon of goddess Laxmi. The more she is pleased, the more one may be able to amass wealth.. People also believe and say  ‘that work is worship’. That is why some say that Laxmi is Labour and Labour is Laxmi. Laxmi Puja is, therefore, an example of aspirations, commitments, dedication and hard  labour for various achievements and successes as well as to earn wealth for which they worship Laxmi symbolically. Laxmi is the escort of Lord Vishnu.

It is also believed that Laxmi was found by gods during the great churning of the ocean. It was a great adventure to churn the ocean which was so done in the days of yore for the benefit of all. It involved lots of energy of gods and demons for a long time. Each of them had to work very hard as a result of which they found tremendous amount of jewels, elixirs, and many other invaluable materials. Goddess Laxmi was one of the findings. They found her to be exquisitely beautiful, full of virtues and charm and with great power of bestowing wealth to her devotees. 

If one is lazy and does not show energy in works, Laxmi won’t enter his house even by mistake. So everybody in the households is advised to keep oneself busy doing something. This festival encourages cleanliness as well by instilling the belief in people’s mind that Laxmi won’t visit those places which are not cleaned properly.

Laxmi Puja is the one of the most important day during Deepawali festival which is also known as Tihar festival in Nepal. The following story may be interesting to justify background of the festival.

LAXMI PRASAD DEVKOTA (1909-1959):

Popularly known as Mahakavi literally meaning a great poet, the poet laureate was a graduate in arts and law faculties. On top of being a poet of great fame, he was an unforgettable teacher of his time, a lecturer of the colleges and a tutor in general. Master of enchanting discourses, he once became the minister of education of the government of Nepal. He is also known as a romantic poet often compared with the English Poet Wordsworth. His early poems were influenced by the English Romantic Movement of the late eighteenth century. His poems of later stage of his life spoke the voices of a modern man living in the materialistic age. He wrote epics, poems, essays and plays written in verses. A versatile talent of the time, instant poem maker, an eloquent speaker, Poet devkota has given scores of epoch making collection of poems, epics, essays and stories to Nepali language. Muna Madan, a folk epic and other epics like

Sulochana and Sakuntal are some of his famous works. .

LAXMAN

Brother of Rama Laxman accompanied him (Rama) during his period in exile for 14 years. A man of great virtues and power, he helped his elder brother Rama in many ways in achieving his goals. See Ramayan.a 

LANGUAGES OF NEPAL

Language is the spoken medium of exchange among people, but they are different with groups and races of people. Though small a country, many languages and dialects are spoken in different parts of the Kingdom of Nepal. According to census reports there are 30 major languages and dialects in Nepal which are based upon three main traditions of linguistic groups namely 1. Tibeto-Burmese 2. Indo-European and 3. Austro-Asiatic.Actually the total number of languages listed in Nepal are 121.  Out of all those languages, 120 are still considered living languages. Only 1 language owned by Kusunda tribe has been lost inspite of the fact that the tribe is still surviving. Some important languages are as follows: Awadi, Bengali,Bhojpuri, Bodo, Chepang, Darai,  Danuwar, Dhimal, Dolpeli, Dzongkha, Gurung, Helambu Sherpa, Hindi, Jirel, Kumhali, Kyerung, Lepcha, Limbu, Linkham,  Magar, Maithili,  Majhi, Marwari, Nepali, Newari,  Rajbanshi, Santhali, Sherpa, Tamang, Thakali, Thami, Tharu, Thulung and Tibetan. 

The National language Nepali is spoken throughout the Kingdom, but it is the native language of and , thus, mainly spoken by the people of middle belts of Nepal like Bramhin, Chhetri, Khas and so on. This important language of Nepal is from Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European language traditions. Other languages from this tradition are Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magadhi and Avadhi all of which are spoken in the terai belt lying in the southern side of Nepal. Newari, the language of Kathmandu valley is scattered throughout the Kingdom wherever Newar communities are found settled. This language is also regarded as emerged from Tibeto-Burmese group. Out of all these languages Nepali, Newari and Maithaili have richer stocks of literature.

LANGTANG HIMAL

The himalayan range known as Langtang Himal is bounded on four sides by Jugal Himal in he east, Tisuli river in the west, Lngtang khola in the south and Rasuwa Garhi in the northwest. Though there are many peaks above 20,000 ft., the highest peak is Langtang Lirung which I 23,771 ft. high from sea level. 

LAMAISM

Lama means “teacher” or “master”, and the Tibetan version of Tantric Buddhism has been called Lamaism because of the great importance lamas have in it as spiritual guides of those who aspire for salvation. Lamaism too teaches that all is empty; that which we think real is mere illusion bred of igno¬rance. Reintegration with Buddhahood can only Lamaism come about when one recognizes the fallacious reasoning of ignorance, for to recognize is to elimi¬nate.

The Lamaist path to Nirvana is two fold: it calls for : (a) the understanding of the mechanism of our psycho physical life through introversive meditation and yoga, and acting accordingly. By pur¬suing the analysis that ends by abandoning all logical constructs for the pure light of intuition; and, at the same time, (b) showing compassionate love for all beings who are still ignorant of their real condi¬tion and therefore doomed to suffering. The two activities combined produce an irreversible state of mind termed “enlightenment”. Like in other Tan¬tric systems, sexual symbolism is used in Tibetan Lamaism to express ecstatic states and exalted con¬cepts. The male symbolizes “means” (Upaya), or active compassion” (Karuna) and the female “higher knowledge or wisdom” (Prajna or Vidya).

LALITAVISTARA

A holy work of Buddhism wholly in sanskrit verses, this work depicts the life and doctrines of Gautam Buddha.