Dashain Preparations Pick Up as Highland Chyangra and Kites Hit Markets
Highland livestock traders are herding over 1,000 chyangra from Upper Dolpa toward urban centres as kite merchants across the Kathmandu Valley stock up for Dashain.
Preparations for Dashain have gathered pace across Nepal as high-altitude livestock herders and urban traders begin moving festive essentials to major city markets.
In western Nepal, herds of mountain goats, known locally as chyangra, have started their journey down from the remote pastures of Upper Dolpa to meet festive demand in Pokhara and Kathmandu, Onlinekhabar reported. Traders from Tripurasundari Municipality collected the livestock from Chharkatangsong Rural Municipality and drove them on foot across high Himalayan passes into Mustang.
Shivananda Giri, a livestock trader from Tripurasundari, told Onlinekhabar that suppliers are aiming to transport more than 1,000 mountain goats to urban centres this season. Herders must guide the animals across challenging high-altitude terrain, including the Bhyarol region, before moving them onwards by road from Mustang. City consumers traditionally seek out chyangra meat for Dashain feasts, sustaining an annual trek that links remote Himalayan pastures to urban dining tables.
Meanwhile, in the Kathmandu Valley, festive commerce is visible in traditional market hubs where stalls are stocked with kites, spools, and thread. According to Gorkhapatra, traders in Kathmandu’s historic Asan commercial district have reported rising customer footfall ahead of the festival holidays. Kites in the market are selling for between Rs 5 and Rs 100, while thread and spools range from Rs 100 to Rs 3,000, with shopkeepers expecting higher sales as Dashain nears.
However, long-time merchants note that the tradition of flying kites during Dashain faces long-term structural and cultural shifts. Reporting from Mangalbazar in Lalitpur, Ratopati highlighted that domestic production of paper kites has largely ceased, leaving retailers dependent on shipments imported from India and China. Tirtha Bahadur Deula, a 65-year-old vendor who has sold kites in Mangalbazar for more than three decades, told Ratopati that the business is now strictly a seasonal source of supplementary income, yielding between Rs 50,000 and Rs 80,000 per season.
Cultural lore associates kite flying in autumn with sending a message to Indra, the god of rain, signalling that the monsoon has provided sufficient water and that clear skies are needed for ripening paddy crops. Yet local traders told Ratopati that younger generations are increasingly drawn to smartphones and drones rather than traditional kites, gradually altering one of the festive season's most enduring public customs.