The tongue piercing festival being marked on Baishakh 2 every year is being marked this year too at Bode area of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality in Bhaktapur district.
This year, 48-year-old Buddhakrishna Bang Shrestha is piercing his tongue for the eighth time. As the festival was cancelled last year for the first time in the history due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Buddhakrishna has expressed his readiness to pierce his tongue this year.
Ambulance driver by profession, Buddhakrishna has been serving the coronavirus infected people by helping them to carry to the hospitals since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.
"I could not pierce my tongue last year due to the cancellation of the festival. This year, I have decided to pierce my tongue for the eighth time to give continuity to the festival. Also, I have been serving the patients by driving ambulance," Buddhakrishna said.
All festivals (Jatra) will be observed unhindered in Madhyapur Thimi as the municipality issued a notice recently stating that no festival and celebrations of Bisket Jatra will be cancelled.
Mayor Madan Sundar Shrestha said that no festival would be stopped on the pretext of coronavirus and urged one and all to jovially join the festivals.
Mayor Shrestha said, "No festival would be cancelled this year. The festivals carrying arts, cultures and history of Newar community would not have cancelled. All celebrations in Thimi will continue; we will run them."
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