On the occasion of "Asar Pandra" NETIF in association with Dhulikhel Rotary club organized Rice planting event in Dhulikhel on 29th June,2013; Saturday. It was a successful event with active participation from Rotary club of Dhulikhel, Rotary club Balaju, District Governor Rotary Nepal, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Common Concern Nepal (CCN), INGO, GIZ, Nepal TV UK, and Vivacity Magazine, Navyata Magazine, Students and other local community members.

The main objective of this event was to promote agro-tourism and inform the wider public about traditional agricultural practices in Nepal. The rice planting is a captivating event celebrated every year in Nepal with the wishes for producing more crops.

Before starting the rice plantation we took a small visit to Hazaar Sindhi (named as thousand steps) stone staircase in Dhulikhel. We started our hike from above kali-devi temple situated on the large view deck with the view tower standing on the beautiful ridge. The view tower is constructed by NETIF for the tourists and visitors so that they can get a glimpse of panoramic view of the snow capped Himalayan range from Annapurna to everest region. From kali temple we hiked down to Santiban where 25 meter tall lord Buddha statue is situated and then passed dense jungle down to reach starting point of the hazaar sidhi.

Photo: View tower in Kali temple
 

Photo: Participants joining in the paddy filed to plant rice

We then headed to the paddy field in Dhulikhel where our rice planting event was to take place.When we reached there some of our friends had already started the plantation. Farmers were seen in the paddy field planting together with joy. The paddy field was ready for plantation with fine mud slurry. Women were gathering the seedling and passing for the plantation. Everyone joined and entered the paddy field to celebrate the ropain festival with joy.

Photo: Participants enjoying the ropian event

Everyone started the plantation and playing with the muddy water and enjoyed mud splashing and playing holi with mud. Everyone got a chance to participate with the locals to plow and plant rice on the rice field, with the locals performing folk songs (Ashare and Dohari) and dances. We had lots of fun time including refreshing mud bath, and open shower activities.

Photo: Participants enjoying mud splashing

After the open shower, we had our special dish for the day, bitten rice with curd (dai chiura).Bitten rice mixed with fresh curd was really delicious and the ropain festival is eaten to mark the day.
This event was of a great success as it carried not only cultural and traditional values but it was also remarkable experience for the foreign tourists as well as urban people. As one of the main objectives of NETIF is to promote agro-tourism the rice planting event was focused on traditional agricultural practices in Nepal.