100 Weddings and a Few Funerals

Nepalese couples wearing traditional attire attended a ritual for a mass wedding in Kathmandu, Nepal, 08 February 2015. For the first time ever in Nepal a total of 100 Nepalese couples, representing the different caste systems, participated in the ceremony organized by the Radha Krishna Foundation to promote unity and Hindu culture in the country. 

Two hours before, barely 200 meters away, we had witnessed several cremations at the Pashupatinath Temple. This simple irony of new life versus old life slips seamlessly through Hindu culture while we Westerners observe the latter, the public display of the end of life, with a mixture of shock, anxiety and morbid curiosity.

A woman, perhaps a relative of the groom, applies a tikka to the groom's forehead

The groom applies a colored powder to the bride's forehead to indicate to the rest of the world that she is taken

A swamy was present to bless all of the couples

The groom would lead the bride several times around the small shrine in their wedding space