Kullu Dussehra: the week two hundred gods come down the mountain
Most of India finishes Dussehra on Vijayadashami. Kullu starts.
On the day everyone else is packing away the effigies, the Kullu valley begins a week that has been running, in one form or another, since the seventeenth century. And unlike almost every other Indian festival that draws a crowd, this one has almost nothing to do with tourists.
What actually happens
Kullu's villages each have a devta — a local deity, with a temple, a set of customs and a personality that people will describe to you as though talking about a neighbour. Some are famously generous. Some are known to be difficult.
For Dussehra, they travel.
Each deity is placed in a rath — a palanquin hung with brocade, silver masks and coloured cloth — and carried down from its village on the shoulders of men who have often done it every year of their adult lives. They come from valleys hours away. Some walk through the night. By the time they reach the Dhalpur maidan in Kullu, there can be a couple of hundred of them.
Then, for seven days, they hold what is essentially a gathering. Deities visit one another. Old disputes between villages get aired. Drums and narsingha horns play more or less continuously, in a register that carries a very long way.
Why almost nobody sees it
It's not hidden. It's an international festival with a government stall and a stage.
The reason travellers miss it is simpler: October in Himachal is peak season for a completely different holiday. People come for Manali, Solang and snow. The itinerary is fixed before they arrive, Kullu is a place they drive through on the way, and nobody has told them what's happening forty minutes down the valley.
Going, honestly
When — Begins on Vijayadashami and runs seven days, so October. The date moves each year with the lunar calendar; check before booking anything.
Where — Dhalpur maidan, Kullu town. About an hour and a half from Manali.
What it's like — Loud, dense, and not staged for visitors. Nobody will explain anything to you in English. That's rather the point.
What to do — Go on the first day for the procession, when Raghunath ji is brought out and the deities assemble. The later days are quieter and more social, which some people prefer.
A word on photographs — Ask before pointing a camera at a deity or its bearers. Many will say yes. The asking is what matters.
If you want to be there
Our Kullu, Manali, Kasol and Jibhi journey covers this valley, and October departures can be built around the festival dates — a morning at Dhalpur, then on to Jibhi while everyone else queues at Solang.
Tell us you want the Dussehra week and we'll plan backwards from it.