Lakhey is the demon dancer Newars grow up with. The mask is huge, the teeth stick out, and a red mane shakes when he turns. Hami Patan-baasi still bring him into the tole, because the old understanding is that he stayed with the city so he could look after the children. You notice both the fear and the care when the lane goes quiet and the drums start again.

Each town has its own Lakhey. In Kathmandu the famous one is Majipa Lakhey, and he belongs to Indra Jatra. In Patan the one we wait for is Mi Pwa Lakhey, the dancer with the fire. Same kind of mask, different season, different streets. I want those two straight before the videos from our lanes.

Why we keep Lakhey

A Lakhey, in Newari, is a demon with a taste for flesh, and the dance turns that figure into a guardian. The story of Majipa Lakhey is the pact. He fell in love with a girl from Majipa, came into the city in human form, and was caught. The king let him stay if he stopped eating people, protected the children, and came out each year for Yenya, which is Indra Jatra. He is Majipa’s Lakhey, also called a peaceful Bhairav. The mask is still frightening. The work is to look after the young ones.

That is why the chase can fill a lane with laughter and still belong to the rite. A teaser pulls at the Lakhey, and the Lakhey runs him down. Children join in because the pact says he is on their side. He comes out so harmful things stay away, and so they grow up knowing the mask by name.

In Patan the promise has its own face. Mi pwa means balls of fire. Mi Pwa Lakhey is our fire dancer, the guardian who goes through the settlement when Gathe Mangal rites are sending harmful forces out. People here say the Lakhey sits in the mask, in Patan as in Kathmandu, so the dancer follows him once the mask is on.

When he comes out

Majipa Lakhey comes out for Indra Jatra, Yenya, in Kathmandu. The festival opens when the ceremonial pole goes up at Hanuman Dhoka, runs through the chariot days of Kumari, Ganesh and Bhairav, and closes when the pole comes down. In 2026 the pole is raised on 23 September, the main day is Friday 25 September, and the pole is lowered on the night of 29 September. Through those days he is in the old city with the band behind him.

Mi Pwa Lakhey belongs to Gathe Mangal, also called Ghantakarna, on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Shrawan, usually in July or August. From that day the dance can move through Patan for several days. The older custom stretched Lakhey dance from Gathe Mangal toward Indra Jatra, and Patan’s pyakhan is the fire one in that season. The route passes through old neighbourhoods, Saugal among them, and ends around Mangal Bazar.

I have also filmed him on the candle walk for Nhu Daya, our Newar new year during Tihar, when people say Nhu Daya Bhintuna and the courtyards are full of lamps. The season to wait for is still Gathe Mangal. This dance had stopped for nearly thirty years, and it is back in the lanes now.

How the dance goes

In Kathmandu, during Yenya, Majipa Lakhey is danced by the Ranjitkars. It comes with the mask and with the family that keeps him. He wears the red mask and dances to the Newar band, drums and cymbals setting the pace, while people give him the road. He is out because he protects the children, and because Indra Jatra is the week he promised to appear.

In Patan the dance has fire in it. It begins with worship at Nriteshwor, the deity of dance. Two people then carry flaming torches, and Mi Pwa Lakhey uses that fire at crossroads and open squares. Musicians walk with the procession and keep the pace up. Beside him there is a teaser dressed in green. His name is Jhyalincha. He carries broken branches, he provokes the mask, and the Lakhey chases him. Local children join the game. They get close, they shout, and when he turns they run.

The chase is loud and funny, and it is the old scene played in a real lane. Jhyalincha’s name is tied to a child who annoys the Lakhey, and the kids take up the same role. They scatter, laugh, and come back for the next turn, while everyone else steps aside the way you do for any jatra. Torch bearers, musicians, the teaser and the children move as one procession, from the shrine, through the toles, and home toward Durbar Square.

What I filmed

I filmed Mi Pwa Lakhey so you can see the chase up close. The short is three of them in a Patan lane, masks on, with the crowd and the kids right there.

The other video is from the candle walk on Nhu Daya. People are out for the new year, the courtyards are full of lamps, and he is still dancing. Those are the two nights I have actually filmed.

If you have seen Lakhey in Patan, or a Lakhey in your own tole, tell me which mask your square brings out.