KATHMANDU, NEPAL, June 11, 2001: Dressing up to resemble the late King Birendra, a priest was banished from Kathmandu in a “katto” ceremony dating back to Nepal’s ancient times. This ceremony, a rare Hindu rite performed on the eleventh day after the death of the King, is meant to cleanse the soul of the late King Birendra who was killed by his son, Prince Dipendra. The priest ritually leaves Kathmandu valley on an elephant, and this is symbolic of the dead King’s spirit being freed from the area, and a means to mitigate the inauspicious aspects of his death. As part of the ritual, the brahmin priest is served a dish with some meat in it, the first time in his life he would have eaten meat.
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