In the aftermath of the devastating flash floods in Nepal, many families have been left in anguish, desperately searching for their missing loved ones. After days of scouring shelters and morgues, some families have turned to symbolic funeral ceremonies to find closure and to liberate the souls of those who remain unaccounted for.
The Search for Loved Ones
The floods, triggered by the collapse of a Himalayan glacier on the border with China, have left nearly 4,000 people missing and over 1,000 dead. Among the missing is 37-year-old Krishna Shrestha, who was in the worst-hit Rasuwa district when the disaster struck. His 12-year-old son, Rozel Shrestha, set fire to a tiny effigy made of straw and barley at Kathmandu's Pashupati temple, representing his missing father.
Jeevan Shrestha, Krishna's brother, recounted the family's exhaustive search efforts. 'We searched everywhere, went to morgues across the country, but could not find his body,' he said. 'So the family sat down... and decided we have to do our traditional rituals to liberate his soul.'
A Community in Mourning
Similarly, the family of Chandra Bahadur Newar conducted a symbolic funeral for the 35-year-old truck driver, who was traveling to China when the disaster struck. His wife, Dolma Newar Tamang, shared her heartache. 'He had called after dinner as he always did. He had said he would be back in not more than a week.'
When Tamang did not receive her husband's customary morning call, she initially thought he must have been busy. 'But then I saw the news and called him. I called repeatedly, but he never picked up.' After frantic searches and multiple visits to hospitals and morgues, Tamang accepted the possibility that her husband may never return. 'We had to do this to set his soul free, so that he is at peace and happy wherever he is,' she said.
At a cremation site in Kathmandu, the family of Mahesh Dangol prepared to bid farewell to him after delaying the funeral. Dangol, 30, was rescued from the almost wiped-out town of Betrawati but died of a lung infection in a Kathmandu hospital two days later. His family had held off the cremation in the hope of news about his missing parents, wife, and daughter. However, with limited morgue capacity and the likelihood of finding more bodies diminishing, they decided to proceed with the rituals for the entire family.
