This 10 day long Hindu festival is one of the most important in Nepal and celebrates the great victory of the goddess Durga over evil as personified in the demon Mahissur in his buffalo manifestation. Dashain is the Nepali equivalent of India’s Durga Puja, although its ritual acts and symbols are very different. (See the portfolio on Durga Puja in Kolkata elsewhere on this website.) Celebrations in Bhaktapur are particularly elaborate, involving a cycle of visits to the strategically sited shrines of the nine female tantric goddesses who are manifestations of Durga; elaborate costumed dances and blood sacrifices involving drinking the blood of the decapitated goats; a day for the worship of the tools of one’s trade and even cars and motorcycles; the ritual sacrifice of a buffalo symbolizing the demon. The designated buffalo is well fed for weeks beforehand, then intoxicated with alcohol and rubbed with vermilion and mustard oil before being loosed and chased through the streets to the temple where it will be decapitated. The final day of the festival includes feasting and a display of the sacred masks representing the nine goddesses, which are also worn in performance by designated dancers. The whole is presided over by the Ekantakumari, the pre-menstrual girl who is the ritual incarnation of the goddess and is worshipped for the duration of her office.