Baokhungri Festival: The Bodo New Year Celebrations
The vibrant celebration of culture, sports, and tradition at the Baokhungri Festival in Kokrajhar starts. From hill climbing and Bodo wrestling to traditional cooking and folk dances, Day Two dazzled with colour, community, and culinary delights.
If you’ve never heard of Harinaguri, then you’re in for a treat—and I don’t just mean the steaming pork with bamboo shoot wafting from the food stalls. On Sunday, the sleepy patch of Kokrajhar awoke with a roar (or at least a well-rehearsed Bodo folk chorus) as the second day of the Baokhungri Festival kicked off in true Bodo style—colourful, chaotic, and chock-a-block with cultural charm.
The festival, mind you, is no mere garden party with samosas and polite applause. It’s the region’s annual knees-up held on the eve of the Bodo New Year, marking the end of the Chaita month, where people climb up Baokhungri Hill to seek blessings from Lord Bwrai Bathou—hopefully for prosperity, good health, and maybe just enough breath left to make it back down the hill without collapsing in a heap.
The day began with a hill climbing competition that could make a mountain goat pause for thought. Over 100 participants from across Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and West Bengal turned up bright and early, looking suspiciously enthusiastic about legging it up a hill. Tourism Department official Achinta Sharma flagged off the boys’ race, while celebrated athlete Kunjlata Boro gave the girls’ race a rousing send-off.
And then there was the traditional cooking competition, lovingly inaugurated by Saikhong Basumatary, Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Council. Now, you might think it’s just a few ladies chopping onions and gossiping about the neighbour’s cow—but no. This was serious business. Pots clanged, smoke rose, and dishes so rich in local tradition they could tell bedtime stories were whipped up with flair. From smoked pork to banana flower curry, it was culinary diplomacy at its finest.
Of course, no self-respecting festival is complete without a good old knees-up. The cultural programme, flagged off by Minister Urkhao Gwra Brahma with the sort of gravitas reserved for flag hoisting or first-ball tosses at charity cricket matches, was a riot of colour, rhythm, and traditional finesse. The Bodo, Koch Rajbongshi, Rabha, Garo, and Bengali communities all took to the stage, each outdoing the other in their bid to make the audience hoot, cheer, and in one particularly touching moment—shed a quiet tear or two.
And let’s not forget the sport—because what is Sankranti without a little Khomlainai (Bodo wrestling) to show off one’s macho credentials? The festival also featured traditional games like Ghila Gelenai, Dongfang Bukhunai, and Daobo Athing, which sound like incantations from an ancient spell book but are in fact beloved local contests. For the more contemporary-inclined, there was cycling and a half-marathon, just in case climbing a hill wasn’t enough exercise for the week.
The food stalls—heaven help us all—lined up like an edible red carpet, offering Bodo delicacies that could charm the stripes off a tiger. Hungry revellers queued up for everything from sticky rice wrapped in leaves to delicately spiced pork stews. If there’s one way to unite people, it’s over a steaming plate of something tasty—and Baokhungri nailed it.
All said and done, Day Two of the Baokhungri Festival was a jolly good show—part pilgrimage, part party, and entirely unforgettable. With the spirit of unity in diversity shining brighter than a Dhoti in sunlight, Kokrajhar proved once again that when it comes to culture, cuisine, and community, it knows how to throw a cracking celebration.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if there’s any smoked chicken left. Cheers!
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