Opening ceremony - Indra Jatra

The festival starts with Yosin Thanegu (योसिं थनेगु), the erection of Yosin or Linga, a pole from which the banner of Indra is unfurled, at Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square. The pole, a tree shorn of its branches and stripped of its bark, is obtained from a forest near Nālā, a small town 29 km to the east of Kathmandu. It is dragged in stages to Durbar Square by men pulling on ropes.