TITLE: Bhairava Navadurga Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: Nepal
SUBREGION: N/A
ETHNICITY: Chhetri
DESCRIPTION: Bhairava (Bhairav) Mask
CATALOG ID: ASNP010
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Navadurga Festival
FUNCTION: protection/purification; social control; spirit invocation; status
AGE: ca. 1960s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: paint
During the Navadurga Festival of Nepal, community members wear sacred, annually crafted masks that embody thirteen deities, transforming into divine protectors to ward off evil and ensure communal prosperity. These deitis include the seven Durgas (Mahakali, Barahi, Brahmayani, Maheshwari, Vaishavi, and Indrani) as well as six others (Shiva, Ganesha, Bhairava, Shwet Bhairava, Sima and Duma). In towns such as Bhaktapur, these masks are created by a sacred, regulated tantric process. They are created and painted anew each year. Consecrated masks are believed to have spiritual power and embody the deity’s energy. The Navadurga festival itself begins in the fall and lasts as long as nine months, concluding around June.
This mask represents Bhairava (from the Sanskrit bhīru, or fearsome), a fierce manifestation of the god Shiva, associated with annihilation. He appears fearsome to evil forces and inner negativities like greed, anger, and lust, but he protects his devotees. In some Hindu sects, Bhairava represents the Supreme Reality (Para Brahman), the ultimate, boundless consciousness.
