Muglin : Foreign tourists who are presently in the tourist city of Sauraha in Chitwan on Tuesday partook in the celebrations of the Bijaya Dashami festival  as per the traditions. They observed the festival by receiving Tika and Jamara and the ceremony was organised by the Sapana Village Hotel.

One of the participants, David Wright,26, from the Netherlands, expressed his joy at being a part of the Dashain festival in Nepal. "I had only heard about Nepali traditions and culture. Now I have experienced it and I am thrilled to have had this special opportunity."

Joining the celebrations, another tourist Mica, 21, expressed delight in participating in the Tika ceremony and already has plans to celebrate the Dashain in Nepal again next year. " I enjoy experiencing cultures and traditions from various countries directly. That's why I choose Nepal this time to take experiences of the Dashain festival."

Sauraha has already welcomed the arrival of tourist season. Sapana Village's chair Dhruba Giri said in the past too, they used to celebrate the Tika festival with foreign tourists in a similar way as they believed that it would help preserve the Dashain traditions, making it familiar to the foreign community and thus promoting its essence beyond the nation.

Sauraha's tourism industry faced challenges in recent years under various circumstances such as the 2015 earthquake and subsequent economic blockade, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown and the situation of Narayangadh-Muglin road section. Of late, the atmosphere here is encouraging.

Over the past three days, 40 percent tourists in the city have come from third countries. They eagerly participate in the Dashain celebrations and a kite flying event, one of the attractions of the festival, it is said.