Nepal floods: Families perform symbolic last rites as hopes of finding missing loved ones fade

Eight days after devastating floods swept through Nepal, families of those still missing have begun performing symbolic last rites using effigies, as hopes of finding their loved ones alive diminish.

The Bhotekoshi floods of August 26 swept away homes, roads and bridges across parts of northern and central Nepal, devastating settlements along the Trishuli riverbanks and leaving hundreds dead and thousands missing.

In Paharebesi village of Rasuwa district, families who have received no information about missing relatives for eight days have started preparing to perform funeral rites, Onlinekhabar reported on Thursday.

But even the process of mourning has become a struggle. Many families have lost their homes, while priests and suitable places to conduct traditional rituals are difficult to find.

Uttargaya Rural Municipality Chairperson Madhav Prasad Aryal said families who believed their missing relatives were unlikely to be found had begun the process of performing final rites.

“Almost nothing remains of the old settlement. It is not possible for everyone to stay together while observing the mourning rituals,” the portal quoted Deputy Chairperson Chameli Gurung as saying.

More than 20 families from Paharebesi have already left for Kathmandu and other places to observe the mourning period, while more families were preparing to leave.

In other flood-hit areas, families have turned to kusha grass effigies to symbolically perform the final rites of relatives who remain untraced, The Kathmandu Post reported. The rituals are being carried out as the possibility of recovering all those missing — and identifying recovered bodies — becomes increasingly difficult.

Mourning shelters overwhelmed

The crisis has extended to Kathmandu, where facilities used by Hindu families to observe the traditional 13-day mourning period are already operating at capacity.

At the Kiriyaputri Bhawan at Rudramati Mahadev Temple in Tarakeshwar, eight groups were staying after losing between three and five family members each in the Rasuwa floods.

All eight rooms at the nearby Gupteshwar Mahadev Temple’s Kiriyaputri Bhawan were also occupied. The facility has since put up tents and created six additional rooms to accommodate more mourners.

A Kiriyaputri Bhawan provides shelter for mourners observing the mandatory 13-day post-death rituals, or kriya, following the death of a family member.

“Now we do not have any room available until the current groups complete their mourning,” The Kathmandu Post quoted Rishi Prasad Nepal, a member of the facility’s management committee, as saying.

Some families have been forced to wait for accommodation to become available, while others have travelled to Kathmandu because their villages no longer have homes in which they can observe the mourning period.

The shortage is not limited to shelter. Families are also struggling to obtain cooking gas required during the mourning rituals.

Bodies, missing persons add to anguish

Families say they are resorting to symbolic funerals because there is little hope of recovering everyone who remains missing. Some have also alleged that bodies are being buried quickly in mass graves, leaving relatives unable to identify or perform individual rites for their loved ones.

The floods swept away more than 7,000 houses, while many of those that survived were left uninhabitable.

More than 1,200 bodies of people killed in the August 26 floods had been recovered by Thursday morning, while thousands remained missing.

For survivors, the disaster has therefore created a painful dual crisis: the loss of loved ones and the loss of the homes, communities and basic facilities needed to grieve them.

In many cases, families are now being forced to say goodbye without a body — and to perform centuries-old mourning rituals in temporary shelters far from the villages where their loved ones lived.