JHAPA, NEPAL — Ganesh Kumar Jogi, from Bhadrapur, a municipality in Jhapa district, has been walking from house to house with his father since he was 11 years old, chanting mantras and blowing a pheri, a blackbuck antelope horn, to protect people from evil spirits, ghosts and bad luck.
Walking around in the middle of the night in the chilly months of October to November, hopping from one house to another while sleep deprived, is difficult, but those hardships pale in comparison to the harsh words he received from his brother nearly four years ago.
“Who are you to call me brother? Who is this Jogi that calls me brother? I don’t have any brothers, and I don’t know you,” he recalls his brother saying.
The conversation happened on a freezing night in November 2020, when Ganesh returned home after collecting alms. The anger and disdain in his brother’s voice ensured Ganesh never spoke with him again. “If my own brother, who was born from the same mother, refuses to recognize me, who will?”
Ganesh’s son, too, has been asking his father to give up this age-old tradition. But Ganesh continues blowing pheri — a term used for the entirety of the tradition, including the chants and horn — during the planting seasons in spring and autumn. He considers it his responsibility.
Blowing pheri dates to the eighth century B.C. in the eastern region of Nepal. The tradition is carried out by the Jogi community, part of the minority Phree caste that largely resides in Nepal’s Koshi province. There has long been a religious and cultural belief that by blowing pheri, ghosts and evil spirits will be kept at bay, the harvest will be plentiful, and there will be prosperity and auspiciousness all year round.
But today, this job that was once considered the responsibility of the Jogi community is struggling to survive. The older generation notes other communities look down on Jogis and treat them as beggars because they are given alms at the end of their work. But younger Jogis also do not show much interest in learning the tradition or reviving it. “We are mocked by our own relatives when we walk around protecting houses,” Ganesh says.
Who are the Jogis?
The National Statistics Office first included the Phree caste in the caste-related details of the national census in 2021. In Nepal, the Phree caste has a population of 921 people. All Jogis are counted under the Phree caste, though they were previously counted under the Dasanami Sanyasi community. Jagman Gurung, a cultural expert, says that the name Phree may have been derived from the word pheri, the Jogi community’s traditional and original culture of blowing a blackbuck horn in the four corners of houses for protection. This tradition is prevalent in eastern Nepal and is done at night from midnight to 3 a.m. during the months of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) and Kartik (mid-October to mid-November) of the Nepali calendar.
At present, there are 50 Jogi families in Mechinagar, a municipality in eastern Nepal’s Jhapa district, but only five of them still blow the pheri.
Pheri is the name given to the horn of the blackbuck, an endangered and protected animal of Nepal that is featured on the 10-rupee Nepali banknote. It is a wild animal that lives in the open and grassy areas of the riverbanks. Section 36 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act prohibits keeping, selling and transporting protected wildlife. Because of the law, obtaining blackbuck horns is difficult. In the Jogi community, it was customary for grandfathers and fathers to give their blackbuck horns to their sons.
A cosmic role
Traditional adherents believe they invoke their ancestors’ power when they blow the pheri and chant specific mantras. They recognize nature as the ultimate protector of the human race and revere it.
Residents who benefit from a Jogi’s work meet with him the next morning, when they put a tika — a red dot signifying faith and devotion — on his forehead and offer him dakshina, a donation given to someone with respect. Donations of paddy, rice, salt, oil, turmeric and a black cloth are believed to bring positive planetary alignments and fill a house with happiness, peace and prosperity.
Tulasa Karki, of Birtamod, believes that when Jogis come to the house and blow pheri, no ghosts can inhabit it and the household is protected from planetary misalignments and misfortunes for six months.
Bhagwati Khadka, of Arjundhara, says that they ask the Jogis to blow pheri first in their own municipality before going to others. “We have to give first priority to the security of our own village,” she says.
Living by night
Sher Bahadur Jogi, 58, of Mechinagar, began blowing pheri at age 14 and traveled throughout the country as well as to Darjeeling and Sikkim in India. He spent 22 years blowing pheri, and it has now been 22 years since he last did so.
He now works in a betel nut factory. “When I was a child, I didn’t want to wake up half-asleep in the middle of the night, but my father used to wake me up, scolding me. I used to reluctantly wake up and go with him. I used to be extremely hungry in the mornings but couldn’t eat until I collected alms.”
There were no proper roads in those days, and he would slip and injure himself numerous times, he says. The frost hurt his feet. “I had no choice but to walk,” he says.
It also embarrassed him to be found by young women attending marriage events, when it was customary to stay awake all night. Blowing the pheri made his lips and cheeks swell up, and as a young man, he was embarrassed to be seen that way.
Rajesh Kumar Jogi, 29, says the younger generation is turned off by the requirement to carry a bag with separate pockets and a cane when collecting alms in the morning — an appearance associated with elderly beggars. He is currently learning to blow pheri alongside his father, but he is reluctant — despite believing the tradition should be preserved. He occasionally travels to distant villages, but he does not openly admit in front of others that he blows pheri. When he was in school, he says, his teacher used to mock him, calling him a mere Jogi. Even today, some people accuse Jogis of being too lazy to work and preferring to beg.
Gurung says that Jogis find it difficult to display their art and culture in the same way as other communities due to the nocturnal nature of their work. Despite their unique mantra, they continue to face nighttime threats from thieves and drunkards.
Some call the Jogis’ work superstitious. Sanju Thapa, of Birtamod, says he doesn’t think Jogis make houses or communities safe in any way. “I don’t believe in ghosts and evil spirits, so I don’t think the house will be safe if a Jogi blows the pheri.” In the past, he says, perhaps the sound of a pheri would drive thieves away. But nowadays, particularly in urban areas, houses are joined together, making it difficult to blow pheri properly.
Omnath Jogi, 62, of Arjundhara, used to feel like quitting his job when he had to blow pheri at night. But now he believes what he does is important.
The village is completely dark when Omnath takes to the streets of Khudunabari, a village near his hometown, chanting the mantra “Akasai bindaun, Patalai bindaun,” to both “bind the sky and the underworld, protecting the earth from harm.”
The street is deserted and he cuts a lonely figure with his pheri. Every home is quiet. A loud call echoes from his pheri. A dog barks and others join in. Lamps go on in different houses as they hear the dogs barking. “The dogs woke up the owner. The dog is signaling that Jogi has arrived and that he should be let in,” Omnath says.
